Thursday, February 23, 2017

My Life Story


There is so much to celebrate in life, and yet we
remember so little of what happens.  We are admonished
to record in journals what happens in our lives and then
to write our life stories in our church.  

I decided this year would be a great year to get that
published, with my sixtieth birthday.  I can always
write volume two later!  

In 2000, I started writing my life story, and printed it
out.  I used journals, and planning calendars and day timers
that we had kept over the years.  That really helped, as it
gave me specific dates and activities.  Now we keep everything
on our phones, and having had phones and computers crash,
all of that is lost.  I couldn't have produced a lot of what
I was able to write based on memory alone.



I finished the majority of the writing that year,
but continued to add to it.  

Those who follow me regularly know that this past
year and a half I have written and published numerous
life stories of both of my parents, my grandparents,
my aunt, my mother's and father's love letters to
each other, and my mother's short stories.


After doing my parents' books, I realized that the pictures
tell half of the story, so to complete my life story, I had
to dig through all of my pictures, my files, my discs
and add photos to my life story.  That was as much work
as the writing, but I scanned hundreds of pictures into
the computer, and then cropped and edited them so 
they could help tell the story.


I had the good fortune of reading someone's blog
and they recommended using Lulu.com to
publish their blog.  I tried Lulu out before I had
even finished writing my dad's life story.  I wanted
to see how their work was.

Of course, you know I was thrilled.  I could print
one or one hundred, I could edit and add to, I could
receive discount flash sale coupons, I could send others
to their site to order these family history books.

It was as simple as creating a word document and
turning it into a PDF file as you save it on the 
computer.  


The completed book has 520 pages in it.  It started
with 320 before the pictures were added.  Of course, I
would have loved to have made most of the pictures
larger, as they are my favorite part, but it was already
too big.  This book was so large, that I had to
upload it in two parts, but it worked perfectly.

The cost for the book would have been $100, but 
Lulu.com offers one day flash sales throughout the
year - usually 20-30 percent.  On Black Friday, they
offer their best sale, and that was 40 percent, so the
book cost me $60.  I made one for each of my children
and gave them to them as a gift.  As I told my family,
even if you don't read it, look at the pictures - they will
tell a lot of the story.

Start to write your life story now, as people you would
want to talk to and ask questions will be gone.  Your memory
gets overloaded, and you forget.  

As my husband loves to say, "Those who are remembered
are those who are published."  Let generations to come
know who you were and what you believed and did.

What would you give to have written documents
of those who went before you?  Maybe they came
across the plains, or maybe they crossed the ocean.

I hope you get inspired to write your own
life story and publish it.

Jacqueline
Jacqueline

Chocolat - French for Chocolate. I adored chocolate from a young age when I had to sneak in the cupboard to find where my mother had hidden the Nestle's Chocolate Chips. Having read about the famous chocolat shoppes in Paris, when I finally got there I was determined to try a chocolate from every Paris shoppe. I invite you to share my adventures in creating, in travel, and in life.

8 comments:

  1. This is something that I have hoped to do. Thanks for some added inspiration!

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  2. Nice to have this boom....always good to remember....love Ria x ❤️

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  3. This is such a good idea - and a good project for me when I start working next year. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Love this and good for you to be doing something for yourself and for generations to come to love about you! I'll remember the website. I've used Cutest Blog on the Block in the past to put my posts in book form.

    Jane x

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  5. You are so smart to do this Jacqueline, you have so much to share and your children will treasure this forever. I have been wanting to do a best of book from my blog, mainly for my children. Thanks for recommending Lulu, it looks perfect for what I want to do. We have a precious family keepsake that was a book written years ago by my father's father that tells so much of his family history. There are so many questions we wished we had asked before they were gone...

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  6. What a wonderful idea and so inspirational, Jacqueline! Thank you for the tips :)

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  7. Awesome idea! My kids keep telling me I ned to do this!
    hugs,
    Betsy

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  8. I just finished reading a book called :They Left Us Everything..
    The principal character is a 63 yr old woman who lost her dad to dementia..and then her mom..who was 93..the last 20 or so yrs..even more .. their relationship was not ideal..anyways she offers to declutter and prepare their family home to be put on the market..lakefront..23 rooms..all raised there..she allots 6 weeks to do so..I think it took 16 months..it is a great read about discovering her mother..in all kinds of ways..she had thought to have her own home in order so that her children would have nothing to do..but after she does all this..in the familial home..she says she is going to leave everything status quo..so they will look through everything and learn about her..

    I think your idea was great.
    I wish my mom had left me more of her.
    I did her drawers at 19 when she passed and I can still smell their wonderful clean scent..only to my mom scent.
    Her neatly folded things..not many..her few sweater sets.. her make up..very little..Revlon Red like the lady in the book..
    I did keep books for my girls as they grew up..and I did give them a book on their wedding day about me..Nothing like this Jacqueline..
    They will treasure this..funny I just read this book..

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