My mom made a scrapbook when she was a young girl.It fascinated me to watch her grow through the pages of her book.My sister and I would pour over the pages of the book, relishing in our newfound connection with our mother until the book literally fell apart.My sister still has that scrapbook, worn and tattered, and treasures it as much as I do. Every so often we will pull out Mom’s old scrapbook and look through it.

I started an old-fashioned craft paper scrapbook when I was a little girl (and believe me, that wasn’t yesterday!). I collected cards that my Dad gave me for my birthday, Valentine’s Day, and Christmas when I was just a baby. Later on I added ticket stubs of movies I went to see as well as memories from vacations to the various states we visited when I was young. As I grew into a teenager, I would add into my book scripts from plays where I had performed. I found it interesting that as I grew up and added things to my scrapbook, many of the items were the same ones that my Mom had kept of her childhood. She also had a script in her scrapbook of a high school play she was in. 

When my husband and I started dating, I started another scrapbook of our courtship. I included items from some memorable dates. I have photographs of us having fun together. I even wrote down my memories of the night that he proposed to me. What fun it is to go back now, 35 years later, and read those words and feel again those special choice feelings of love that I had for my soon-to-be husband that night.

Next, I started making memory books for each of my children. When my second son was born, my husband finished a whole roll of film (back in the olden days, we actually used 35 mm film) on photographs of our little boy's birth and his first day as part of our family. Later that night when he went home, he started to roll the film back into the canister (who remembers having to do that?). He said it felt strange and thought maybe it had pulled out of the canister. So he went into a dark closet (so he wouldn’t expose the film) and opened up the back of the camera. To his dismay he found that he had never even loaded any film into the camera. So all of the photos he thought he had taken were lost. I was devastated! After crying for awhile, I decided that since my son would never have pictures of his first day, I would write a description of how he had come into the world and my feelings at seeing him for the first time. Since that time, I have written to each of my children after they were born. These priceless stories are in each of their memory books.

Last year my Dad turned 75 years old. I spent months collecting old photos of him through the years and made a scrapbook for him of his life by decades. I also drew inspiration from my friend Tori and made a photo collage. I took pictures of everybody in our family -- spouse, children, and grandchildren -- and used them to print a picture of him. I framed it and presented it to him at his birthday party. He spent most of the evening looking at his book and at the picture.

So why do I scrapbook? I scrapbook because …

I scrapbook because I love providing memories for my family to look back on and remember the fun, exciting, dull, mundane, not-so-fun, crisis-filled, rewarding, and everyday experiences of their lives. I want them to be able to look back and see how blessed they have been throughout their entire lives.

I scrapbook because it satisfies the needs of the lifetime learner in me. I constantly seek new knowledge and scrapbooking always has something new to teach me. 

I am a total photography fanatic! Scrapbooking gives me something to do with the thousands upon thousands of photos I have. Scrapbooking is  perfect solution to this. 

I love digital scrapbooking because it allows me to make multiple copies of the same album for each of my eight children. I also love digital scrapbooking because it brought me to Jessica and to some of the best friends that I have ever known. Eternal friends!

Like Tori, I too scrapbook because I am selfish. I love spending time making layouts and books. It is a creative release for the stress in my life. I do not feel guilty about piling up stacks of laundry and dirty dishes. I always think to myself,  "Tomorrow is another day. I can always do laundry and dishes then,  or I can just keep scrapbooking and hope that my darling husband will come along and do them for me." (I am very lucky he does that frequently!).

And ultimately, I scrapbook so I can remember I am blessed and surrounded by love.