Wow - and here we are a week later. It's been a busy and hot week and I haven't done much of anything except for play outside - at the pool, at the lake, at friends... I did get a chance to do some scrapping over the past couple of days, though, giving me a chance to continue to document my process.
While photos are a big part of my process, I don't care to put together scrapbook pages that are just fancy homes for them. I want to tell stories. My favorite pages are those that communicate details about our lives that I want to remember.
I have several things that help me in my planning process by helping me to pre-plan and take notes on our lives: my Log Your Memory book and my mini-notebooks.
Log Your Memory
I use my Log Your Memory book like a planner. I jot down during (or at the end) of the day what we did that day and then any specific notes about the day. This is a great place for me to jot kid milestones or notes (Little Man got a tooth, took a step, tried a new food or Madtown said something special or tried something new like going down the slide at the pool) or other just things that are on my mind (how much I enjoyed the play at the Guthrie Friday night or that Ryan and I have become slightly addicted to Mario Kart). I also update the main calendar to give an idea of what we have planned or do at a glance.
This book is priceless to me. It enables me to quickly note things in a centralized spot - no forgetting exactly what day Little Man took his first steps. I can refer back to these notes as I pull together journaling for pages later on. I also get ideas for what I want to document by reviewing what I have written, sometimes finding recurring themes that are inspirational to me. Lastly, when I pull together my month in review pages for our family album, I can easily go back and detail what we have done without having to strain my memory.
Mini Notebooks
My Log Your Memory book is big, though. I like to carry it with me when I can, but my bag gets so heavy - especially if I have my camera as well, so I started carrying little notebooks. I found this great set of three on clearance at Target one afternoon and they are now a constant companion. They are labeled - Journaling Ideas, Layout Ideas and Musings. I am not strict about what I put in each - they are just a place to make notes while on the go. I may have an idea for a layout I want to do, or see something that inspires a sketch, or a journaling prompt or just something Madtown said as we are in the car (a treasure trove of funny quotes comes from here).
My Blog
Of course, I also document stories in my blog. This is also a great source for me in terms of what I want to document. I often will copy and paste my blog post word for word onto a page, such as I did with this page from this post.
