Can you love love? I do.

I just love a good love story. Not the kind in the movies where you can predict the ending or the kind that is so smothering you just want to roll your eyes all the way back in your head. I love the kind that's so genuine that you can feel it to the ends of the earth even if you're not on the receiving end.

That's the kind of love I could feel pouring off the pages of these love letters. They were written in 1957 from the previous owner of our home to his wife while he was training with the United States Army in Fort Sill, Oklahoma for 19 long weeks. He writes to her "God grant that ours shall be a marriage of blissful happiness surpassed by none. With you I have no doubts that this dream of a lifetime can be made a reality." He continues to pour out his heart from there. Line after line, each one more beautiful than the last.

These letters were left up in the attic over the garage since the previous owners had passed and I'm sure no one knew they were there along with many other papers. Yes, forgotten. With the wear of the paper you could see they were once so very treasured. Held close to the heart, perhaps late in the night with tears slowly flowing down. Missing her sweet, thoughtful husband. I image they were carried everywhere and read over and over until practically memorized.

He delights in her sending him cookies and enough to share. Him and the fellows all agree they were delicious although he believes they are the best he ever had. If he doesn't receive a letter from her he blames it on the post carrier. There's no way there would ever be a day when she didn't send a correspondence.

Although times have changed and daily letters adorned with six cent stamps are a thing of the past love like this still exist. Maybe we outta write our own letters to the ones we love from time to time to be discovered in the attic one day very far from now.

I challenge you to write out the words you feel this Valentine's Day to the one you love and let someone else give those Hallmark cards away.

If you are not familiar with the KonMari method of tidying up and organizing I highly recommend picking up one of her books. Her newest book spark joy was just released a couple of days ago and builds nicely on her first book the life-changing magic of tidying up.

After reading her first book last year I was personally inspired to keep only the things that sparked joy in my life. It truly was life changing! I donated a few car loads of items that just weren't providing joy for me and it was a breath of fresh air for me and my family.

I scanned my family's photos years ago and I'm currently paused on going through the rest of my memorabilia {whoops that's a big no no}. I was curious to see what Marie had to say about photos specifically in her new book.

I thought Marie made some great points on narrowing down the amount of photos you keep but finding it heartbreaking to see a photo go just because you didn't look your absolute best. I love the idea of putting an album together with a limited number of photos to have handy to look at but shed a tear to think the rest of the moments will end up in a paper bag sprinkled with a tiny bit of cleansing salt and let's face it in the city dump. 

That's why I believe in scanning your photos, keep them digital. It's the perfect solution. The middle ground. Her tips on putting them in order are spot on and when they are scanned you can have them in digital folders by year keeping you organized. Once they are digital you can stream them to your TV and watch the slideshow as a movie night or just have it playing in the background to catch your eye now and then. A beautiful solution to your precious memories that you may forget if you didn't have those tiny photos as reminders. 

Receive 20% off your photo scanning order with discount code KONMARI click here to get started.

Fascinating isn't it? All those tiny little pieces that go into making a Canon Powershoot camera. It takes 39 screws to hold it all together too. Did you know that? I sure didn't until it was all disassembled and laid out in a perfect line under all the other parts. 

There is so much technology that goes into that "simple" camera that captures all of our memories so we can hold them near and dear to our hearts. Good thing I capture my memories on my iPhone now because I don't think we're going to be able to get this camera back together anytime soon.

A friendly reminder to back up your digital photos today.