A couple of months ago, I was waiting in line to check out something at my local church’s library when I took the opportunity to glance over the table with the growing pile of lost-and-found items. I wasn’t missing anything, but you know, sometimes you don’t know that you are missing something until you see it in the lost-and-found pile. Well, this time, there wasn’t anything I recognized as belonging to me or my family. BUT… a stack of papers caught my attention. The papers were fill-in templates, formatted like a newsletter, where children could write something nice about their mothers. Undoubtedly a leftover from a great lesson taught around Mothers-Day. It gave me an idea. I ran the idea by my local government (=wife), got the required approval and presented it during family night.

[The link to the video in the Rememberized Newsletter image is not going to the actual video, sorry. ]

Family Night 1:

We picked our Rememberize project: Grandma and her pancakes.  We jotted down the tasks and assignments that would need to be done:

• Scan Grandma’s handwritten recipe – Dad
• Contact all the extended family and ask for their favorite topping-  Mom – her brothers and their families, Dad – our immediate family, Victoria – her cousins
• Victoria and some cousins to meet at Grandma’s during the long Martin-Luther-King-weekend to make pancakes with her and to video record it  – Victoria
• Write a paragraph or two about why we think Grandma’s pancakes are worth rememberizing – Victoria
• Review our progress at next week’s family night

Family Night 2:

At our next family night we reviewed our progress. Dad presented a first draft of the REMEMBERIZED template, which was good (as usual),  but could use some improvements (as always). The updated list of tasks and assignments were:

• The scanned copy of Grandma’s handwritten recipe is too hard to read when it’s shrunk, better type it up – Dad
• We only have 6  responses to the favorite toppings survey so far – everybody get on their phone right now and contact their people
• Cousin’s were all gone or busy during the long weekend – let’s invite ourselves to Grandma’s next week –  Dad to shoot the video with his phone and Victoria to make the pancakes with Grandma
• Paragraph still needs to be written – Victoria
• Update Rememberized draft – Dad

Family Night 3:

We went over to Grandma’s and had a blast shooting the video. Grandma is such a ham when you put her in front of a camera.  Outstanding tasks:

• Edit Video – Dad , using Pinnacle Video Editor (Windows) software
• Write paragraph – Victoria
• Finish the Rememberized doc  – Dad

Family Night 4:

Everything was submitted and Dad put everything into a good looking Word document – including a MoreAboutMe.org link to the video – now what?

• Mail  a copy to our extended family, along with some personal greetings – mostly Mom (our designated family communications specialist)
• Rest from our labors, enjoy our first Rememberized document, and mentally prepare for the next Rememberized project
• Note for next time – turn the camera sideways when recording a video and record at 1080 (=FHD) not 720 (=HD) resolution (Yup, that’s my secret to being so wise. I make a lot of mistakes and try to learn from some of them 🙂 )