Tuesday, January 10, 2012


                     Make Those Memories

                       Nothing I love better than an art project

            L iz, one military wife I knew years ago, got tired of being alone with her children all the time and fighting the mundane, day-to-day battle. She said she spent so much time changing diapers, holding crying babies, cleaning up food off the floor and highchair, and doing laundry, that she sometimes needed a creative change.
She periodically planned activities, saw them through no matter how hard, took pictures and wrote about them. All of this, she put into a book that her family could enjoy.
            One activity was simply an outing at the park where she ate sandwiches and cookies with her children. A large stray dog was on the loose that day, and while he tried to ruin their activity, she got some funny pictures. Another time she made cookies with her preschooler while the baby was asleep. Flour flew everywhere, dough dotted the floor, and clean-up was an additional project, but the preschooler had a wonderful time. Still another activity involved paper, glue, scissors, and glitter on Valentine’s Day.
            The journaling and pictures of these planned mini-memories became a lovely book to show Daddy. Not too many years later, the book became a life-line of love from the mother to her daughters when Liz died of cancer in her prime.
            Never underestimate the importance of making and recording memories—even small ones. They could be especially meaningful to the travelers left on down the road.

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