I cannot tell you how much I am already enjoying this project. It took me these first three weeks to really decide what my process was and how I wanted to piece it all together, but I now have a system that works for me and I am thrilled with how well I am documenting our every day lives with this album.
A Photo a Day (or not)
I am trying to take at least one photo a day.
For me, this isn't a difficult thing. I am pretty obsessive about my photo taking. However, it is also noteworthy that I am a working mom. There is a big chunk of my day where I am not with my family, and, let's be honest - as much as I LOVE my job, I certainly can't find a lot picture worthy at my office. So, especially as our weekday morning and evening routine doesn't vary much, I need to be a little creative with my photographic subjects.
Of course, there is the kids and our interaction with them.
There is also the art projects that come home.
And the WONDERFUL dinners my sweet husband makes us each night (he is an awesome cook).
The snapshots of our every day lives.
And photos from special events.
I am not, though, including a photo for each day. Sometimes I am including two. (ha. ha. Although, I am really doing that). Some days, I may skip a photo altogether. I may include Madtown's phonics update from school. Or a picture she drew. Or scribbles from Little Man. A dum-dum wrapper. My to-do list. Just something to illustrate a story from the day.
I am also including bigger pieces, such as the program from their Winter Gala for preschool/daycare by slipping those into additional page protectors.
For the photos - I am uploading the 7 or so that I want on a weekly basis and running over to Target at lunch to pick them up. It's quick and easy and ensures I can put my weekly page together without much hastle each week.
Keeping Track
At first I thought I would use my Log Your Memory book to track everthing. I had a sheet to track my POD photos and a note. And, of course, since I make notes about each day in this book, this seemed to make sense. But, after just one week, I realized it wasn't working.
So, I switched gears and found a different system that is working PERFECT (for me at least).
In my "Ideal Book" from Franklin Covey, I have a tab for Project 365/POD 2011. Each week gets a sheet. At the top of each sheet, I draw my page protectors so that I can decide where each photo goes. Since I don't only have horizontal photos, this allows me to keep track for vertical vs. horizontal and where special pieces (not photos) will go. It also allows me to make sure I have room for my two 4x6 journaling cards (more on that in a minute).
On the right of that sketch, I list my photos for the week. I do this by the end of the day as I have committed to myself that I will determine my story of the day THAT day. Each day, I make a note of what is going to represent that day and where it will go in that weeks protector.
Below this, I write some additional notes (these are not necessarily related to the photos/items I included) about other things I want to remember about the week. I will hand write these on the cute 3x4 journaling cards that were included with the kit.
Daily Description
I made a decision after the first week that I (A) Didn't want to hand write each days notes (I feared that my stories would be incomplete as I write rather large and would run out of room on the little cards) and (B) Didn't want to mess with trying to print on the cards, but (C) Still wanted to use the cards.
I created two 4x6 journaling cards in Publisher (yes, I use Publisher. I have used it FOREVER and am very used to it, so it's a quick go-to solution for me) where I include my photo/item note for each day. I love that it's neat and readable and that there is a little more room to elaborate on each day's story.
Putting it together
Once I had all my components, putting this together evolved rather easily. At first, I was going to use the label stickers for each day of the week directly on my photos. I didn't care for that, though, and switched gears a bit - instead handing writing the day of the week directly on the photo in white Sharpie Poster Paint pen and slipping it into the protector.
For extra things (notes, drawings, to-do lists), I am using the stickers, though, and sticking them right on top of the page protector.
I am then printing off my two 4x6 jouraling cards on watercolor paper and slipping them into the protector.
Lastly, I am using 3-4 (this number may change over the course of the year - who knows?) of the 3x4 journaling cards and hand writing my additional little notes from the week. I am not bothering to include what day they occured because, really, will anyone care if Madtown kissed Wyatt at school on Tuesday or Wednesday? I don't think so.
Overall
So, in the end, this project is taking a bit of day to day committment (5-10 minutes a day), but I already am so happy with how it is turning out. Each Monday, I plan to print out the previous week's journaling and pick up the photos. I will then take 15 minutes to put everything from that week in the protector and write up my cards. The result? Well, a well documented year in our lives.
Pretty priceless.
