This week is flying by mostly because I spent the first two days resting in bed. Amazing how a bad cold can really wipe you out when you can't take anything much stronger than Mucinex D. The good news is I'm feeling much better.
Here is Week 1 of 2012. There was so much to include but I realized when photographing I was really focused on daily life as opposed to the start of the year.
This year I really want to focus more on the story of Us and my journaling really took on more of that tone this week instead of just what we were doing.
Garrett, my oldest, is doing his own Project Life this year and already this week I've stolen some of his pictures. The football shot is one of his.
I used Ali Edwards 6x12 layered template to include a post I wrote about Owen this week. I already had the picture printed so I used the template for the journaling and hid the picture layer when I printed on cardstock. All I had to do was adhere the picture. This made it so easy!!
I really love having a place for the bits of school that come home. I am certain that without Project Life these report cards would be living in a box in a closet. I like that including them in the week will give them extra context in the years to come.
Because the boys spend time looking at the albums I try to find creative ways to tuck away journaling that is a little more adult or better read by Garrett as he is older. I certainly don't want these albums to gloss over real life. However at the same time I don't think absolutely everything is appropriate for a 7 year old audience.
Here I tucked away just a bit of journaling about Garrett's success and struggle at school in one of the folded cards.
The upper right hand corner is another picture that Garrett took. When we first downloaded his pictures from Week 1 I was overjoyed by the amount of self portraits he took. I wish I had half of his self confidence.
Again, lots of journaling. I really want my written voice to be included this year as much as my photographic one. There are so many stories that don't have any associated picture.
A couple of thoughts at this point. We are now living Week 4 and I just finished Week 1 last Sunday. Week 2 is on my desk and I have not printed my pictures for Week 3. However, I have spent a good bit of my time on Project Life so far this year. This tells me that I'm spending too much time sharing about Project Life than doing.
I've decided to cut back my scheduled posting about Project Life to once a week likely on Thursdays. Twice a week is proving to be too much for me. Sometimes the posts will be a Behind the Scenes look and other weeks it will be a Weekly Share.
This means that I will likely not be sharing all 52 of my weeks on the blog. This may disappoint some but I'm choosing to spend the extra time it takes to photograph, edit and post the pictures working on my album instead.
I shared yesterday that my word for 2012 is intention and that focus really has me evaluating how I spend my time dedicated to Project Life. Talking to my husband earlier this week, about why it is so important for me to be dedicated to this project even though we are about to get crazy busy with Travis' arrival, it hit me that the part of Project Life I love the most is not the end result.
Yes, I know with time these albums will grow in value. Yes, I love that the boys adore looking at the albums right now. But what I love most is that this intentional observation of my life, immersing myself in the minutiae of today opens my eyes and my heart to the experience of life.
I am no longer just going through the motions. This awareness of life around me allows me to see, while I'm picking up toys and paper and colors that are scattered about the house, that at the end of every book Garrett writes (a lot of animal books these days with illustrations) he says "Thank You". How sweet is that?
I fully realize in 5 years I will not remember this tiny detail of life. But I lived it this week and captured it and will be reminded of it in 5, 10, 15 years time.
This quote shared by Ali Edwards says it beautifully.
See you next week with more Project Life.
Monica
Posts
5 comments:
Hi Monica,
Love your pages & all the little tidbits about life you shared. How fun it will be to look back and remember that your kids started saying those things & those times. That's one of the things I'm loving about PL.
I also used the 6x12 protectors & Ali's journal template to document a blog post I wrote about last week. It was a big part of my week and I'm glad that I now have it documented.
I look forward to seeing your future pages!
Hi Monica -
First of all, I love your Project Life posts and love that little G has one of his own.
Secondly, thank you for the encouragement regarding my torn ACL. I, too injured it playing soccer, and it is great to know that others have gone through the same thing with a positive outcome. Give a High 5 to Mitch for running that 10 minute mile. I plan to be there as soon as a can!
Im loving your pages. But I do understand about not posting everything. I've only just started putting PL pages on my blog, and since then I haven't had time to blog anything else! It's tough. But I do look forward to whatever you are able to share!
I have the same Holstee poster!! I love it so much, it is so inspirational. I just hung it up last week. Love it.
Great job with week 1! Your pages have so many wonderful photos and I love that you journal so much about what's going on with all of you. I wish I had this when my boys were little like this.
Post a Comment