
Lauren Reid Hometown. Heather Hess The Typewriter font.
As I (Katie) pondered goals/projects/words etc. to guide me in this new calendar year, I kept coming back to the same almost urgent feeling… I have stories to tell. When I think about where my stories are, many of them exist on my blog or on scrapbook pages. I’m so grateful for the memories I have documented because I don’t have to worry about forgetting the details and I can share them with the people I care about. I’ve become more aware lately that so many of my stories have not been written down on my blog or on a page of any type. These are the pieces that make up the experiences of my life. They are precious, interesting, and often quite entertaining. None of these stories are about big events – they are the small everyday things that I want to remember.
I decided to make a list of all the stories I could think of that I want to share. I set a timer for 20 minutes and just started to write. When I ran out of ideas, I opened my photo files and browsed through pictures until something jogged my memory, and then I continued to write some more. This is the list I came up with:
1. Putting parmesan cheese in the dishwasher instead of soap
2. Vacuuming up the living room curtains
3. Riley decorating the cat with toothpaste
4. Coming home to sleeping kids covered with pop tarts
5. Calling the police when I thought someone was breaking in because Jeff came home early from a business trip and thought it would be fun to surprise me
6. Alex yelling “those thieves stole my blood” in the hospital parking lot
7. The $30 I loaned Jeff to pay for a marriage license
8. Zach’s electrical “experiment” at age 2
9. Finding out I was going to be an aunt
10. Mike’s scary broom face
11. Drinking a raw egg in front of my high school
12. Chasing the kids with the vacuum
13. Game dates with the Andersons
14. Quilts made by Jeff’s Grandmother
15. The 2,000 Tony the Tiger towels Alex tried to order on the internet
16. Hosting crop parties
17. Fogged in at the airport for 5 hours
18. Playing Risk with Brett and his dates
19. Drinking a raw egg at a Super Bowl party
20. Marshmallow gun fight
21. Eating lunch in the courtyard in high school
22. Alex reporting Jeff to the Oregon airport security
23. Riley drenching herself in Asian hot sauce
24. Why we joke about “minor skin irritations”
25. Riley’s warning from the go-cart operator
26. Mike’s “mild” New Mexican lasagna
27. Grandma Smith’s rolls
28. The custom Barbie Doll Alex made for Riley
29. Accidentally cutting the cable wires while doing yard work
30. Scaring my Mom with loud music in the car
31. Sleeping in a leaky tent in a rainstorm
32. Alex’s monopoly games with Kyle
33. Playing balloon volleyball in the living room
34. Lola eating our puzzle pieces
35. Alex’s Amazing Mumford tuxedo
36. The time my Mom thought she had a blog stalker
37. Winning a bet by eating octopus
38. Jeff trying to stop the New York Knicks from coming in our window
39. Riding the Matterhorn with our eyes closed
40. Riley singing “Don’t Buy the Liverwurst” in her sleep
41. Being sorted into Slytherin at Pottermore
42. Laying on my left side
I bet you would like to know more about some of these memories. Can you imagine how my family must feel? These are experiences that I want to journal about! Now that I have taken a few minutes to jot them down, I feel very motivated to put them somewhere to be enjoyed. It didn’t take me very long at all and I’m going to use this layout and list as motivation to tell my stories. I bet if you set a timer for a 20 minutes that you would find you have a lot of stories inside of you as well. Think about the little moments worth remembering. Reminisce about inside jokes, things that make you smile, and the kind of memories you swap around the kitchen table when you get together with friends and family. Make a list and keep it somewhere near your scrapping supplies. Don’t worry that the items you want to share might be small or uninteresting – I promise you that they are meaningful and worth sharing. YOU have stories to tell!

P.S. Rhadoda was the random comment chosen from those that commented on K Studios post from Monday. She won $10 in product from K Studio!