I've had morbid thoughts on my mind. (Oh no..not here you might say). Well, this past week my sister's family... and her four kids walked through the rituals of saying goodbye to their dearly loved grandpa. He passed away Easter Sunday morning of all things! So, a God loving, kid loving Grandpa got to go home to see his maker on Resurrection Day! Seems so fitting doesn't it? But in the wake of this passing, there is a lot of pain and grieving and missing.I realized when I was writing my sister this week that one of the things that really brings relief to these painful times is memories. Memories can lift you and even bring moments of crazy joy in the middle of loss. And that is why I'm writing about death in a mom's BLOG. We can be the builders of the memories. It can be a calling. Some day, mostly for the happiest of reasons, these kids are going to leave us.
I always meant to be a scrap booking mom. Each new baby came home to a 'book' that was going to be the journal of their lives. And then life happens! Most of my books are more empty than full! What I have done, thanks to a brilliant idea of my husband's, is save little treasures and photos in boxes. Each of the kids has their own box. Some day, when I'm a little more free and a lot more lonely for these wonderful children, I will build my books. For now though this is working for me, so things get saved. What I realized though this week, is that I want more well rounded memories. I'm missing the words! The sayings, the prayers, the wise cracks, the precious bed time things spoken. So I have a new item going into the boxes now; little scraps of paper. Some day the stories will get dim and I want to have them to recall.
So, somewhere between the hat of "Chef" and "Carpool Captain", I'm including "Family Scribe."
3 comments:
I also meant to journal and found that even for a word-happy natural-born writer like me, it was very difficult to capture and document the stories that went alongside the kids' artwork and movie ticket stubs. Here is my number one tip for journaling on the fly. I call it Mad Libs because it's similar to that hilarious and quirky game.
You draw columns down a piece of paper, put the date in the corner, and a list of topics down the left side: Favorite Toy, Best Friend, Most Fun Pastimes, Gets Craziest When..., Cutest Expression. Then put a kid's name at the top of each column and fill in a phrase for each topic for each kid.
That way, you don't feel the pressure of having to craft a Hemingway short story for your child's future reference. zYou just put down the memory-joggers that will remind you of the sotries.
Because years later you will sit down and read through those lists, ad you will fill in the rest from your still-glimmering remenbrances.
The Mad Libs sheets you create now are like verbal souvenirs that yuou can dust off and enjoy with your children later. And they do need those times when the hit their tweens and early teens!
Ah, there is grace in shoeboxes isn't there? I have big plastic bags and many many unorgnaized photos, and am eagerly awaiting the day when the scrapbooks will be started.
Thanks for the tip Beth - sounds like a very fun and short way to get some remembrances down on paper. Will have to try it!
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