Qeepsake for FAMILY HISTORY in a Crazy-busy Life

If you haven't noticed yet, I LOVE finding out about new technology in general, but finding new apps that make my life easier is the best kind!! SO the tool I bring to you today is Qeepsake-----

Qeepsake is an app my sister introduced me to a few months ago and I immediately fell in love. It was built to be a modern day baby book, but I've found that it can do much more than that.  All you have to do is signup and set up your account to get things rolling. They have a free version or subscription versions.  The free version is totally adequate, but of course I've found myself on the paid plan because some things are just simply worth every penny, this one definitely is!!

What problems does it solve?

• Documenting important events in your kids' lives;
• Tracking milestones;
• Capturing the cute things your kids say;
• Journaling to let your kids know how you feel about them.
• Asking the question you wouldn't have thought to ask.
• Providing great opportunities to connect with your kids and get to know them better.

So here are the steps:

Visit Qeepsake's site.

Create an account.

Go ahead and try the free trial version. At this point, I totally recommend getting the app on your phone just to have quick access always.

Add your kids' individual journals by indicating name and age.

Then . . . voila! You'll start receiving daily texts or push notifications (you can adjust this in settings). The text will ask you a question about one of your kids, you respond via text to the question and Qeepsake will save the question with response, tagged with that child's name. It's saved into a searchable, printable database. On a subscription plan you can even add a photo to the text that will also attach and be saved.

And DONE!!! You're saving your family's history one day at a time!

My favorite features?

• Texting Notifications: Let's face it, unless something pops up as a notification in our lives these days, it just simply doesn't happen.  That said, even notifications for me get swiped away often without much thought. That's why the texting option to me is so genius. I'm really good at responding to text messages almost always immediately, but if I can't immediately, I start a reply so that that text shows up as a draft and I know that I need to address it later.  So when I get a simple question that most of the time I can answer right away--I do--it's that simple. I can add a photo if I have an extra second and my kids' lives are ACTUALLY being documented--and not just by thousands of photos. Call me crazy but I think the next generation is going to have endless photos so the true treasures will be the stories and specific memories saved by individuals that will be their treasures, bringing us all back to life, much like our old time photos of our great grandparents do for us today.
• Relationship Building Opportunities: I can't tell you how much I LOVE this part of Qeepsake. I have found that on varying occasions since using this app I'm given a question that I just don't know the answer to, I could just ignore or it, but a great thing about Qeepsake is that it will let me come back and complete answers later under the "missed questions" tab.  So when I find myself with a few spare minutes with one of my kids I start to ask them the answers to the questions that I wan't able to answer.  I've found that much like StoryWorth does with my parents and grandparents, Qeepsake is opening doors for me to learn things about my kids I never would have thought to ask.  Treasure!
• SUPER simple and EASY to use: From the moment I heard about it to having it up and running was literally just a couple of minutes.  Qeepsake has such a simple interface I truly believe anyone who can text can figure this app out. I love how simple the concept is yet so incredibly powerful.
• Social Media Integration: Last but not least of my faves is the fact that I can integrate it with Facebook or Instagram. This means that if I write a post on either of those and add the #qeepsake to that post it will AUTOMATICALLY log that post onto my journals. WHAT?!!? No copy and pasting, or for that matter even remembering to copy and paste--it will just do it all for me. This alone makes it a big hit for my #CrazyBusyHelps list.

Now if I can just get the folks at Qeepsake to just take a web meeting with me so I can share with them some of the crazy awesome ideas that have been bursting ever since I started using this app. The possibilities are endless!! 

Happy journaling!

#CrazyBusyHelps