I realize that we are well into the second half of 2020 now, but I stumbled upon this resource last night and just had to share it! This is from CNN and it gives a really thorough overview of the first 6 months of the year with some great photos. It’s also fascinating (and sad) to watch the Coronavirus numbers change each month. This will definitely be something that I will use for a year-end recap and to add to monthly roundups.

July was a tough month for us because our daughter Riley and her husband Ryan suffered a miscarriage. I share this with their permission and I think it’s very important to check with others before you include sensitive details about their lives. It can be difficult to know if you should include the really hard stuff sometimes. I always believe in including the good and the bad, but there are times when that isn’t possible or even comfortable. I’m grateful that Riley encouraged me to include this and how strong she is. Miscarriage is a very painful thing to go through (emotionally and physically) and having never gone through that myself, I’m glad that there have been others who could step in and tell her they know exactly what she is going through.

Last night, our son Alex was shocked to find out that it was going to be August on Saturday. He said “I don’t even know what month it is anymore!” I think we can all relate! It’s such a strange time, but that makes it even more important to take a few minutes to jot down what life is like right now. Use my simple roundup prompts to document the month so you don’t forget all that happened. It’s my favorite memory keeping tool and so many of my readers have made it a routine in their own lives as well.

My monthly roundups have been more time consuming to complete lately because of how much I’m trying to document, but they feel more important than ever. I’m so glad I established this habit long ago. There are plenty of ways to do a roundup, you don’t have to use a scrapbook page format. I love to illustrate the information so this is my favorite approach. Here are my layouts for the month of June 2020.

My mental and physical energy seem to be running a bit low the last few weeks. I have been in high gear for so long and I think I’ve just needed a break from that. I’m sure you can all relate. I can’t even imagine how medical professionals are getting through this time. I get overwhelmed just reading the news. I’m so grateful for the sacrifices that so many people are making right now to care for others.

I’m going to be working on my roundup later today and get back to regular posting soon. I just wanted to let you know that I’m still here. I’m glad you are too! Stay well my friends. ❤️

It’s been another crazy month in our world and there are plenty of things to document right now. I hope you will take some time to do a month-end review so you can keep track of all the details. This is what I refer to as a “roundup” and it’s a great way to gather your thoughts and memories from the past month and put them into an easy to access format. I just use a few simple prompts to get organized with this monthly activity.

I have to applaud Persnickety Prints for all they are doing right now to help us document the world we are living in. Including history in my albums is so important to me and I’m very thankful for the many resources they are providing!

It is definitely an unusual time for all of us right now in our personal histories and I want to be sure I’m documenting the details. I decided to come up with a short list of journaling prompts to help me keep track of how Covid-19 is impacting my life. I’m going to answer these questions today and then again in the future.

I have to admit that roundups have been a bit challenging these last few months with all that is going on in the world. I’m dedicated to recording our family’s history though and that includes the good and the bad. This is such an important time to document and I’m truly grateful for this habit that I established more than 14 years ago of recapping each month. You can read about my roundup prompts and tasks here.

I used digital scrapbook pages as the format for my roundup.