Thanks for the memories, Mom!

For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about my mom lately. Maybe it’s because I was the Mother of the Bride just a few weeks ago. She was a truly wonderful mom, a great grandmother (and even a Great-Grandmother!) and a lovely friend. She had a awesome sense of humor and was a lot of fun. She passed away six and a half years ago, just two weeks after she attended our younger daughter’s High School graduation. She missed out on both of their weddings but she didn’t miss out on their lives.

“Grammy” was a hands-on grandmother. She galloped, she rode water rides (in her 70’s!), and sent cards for even the most insignificant holidays. She would clip the “Kids Corner” out of her local newspaper and send it to our girls. She always made sure that they knew she was thinking of them. When my dad was alive, they used to take the two oldest grandkids (my niece and nephew) camping with them. Oh, the stories!

One thing I’m very thankful for is that I have tons of memories of my mom, and tons of photographic evidence of those memories! Pictures of her on a glacier in Alaska when she was about 80 years old. Pictures of her in the pool (with her sunglasses on), playing with my daughters. Pictures of the two of us on our Caribbean cruise. And in England. And in my back yard. Big stuff and little stuff. Thankfully, she was not one to shy away from the camera because her hair wasn’t perfect or her pants were too tight or her makeup wasn’t perfect. She might have preferred for the photos to show perfection, but she was ok with reality.

Does YOUR family have photographic evidence of their memories and of your love? These are so important to our hearts. Please, please give your families lots of love and don’t shy away from the camera. Make sure someone takes photos of YOU. Then, do something with all those photos. I just read on a Facebook group about a man who had inherited a house from a relative and in the house was about 10,000 photos that he wanted to organize. Wouldn’t a wonderful New Year’s Resolution be to get your photos out of boxes, envelopes, drawers, bins, whatever, and into beautiful albums that could be enjoyed? I can help you with that and it doesn’t have to take a long time. Scrapbooking has come a long way and we have room for everyone. If you want to fuss over a page and make it very crafty, that’s fine! Come on along. If you just want to get the book DONE so someone can enjoy it, that’s fine, too. You can also come along. Just get in touch with me and we can make a plan together.

I’ll leave you with some photos of my wonderful mom.

Until next time,