The "I Am" idea for a scrapbook

I bought that collection for the same reason. Haven't done anything with it yet but .......

Many years ago I took a Cathy Z class called " Me, the Abridged Version". I only completed the A to Z tag book but I have descriptors of me and my life for each letter. For instance, A includes Apple eater (my favorite fruit), A Christmas Story (my favorite movie) and air conditioning, my love for. C includes cars I've owned, conflict avoider and contact lenses. The stories are a combination of the important and the trivial, the serious and the silly. It is one of my favorite projects.

I lost my mom 4 years ago. I would have loved to see her "I am" journal.

Get the words down. You can always add photos later.

I recently had a friend say that the things she's trying to scrapbook now (as a Mom of a 9 year old) are the things she wishes she knew about her life and her mom when she was her Mom's age. Then she said this and it was an a-ha moment for me. "My child is going to be interested in MY life when she becomes my age." So when she's 30, she's going to want to know what her Mom was doing at 30, 35, 40, etc. That will help her find her way in life. I had not considered this perspective. I had only thought in terms of "oh won't my daughter enjoy seeing what she did at 10 years old, 15 years old, etc." But I got to thinking about how I would love to open a book and read about what my Mom was doing at my age, 45. It would help me know her better and know myself too because let's face it, we are all like our Moms in a lot of ways or at least we want to see if we are. I feel like I don't really know my Mom so I want to make sure that my daughter knows me through the pages of my scrapbooks. That does take some intentional photo taking. Missy, it's never too late for you to start taking photos of your self now. How do you feel about selfies? Start taking one a day and pick your faves! If you are drawn to the I Am collection, use that as an impetus to start telling some stories about yourself. If you don't write them down, no one will ever know them.

Maybe this isn't as big of a thing for Moms of boys - I'm not sure what you have but as a Mom of a girl, I want us to have that connection. Today I made a layout about my love of Chick-Fil-A's Frosted Lemonade. I love just scrapping all the little things I love. The I Am collection is pretty deep. I haven't bought much of it because I don't wanna go that deep with my pages sometimes. But I do think it's important for us to scrap about ourselves, as often as we do our kids.

You sound like me.  I'm all about my family and taking care of them and my home.  I find it hard to take time out for myself. This is a project or idea that a person like you or me may feel uncomfortable with because it can feel selfish in a way.  But, really, it's not selfish.  It's a gift to your kids that they will cherish. The mundane things, our likes and dislikes, what makes us happy or sad, turning points in our lives, memories, etc., are all things they'll want to know and wish we had told them someday.
I should really take my own advice and do something like this.  I know my kids would love and appreciate it.

I don't have kids so, especially when I started scrapping, most of my pages were about me. When I turned 30 I did an album that was about me right now. I included pages about my home, relationships, car and job, and about the things I believe, my hopes and wishes, how I spent my money, and the things (some physical like a piece of a furniture my grandfather left me that I had recently had restored, and some not) that were most important to me. I did it as an 8x8 album and took a bunch of selfies one afternoon which I used on any page I wanted to include a photo and didn't have any other photos I wanted to use. I included a front and end page that were general - an introduction to what the album is and why I was doing it, and then some final closing thoughts that were fairly generic but let me play with some fun product. Not every story has to delve to the depths of your soul.

Earlier this year I started an updated version of that same album. Now that some time has passed it is interesting to see what has changed and what is largely the same.

I started with a list of things I wanted to include. I limited myself to the 20 pages in the album and some of the stories were allocated two pages. For me the book is more about the writing than the photos so I started writing the journaling in a word document. I have well over half the album written but only have two or three pages actually made. I think the hardest thing with these projects is just starting.

I have an album where I put layouts that are about me, one about my husband, and one about us together. Ok, so they currently all reside in the same album because I don't have a lot of pages on each of the topics. But I do have a place for them. I'm not worried that they're not matchy - matchy. I do a layout when the mood hits. But I agree that it is important to get your stories down regardless of whether or not you have photos. Tell your story, I say!

I did one many years ago, from a kit I got from qvc. Still have it, and boy was I a new scrapper then. I have evolved in many ways... And one when I turned 40. Now that I'm a little more than 40(46), I just looked at it the other day.... and it was interesting h ow I thought and wrote back then.