Welcome to the This is Me Challenge!

Welcome to the TIMC! 

 

This blog is my personal history brain child--something I came up with trying to get my parents to record their personal histories for me.  I started off doing email questions, but then I figured there are probably plenty of people out there who also want to get their parents, grandparents or even their own personal histories recorded.  So I decided to start this little blog in an effort to help anyone who wanted to get their stories recorded before they got forgotten!

After 3 years of diligently doing the challenges and recording many facets and facts of my life, I found that I no longer had the time needed to keep going on...plus so much was already covered that I couldn't really think of many more questions.  I decided to call it quits on the new challenges, but I've left the blog up for any newcomers.

Here's a quick explanation of the different things you can find on the blog:

If you would like to do the challenges as I gave them out, I'd suggest starting with the Challenge Link List.  It has all of the questions written out, plus a link to the original post so you can see what I and my team members came up with to give you ideas!  Some of the challenges are different questions than the norm.   There are also 10 bonus questions as well!

If you are itching to record your history in a timeline/subject format, check out the Personal History in Depth page that goes through all the questions you could use to record an in-depth personal history.  You can also use the list for interview questions when visiting an elderly relative.  Get out the voice recorder and ask away!

If you have children, you can start recording their histories with some ideas found on the Personal Histories for Kids page.  Lots of fun ideas there to remember some of those special milestones!

The idea of this blog was that not everyone likes to record their stories in the same way.  Some like to write, others are comfortable with video, and still others are into scrapbooking.  There are many more ways to record your story.  Check out some of them and maybe get an idea for how you'd like to record your story on the Ideas for Completing the Challenges page.

If you like just short, simple and sweet questions, check out Fast Fact Fridays!  They were five little questions I gave out on Fridays for those who just wanted to record their lives in quick and simple ways.  At the end, I started using questions from the personal history in depth to help people get their histories recorded quickly if they wanted to. 

And last but not least, if you find you are loving these challenges, share the blog with your friends who may also like a fun way to record their stories! 

Thanks for stopping by!  And enjoy recording your history!  -Emily

Plans for 2014

Happy new year!  It's hard to believe that another year is gone and a new one begun.  Time sure does fly quickly!

At the end of 2013, I spent a lot of time contemplating about this blog.  It's gone on a lot longer than I'd ever thought, reached more people than I ever dreamed and helped me record more of my personal history than I'd ever imagined! 

That being said, I feel it is time to come to an end.  My life is pretty busy right now, and maintaining this blog is just one more thing that takes time away from my family and other things I should be doing.  So, I've decided to finally be done with it.

We ended up with challenge #71, but I thought that was kind of a silly place to stop, so we will go for two more months, to challenge #75 and then be done.  I believe 75 prompts are quite sufficient to help you record your story and give you ideas.  The blog will stay up--it's not going anywhere, and I may even post occasionally when I come across something that I think will help.  But there will be no new challenges beyond the next four. 

Thanks to all of you who have supported me in this journey these past few years.  I've enjoyed it, and I'm grateful that I have a part of me recorded for my posterity.  I hope you'll take the time to record your life too!

The Next 3 Months…

Okay, is anyone else freaking out that 2013 is almost half over?  Seriously, where has the time gone???  It just goes by so quickly.  And because it goes by so quickly, the TIMC team and I are going to be taking a little break this summer to enjoy it with our children.  You will not be seeing any new challenges in June, July or August.  We will start up again with some fun new challenges in September. 

I will not leave this blog untouched for that long however—I will just be re-posting some old challenges.  Some of you may not want to take a summer off (or winter if you’re in the southern hemisphere…) so here’s what you can do:  If you are caught up and have done all of them,  now is a great time to re-do some of the old ones…do a different take on it, tell a different story, update it, or help a loved one get it done!  If you’ve recently done one that is posted, you can do a different one.  (Click the tab on top for challenge questions.)  If you haven’t done any at all, then by all means, do the ones that are posted!  There will be a new repost of an old challenge every Wednesday for the next 3 months. 

I will also be working on some other things to share with you and will have those up when I get them ready.  

Fast Fact Friday tends to come around too quickly.  If I remember, I will do it.  If I don’t remember, then, well, it won’t get done.  I will really try to remember though.  Please forgive me though if I forget.  ;) 

Reposts of challenges will begin on June 5th.  Have a wonderful summer!

My “This Is Me” Album

I am soooo excited to share this with you today!  I’ve been working hard on getting my album  somewhat put together so I could show you how I’m doing it in a hard-copy state!

Here’s a walk-through video.  Be warned…it’s not edited and the lighting is pretty bad.

 

Here are a few close-up pictures for you too!  I am MUCH more comfortable with pictures and writing…  

Cover page:

This is the CD storage page:

Dividers:  (I painted one side with the green, then painted the back side with the orange.  Yes, they’re sitting on my ugly piece of well-used cardboard.)

Supplies Used:
-“Amber” binder, Design E Page Protectors, Dividers: Becky Higgins.
-Paper and brads used for cover page and CD storage, SEI “Winnie’s Walls" collection.
-Twine, The Twinery
-Scallop border punch, Fiskars
-Scallop circle punch, The Paper Studio
-Small circle punch, EK Success
-Flower, Prima
-Stamps used on dividers, CK Kit of the Month
-Crop-a-dile Big Bite (to punch holes for the brads in the bottom CD pockets)

Of course, you don’t have to do it this way…this is just the way I put mine together because I’m doing my challenges mostly as scrapbook pages or Word documents.  Here are some other ways you can make hard copies of your challenges:

• If you blog your challenges, make a blog book.
• If you are doing only digital scrapbook pages, you can upload them into a photo book.  This is a great way to make multiple copies and give them to your kids and grandkids as gifts! 
• Print off your documents on regular paper, put them into page protectors and a regular binder.
• If you’re doing traditional layouts, get pictures of each one.  Burn them onto a CD and store in a fire-proof place…just in case you ever have a fire.

If anyone else has some great ideas of how they’re putting their albums together, let me know and I will add it on here! 

Recording Basic Histories Of Children

There is no doubt in my mind that children grow up way too fast. If you have children and/or nieces and nephews of your own, you probably whole-heartedly agree. Life is funny though, in the aspect that you don’t really notice the children in your life growing up until they hit major milestones.
 
Time goes by quickly. Too quickly, in fact. But…there is one way that we can stop time for but a small moment—record it! Have you ever thought about someone you haven’t seen in person for awhile, and the first thing that you think of is a picture of them? It helps to jog the memory for sure! But what other than pictures can we do to help us remember these milestones? Well, I’ll share a few ideas to help you record a little bit about the lives of the children in your lives!
 




Babies
Yes, you can record personal histories for babies! Obviously, babies don’t remember anything, but you can record your thoughts and feelings, their milestones, and how they are growing. You don’t have to do ALL of these ideas, just choose one or two and don’t forget to do it!

• Write down milestones of your children as they grow.  (Height, weight, when they sit, 1st foods, etc.)  Get or make a calendar just for these things.  Put it in a place you will see it often and record things as they happen--this way, you'll always have that info in a safe, recorded place. If you’re more of a techie person, set up a milestones blog just for you and close family. I received a free calendar just for new moms while I was pregnant—it came with stickers and everything to easily record what went on. Then, later when I had more time, I went back to the calendar to see my baby’s milestones and incorporated them into a scrapbook page that I made for each month of his first year.

• Take pictures regularly.  You can do it every day, once a week, or at least once a month. Be sure to somehow record how old your child is in the picture. You can make a sign (simple or extravagant), use baby blocks or puzzle numbers, or add it digitally.
• Keep track of your baby’s size by using a larger stuffed animal or toy and take a picture of your baby with it every month, place your baby in the same basket every month, or even just next to a measuring tape!
• Make a video slide show of pictures from your child's first year.  Set it to music and make a few copies (for you, baby, grandparents, aunts/uncles, siblings, etc.)
• Make foot prints every month for the first year. You can do this on paper, or even on a large canvas.
• Make a scrapbook page of your child growing his or her first year.  The top one is a digital page where I chose my favorite picture from each month.  The bottom one is a traditional page where I used leftover pictures and cut them all at 2 inches square.  They are just in order, but some months there are 2 pictures, and other months there are 0.  Either way is great, it’s just fun to show progression!

Toddlers
When children start to show preferences of things they can start helping you record their personal history! Of course, the older the child, the more s/he can help and be more involved in what you do.

• Measure height and weight every 6 months.

• Take (or get) a good set of pictures every month or every 6 months. Make sure you get at least one good close-up shot and one full body picture with something that shows size. (You can still use that stuffed animal from babyhood, the basket or tape measure.)

• Make hand prints every year.  I do this on paper, and use it on the first page of my kid's scrapbooks for the year. Even if you’re not a scrapbooker, this is a very easy method! All it takes is cardstock, a marker or pen and ink or paint!  (As you can see, I don’t put a lot of time into these pages, I like simple!)

• Record what your child is saying, and be sure to record how s/he says it!  Video is great for this! Most digital cameras and phones have video capabilities on them. To keep track of the videos, make a specific folder on your computer. You can even make sub-folders of who is in the video or special occasions. There are sites you can upload your videos to and share them privately with family and friends or you can share them on your blog.

• Keep some of his/her artwork in a 3-ring binder with page protectors.  Be sure to label it with the date and how old your child was!

• Get a journal or a notebook.  Have your child draw pictures about their day/week/month/vacation.  Write the details of the picture down so you don’t forget! This is the first picture my son drew of him and his dad—I had him explain it to me, then I labeled all the parts so I wouldn’t forget what the drawing was.

Children

• Have your child write his/her name, draw a self-portrait (or use a picture) and make handprints for one page. You can put this in a scrapbook or a special 3-ring binder. When they were younger I also included a picture, but now their hands are getting too big, so I have them write their name on it instead.

• Keep some of his/her artwork in a 3-ring binder with page protectors.  Be sure to label anything with the date and how old s/he is.

• Write down or record the funny things your child says! You can have a specific journal or computer file for this, or do it on a blog or scrapbook page!

• Get your child a journal or diary and encourage him/her to write in it at least once a month.  You can assign a topic (Write about your favorite pet/color/chore/friend/toy/etc.) or they can choose a topic. Do this together so you both have an excuse to record your lives and spend some quality time together! 

• Measure how tall s/he is.  Mark it on a removable growth chart.  (Door frames are fine too, but you can't take them with you if you move!)  Or you can record it by writing it down or even by pictures.

• Take pictures.  Try to take a picture in the same place every year at the same time (birthday, first day of school, or a specific holiday) to measure growth.  You can even use the stuffed animal from babyhood if you did that!

• If you are a scrapbooker, you can let your child take over his/her pages around the time they can write, cut and glue! Trust me, it’s kind of painful at first to see how “terrible” the layouts turn, but as I’ve let my oldest do this more often, it’s given me the chance to teach him about design skills, math concepts, spelling, handwriting, and writing skills. I’ve come to cherish the pages he has done, because they are all him—even if they’re not as pretty and good as I’d make them. Plus, it’s given me extra time to catch up on other scrapbooking!

Teenagers
If you’ve had a chance to instill the importance of recording your own life to your children, it won’t take much more work as a teenager. But if you haven’t, it’s never too late to start. Most teenagers will have plenty of opportunities in school (especially in English class) to write and record all about themselves. I think the key to helping them realize that it’s not just an assignment, is for you to be a good example to them in this area.   Also, save some of their best work all together in a special place (like a binder).  Some other ideas:

• Show them some of the things you’ve recorded about yourself when you were a teenager.  (A journal, scrapbook, newspaper clippings or your yearbook.)  This may help them realize that you were once young and  they’ll see how fun it will be for their kids to see them this age as well.  If you haven’t yet recorded anything from your teenage years, make a goal to do so. 
• Pick a topic at dinner and have everyone talk about it, then record write what they said.  You can do this as a game or just by casually asking.  Whatever your teenager is up for! 
• Indulge in their wanting to scrapbook or buy them a journal to write in.   Show interest in what they are recording without being too snoopy.  Obviously don’t go find their private journal and read without their permission, but if you see them writing, you could ask what they are writing about in an interested manner.
• Encourage them to participate in the challenges here with you!
• Make a binder to put some of their school writing assignments in (especially non-fiction).  Even if they don’t want to be involved in recording their history, you’ll have some fun stories!  You can always add some simple pictures of them if you don’t scrapbook.

------------------------------
When you take the time to record your child’s life (or help them), you will never be disappointed or feel that you’ve wasted your time. Recording these moments before they are gone is so important, and it is one regret that you have! I guarantee it!

Taking the Steps to Record YOUR History

Why is it important to start recording history with yourself? 
 

Well, if you think about it, you are the only one who really knows the real you. Parents, siblings, friends and your spouse only know parts of your life. Also, if you don’t take the time to record your own history, then it’s up to others to piece together the parts of your life after you’re gone—which may or may not be accurate.  If you’ve ever tried to research your family history, you know how much easier it is to find out information on those ancestors who wrote details in journals, left labeled pictures or certificates, than those who only left a name or not even that!

 

A lot of times we feel we need to start at the beginning and include every little detail of our lives (or our family’s lives), but in the end that can lead to frustration because we don’t always have the best memories.  We are only human after all.  Frustration leads to putting it off until later, which eventually leads to not getting it done, or even more forgetfulness!
 
Here are a few ideas and exercises you can do right now to get started on recording your history! I recommend doing this in a word processing document and writing a basic outline, then as time permits you can go in and add more details, but you can do it any way you’re comfortable with.
 
Step 1: Start with the now. Simply jot down what is going on in your life right now: where you live, marital status, children/grandchildren, your job(s), community/church activities you participate in, etc. 

Step 2: Record major life changes. Note the dates of the important events in your life: birth, graduation(s), church/military service, marriage, birth of children, jobs, moving, etc. These should be things that you know the date of (or at least a month and year).  Try to put everything in chronological order as you write it down.
 
Step 3: Fill in the gaps. After you’ve done the first two steps, you can start to fill in the gaps. Write more about each item you’ve recorded. Talk about your graduation day, or a funny story from your military or church service. Write the details of your wedding day, or your memories of your child’s birth. Really whatever you want to embellish on! And remember, you don’t have to do this all at once either. Pick one thing each day, like your wedding engagement, or a glimpse of your first year of college. Take 10 minutes and write the details!
 
If you are a more hands-on person, here are a couple of fun ways to record your life:
 
Timeline: Grab a large sheet of paper (or tape two together); draw a horizontal line across it. Start on the left and add a small vertical dash, above which you will write “born” and the date. At the other end of the line, write “today” and the date above a small dash. Now you just need to add more small dashes to the line to indicate some of the major events of your life (see step 2 above for ideas). If you’re short on time, just work on it for 5 minutes a day until you’re sure you’ve filled it in. And if you don’t know an exact date, you can just put a year, or “around ___ years old”. You can add as much detail as you want to each dash as well—like, “Born to John and Jane Doe on Jan. 15, 1979 in Austin, Texas”.  (See the “Once Upon a Time” challenge for more details.)
 
Map: Draw a simple map of a place you lived as childhood, a college apartment or campus, or even your current residence or workplace. Don’t forget the outside too! Then add simple notes to the map about memories you have in certain areas. These will be great prompts for stories when you decide to write a more in-depth personal history, and if you don’t get that done, then at least you have something recorded!
Here is an example of a map I drew of the house I lived in until I was 10. I made the house a different color than the map to make it stand out. I also used a different color to write little memories of things I remembered about different things that happened in the different places. The map is not perfect and certainly not to scale, but it’s not really the map that matters, it’s the jogging of memories that matters!  (See the “A Long Time Ago” challenge to see how I used this map.)
 



Pin It So now that you have some ideas of how to record your own history, (see ways to overcome roadblocks here) I challenge you to set aside some time and start recording some information about you!  No excuses now, right? 

Will you share?

I'm looking for four or five awesome people who are willing to share their finished challenges on the blog! (Especially for those who do something other than scrapbook pages, since that's what I mostly do.)
You will get a challenge question 2 weeks ahead of time, and need to have your finished challenge done by the Monday before the challenge comes out.
If this sounds like something you'd like to do, please email me at emils24(at)gmail(dot)com.  I will take the first four or five people who contact me!  (Not sure how long that will take, so email me to see if I have space!)

I'm am loving that so many people are coming here to be inspired to get their histories done! Please keep sharing the "This Is Me Challenge" on your blogs, facebook, twitter, pinterest and all the other ways that I don't know about! Thank you for giving me the motivation and drive to keep doing this! :)

Welcome!

I want to welcome all of you new-comers to the "This is Me Challenge”! I’m so excited that you want to get your personal history recorded! Thank you for giving me a reason to share my ideas on fun and unique ways to do this! 

Here are 5 things you might want to know: 

1. A new challenge is issued every Tuesday. (***Edited: It is now the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month, so I can keep my sanity!) I try to get it posted in the morning (I’m in Utah, so if you are in a time zone before me, you probably won’t see it until later in the day or on Wed.).   You DO NOT have to do all of the challenges in order--if you are a new-comer, I suggest starting at where we are, and then going back to do previous challenges as your time permits.

2. Don’t feel like you need to do exactly what we have done with the challenges. I am a scrapbooker, so most of my challenges are done this way, the team members vary with what they like to do. I am going to try and do some different ways in the future, just to get out of my comfort zone, I encourage you to do the same...just for fun!

3. There are some tabs on the top to help you. I have put a lot of thought into these (and the challenges). I don’t mind if you just copy and paste those things into a document for personal use. If you are copying this off for a group of people, please put a reference to my blog. Please give credit where credit is due!

4. At the bottom of each challenge are two boxes. One to mark if you are going to take the challenge. The other to mark when you have completed it. I am a list person: I like to make lists and cross them off. I hope this will give you a sense of accomplishment. Plus, it helps me to know that I’m not wasting my time.

5. If you like this blog and the idea of it, PLEASE share it with others! I am so excited to share my passion of recording personal history to all who want to get going on theirs too! (Okay, seeing all of you show up here is great too, though numbers are not what’s important.) Post a link on your blog, on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, on your blog list, or by word of mouth!

Thank you all again for taking on this challenge! I hope you’re as excited about it as I am!

This Is Me: Emily

Hi everyone, I’m the creator of the “This Is Me Challenge”.  A little about me:  I am a wife of the greatest guy, and a stay at home mom to 4 adorable little boys who are 6, 4, and 2 year old twins.  (Yes, 4 boys in 4 years…yikes!)  To stay sane, I take small creative breaks from the kiddos.  I love to scrapbook, do photography, craft and I try hard to decorate (thought I’m not very good at it).    I love to do anything with my 5 guys like going to the park, camping, traveling, and even playing “ring around the rosies” on the trampoline. 

I have always had a love for recording my life—I’ve kept a journal since I was 9!  I’ve scrapbooked for 12 years now, and I’m probably a little pushy to my family to get their memories recorded.  I know not everyone likes to scrapbook, so I created this fun blog where you can record your own personal history in your own personal way!  I have the philosophy that it doesn’t matter HOW you record it, as much as it is that you DO record it!  We all have a story to tell!  I know that even as boring and mundane as my life is, my children and grand children will be grateful to know the real me when I’m no longer around! 

If you have any questions or concerns in recording your story, I might be able to help you with it, so please don’t hesitate to email me at emils24@gmail.com.  Thanks for checking out the "This Is Me Challenge”!  I’m glad to have a reason to do this! 

(You can read about the night I got the idea in my head to start this blog here.  If you want to anyway!)

How do YOU want to get the challenge?

I have added a few features to the "This Is Me Challenge" blog. There are now 5 different ways you can get the weekly challenge!

1. Read this blog by typing in the address or bookmarking it.

2. Follow this blog, and get it on Google Reader.

3. Subscribe by email and get it in your inbox.

4. "Like" it on Facebook and view it on your news feed.

5. Subscribe through Feedburner.

You can find the appropriate links on the right sidebar to do the latter 4!

More Helps

I have now added two little boxes at the end of each post. If you accept the challenge, go ahead and check it. When you complete the challenge, then check it again! This will help me know what kind of challenges you like, and how many people are following through!

Also, I encourage you to "like" This Is Me Challenge on facebook (you can just like it over there on the right without going in to FB). When you do, you will get reminders about challenges in your newsfeed!

And lastly, I encourage you to share this blog with your family and friends! I think it would be totally awesome if we could get the whole world to get their personal history recorded!

A new challenge is coming up tomorrow morning, and I'm really excited about this one! :)

To help you out

I added two helps up on top there--bonus challenge questions, for those who need more than one challenge a week, and ideas on how to record your personal history.
Check them out!

Also, there is a facebook page that I will be keeping up to date on the challenges, so if you're more into FB than blogs, I encourage you to like the This is Me Challenge!

The Idea

Have you ever had an idea come to you that you thought, "Wow, I should do something with this"? And then you try to get on with what you're doing, but the idea just won't go away?

Tonight as I was getting ready for bed, I had an idea pop into my head. I kept thinking more and more about it. As I was laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, more ideas came. They just kept coming. And by then, I was wide awake. I figured that I could lay there and try to sleep, or I could at least start on my idea so I could go to sleep later. Maybe.

Why did I come up with my idea?

I am quite fond of personal history. I write in my journal everyday, I scrapbook, I blog, I photograph a lot. I want to get all of this stuff down before I forget it. I don't remember things very well--I have to do this so I can have "memories". (Okay, so I'm not THAT bad, but I do like to remember details and what I've done and accomplished.) I really want my parents and siblings to get their personal histories done, so I've been reflecting on how to help them. I had an idea to put one personal history question a week on our private family blog.

So, onto my new, big idea.

I got thinking that there are so many other people out there who want to do better in their personal history, but don't know where to start or how to do it. This is where this blog comes in. I thought it would be fun to have one topic a week, and issue a challenge to anyone who wants to take that challenge to follow through with it.

I know a lot of people have a hard time getting their personal history done for many reasons: there's not enough time, they don't know how to start or what to write. Also, a lot of people get turned off by the fact that they think they HAVE to write it down. That is soooo not true! I want to make these challenges so that they can be followed through in any medium--writing it in a computer document, hand writing it in a journal, taking a picture or two, making a scrapbook page about it, making a short movie about it (most cameras have movie modes nowadays), blogging about it, writing a poem, a song, or whatever else you can think of! And it doesn't have to be the same thing every week, unless you want it to be! Just as long as you get it recorded SOMEWHERE in SOME WAY!

"This Is Me Challenge" is just the name I came up with, not because it's about ME, but about you, and you call yourself me, right? I'm hoping that through these challenges, we can all tell a little bit more about our stories, and so that others after us will be able to know who we really were!

Stay tuned for the first challenge very shortly. But right now, I'm going to go to bed!