Recently, as I was doing some work, I came across an article that I had 
written at about this time last year. It was an article about a funny and entertaining experience that I had enjoyed with my children – (see No Such Luck or… My Lucky Day, Depends on which way you look at it). It was interesting to me that though I remembered writing about this experience, I didn’t remember what the experience was until I re-read the article. It brought back some really good memories!
Fortunately I had pictures along with the article that really made 
the memories vivid ones.
As busy parents and grandparents I wonder how often we have experiences that we completely forget about that could have been a meaningful part of our history. In my case I am afraid that it happens all too often.
Here are a 4 tips that I have for you that have helped me become better at not letting important memories slip away.
Tip 1: Keep an events journal. This can be as easy as recording on your daily calendar the events that you participated in that day. Record at least weekly in a journal the feelings that you had about those events that are listed in your events journal or calendar. Every once in a while I feel that I have had an experience that is really special. I have a book that I call my Happy Moments Book. Whenever we have an experience as a family or individually that I want to remember I record it in this special book.
Tip 2: Carry your camera with you everywhere. So many opportunities
used to arise that I missed a perfect picture because I didn’t have a camera with me. I have learned to leave one in my car or in my purse so that I can capture those moments that I don’t want to forget. It is also there in case I am in an accident and need pictures. Cameras are so small now that it is easy to keep a camera with you all the time so take advantage of this wonderful way to preserve memories.
Tip 3: Decide how often you would like to transfer the pictures from your camera to your computer.
This should be done as often as needed so that you always have plenty of space on your camera for unexpected picture taking opportunities.
For more help on this topic see these articles: Transferring Digital Photos from a Camera to Your computer, and Using a Memory Card Reader to Transfer Your Photos
I like to do this once a month and then I tag the pictures with the month and year so that I can find them easily when I want to.
Also, you might want to check these tutorials Get Organized in the Organizer a Simple Start for Elements Lesson 1, and Lesson 2 and Lesson 3) — it shows you how to tag your photos and save them to a CD as a backup!
Tip 4: Remember that there are so many ways to preserve your special pictures. It is very common for me to find my children on the computer looking through the picture files. It is such a fun way for them to recall all the great times they have had growing up. I keep a special file for all of my digital scrapbooking pages. The kids really like to go into this file and check out the pictures of them that I have scrapped.
I remember looking at picture albums as a child and now those albums are so worn out and the pictures have faded.
That is a great thing about storing those pictures on your computer, they don’t wear out.
I also make a disk to keep in my home and a disk that I send to a close member of the family in case for some reason my pictures are lost.
It is also very fun to scrapbook the pictures that you take and send them off to have a book made. This type of scrapbooking can include information about events as well as journaling pages.
This way it is easy to show off family members to friends that come by your home. These books are so beautifully put together and look terrific on a end table or coffee table in a living room.
You can make lots of other things from digital scrapbooking pages too – for more gift ideas – see this St Patrick’s Day Project page
Hopefully these 4 tips will help you save your family memories too!
Denise
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If you would like to get the kit I used for my scrapbooking page at the top of this blog to make your own St. Patrick’s Day memories then here are the links:
St. Patrick’s Day Digital Scrapbooking Kit
Go Irish Green Embellishment Kit
PS. These kits are on SALE right now at really great prices!
See the Quick Page Kit here too —- the St. Patrick’s Day Digital Scrapbooking Quick Page Kit.
See more Quick Pages or Digital Scrapbooking Kits, Custom Brushes, or Overlay Kits at the Scrap Shop!
