I just had to take a moment to share a fantastic discovery I made today. My parents (who are in their mid-70s) are finally retiring, and have decided to sell their house, buy an rv, and travel. As the only daughter, it’s now my responsibility to keep all the family photo albums and heirlooms that have been passed down.

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This afternoon I began sorting through some of the items from my maternal grandparents. It has been an amazing experience. Apparently they both believed in documenting life, and they saved every postcard, letter, diary, and so on that they ever wrote or received. Going through some of their items today has been a trip back in time! I know how important the idea of documenting our life story is, and I just wanted to share that I apparently come from a long line of “Project Life”-ers, even if they didn’t have the materials back then to archive stuff properly. How wonderful it has been today to share all this rich history with my own children! How much more poignant because I never met my maternal grandfather (he died many years before I was born), but in his mementos today I have felt him very near to me.

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I wanted to share a few of the things I’ve come across today. I’ve attached a photo collage that includes (clockwise from top left): all the bills/receipts for the building of my grandparents’ farmhouse, two tickets to a 1920 dance, a receipt for $20 for payment of the doctor’s fee for delivering my mother (at home on the farm), a giant wallet containing all my grandfather’s crop locations for each year (he meticulously drew each year’s crops out on paper and listed how many bushels he got of each), my grandfather’s driver’s license from 1941, a grocery list, and my mother’s and grandmother’s war ration books from WWII. I also found post cards and Valentines my grandmother received (from 1909-1930), my grandfather’s war registration cards for WWI and WWII, and even the straight razor he used to shave with (still in its original case)! All in all, this has been an unbelievable adventure today.

As I’ve looked through all this priceless documentation, I am almost transported back in time to the early 1900s. And I am once again mindful of just how important Project Life is. Documenting everything, including the mundane everyday things that we don’t think are important (like grocery lists), will one day paint a picture of us for the generations to come. How awesome. So thanks for being such a big supporter of all of us who believe in documenting our life story. You rock!

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My name is Sabrina Pobst, and I live in Oran, Missouri. And I love Project Life and what it has done for me. Amen.  : )