My friend Jessica from The Mom Creative is filling in for me today while I take a few days to tend to my daughter. You might remember her from her WFMW receipt organization post.

When Kristen asked me to write today, I was a little nervous. What could I share that both works for me and that would be helpful to many of you? As I considered a variety of ideas, the one that kept coming up in my mind was my system for memory keeping, Project Life.

Have you heard of it?

Y’all, if you haven’t, you are in for a treat today.

This memory keeping system has taken the crazy out of my scrapbooking and left me with thousands of photos in albums (and not sitting collecting dust on my hard drive). I love it so much and I am so excited to share it with you today.

Check out this super cute, super short video that does a perfect job of explaining Project Life.

What is Project Life? from Becky Higgins LLC on Vimeo.

As a mom who works full-time outside the home, I love that Project Life makes it easy for me to record my family’s memories. All you need to start are an album is a core kit (I’m using Jade this year), a 12×12 album and some page protectors (I recommend starting with the Big Variety Pack 2 ). I love using a bunch of different sized and style page protectors in my album. I typically buy my products on Amazon, but a bunch of retailers are now selling Project Life products too.

This is my fifth year doing a Project Life album to document my family’s story. In my album are photos, birthday invitations, Instagrams, school artwork, cards and so much more. All the memorabilia and different page protectors make it so much fun to look at.

Plus, like I said before, it’s easy. And that’s SO important.

To learn more about Project Life or to get some inspiration, check out these posts:

• Project Life Tuesday series: A weekly link-up where I share my layout from the previous week, plus Project Lifers from around the world share their pages
• Project Life: 20 Questions Answered
• The Mom Creative’s Project Life YouTube Playlist: Occasionally I do a video sharing new Project Life products or recent layouts. For those that like visual inspiration, this is for you!
• Project Life on Pinterest: Lots of inspiration for those of you who love to pin.
• Project Life founder Becky Higgins’ blog: Becky’s blog is chock full of useful information, inspiration and tips for using Project Life. Plus she’s a busy working wife and mom. You’ll love her.

Project Life works for me.

Sometimes I see simple parental acts of brilliance and I think, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

You know, life-changing things like this:

Image Source: Juggling with Kids

Or

Image Source: Juggling with Kids

Because seriously, some life hacks make your life a lot easier.

Click here for 19 more ideas to simplify your life.

They work for me!

I have a teenaged girl in the house.

She is girly through and through and offers to go grocery shopping with me and looks for eggs on the makeup aisle.

We are dipping our toes into the fragrance and cosmetic world, nail polish and brushes and oh my goodness, there’s a lot out there. Since when did one bottle of nail polish cost $8? I was telling my sister how expensive it was to have a teen daughter (hers is 18) and she told me about Ipsy.

It’s a little monthly club that delivers 4-5 quality cosmetics, lotions and sample makeup in a cute little zippered makeup clutch right to your door.
We tried it out for a month and besides thrilling my daughter, it had some great items (this is what we got):

It’s $10 a month and you can filter what goes in your bag when you sign up. I’m not sure if we will continue it, but it’s a neat idea and it works for a blossoming teen girl!

You can check it out here. If you sign up, my daughter gets free eyeshadow.

When my siblings and I would visit my grandmother in the summer, she would send us outside to play in the pasture behind the house. Then she would lock the back door. If you were thirsty, there was a water hose. It was farm life and we lived thru it.

While I don’t plan on locking the door, we do have a big backyard and I want my kids using it this summer. It’s a lot of grass and mud (we have never ending drainage issues. Oh the joys of home maintenance) and plenty of room for imagination.

Summer starts next week around here and I’ve been looking for some backyard inspiration:

1. DIY Tent

Source

2. Backyard Twister

by Seaside Shelter

3. Backyard Hopscotch

by Lil Blue Boo

4. Angry Bird Game

by Holly’s Art Corner

5. Old fashioned slip n slide

6. Turn trampoline into a tent (with a tarp on top)

C’mon summer, we are ready for you! You work for us!

[Linky for WFMW will be added to this post at the normal time 10pm CST time tonight]

Before school this morning, my 6 year said, “Momma, what if a tornado comes to my school today? I don’t want to die. I prayed for all the people in Oklahoma last night.”

When tragedy strikes, we are all touched.

Her words sum up how devastated we all feel for the beautiful people of Oklahoma. My in-laws and many other family members and friends live in this state and I know it affects so many far and wide.

When I was 20 years old, I was home from college for the weekend when a killer tornado hit our Dallas neighborhood. As the freight train of wind and debris moved thru our home, my parents lay on top of me, protecting me with their bodies. I’ll never forget the way they sacrificed for me or the way our community lifted us up. The Red Cross fed us breakfast everyday and we picked up toiletries and aid at the local high school, volunteers shoveled glass and put up roof tarps. Everyone gave.

I think prayer is the greatest gift we can give Oklahoma today. Here are some other good ways to give:

•  Text FOOD to 32333 to donate $10 to the OKC food bank
  
•  Text REDCROSS to 90999 gives $10 to disaster relief
•  Text “STORM” to 80888 to make $10 donation thru Salvation Army
•  Give via the BGCO Disaster Relief Fund
•  Volunteer in Oklahoma with Samaritan’s Purse or Give thru this trusted ministry