It took me a long time to make my time line also. What worked for me was drawing on where we were living, what grade I was in, etc. Then I sat down with a paper and figured out what ages I was at house A then b... I also did the same thing with my age at birthday each year. Then I was able to mesh things together into a time line. All of the info I used to establish the age and year didnt necessarily have to do with bad things. It was just a guide to establish age and time. Then I was able to plug in the memories that we needed to talk about

Good Luck