A Week in the Life: Tuesday Recap

Well, I’m on day 2 of my project, and I have to say, I’m loving how it’s turning out! Obviously, today, I’ve reached the fourth day of the project’s photos and notes, but the second day of the album is finally finished. Wanna see?

Day two meant that I was really in the groove of trying to get photos, and it also meant that I considered my photos of the day before and tried to capture the moments that I missed. In some ways, Tuesdays are so drastically different than our Mondays, because they’ve got appointments and practices, but at the same time, many of the vital parts of our routine– like lunch, dinner, and bedtime– remain very similar to the day prior, so I wanted to be sure I was photographing the parts of Tuesday that were unique from Mondays… while still showing that our life is really similar from day-to-day.

I also really struggled this week with how to feature the people in our lives in the book. Zach and I have our own routines within the greater family routine of Grandma and Grandpa, and Uncle Jeffrey. Since I don’t go to practice with Jeffrey and I’m not a part of those things, I wasn’t able to fully integrate those into the album. It meant I was putting a lot focus on Zach and I. I also realized that I need to keep track of photos of myself, too. It’s so tempting to stay behind the camera this week, capture what everyone else is doing… but I also realize that my intention with this album all along has been that Zach will look back on it someday. If something happens to me, I’d like him to see me in this album, silly faces and all, no makeup, sweatpants, the way that I actually am.

That meant no dressing up. If Zach doesn’t want to wear pants, he doesn’t… just like any other day that we’re not going anywhere. If I was wearing my sweatpants instead of jeans, then so be it… just like any other day we’re not going anywhere. I knew that this album had to be about real life, which meant that some of those less-flattering details had to be involved (although, I at least tried to pick the most flattering photos possible of myself– I mean, wouldn’t you?)

Are you doing AWITL? Feel free to comment below with your pages or pictures so far!

A Week in the Life

I’ve been scrapbooking for a long time, and if you recall, my one little word for this year is Capture. So, to me, it seemed a natural fit that I’d want to spend more time scrapbooking the photos I’ve been taking on Instagram and with my camera, and remember every detail of the year that I can.

Because of this, I have invested time on a Summer album, a Vacation Instagram album, and even just random layouts that capture Zach and I’s life together.

Now, if you’re a part of the online scrapbooking community, you may have heard some extra buzz this week, as yesterday was Day 1 of Ali Edward’s A Week In the Life project! The aim is to capture those every day moments– everything from laundry to family dinner and anything that happens in between, whether it is exciting or a bit standard in your life.

The project isn’t anything new, but I’ve ended up skipping it year after year. However, I’m just coming off of the high of receiving my completed summer album, and I’m realizing so quickly how important it is to keep these memories documented. It helps that one thing Zach enjoys most is looking through our summer albums. I love that he gets such joy from remembering the ways he spent his summer.

The idea is that Zach and I will be able to look back on this album 1, 5, 10 years from now and remember what life was like at this time… and, over a period of years, over a period of AWITL albums, we’ll be able to compare how life has changed from year to year and see what is different about how we eat, what we watch, what we love to do, and how we look.

To do AWITL, though, I needed a plan.

First, I started with an album idea. I knew I wanted my album to be the same size as my other albums– a 6×6 mini album from ArtsCow. Why? Because it’s affordable, and the quality is good. I also love a mini album for a few other reasons. With it being small, it’s portable, so Zach can carry it around with him and manage the pages himself. It also doesn’t take up a ton of space on the shelf, so I can put multiple books side-by-side atop my bookshelf. It’s exactly what I want for taking a quick peek at my pages!

Then, I needed to decide on the design of my album. Why did I want to decide my album before the project started? Because I wanted to ensure I was taking plenty of photos! Because I love the clean, photo-loving style that Nettio Designs creates, I decided that using her newest LifeCaptured album would be perfect. The only hiccup? She’s created it in an 8×10 size. However, with a little creative playing around in photoshop, I adjusted those photo-loving templates to a square size to fit my needs. It brilliantly captures her style that I love so much, while making it my own and allowing me to print in the size I need.

Finally, I needed to have a plan on keeping track of my notes and photos. Ideally, I’d be able to do my pages every day, making sure to capture, document, and finish the pages as soon as the day was through. However, I also knew, realistically, that I may not be able to complete my pages every single day. I decided the best option was to find a way to take notes as I go, to be sure that I have the memories written down in case it took me days (or even weeks) to finish my album. So, I decided to use the free Evernote App on my phone to keep track of the times that we would do things, especially trying to make them coincide with the photos I was snapping. This helped me make sure I was documenting a variety of things rather than documenting the same photos day after day. It also helped me make sure I was capturing the entire day’s events overall.

Once I had those things all figured out, it was time to get started.

Now, if you’re thinking “AWITL started yesterday, and it’s already night of day 2, so I’m late… maybe I just won’t start…” I’m going to tell you to hush, stop those silly thoughts, and DO THE PROJECT! AWITL doesn’t have hard and fast rules. Nothing says you have to do it when Ali, or I, or anyone else does it. You can start tomorrow and run it for 7 days following. You can wait until next Monday. You can do it 3 weeks from now. Just pick any week that symbolizes a typical week in your life, and document it.

Perhaps you’re thinking “I don’t have any scrapbooking skills, so I can’t!” Yes, you can. Whether you’re a scrapbooker or not, you can do it. Pick up a photo album at the store, snap pictures throughout the week and write down notes on note cards. Slip your notes and printed photos side-by-side, and you’ve documented your week in the life. Not into paper scrapbooking? Try your hand at digital, like I’m doing. Do what works for you, and capture your life the way that is less stressful for you.

And maybe you’re saying “I lead a boring life! Why capture it?” Because the every day memories matter. Because not every scrapbook you have should be about vacations or birthdays, Christmas and other thrilling events. What do you think your kids will treasure more 10 years down the road? 20? Because I think that if it were me, I’d value a memory of those little events that made life so special, even if it wasn’t a special day like Christmas.

I promise, it’s worth the time. It’s worth the energy. It’s just one week out of your busy year focused on capturing what life is like for you. So consider it.

One Little Word 2013: Capture

A lot of you who were following my blog last year probably remember that I chose a One Little Word last year, inspired by the craze created by Ali Edwards. My 2012 word was Growth, and I feel like, in so many ways, I really did grow a lot in the past year.

I grew with my blog, taking it on as a full-time career and getting featured by Duncan Hines, Jell-O, International Delight, Citrus Lane, and several other brands. I ended up getting over 12,000 new visitors last year alone, and had many people visiting from around the world- 93 countries in all.

I grew with my baking, inventing over 100 new recipes over the past year, and even getting invited to the Duncan Hines test kitchen as a Frosting Creations winner.

I grew as an educator, getting into the swing of where I fit in in terms of homeschooling, and discovering the right curriculum for Zach.

I grew as a mom, figuring out how to create a better routine for Zach, meeting his needs better, and learning how to figure things out.

I grew as a photographer, finding my niche in terms of style, and figuring out exactly how I wanted my photos to look. I also learned how to do better post-processing to make my photographs look as brilliant as possible. I even had a company email me and tell me that my photos were “the most professional in-action shots of their product they’ve ever seen.” Hello, awesome.

I’m not saying any of this to brag. I’m saying that, by focusing on the word “growth,” and focusing on the areas in which I wanted to grow in 2012, I ended up achieving so many of my goals, finding new ones I hadn’t thought to plan for in January of last year, and really, truly, embracing my word with gusto.

And that’s why, this year, I’ve decided to choose a One Little Word once again. This year, my word is…

 

Capture.

(From Unglued, by Lisa Terkeurst)

I want to better capture life. Even with my blog, and even with my improved photography skills, I felt like I failed to capture the day-to-day life that we lived. I captured the big things, yes, but so many little things, like the way Zach’s hair stuck up into a unicorn horn one morning when he woke up, and the day that Zach finally understood the sign language for “all done” were lost to history.

This year, I’m really embracing the idea of capturing. I purchased a smart phone recently (yay! I’ve reached the 21st century!) and got instagram (follow me! @jengerbread88).

I want to photograph more, post more, share more, and remember more.

I’m also trying to do Project Life, a project initially created by Becky Higgins and adapted by hundreds of thousands of scrapbookers, in formats like paper, hybrid, and digital. The concept of Project Life is that you take a few photos a week, put them in an album, and include relevant journaling to capture the every day life of your family. You don’t have to take a photo every day, and you certainly don’t have to work on the project every day.

I can’t guarantee that I’ll make it through the entire year. In January, I start out with a lot of things, feeling very gung-ho, and end the year without it. But this year, I’m looking at it as, every week I DO actually complete is just one more week captured and that’s what my goal is all about anyway.

So here’s to focusing on capturing more than ever in 2013.

Do you have a One Little Word for 2013? What are you planning to focus on over the next year?

Take A Silly Picture

These pictures are old. I mean old old. Like, last spring old.

I was going through images that I needed to edit and get moved over to my external hard drive when I found these. They’re adorable, and I distinctly remember that Zach had just woken from a nap about 20 minutes before I took them. Echo jumped up on the bed in order to get some lovin’s from me, and Zach picked up his books. He looked at Echo, patted his butt as if to say “sit,” and started to read his books to Echo.

It was arguably one of the cutest moments I’ve witnessed in my entire life. I couldn’t resist snapping several photos since my camera was right there.

But, since children move and dogs move and I was just snapping away on auto mode, my pictures just weren’t that great. They weren’t lit perfectly, they were a bit blurry, and they just weren’t…. perfect.

I have this habit when I photograph things. I’ll snap about 400 photos of something, and then I’ll open them up and really look at them. I may adjust the lighting, I may tweak them, and I’ll go through and delete every photo that just doesn’t… work. If there’s a blurry patch, it’s gone. If there’s poor lighting, it’s gone.

As I’ve worked on this blog, I’ve tried to improve my photography enough that you can see what I’m doing with the food I’m making or the activity we’re working on in school, or whatever I happen to be blogging about.

The problem is that sometimes this professional side of me bleeds over into my personal life so much that sometimes I’ll ignore a set of photos that are cute, but not perfect. I overlook the fact that with a few minor tweaks and the memory intact, it doesn’t matter if these photos are perfect. It just matters that I’ve captured some sort of memory there.

These photos serve that purpose.

They’re blurry. They’re not perfect. There is no way that I can go back to that day, recreate that scene, shoot the photos again.

I have to live with the photos I got, and honestly, at second glance, they turned out really adorably. I notice that the blur really shows the pace Echo and Zach are moving at. It shows the scene, even if the pictures didn’t turn out perfectly, professionally, well-lit, evenly cropped, nicely framed.

They capture the spirit of my boys, and that’s enough for me.

So here’s what I want to challenge you to do.

Grab a camera. Take a silly photo. Take 10 silly photos. Take pictures of your son, your daughter, your grandchildren, your pet, your husband or wife, your brothers or sisters, your parents, yourself… whoever you want. But capture that memory. Take a bunch of photos. Throw perfection out the window– focus on the memory. If it’s blurry, it’s blurry. If it’s poorly lit, it’s poorly lit. If you get a perfect shot, even better. But focus on getting that memory, if nothing else.

I’d love it if you’d come back and share with me the shot you took, and any story behind the photo. I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with.