Dear Joanna,

 

I just bought your book & just love it.  I just got to the 13th page but I'm trying to digest all that I am reading, so I'm reading slowly.

 

One Minute Journaling is just what I've been looking for.  You make it simple and easy to understand.

 

Thank you,

 

Maurine

 

Note:  One Minute Journaling is available through www.my-memories.net

 

 

 

 

If you or a friend live in the United Kingdom, you'll want to share your terrific pages with us!  If you are a winner, we'll include you in our new book The Best of British Scrapbooking 2004,  and you'll take home some lovely prizes as well.  For all the rules, click on http://www.scrapbookstorytelling.com/bobscontestrules.doc

 

 

 

 

I launched the contest requesting that you "tell me why family history is important" a few days before my family and I traveled to England to spend Christmas with our dear friends, the Hindmarsh family.

 

While I was gone, I worried.  What do I do if I don't receive any responses?  What am I going to do with the copy of Living Family History that I had promised to give away?  It's a big joke in my family that I am an Olympic Gold Medalist in Worrying.  As if worrying is a preventive measure!   I once proposed that each member of our family choose a day-Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday-- to worry.  Then, if a crisis occurs on your designated worry day, we kill you.  Okay, I'm a little warped, but still...you get the point, Sick humor, but don't we worry like our lives depend on it?

 

I came home from England a little under the weather.  Crummy sinuses and sloppy weather provide a fertile growth medium for germs.  Took me a few days to get to my e-mails.  When I opened my mail, I nearly passed out with shock.

 

I was deluged with entries. So many of you poured your hearts out.  Your reasons for preserving your family history were so important, so vivid, so personal, so humbling, and so touching that I started each day sitting in front my computer and crying.

 

I read them, re-read them, took a little break, and finally chose one as the winner.  That's what I should have worried about!  Choosing one was hard. I chose this entry because Debbie Pitman's essay shared so many important truths and did it so eloquently.   

 

Here it is-and I added the boldface to highlight the comments I found so profound:

 

 

After reading your book Scrapbook Storytelling my style completely changed.  I have a friend who is extremely creative and works with all types of mediums in her scrapbooks.  I, on the other hand, am not creative but I have a multitude of photos.  Now when I scrapbook I make sure the story behind the photo is included.  This means I do not have room for fancy borders or embellishments, which suites me just fine.  Since I take all the photos there are seldom any of me.  By my telling the story I am able to put a part of me into the book too.
 
Preserving family history is important to me because no one seems to be willing to do it anymore.  We need to hear the old stories of where we came from and how we got here.  It is a part of who we are and what we're made of.  It would be so good to know why something is the way it is.  Why was my grandmother always cooking?  Why did my grandfather's dad walk when he could have ridden the bus?  Why did Aunt Beasley never marry?  Who planted all the rose bushes in the yard? . . . Why . . .?

 

It is up to me to try to answer the questions my grandkids will have one day.  We need to know where we came from sometimes so that we can figure out where we need to go. 
 
Knowing our family history gives us roots.  It also gives us a connectedness and helps us realize there is more to life than just me.  I belong somewhere and maybe one day someone will want to know who I was and what I thought.  People say our values have changed.  I don't believe that.  People still want to feel like they belong and to feel connected to something bigger than themselves.  That is what family history can and should do for us.

 

 

So the copy of Living Family History is on its way to Debbie.  That said, I wouldn't dream of cheating you of the many valuable comments I receive, so I'll be including them in upcoming issues of my E-Zine.  Everyone who wrote impressed me with her interest and, frankly, her writing ability.  Wowzer, I better not lower my standards because you people are Good.

 

To all who participated, thank you.  You really warmed my heart.

 

 

 

 

This newsletter was supposed to go out the beginning of February.  In fact, I had completed both the verbiage and images on February 5th. Since I was traveling back to England for two weeks, (Feb. 7 through 19th), I had to hustle to get everything done.   My dear husband promised to send the images after I left.  (I need to learn how to send images from my digital camera. Add it to the list.)  Once the images arrived at my web guru's computer, the Jan/Feb issue would go out.

 

Aha.  The rub.  My husband thought he sent out the images but he didn't.  In fact he supposedly sent them out TWICE.   Ahem.  But the images never made it to the web guru.  I imagine they are circling Saturn right now, up in the atmosphere.  So...you are getting a second attempt!  A rewrite of the Jan/Feb e-zine and more current images.  Sigh.  Big Sigh.

 

I got to wondering, "Has anything like this ever happened at your house?" So here's my latest contest:  Tell me about an "Oops" moment in your household.  Send it in so that I receive it before April 1, 2004...'cause you know what day that is.  I'll send the winner a copy of I'm Too Blessed to be Depressed, my inspirational book.  Make sure you give me permission to share your thoughts with other e-zine subscribers and send me your address, okay?

 

 

 

 

 

My article Scrapbooking This Brave New World is billboarded on the cover and appears inside on page 40. 

 

Click here to see the pages shown in the article http://www.scrapbookstorytelling.com/ezine-pages-2004-03.shtml#paperkuts

 

 

 

 

Ta-da!  Early reports are that my new book The Scrapbooker's Journaling Companion is selling briskly.  Check out the price and you'll see why.  Compare it to any book or maga-book (magazines sold as books) on the market, and you'll shout for joy. We're passing on the savings from the costs of ink (a petroleum product, think OPEC and oil), printing plates (another petroleum based product), paper (primarily shipped from Canada), and postage, Here's the coolest part, you can download my book at any time of the day or night.  Didn't make it to the scrapbooking store today?  Need a scrapbooking fix?  We're ready when you are. 

 

I was amazed by how clearly the detail of each scrapbook page shows in my new e-book. The pages look terrific.  If you decided to buy The Scrapbooker's Journaling Companion, and you notice the clarity of the pages, won't you let me know?  I'm not hallucinating, am I?

 

 

 

 

 

Now I have a new term to add to my vocabulary:  wardrobe failure.  I can't imagine that I'd ever be called upon to use it, but I'm exceedingly glad to know what's what.

 

 

 

 

 

A funny thing happened at my house last month.  One of the pages in my Scrapbooking This Brave New World article shared my journaling to my son.  "No matter how BIG you get, you'll always be my BABY," I wrote.

 

A few minutes before midnight a couple of nights ago, I was ready to put down the book I was reading and go to sleep when I heard my son roaming around in his bedroom.  Bedtime is 10 p.m.  He had school the next day.  I was ticked.  I marched into his bedroom and demanded to know what he thought he was doing.

 

"Mom, I can't get to sleep.  Could you sit with me or rub my back?"

 

I replied, "Are you getting a little old for this?"

 

Then he zinged me:  "What happened to 'No matter how BIG you get, you'll always be my BABY'?"

 

Curses.  Foiled again.  Who was the bright spark who got this kid interested in reading scrapbook magazines? 

 

 

 

 

If you are like me, you have tons of scrapbook products hanging around the house.  For a break from scrapping, why not make a few cards to send to those very special people in your life?  Here are four cards I made http://www.scrapbookstorytelling.com/ezine-pages-2004-03.shtml#cards. Maybe one of them will tickle your fancy! Click http://www.scrapbookstorytelling.com/templates.shtml to go to the templates section of our website to find the template for one of our cute cards.

 

 

 

 

 

As an alternative heritage journaling approach, you might choose to scrapbook the history of items you've inherited.  Consider:

 

* How did I inherit this item?  From whom?
* Why did it come to me rather than someone else?
* What are my memories of seeing this item used of displayed?
* What were my thoughts and feelings upon receiving this?
* What memories of the giver do I have?
* What sort of condition was the item in?
* How am I displaying or using it?

 

Click on http://www.scrapbookstorytelling.com/ezine-pages-2004-03.shtml#joshua to see Joshua Ward, a page I created about the family portrait I inherited.

 

Remember:  You can purchase your copy of The Scrapbooker's Journaling Companion at www.scrapbook.com

 

 

 

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