Bloggy Books

For years I kept a hand-written journal chronicaling the everyday life of a young wife and mother of many. I remembering thinking at one time that it'd be nice if I had a picture to go with lots of the stories and events I was writing about.

That led naturally to scrapbooking which, for me, was journalling with pictures. I invested a great deal of time and money creating wonderful picture stories of our life and, by then, our grandchildren. Although I am no longer keeping a hand-written journal, I am still scrapbooking but it's rapidly becoming a case of 'so many pictures, so little time'.

And then I started keeping a blog. Everyone's blog is different - mine is mostly stories and pictures of our everyday lives, photo essays, remembrances of times past, and grandchildren. But what happens when technology changes, as it does so often these days. Will my blogs always be accessible? Does anyone even care? Well, I care, so I've started preserving my treasured memories in book form.

My daughter Sara, a blogger herself, introduced me to the concept of bloggy books. She has created 4 such books from her blog. They are now my coffee-table books at our home in Lethbridge. And they get read. Our granddaughter Layla, who was visiting from BC at Christmas sat in a big comfortable chair with the books and read the pictures (she's 6 and just learning to read) and had a wonderful time 'visiting' with her cousins featured in the book. She was thrilled to see blog entries about her in the books too. Anyway, following Sara's example, I published a book with selections from my two years of blogging. I used a family history theme and selected blogs entries that were about events and people in our family's history.

Such as pictures and stories of my family from 30 years ago, and one about me and my sister from lots of years ago.

I included the birthday tributes I did for each of the seven children.

I included my blog entry about our family reunion - our kids and their spouses and kids all together for the first time in ages - in 2008.

Also included was the blog I did highlighting our brides and grooms beginning with my parents, Lloyd and I, and our kids.

Lots of other blog entries were included which gave a taste of our lives spanning 60 years.

I had 8 copies printed - one for each child and one for Lloyd and me to keep. I consider it a treasure of memories and hope the kids do too.

Because I'll be doing another one sometime in 2011 using blogs representing a different theme.

Because it's fun and easy to do.

And because I want my kids to remember how great it is to be part of such a large, diverse group that our family has become.

The online site I used was www.blurb.com . This blog entry is not meant to solicit business for them, but I want to give credit where credit is due.