A Jar Full of Memories

Do you remember all the good moments from throughout the year?

Imagine you could keep a record of all the good things that happen to you throughout the year. Wouldn’t you love a running record of all the good times?

I certainly don’t remember all the good things that happen during the year. It’s not that I wouldn’t like to, it’s just life is so busy and I find myself catapulting from one event to the next. I am always trying so hard to keep the house of cards from falling apart rarely is there time for reflection or a look back at the good times.

Even when I do look back I am always my harshest critics and focus on what I could have done better or ways to improve. The bad times seem to stick out in my mind like a sore thumb and the good times kind of melt together and are forgotten.

This is why I loved this idea a “Jar Full of Memories.”

Get a jar, it can be any kind of jar- I prefer the clear plastic or glass kind, and write the year across it. For all of you DIY crafters out there you can even decorate and personalize the jar. My girls are crazy for Modge Podge and they are going to decorate their jars with a picture collage.

Then every day or as close to every day you can get, write down on a slip of paper something good that happened to you. It can be a little random act of kindness like someone held the door open for you or an amazing thing like you ran a half marathon, a niece or nephew being born or even finally being invited to Disney’s SMM Conference. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate the good and focus on the positive instead of being brought down by the negative.

You can get fancy with pretty paper or just use strips of white or loose leaf paper. Whatever suits your style is the way to go.

At the end of the year you and your family will really have a great time going through and reading all the papers. It will be your personal highlights reel from the year. I think you will be surprised by all the good things that happened during the year.

If you want to go a step further you could take all the memories and put them in a scrapbook. I have grandiose plans of my girls and I scrapbooking our memories, but realize that might be a stretch. I still have honeymoon pictures in a box in the basement. However, even if read through the memories and save them in a plastic bag it will be a great memories to hold onto.

I can’t take credit for this fabulous idea I saw it for the first time at my sister-in-law’s house. She saw the idea on a show somewhere and wanted to try it out.

It does remind me a little of my grandmother who cataloged her whole year on her wall calendar. She would write little notes about events that happened on each day. I can remember being a small child and looking at her pretty script handwriting detailing her days. I always admired that she did that but as an adult have never been able to put it into practice.

In homage to grandma I will begin my 2014 Jar of Memories- Yes I know it’s almost March, but better late than never!