Communicating

I have been focusing on better communication in my marriage, but I think this might work with everyone. 1. Stick to the topic. Don't argue about 10 things at once. Focus on 1 thing. 2. Be clear and specific about needs and wants. 3. Express how I feel. When I put an emotion with my request it has more impact. 4. Explain why I do things the way I do them. Usually I'm afraid that if I tell others why I do something I will be judged. That probably came from my upbringing. Often when I explain why, I get a suggestion that actually works!

Memories

I love to keep journals and records of my kids' activities, so how will I condense that into an enjoyable format for the kids and family members? I plan to upload pictures to Walmart and make a memory album every 5 years for each child. I can also include as much text as I want, where I will write about their likes, events, and things they learned each year. This will be a lot faster than scrapbooking. I think it may only take a few hours to make up the whole book, but I think family history will be so much easier if I break it up into 5 year chunks.