Lessons

Lesson Info

2:30 - Benefits of Project Life

Here in our last segment of scrapbooking with project life and we are going to be wrapping up on dh, this is a great opportunity to not only tie a pretty bow on everything that we're talking about, but if there are last questions, comments, ideas, go back again to questions that I haven't addressed, that you guys want to bring up or that are friends in the internet world want to bring up this is a great opportunity to do that, so keep that in mind feel free to let me know if those thoughts come to you so I'm gonna go and just kind of review what I really feel is a benefit to project life. We talked a lot about this kind of sprinkle that throughout about what it means to us, but I want tio kind of zero and on some specific things are really truly tangible benefits to this simple system of scrapbooking, and this sums it up. Now this is a photograph of niece that feen nisa is not only on our creative team, but she's, also one of the project life graphic designers, and she designed the one...

of our most popular editions, and she is very talented and she is a mother, and for her it's, you know, it's fun and it's creative, and she enjoys designing and yeah, yeah, I gotta but this right here is what it is about for her and this is what it is about for a lot of people. This is tracey larson she's, another person on our creative team and you guys remember when sarah was here and we were talking about photography and that angle of going down these angles remind me of that the's pictures remind me of that idea to take that angle from straight up above, and it really emphasizes and I did not ask these people to take these pictures they're just taking them, they're sharing them with me and I'm grateful for it because it's reminding me and it illustrates the point that we do this for ourselves, we do this for our family and it doesn't mean that you have to even have a big family. It doesn't mean that you have to have little kids. It doesn't mean that whatever fill in the blank this photograph comes from our friend deb duty she was on our creative team last year. She has two teenage boys you think they enjoy project life. They have gained a lot of self value from seen that their pictures of them, their life and their friends are of value to mom, so she spends time putting them together. This is another example of, like not opposed truly capturing this moment it comes from marianne perry again last year's creative team who caught this moment of her girls who didn't have a baby album before but with project life they were able to have a baby out because mom could do it simply and quickly what this does for his child self worth is invaluable and documenting their story says you are special you are worth it you have a place in this world you mean something I love you it's all of those things and that's what it does for children, for families and for everyone who benefits from from whoever it is it's doing this and I don't want to make it sound like I believe that this is the only way that you express love it's not and it's not necessarily the best way that's not at all what I am trying tio send a message about I'm trying tio explain that scrapbook team has often times gotten a bad rap because it's those things that we talked about in segment one it's too much it's too creative I don't have time it's expensive it's and with project life we learned that it can be so simple and broken down and so easy to dio so that you actually do do it and get it done and that is a love language that is one way that you can express what your loved ones means you that's what project life can mean I have to share something special with you that is my husband I were commenting I could watch this all the time I've seen this before and I've seen it several times and it comes from catherine davis she is on our creative team and she is very, very talented and she is known as design editor on the online world and she is sharing with us now this adorable video that really sums up this is why we do project life wait what do you think about this book? Do I even need to say anything else just that speaks volumes she captured this moment of what it meant to her little girl's her little twin daughters and I just appreciate the fact that she even caught that because I hear about it I get the e mails I see the mentions on social media and it means it means the world to me every day when I see and hear about and read about these testimonials it means it deeply means something to me as somebody who's obviously very heavily involved in trying to help other people to scrap booking in memory keeping and so I appreciate catherine for sharing that but scrapbooking project life and doing this is such also a meaningful project for teens and preteens I showed you a couple of cute little girls and kids really are cuter when they're younger and then they grow up in the you know things get more complicated things get dramatic this is kayla she's a teenager and she does project life, she does it because of what it means to her she's able to capture her own life. She doesn't need to even rely on mom or dad to do this for her she's doing it because she can it's attainable it's easy and is a part of her life. So make sure that you don't forget about that, that middle range, you know, or those young adults in college students, even our young mary people, it doesn't matter what agent, what stage of life, and I even want to back it up further to our youngest crowd, we have a lot of children in this world who really could use that boost in what scrapbooking does for them. This is a layout that is special to me because it's not only created by mike daughter, but it was the very first time that she ever tried project life, and I don't force project lifeline my kids, we talked about that earlier, I don't want them to feel like, man, I want them to feel like this is something that I'm making them dio or that this's like, you know what I'm saying, this is not something that I want a force so many kids, and so I asked claire this was a year and a half ago, it looks like by the date that I asked her she wanted to do project life she did and I told her to use any pictures that she wanted well they weren't going to be my pictures they were going to be her pictures so I encouraged her by helping her pick out the pictures that she had taken and this is not the prettiest layout you'll ever see these air not the most inspiring pictures that you will ever see but these are looking through the window of claire's eyes this is from her perspective from her view this is what's important to her and this is what it says she decided my favorite things by claire h first things first there's a dog oreo her dog oreo who is standing next to a puddle of we don't know and it looks like a mystery and so we're going to pretend like the hose was drizzling over there and then there's a tree and there's a really worn out should be in the trash soccer ball and then their son ships and then there's oreo again and then there's oreo again and then there's oreo again in the in the backyard this is what this is what she felt was important to her at the time and then she journal about each one and the way that she spells things is so fantastic it makes me so happy because now she spells much better and now that stage is over and so really involving the kids, whether it's a mini album or they're ready to dove in and do it kind of full size doesn't matter, but if they're doing it for themselves, it does speak volumes. I recently heard something from the new york times after actually, this is a quote I want to share with you if you want a happier family, create, refine and retell the story of your family's positive moments and your ability to bounce back from the difficult ones. That act alone may increase the odds that your family will thrive for many generations to come. It goes without saying that I agree, I agree that's, why I believe and cultivating a good life and recording it you create, refine and retell the story of your family's fill in the blank it's a positive moments it's the hard times it's how you bounce back from the hard times and like I said earlier, I'm not asking you or challenging you to write and document take a picture of every single thing in your life. It's not realistic and it's overboard it's overkill we don't want to do that, but there are so many times that we ignore the moment or we ignore the lesson that we learned or we ignored the occasion because we're not not how about taking pictures that were not in the habit of writing them down I want to talk for a few minutes about what project life means to people around the globe we have people watching right now hear live from so many places and we've heard from j k o jamboree some of the names of these places these countries in these cities all over and project life means something to something different to everybody but I do want to share some examples of what they mean to specific people but I'm going to ask specifically you guys right here we're going to come back to you and after I share a few examples I want you to share if you want to maybe an example of why project li life means something to you and I certainly would love to hear from our internet friends as well so these air some faces do you recognize him? Well there you go all right you are right sounded up where my face is between the white boxes well there's a lot of white boxes right? Third you're the one that is so great that's so great we love getting pictures of people with their product it's so much fun on dh people who didn't want to see themselves in the pictures you know, put their dogs in or their cabin and that's cool too obviously everybody benefits from this so let's go through some of these examples of what we're hearing about this is, um this is terra lee, she says. For the past four years, I've employed the simple concepts that make up the project life system and the results are gold to me. Thanks to project life and becky higgins, I am preserving the special story that is our life our daily happenings are triumphs are joys are hardships and are pitfalls. When my family looks back at what I have been documenting using project life products and ideas, I would emphasize ideas we've talked about a lot of ideas, this isn't supposed to be a product driven thing I don't want to do that were inspiring you with ideas they will see glimpses of our life preserved over time using the wonderful concept that becky higgins has shared with the world. Becky, thank you for sharing this wonderful gift with us thank you terribly you khun see terribly right there in that picture and not know her and not have a clue really what she's about or what her life situation is if she's married single kids no kids, you know whatever her situation is and none of it matters, it doesn't matter what her life is, you can relate to what this means to her because many of you are feeling that my name is josie and I am almost six months old somebody's putting words in her mouth right in this case it's a really good thing I just wanted to say a big thank you to you for making project life. My mommy loves to scrapbook and take pictures of me and my sisters, but since I'm the fifth girl of our family, my mommy is very busy. She doesn't have time to do fancy scrapbooking like she did for my other sisters. That's why I love project life. Mommy takes lots of pictures of me and with my sister's puts them in a scrapbook and still has time to play and not go with me someday when I really big, I can look back at all those fun pictures. I'm very happy about that. Maybe I'll have learned to do project like to someday. Thank you again, mrs higgins. I need to get going. I have to take another nap. Love josie and all my big sister's too. So sweet p s my mom care assisted. Thank you too as well. All right, another example. We'll see which one I'm on here. All right, this is liz. Liz says project life is a way for me to connect with my fiance. He'll be my husband, inuit in a week, u b each week he and I sit down together and recap our week what happened, what we did, how he felt and what was important to us I fell out a majority of the cards, but each week he writes his thoughts on a three by four card it means so much to me tohave not only my memories but his memory's recorded tio it is so awesome to have someone this supportive always being there for me I'm so happy to have nine months prior to our marriage recorded and I'm ready to record the next chapter of our lives together and liz, you're inspiring me to challenge my own husband to be a regular contributor I'm thinking on a weekly basis to our project live album and actually truth be told I do involve david not too much that's not his thing he has so many other talents he's a jack of all trades he contributes in major major ways in our family and our business and everything but I dio he knows any time I quickly text amid a question about hey when we were on that one trip and we went to that one place, what was that called that's his contribution and also once in a blue moon I do get his handwriting down on a card or have him actually write the journal he has to do with that memory that he made. So while I am the primary document er and family historian for our family it's really important to me to not only involve the kids but involved my husband as well in he's a trouper for that? All right um I want to share this with you and I am going to do it without crying. Really it all began december first, two thousand ten my beautiful little boy was diagnosed with leukemia and our world turned upside down. We spent forty five hellish days in the hospital getting elijah healthy enough to come home. Once we got home, I didn't recognize my little boy and I really felt like things were happening and changing so fast, so in january fourteenth, two thousand eleven, I decided that I was going to start taking a picture a day of elijah to document his year in treatment for leukemia notice we're not talking about happy cherry freebo's lollipops and unicorns. Okay? This is like a devastating situation for the family and everyone goes through something difficult. It may not be your child has leukemia, everyone relates to hurt pain trials, frustrations, she says. I wanted to be able to look back at this time through treatment and be able to show him that we lived a life with joy despite the circumstances. I wanted him to be able to look back at his treatment years from now and see that we lived a life to the fullest and didn't let life keep kicking us while we were down quickly, I realized that I didn't just want that for elijah I also wanted his baby sister to see her life was lived and loved through all of this, so I started taking pictures and looked for an album to put the pictures in and write a story about their day I knew I didn't have time to make them a scrapbook, so what do you think she did? I won't read it on and on and on, but she got project life she started doing project life and she explains karen explains that this was something that she was able to do that is manageable. That then was she shared the story with her kids. The time I spend each night on their albums is so centering it centers her I love that she is that word it's centering has just become a part of my daily routine much like lunch so she is making this part of her daily routine again doesn't work for everybody maybe doesn't resonate with a lot of people but for her it is therapy. It is a constant in her life that's something that she can depend on every day that brings her joy that centers her and helps the state helps her to stay focused on what is truly important and what matters and you better believe that sweet little boy and his sister have such a treasure and from what I understand his last leukemia treatment is coming up soon and things are going well so that is a wonderful bit of goodness I was so happy to hear this's sharlene sharlene says what project life means to me is having the creative freedom and scrap booking our family holidays into travel memory album while also having the time to document the other everyday life things that we d'oh it is so flexible with so many page design page designs and kits available I just love it and do you just love her despite looking at this picture she looks like a lot of fun, scott walker's just are we just are a lot of fun please actually come in this is sort of a spontaneous story, kim d says I ordered project life when it very first came out but at the time I wasn't cultivating a good life I got divorced in twenty eleven and I decided it was then that I finally dusted off that album and began living the life that I wanted to remember my kids have been great sports as I finish up my second year of a picture a day and I know that those albums will be treasured so I thought that was a good share that easy I'm so glad the share I had nothing to add that was she said all and that's exactly what this is is everybody is going to find their personal experience of not only what it means to them but why they do it why do we do this? I was actually had some lovely comments throughout the last couple of days actually about people of just sharing different experiences and we we heard from the cavalry on wednesday. Well, I believe is actually in the uk, possibly but serving outside of the u s and she's memorial lighting her uncle right now, who is unfortunately dying of cancer and she's putting together for memorials for her family, but she still finding in a positive and empowering experience, although it's a very sad occasion for her family, they still want to have something that's going to they're going to be able to share later on, and a lot of our viewers have been sharing those kinds of stories as we've gone through the last couple days that's so beautiful and, you know death is inevitable, right? I mean, I'm not going to go there too deep for all affected by that part of life happens, and I think that it's so special that people take the opportunity, tio, we're going to mourn our losses, and we should and that's the way it happens, but by honoring that person and by honoring the life that they lived that's one way that project life is being used is not just necessarily at a funeral, for example, but just interview of that person, whether they are possibly and you know, in the process of dying because it's inevitable or this coming and they know or it's set in and it's done after the fact later so I really grateful that people are seeing that there's value in using something so simple to actually get it done words before when it this isn't this didn't exist this this idea of traditional scott booking really did scare people out of that whole idea and so it kept people away from actually paying tribute in a way that they wanted to with words and pictures beautiful this is natalie and natalie says I scrapbook for them I scott book for everyone else in my life. Yes, I love that it helps me relax and I enjoy crafting and yes, I'm a bit obsessed with project life, but I'm very passionate about telling my story our story. I wish I had more stories from my childhood my parents child had in grand parents child head I also want my kids to know how very much they mean to me of something if something were to happen to me in two thousand eight I had a very rare bone tumor and for a short period I was very scared that I might have the malignant version of the tumor and the survival rate was very low the wait for the results two weeks and three days was the longest wait of my life during that time, one of the only things that brought me comfort was knowing that my son, who was a year and a half of the time, would have all my journals and scott brooks to know me back then, I journal in scott book on almost a daily basis. Fast forward six years and two more kids. I didn't have the time to scott book like I used to, but project life is helping me to capture our family's memories and stories in a way that is manageable. She experienced not only experience something really scary that put her in a situation that maybe others watching have related to, which is you felt like your life was in danger. You didn't know how much time you would have left that said that's a big deal, and it strikes you to the core and you really assess where am I? Um, in my world, like where my and my relationships, where am I with what I'm doing and when, where and how I spend my time what's important, and she is able tio she obviously is fine, and she got through that, but she has a renewed perspective on what really matters and how she wanted to spend her times that's why I keep saying that scrap booking is one of the most worthwhile hobbies. All how these air, cole? I mean, as long as you're good hobbies, you know, good, clean fun, but really, like the hobby of doing something with your memories is, in my opinion, where it's at because of what it means. This comes from kelly me see if I can find her email she shared with us. Kelly is pictured right here with her with her mother that I do know she says dear becky, I just wanted to tell you, thank you for creating the idea of project life this year number, this is your number two for me, meaning that she's doing it chronologically, starting in january, you know, and she's kind of doing this, documenting every day. I love that the project is able to tell the little stories that I probably would never scott book and I'm using the, you know, picture of the day for matt and loving it, but the reason for my thank you, my mom recently passed away in december. This has been a really difficult time for me, but thankfully, due to my project life, I had my sister snap a quick picture of my mom and I when we traveled to san francisco for a doctor's appointment with her specialist, so she was in this mode of not just snapping pitch pictures of special occasions and big trips, but she was doing project three, sixty five approach where she was taking a picture every day. So that's, what she's talking about? I was taking a picture every day, so even though I was just getting my mom toward doctor appointment, this was going to my picture of the day, she says. My mom has never liked having her picture taken anybody know anyone like that, but she knew about my project life and went along with me for one quick picture. Exactly a month later, she was gone. I had no idea how much his picture would mean to me when I took it from my project life it's the on ly recent picture I have of the two of us together, I will treasure it forever, so thank you. Thank you for reminding us to capture the little things in life. Sometimes these things, those things are that we think that we think are little turn out to be very important. And who knew? Kelly didn't know? She didn't know that it was going to be a month left with her mom. Usually we don't know. This is jackie, jackie says in two thousand eleven I woke this is unbelievable! I woke to eight years of memories gone. A diagnosis of transient global amnesia in an instant eight years had been erased from my conscious memory. It was a very difficult situation to process through. My daughter was thirteen instead of five she thought her daughter was five. Imagine eight years gone we lived in a new place in the world around me was completely different. One of the differences is one of the differences was the scrapbooking world. I have scrapbook for over fifteen years so I remembered the old days of scrapbooking but as you know, the last eight years have seen huge changes in the industry. I was overwhelmed by the products and online world of scrapbooking and yet the very thing that helped me get through the hard days of memory loss where my old scrapbooks and photos they were my window into a world that I no longer remembered literally overnight, my memory keeping became more focused about keeping current with my photos and stories. I wanted to make sure to capture today in case I forgot yesterday. That is why I turned to project life a system designed to be easy and allow me to focus on the every day I love it. Um I cannot imagine there's health issues that we're familiar with we hear of diseases we hear of cancer, we understand death we all experience hard times before I saw this email from jackie I had never thought about that possibility of just a memory gone just like that overnight eight years gone and think about fires that happen, floods that happen and and natural disasters okay, these things happen unfortunately way more than we want to hear about that they happen and sometimes stuff is wiped clean and onda have actually happened in your brain is unthinkable um and I appreciate that jackie was willing to share this with us scrapbooking and specifically project life as I talk about it I've said it and I'll say it again it's not just plastic and paper it's just not the concept and the system of project life is simple and it's about the divided pockets and you can slip everything it easily but it is not just about that it's about giving people the full system and not just the pieces and components that you have to do all of that guesswork and putting it together simply and easily. This is done by ashley bennett she's another member of our creative team and her layout is gorgeous it's happy it's fun it's about her pictures it's not about the product but the product help her bring it together so that she could so that she could enjoy those memories for herself and for her family it's not just about the fact that's not paper and plastic on ly project life as you guys can attest to because you guys sitting here with me are you know, you're in this you're in that's a lot of people watching our understanding it more project life is a way of life when we think in this way of documenting life to remember it, to share it with their families, but we're doing it in a way that is simplified so we can do more of this more spending time with our family, more of being that person with them instead of having our back turned to them because it's my hobby and this is what I'm doing over here. This is what it's about it's a way of life for me because of the way I think about pictures, and I take it's a way of life for me because of what I write about it's a way of life for me because of that action of just putting things in pockets and feeling good and productive about what I'm doing it's a way of life for a lot of people. I don't know if any of you want to share maybe a bit or a piece of why it's a way of life for you, whether you do this on a daily basis, a weekly, a monthly a regular basis or maybe it's a way of life for you because of the way you're thinking differently through your camera lens or writing, does anybody want to share a little bit about that? I know we're all in deep thought note on certainly anything from the internet actually yes adele says that this is a love language before I even knew what scrapbooking was when I saw the scrapbooking pages from becky for porter my first thought was wow this mom loves her child so much and that's what inspired her to start scrapbooking it's a love like yeah you know and I the first time I heard that term love languages because there's a book called lovely which is five they're five they're five love languages speaking of marriage let's go back to marry marriage or any family relationship or any relationship there these love languages of how you express love and also how you receive it you know I might like my back scratch you know and david scratches my back that feels really good but maybe if I scratch his back he's like oh which isn't the case actually that was about example we both like our back scratch but my kids have their love language I have my love language with them speaking of scratching every night I lay in bed with every one of our kids and I scratch your backs and they know they know it's got to come for me dad cannot pull the same thing off I have these yeah you do tio yes what did you want to share? I I remember when my youngest child started first grade I began scrapbooking every thursday with friends, I would meet friends and we'd scrapbook together every thursday, he would run home from school as fast as he could, and he would run to the bookshelf and pulling a scrapbook to see what I've made for him that day, and I could see visually this was making him feel loved and cared for. It just reinforced the reason I was scrapbooking all along, which was because I want my children to know that I love them. I want to tell their stories. I want them to know my stories, and my little first grader is now a senior in high school and he's six feet tall on just last week, he got his scrapbook out and started flipping through the pages and stopping and reading every bit of journaling and smiling over the stories and remembering things out loud. I just know that my purpose has been fulfilled in making those scrapbooks for my kids. I know that when they look at those pages, they know how much I care about them, and I know that I've preserved the story so that when I'm gone, the stories will will still be there, absolutely, and did it take their your son to be a teenager to appreciate them? No, you can't rush it and like you said and three thursday doesn't have to be on a regular basis, of course, but on a regular basis you were doing it. But you were keeping your work in progress out, they can join that motivates me. That really does, because I think that I could do a better job pulling out those albums a little bit more often. It's one step to bring it down that was your ah ha moment yesterday, bring those albums down and make sure that they're the child's level but really like encouraging them to see them more often. And the word they used was reinforced. It reinforced you by sharing that with him on a regular basis reinforced that for you and validated what you were doing, and we love validation. I wish we didn't rely on that, but we're human, especially women. We kind of rely on validation to keep us motivated, so being validated through sharing it regularly, whether it's really life right there in your home or within a physical community or on line there, online friends, whatever you need to do to kind of help you stay motivated and being validated is so awesome thank you for saying that, yes, I just wanted here. My first year doing it was just last year and I really was just motivated to put our pictures in an album to share with our family, but what I got out of it that I hadn't expected was that, um appreciation for my life and a chance to kind of because you're just you're going and you're going on the field trip you're doing this, you're doing that and kind of just pause and reflect as you're putting the pictures in like, wow, we really I did get to do this great experience I really did enjoy that moment or I really you know, it just really helps you sort of appreciate where you're at right now in your life with it does it does appreciation it definitely comes from this and it's a huge benefit and another way to word that I always think of this term is it makes you more keenly aware of your blessings. It makes you more keenly aware, very acutely aware of what is special to you. And just like the example I brought up earlier of being in the front of the car and crew was just gabbing in the back and I was writing down what he was saying I became more keenly aware of him my child I was I was loving him even more because I was I was taking time to document it and that's I'm noticing it notice it because I'm writing it down and snapping a picture I'm you know doing whatever it is to put that together in an album thank you for sharing that yes make you keenly aware of things that you have done and shared together but it makes you look to the future and want to live life to the fullest when you know that your life is going into the scrapbook what are we going to dio yeah yeah you know that's really interesting that you bring that up my brother jonathan he's the one that passed away last year when I first started when my husband first started the company and I was explaining to him this this idea of project three sixty five and project life he's like he's not scrap booker and he's you know he was supportive but used like ok, he saw that who always called it crap looking at all the stuff and all the you know and so so but I remember something that was really stood out to me when he said it he's like becky what's interesting about this is that when you're taking pictures on a daily basis and again don't get married to that idea doesn't have to be daily daily daily but he said when you take pictures on a daily basis it actually makes you kind of realize that what you're doing in terms of not just yet we don't know this fun stuff but what you're lacking and I haven't I haven't done a one on one with my my child lately or you know it's been a while since we've done something as a couple it says we've been to a concert or we've gone on a trip or it makes you more aware of maybe you're lacking in your and your hobbies like maybe you're not doing outside of scrapbooking if you're not developing your skills maybe it's time to learn howto cook a little better or crow she something or make a cake or whatever go fishing I mean there's just so much benefit that comes recognizing and acknowledging good for your life that it is but what else can I do to cultivate that better life thank you so much yes please sir when my oldest son got married his wife wanted to see the scrapbooks because she wanted to see what made him what he waas and it helped helped her to understand our family dynamic because the one thing that my kids is and probably those who have kids that are married you understand that you're melting to families and you sometimes have different dynamics and so is in our sight yeah a lot of times you have different dynamics and so she was just you know it was just a mean for her to just see you know the camaraderie that he had with his sister and brother in just how they interacted what are the things that our family like to do and the vacations that we took in everything and then it was the same thing when my daughter got married it was you know, her introducing her family through scrapbooks teo teo him toe what what we did and then for them seeing a lot of similarities because they had two boys and a girl like us and so we had a lot of similarities so it is really kind of need to see and they just they just light up and they you know, laughing and just remembering things things that you think this is kind of neat because I'm kind of you requirement for any engaged couple right now plea out there if there are any couples that are engaged, it would be so fun for you and your individual families to put a scott book together of you know, even if it's just a little many out for something to say as summary this is what you're marrying into filter a little bit but what a remarkable thing that would be teo to see and that such a gift that you guys have within your family and I'm sure a lot of light bulbs are going on right now that's really cool what you think is kind of me I should requirement definitely that's so cool thank you for sharing that okay um I also am of the opinion that project life nourishes the soul and andi I think you guys know what I mean in talking about that and doing project life and and simplifying the process it truly does enable us to be more keenly aware like we talked about and it also makes it easier for the entire family to be involved in the documenting of the stories and that that is in itself amazing but most of you most of us rather you're doing scrapbooking or not whether you doing project life or not are documenting in some way and to document life and take that time like we're talking about there's something that really just goes right here it's very nourishing for you to recognize and I almost didn't even need to bring up this point because you guys have been hitting on it it nurses are so in different ways and nourishes your soul different than a nurse's mind but it is so it's so important to take the time to do it do this because is life is very busy we all get really caught up in stuff that we're doing, but because of the benefits of doing this we certainly learned some very valuable lessons another way that project has become such a benefit and a blessing is something that we touched on earlier but it really does build self esteem and children specifically I'm talking about kids a little bit more here I can excuse me what they as children don't understand that we understand a little bit more is that having these memories and stories recorded they really are they're building their sense of belonging and they really get more that picture of that idea and that principal of who they are this is a picture taken of my kids sitting looking at this book behind me ok this is just our photo book from a particular year and the story of what what came about with this is that I had done this is project life on shutterfly I do the little skinny photo books in me and I had just gotten them in the mail and I saved them because when I print a photo book it's a little costly but I print one for the family and we have three kids and I print one for each kid and it's worth the expense for me because I want them each to have their own book and it's our siri's a family's family yearbooks pay and I know lots of families that do that not personally but it's a great idea so I had just gotten a shipment from shutterfly and I was really excited I was really excited and I and I got the kids together and we gathered in that it was during the day david was at home so I wasn't expecting you know much of a reaction from him he knows this is more money thing but I gather them together and I have a surprise for you guys I have a surprise this is going to be really exciting and they're like ok what is it that a toy is it a game you know they're thinking that this is you know for sure gonna have bells and whistles and I'm like ok open your eyes on the hand of each the book and the like okay a great month this is great you know, there was just this kind of like it was so anti climatic for me I was like well where's the appreciation guys because this is pretty much the most important thing ever in terms of physical actually you know, possessions and my world what why are you guys not more excited and so I of course was a little bit down about that I said listen guys, this is a family yearbook as a reminder you guys because we have passed years ok but this is a family year back I'll show you that is a representation of our family from this past year here's two thousand eight here's two thousand nine two thousand ten is a year I got to go back and deal I said I was on my to do list I say what I have to finish here is two thousand eleven so I had kind in two thousand twelve was all excited and they're like ok, yeah whatever and I said listen sit for a minute, just look through you guys remember that one time that such and such happened, and that one time that we went so and so place and at one time, blah, blah, blah, I want you to look through, so I kind of like not force them to, but I I in my motherly way, strongly encouraged and told me they wouldn't have dinner until they did not just getting on, so I I asked him, invited them tio put through the book and to flip to these pages, and as they did, they became so captivated they were I was no longer in the room, like they didn't even know that I existed anymore, because what it was about was flipping through and seeing these pictures and pouring through these images and remembering their year. This was their story in the form of a book, or in and physical product, and in the form of an album, and this was a place that they were finding their their sense of belonging was coming back, their sense of self worth, and this meant something to them, and I could see it. It was right before my eyes, and it was happening that was such a learning lesson for me again, it doesn't matter what you're using, I'm not forcing project I find anyone if you're taking pictures if you're keeping journals, if you're putting pictures and frames anything that you can do to document life and preserve it, I'm a fan of project life because it makes sense for all the reasons we've talked about, but whatever you're doing, it absolutely can strengthen the family in and that in itself can undeniably be what helps save the world. Okay, I mean, that is one way that we can really fix problems is what I'm saying if if kids today, if people in general had a better sense of who they were based on the values that are shared through these family connections, I'm just saying yes, please, yeah, we've got a fantastic coming coming about self esteem and how scrapbooking has helped somebody with this v electoral violators in florida she's saying I think my big takeaway from this course besides that I'm not a weirdo for accumulating tons of memorabilia, you know is that not only is it all right to scrapbook, but it's all right to scrap with the harder parts of life to scrap book the breakup, the health scares the bear situations, but in that doing that it can be therapeutic and valuable for a perspective later on, I think project life has also been very helpful with clearing the remaining trouble I've had with low self esteem because it's been centering it's being true and it's also being very validating, everyone matters. It's, the simplest, that thank you for sharing that violence is a very simple message. That is beautiful, that's really cool. I've seen a lot of testimonials similar to that, and is more than just a child's. Self esteem is really something special that happens for you. So thank you very much for saying that we could go on and on about what project life means and how those benefits are there, and just what it means in our world.