David had the rare opportunity to drop the kids off at school this morning. After dropping them off he called me and said, “Quick. Write this down. Claire just said …” and he quoted her, exactly the way she said it.

PS – My favorite pens for memory-keeping are for sure American Crafts’ Precision Pens.

David is totally catching on to something that I am personally working on and trying to be better about. And that is to write down those quick quotes, anecdotal stories, and other things that seem to come and go so quickly.

I do not have the best memory.

I honestly believe that this is part of what I love so much about memory-keeping is that if I didn’t photograph and write and record? I know I would forget so many important things. Especially when it comes to our kids and what they say. If I could see actual quotes of what I said as a little girl, and how I worded things … and things that David said – and our parents said – when they were kids? I would love that. So I’m really trying to be better about jotting down notes like this as they happen.

My secret to success in this effort?

The 3×4 Journaling Cards. For real. I keep a box of these in my purse, right along with my iPhone and sunglasses and wallet. Because when those moments happen, I can now be just as quick to write something down as I am to take a quick picture on my iPhone.

You’ll notice my little box is a bit worn from being tossed around so much, and a little empty from being utilized.

Why I love these cards:

1. Horizontal. Vertical. Whatever I want it to be.

2. Double-sided in case I have more to say on the back.

3. The grid is completely versatile in style. I leave most of them plain-jane but sometimes I’ll add a simple strip of patterned paper on one side for some color.

4. The 3×4 size is cute and small and not overwhelming to “fill” at all.

5. I drop the cards directly into the 3×4 pockets that most of our Photo Pocket Pages have.

6. I’m a better documenter because I’m capturing slices here and there without any effort at all.

7. I have felt way less guilty. Come on, Moms. You know what I’m talking about. How many times have your kids said something and you’ve thought, I have to write that down. And then you don’t. Me? Oh, just about 378,019 times so far.     … But I’m so changing that.

The beauty is that you can stick notes in your son’s lunch or your husband’s brief case or on your daughter’s mirror. And then eventually the note can end up in the scrapbook because it’s already on the card that will go directly into a 3×4 pocket.

Plus, your kids can write on these cards and tell their own stories without feeling like they have to say a whole lot. In fact, I encourage others to share these cards with the whole family. Let them write and doodle and color and scribble and do whatever they want with these. You’ll magically have a collection of bits and pieces of their personality! Heck. At $3.99 for a box of 100, why not give each family member a box of cards and have them do whatever they want with their cards, right?

Around here the little Journaling Cards are becoming a family thing. Nothing real creative. Just using them for simple slices of everyday life – just like taking snapshots with a camera.

What are YOU doing with the Journaling Cards? We’d love to see – and potentially share – your ideas! Email submissions@beckyhiggins.com.

Side note: Most of you know that our family albums are in the form of a Shutterfly photo book, which I discuss briefly at the very beginning of my “Getting Organized with Kids’ Stuff” video. You can certainly implement scanned art or scanned cards or scanned anything into digital pages or photo books, just as easily as adding digital photos. For the cards we write on in our family, those are primarily for the kids’ individual scrapbooks, which I discuss in great detail in that same video.