I have thought about this before, and seeing it again, may actually try it this time. I have so many words and stories in my head but actually slowing down enough to put them onto paper is really hard for me. I have tried to journal a little every day (telling myself it is to practice my handwriting). Sometimes I am prolific but sometimes there’s just no flow and I start cutting corners with ideas and words. When this happens I just stop writing altogether. I am trying to get past this and start with one story I have in mind; write it then apply the photos. Thank you for sharing 🙂

Terri, Let us know if you give either suggestion a try and how it goes!

Helen, I do this too! I’m a self proclaimed ‘fact nerd’ – I love collecting all the little tidbits of information, so will often search online, especially for vacation scrapbooking, to refresh my memory of what we saw and learned about! Plus, I feel like if the words are already written, half the ‘battle’ is won!

THAT is an excellent idea! I think I like the forward thinking journaling. She knows all of these photos because, being my favorites, I have already made layouts using many of them. What she doesn’t know is my wishes for her future.

My original Quotes idea is not working out. I gathered a bunch of quotes, but not enough for each page, and some that I want to include don’t really fit well with the pictures. I think I’ll save those for another project for her.

Brooke, I can certainly identify with resistance related to the importance of a project. Have you thought about using a repeated prompt for your journaling on this one? This would fit with the “notes to encourage her future” idea, but give you a specific place to start writing. You pick one prompt and finish the sentence for each page. Here are some examples that would fit here:

I hope you always remember….
My wish for you is…
You are _______. (beautiful, strong etc. – choose a different word for each page.)

Congratulations Mama!