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From Other Guides • Journaling for Scrapbooks

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1) United Nations Day, October 24 -- How appropriate that this month we can take time to appreciate our friends from all over the world. Please make a special effort to reach out to Muslim friends and neighbors who may be feeling shunned or stigmatized.

• Page Idea -- What is your family's country of origin? Journal about the reasons your family settled (if they did) in a new country. What traditions, foods and customs from "the Old Country" do you still maintain?

• Journaling Idea -- Ask a friend from another country to tell you about her/his homeland. Ask your friend to teach you a recipe from that other country. Be sure to journal his/her memories about this food. My new neighbor here in England is Irish and Maltese. Lesley has promised to teach me to make a Mediterranean dish of pork and olives. (Malta is a group of islands south of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. All I'd ever heard of Malta was that it had given its name to the movie, The Maltese Falcon. Gosh, I'm getting a huge education!)

• Journaling and Page Idea -- Did people of different cultures found your city or your neighborhood? If so, why did they come to your country? What symbols and traditions did they bring with them? Do the street names or styles of housing reflect their homeland?

• Journaling Idea -- I don't have one in front of me, but many hymnals include a beautiful song called Finlandia. The lyrics recognized the beauty of all nations. It would make wonderful journaling for an international page.
• Life Idea -- Invite an exchange student from a local educational institution to dinner!

2) Fave Raves-My son has fallen head over heels with a video called Starlight. I must admit, the story of a songwriter who finds fame with an interplanetary species is intriguing. What's currently "hot" in your house?

• Journaling Idea -- Note a favorite song, video, book, movie, food, fad, color, symbol, activity, word or phrase, sports team, hobby, restaurant, celebrity or television program. While we lived temporarily in an apartment, my son became enthralled by a television show about emergency veterinarians. Couldn't peel him away from the tube!

• Where does your child do his/her work? 
• Include a sample of the work. 
• List classes and teachers. 
• Take a photo of your kid's backpack and/or locker. 
• Was it easy or hard for your child to master the combination lock? 
• Include a sample lunch menu. 
• Include a class schedule.

4) That Spooks Me! -- Have you taken the time to explore local legends about ghosts or their haunts? Summer before last we took a guided ghost walk through Charleston, South Carolina. The guide brought history and hysteria to life. We loved it! This year, my U.K. girlfriends and I are planning to go on the Jack the Ripper historical walk in downtown London in advance of Halloween. (The guided walks always end at a local pub for a cheery warm cup of tea or something stronger.)

• Journaling Idea -- What are your local legends? Do they have any basis in fact?
• Page Idea -- Take a photo of the local place of interest. You might even have your family ghouls line up for their photo there.