An Attempt to Preserve Small Daily Memories

An Attempt to Preserve Small Daily Memories

My computers are set up to play slideshows of photos when they have been sitting idle too long. My daughter loves to watch the slideshows and ask me about what is happening in the pictures. Sometimes I realize if it weren’t for having the photos I probably would have forgotten all about so many seemingly small events, like the day we laid beach towels in the yard and had a picnic or the afternoon we randomly decided to get ice cream after preschool with some friends. 

I started thinking about other ways I could try to preserve the small memories, and I remembered an idea I came across a while back (maybe on Pinterest?). The idea was simple: you take 366 index cards and label the top of each one with a day of the year (don’t forget the occasional February 29th!). Then, each day you write the year on a line followed by one small memory. So for March 1, for example, you would go to the first available line and write “2020: today we hiked up Kennesaw Mountain” (or whatever you did). The following year, you simply write a memory on the next line of the same card, starting with “2021”.

Of course, I feel like the original example was put together neatly in a binder or file folder or something. The best I could come up with was a lidless Tupperware container, but this works great for me. I keep the tub on a shelf in my craft room where I am sure to see it daily. Every evening, I write a memory from that day and then turn the following day’s card sideways, marking my place in the deck. Some days it’s easier to come up with the prominent event to write down for that day. Other days, the lazy days when nothing “important” happened, it can be more difficult. Sometimes, the memory I write might be something as inconsequential as telling what story we read together at bedtime.

I love this idea of a perpetual memory calendar for it’s simplicity and for the fact that it doesn’t require technology. All my computers can crash and I’ll still have this to look back on or pass along one day. Maybe eventually I will even put the cards in a scrapbook and collect small mementos (maybe ticket stubs or pressed flowers) to put alongside the cards.

“Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.”

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Ginny
Originally from Dauphin Island, AL, I am a stay-at-home mom who likes to do anything other than just stay at home. My husband and I have lived in 5 states together and are in the Atlanta area now for the second time. I have a Master’s degree from GSU in Multiple and Severe Disabilities and was a special education teacher for 8 years before deciding to work with adults with autism and then becoming a SAHM. I now work as a preschool teacher and fitness instructor. I enjoy spending time with my daughter at parks, libraries, and anywhere else that we can explore our world.