Monthly Pictures Collages

It started with scrap-booking back in the early 2000s.  I was a mom of four girls in a newly blended family.  Our story was unique, although a blended family isn't a rare thing.  I wanted to beat the odds.  I wanted to create a family with a rich history.  I wanted my girls to not see themselves as simply children of divorce, but as loved members of a family that was brought together by God, not just blood.  I had two daughters and the man I married had one.  Step-parents, step-sisters... I just wanted us to be family.  We didn't use "step" or "half" when we talked about our family.  Yes, we had other parents that were a part of the equation.  But, as my husband and I added two more daughters to the blend, we knew that it was important to create a healthy home of love and acceptance as much as we could.

I have always been one that takes many photos. I love capturing that moment, from the extraordinary to the everyday.  Pictures tell the stories of our lives.  We can go back and see the faces of loved ones.  Pictures trigger memories; smells of childhood, the favorite jeans, the toddler learning to walk, first days of school, summers at Grandma's, the feeling of awe when we saw an Ocean or mountain for the first time.  

After my youngest child was born, scrap-booking stopped.  My time was spread thin.  Then, on her first birthday, I received my first digital camera.  From that moment, I could take all the pictures I wanted.  And...  I took and took.  

A couple years ago I began making collages of special occasions.  A throwback of my scrap-booking days when I would make collages of holidays and birthday parties for my children's scrapbooks, I began posting these collages online. 

Slowly, I added made other moments to remember into photo collages, such as the historic flooding that our town endured a couple years ago.

Our vacation to Georgia:

Homeschool memories:

It is the everyday moments that make a life.  The idea of creating a monthly collage came about because so much happens over a year!  Children grow so fast.  Time slips by, and one season of life becomes another.  The little things we do don't matter to many others, but they do matter to us.  The books we read as children, the sunset on the porch with our spouse, the puzzle that took so long to put together, the baby cooing on the floor, the trees in full color spectrum each autumn...  these are the moments to capture.  These are the fleeting glimpses that are there for a moment and then gone like a puff of smoke.

The monthly collage doesn't always happen.  There are busy times when I forget.  But I try to create them when I remember because it is a small way for me to relive moments, to cherish my blessings.  As time goes by, I never want to forget how blessed I truly am.

Incorporating more scrap booking ideas, I also have began using my children's artwork for occasional backgrounds.  The background in the picture below is from a painting done by my ten year old. 

(Painting for background)

Be creative!  Start recording your memories.  You don't have to post them online.  Simply take the photos!  Remember to include the everyday moments that most would not think we're important.  It is the everyday moments that add up to a life.