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1. July is Anti-Boredom Month - Have you heard the words, "I'm bored," already this summer? I am always surprised that a child who so vehemently protests going to school also vehemently protests having unstructured time on his hands. Most amazing, even after what I consider an exciting weekend (going to Wales and riding horses along the coast then paintballing with his dad), my son still protests on the car trip home, "I'm so bored. I'm not getting to do anything fun!" ARRRGGGG!

• Photo Idea - Snap a shot of those glum faces protesting terminal boredom.
• Journaling Idea - Do you remember being bored over summer vacation? What did you do to fill the long summer days? I recall reading tons of books because we had so few television channels. I made fairy houses under the roots of trees, an activity that gave me great creative outlet.
• Page Idea - Make a page title that announces, "I'm So Bored." Add the sullen photos. List possible activities that have been rejected. (I said, "How about going swimming? Inviting over a friend? Starting your new book? Painting your models?" No, no, no, and NO THANKS. Lordy, I'm such an idiot. How could I possibly have suggested such STUPID things to do?)

2. And July is also Ice Cream Month, and July 23 is the official birthday of the ice cream cone.  We once lived near an ice cream parlor that offered "doggy" ice cream. The cup of ice cream came with a small bone-shapped dog biscuit plopped right in the center. Needless to say, our entire family loved going out for ice cream on hot summer nights.

• Photo Idea - What are your family's favorite ice cream treats? In St. Louis, we visit Ted Drewes and I chow down on TiraMizzou, Ted's version of tiramisu in ice cream form. (Mizzou is a nickname for Missouri University.) My husband loves banana splits, and my son likes his ice cream with a hard chocolate shell. Be sure to take a photo of your family members tackling the drip problem.
• Journaling Idea - Create a list of your favorite places to buy ice cream. Do you have just one haunt? Or do you visit several spots? Do you go alone or do you go with other families? Is there a special time/activity that you always celebrate with ice cream? We always met at a local drive-in ice cream shop after my son's baseball games. How about you?
• Page Idea - Add a touch of history to your ice cream page. The ice cream cone was born in 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri, when Charles E. Minches filled a pastry cone with two scoops of ice cream. The next year, the ice cream cone was introduced to the public at the St. Louis World's Fair.

3. July is National Recreation and Parks Month. What a super time to visit a National Park.

• Photo Idea - Take a picture of your family enjoying a local National Park. Be sure to include photos of the park signage. Often the signage is a perfect way to "locate" your photos without adding extra work and while keeping with the theme of your page. Photos of signage are also useful for giving you great information you can use in your journaling. Hey, it's faster to push a button on the camera than it is to copy done all the verbiage.
• Journaling Idea - George Catlin could rightly be called the creator of our national parks because it was he who worried about the impact of America's westward expansion on Indian civilization, wildlife, and wilderness. They might be preserved, he wrote, "by some great protecting policy of government... in a magnificent park.... A nation's park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty!" Later, the idea of adding "living history" programs brought the past alive for future generations. Today there are 379 areas designated as part of the national park system.
• Page Idea - Why not start a list of all the national parks your family has visited? Or use a map to mark your visits? If you have the chance, encourage a family member to participate in a "living history" moment. Seeing your child or husband struggle to churn butter is a memory worth preserving!

Hip Tip:

Keep your memorabilia in zipper closing plastic bags. I group all memorabilia by subject, with such groupings as paintballing, visit to Victoria and Albert Museum, country walk, and garden. Before stuff goes into the baggie, I pare it down to essentials. In other words, I won't put in the entire brochure from a hotel, but I will cut out the photos of the room or the pool or whatever. Often the memorabilia stuff doesn't make it onto the scrapbook page, but it does help me in my journaling or color selection for a page.

--Joanna

Joanna's new book Adventures in Journaling is available in stores now! Look for it at your local scrapbook retailer or at my-memories.net.