Scrapbook page and Journaling Ideas that are Out of the Ordinary

Last week I taught a class to some ladies about saving "pearls of wisdom" for future generations. I started out by talking about my Grandmother who left us with all kinds of fun stuff. She wrote down all her spiritual experiences. She wrote poems and epistles to her posterity. Some of them are hilarious, but all of them are pure gems. I have taken them and turned them into a photo book for all my family.
The class was basically a journaling class and I have taught it before. This handout Journaling Ideas was one I used years ago and has some good ideas for journaling. I also gave out this one for children Journaling Ideas for Children. This year I changed the class a little and gave some ideas for journaling that are out of the ordinary. I just sat down and wrote up this list Ideas to Journal Beyond the Ordinary. This one is much shorter but helps with recording things that you wouldn't otherwise think of. I'm sure I will be adding to the list for years to come as I think of them. Just remember the most important thing is to write it down. It doesn't matter how you do it.

Here is what I do:  I do Project Life which is basically taking a picture every day for the entire year. See Becky Higgins here for more information. I do scrapbooks the old fashioned way for extra pictures. And I do Photo Books for special events. Most of my books are now Costco books. They have the sewn bindings that don't pop out like the glued ones and can do up to 100 pages. I like the simplicity and I  like the cost. Please excuse some of the page designs since I did them many years ago. Also I worked for Lisa Bearnson who sold scrapbook products on QVC and she used many of these pages for her shows. Here are some scrap book page ideas that I have done that are out of the ordinary:

List of likes and dislikes- they are constantly changing

I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish in my life and a list of things I wanted to teach my children. If I don't succeed on some, at least they will know I wanted to

Let someone else tell the story 

Is there a reason behind someone's name? Tell about it

Lists of things you are grateful for- in this case I did the ABC's which you can use in just about any context

Get different views of the same event from multiple people

I like to make extra flaps sometimes. I just sew it on and fold it over

Write a letter of tribute to someone who has blessed your life, even if they may have passed on

Save published stories or any stories at all

I found some information in a book about my Great Grandfather and Mother. I saved it on a scrapbook page so it would be more accessible to my children

Record random services that your family renders to each other

Write about you favorite places- even your favorite rooms

Record any kind of tradition

I listed out all the attributes of my husband and had my children act them out for a picture. I loved how they turned out!

Have everyone in your family write down all the things they love about each person. That will give you as many pages as people

Use time lines for a day...

Or a year...

Or span multiple years

Does someone say funny things in your family? Record them

Don't forget your own childhood memories

Record milestones in your life- Clothes or baby items that made it through all your children

Funny stories- This chicken had many different uses while I was growing up. The first one was a gravy bowl but since my mother thought it seemed like it was throwing up the gravy she decided to use it for something else. I recorded all the things it was used for and then got online and found out this chicken is an antique and worth some money. My mom was floored

Do you love reading books aloud? We do and I recorded all the books we read together and had my kids choose their favorite from each year. Then I would take their picture with it. 2000-2001

2001-2002

2002-2003

2003-2004

2004-2005

2005-2006

Anna read so many books this year, I decided to record her list as well

2006-2007

2007-2008

2008-2009

2009-2010

I am the oldest of 16 children and proud of it

 Yes just one mom and one dad. Two sets of twins back to back helped. I was 13 when we had 4 kids under the age of two. Now they have their own kids and they babysit my kids when we go on vacations. We all had such a great family experience that we are all now having big families.
All my sisters are amazing. My brothers are cool too but the best thing about them is their wives! They are awesome too! Somebody started a blog  http://stoutsisters.blogspot.com/ for all of us since when we get together, our favorite thing to do is sit around and share ideas. It's full of lots of good parenting ideas.

David Rick Bryce - My missionary son serving in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Rick's birthday is this week and it's the first one I have ever missed. I am a little sad about that and so I thought I would go through some of his pictures that he sent us and  post a few - a little recap of his first year as a missionary if you will. I posted a video of him taking us on a tour of his house in Huehue as well. Happy Birthday Rick! We love you! Here is a link to his official website http://www.davidrickbryce.com/ where we post his letters. This last one was interesting. He got caught between two shoot outs between police and Drug dealers. One bystander got killed.

Rick spent his first three weeks in the Provo MTC

They spent 12 hours a day studying Spanish and the Gospel in this room. At least it seemed like 12 hours a day. I remember, I did it 25 years ago.

Rick and his first companion, Elder King

Rick made lots of friends there

Then he got sent on short notice down the the CCM which is the same thing as the MTC but in Guatemala City, Guatemala. This is his companion Elder Crockett. They were both called as Assistants to the President which meant he was directing meetings in Spanish after only three weeks of Spanish. His first couple of weeks was rather interesting. First they had a small earthquake and then the Volcano by Guatemala city blew. It left three inches of ash on the city. Then a few days later Tropical Storm Agatha hit and made a mess of everything. It clogged the drains and a huge sink hole appeared about five miles away from the CCM. It was 200 feet deep and took out a building and an intersection. They also had mud slides that killed several hundred people. I wasn't worried though. I survived a Cue in Ecuador!

President Steimle of the CCM

The Guatemala City Temple was just across the street

This photo he obviously took from the window of a bus with a tree in the way but I liked it. It looks like a poorer part of Guatemala City

The food looks delicious!

He made many soccer friends here

This is a boy after his mothers heart!

His first area was in Santa Cruz del Quiche

His kitchen

His yard

His study desk

The back of his tag

These are the people he serves and plays with

He loves Eddie who has Down Syndrome like our son Joseph

This looks like a picture right from my mission 25 years ago in Quito, Ecuador except for the little jeep and there were few telephone lines

A cute little family that got baptized just after he left this area

Where's Ricko?

Elder Bryce and Elder Griffey

Washing his own clothes in his Pila! I think he thinks its fun

He takes us on a tour of his house in this video

Indiana Jones

They often don't have electricity and so they study at night by candlelight

Guatemala has beautiful sunsets too

There's nothing better than a bus full of missionaries!

Rick and his Mission President and wife. President Lorenzana

Ruins at Zaculeu

The missionaries have this place to themselves. That's amazing

Some kind of celebration? Dia de la Muerte?

Frying up some platanos 

Looks like Crab soup- Yummy!

Merry Christmas!

He says "So these pictures you are recieving are mostly of us at the Mirador. Its a look-out spot really high in Huehue. The volcano in the background on the left is actually in Xela. And my area in Calvario was right below it. To the left is Momostenango and Quiche, and then straight below is Huehue. Pretty much half of Guatemala can be seen from there."

Even President Lorenzana went

Looks like he's eating well 

Then he gets transfered to Momostenango which is up in the mountains. This is the branches baptismal font

The roads only go along the tops of the mountains. There's a lot of climbing up and down and he said he lost the extra inch he developed the first part of his mission

This is pretty much their entire house and there were three missionaries living here. They only could buy their food once a month

Wearing out his shoes in the service of the Lord