Category: documenting

my memory-keeping framework

I thought it would be helpful (for me, at least) to write out my memory-keeping framework. I wanted to settle on an overall system to make sure that I’m capturing the big picture, the celebrations, and also the everyday details and stories of our lives.

I also think that setting these boundaries will give me the freedom to say no to new projects (like this or this – both of which I love). It’s taken me several years to develop, and I don’t doubt that it will continue to change, but for now here is how I’m approaching memory keeping.

Project Life

>This is our family album and the foundation of my entire system. All of our everyday life stuff goes in here. I don’t do individual albums for the kids but I will highlight them individually from time to time.

>Compiled in a 12×12 album, there is usually about a page per week, with a month encompassing two full spreads. Inserts are included for special events.

>At the back of each album I include a large envelope page for collected “stuff” that I want to save but don’t fit well into the spreads (such as birthday cards).

>One and only one album per year!

Week in the Life

>I just started this project last year (and am still completing my first album) but I know it is something that I want to do every year. I love the details it gives – way more than in Project Life – but it’s too intense to do more than once a year.

>Right now I am enjoying the 6×8 album format using Ali Edwards’ kit, but this might change in the future.

Holiday Mini-album (December Daily)

>I love the holiday season and the minibooks that I’ve created of them in the past are some of my favorites. These are stored with the holiday decor and pulled out after Thanksgiving.

>So far my format has changed each year, but I intend to continue putting together a holiday-specific album each year.

One Little Word

This is another tradition I’ve started this year that I love and intend to continue with. This album is more personal and for my own growth. The album is 8.5×11 and will hold 3-5 years’ worth in it.

5-year journal

I am in the fourth year of writing in my 5-year journal every night. This is where I write a brief overview of the events of each day. It forces me to be concise, but I capture the highlights. I also use it for reference when putting together my Project Life spreads.

Personal journal

I have opened a protected blog in order to write out my personal journaling. I try to do it at the beginning of each day, to get all of my thoughts out. This is just for me. I also have a prayer journal that I write in sporadically during my devotions.

Baby & Birthday Books

>The kids each have a baby book that ends roughly at age one. I didn’t want to stress about creating one myself, so I bought them each this one and just filled it up.

>They also each have a birthday book from the same author. They’re pretty cute and easy to keep up with.

Blog to photo books (planned)

I’ve also done a lot of writing about the kids on my blog. Birth stories, monthly updates during their babyhood, quotes, stories. My plan is to compile these posts into a photobook when I have enough of them. Right now I’m thinking every five years or so, but that may change. That way they will have something to take with them when they leave home.

Listing these all out it seems like a lot, but the only projects that are constantly ongoing are Project Life, the 5-year journal, and the personal journal; those are very much entrenched in my routine now. The others are either completed or sporadic. I think it’s a realistic framework to keep up with, and I hope it will only get easier as the kids grow up and gain independence.

Related blog updates: I gave “documenting” its own category which you can access from the header menu above. Trying to keep things organized around here! And exciting: finally after nine years of blogging, I bought kapachino.COM! It was time. From now on, kapachino.info will redirect here. Thanks as always for reading!

February 18, 2015
project life 2015 : january

Welcome to my first Project Life post of 2015! Before I share my pages I have a couple things to share about how I’m structuring my album and how the process will go for me.

I know I said I was going to keep everything basically the same as last year, but I wanted to change up the title cards. When I saw these monthly calendar templates I knew they would be perfect, and I decided to add a picture of the kids in the same basic pose for each month. But these were monthly title cards and I usually complete a spread every two weeks. Sooo…I’m doing a mixture.

What I mean is, I’m only going to have a title card each month, and looks like I’ll only be blogging my pages once a month. But I am still going to keep up my habit of ordering photos and completing spreads every two weeks. I am also still using the week in review cards.

Am I worried about the times when the weeks won’t line up exactly with the months? Yeah it’s kind of bugging me right now…but I’ll deal with that when I get there.

So here is my first spread, which roughly encompasses January 1 – 18. Let me tell you, when I first printed my photos for this and laid them out, I hated the way it looked. There were a lot of bright colors and no white space and it was just ugh. January is also a suuuuper busy month for us so there was a lot to pack in.

Usually when I don’t love the photos I’ve printed I just throw them in the pockets anyway just to get it done, but I had such strong negative feelings this time, which made me sad because I loved the title card so much! So instead I turned several of the photos to black and white, then combined them in collages and re-printed them at home using my Canon Selphy. I was so much happier then. :)

Another trick that helped the layout feel less “busy” was that I cropped several of the photos down and adhered them to paper (like the two above).

Now onto the second spread, which is for January 19 – 31. I totally neglected my camera for a couple of weeks! I really had to think creatively to fill these pockets. Instead of shoving them all on one page, though, I was glad for the extra space to journal. It allowed me to include some tidbits that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have written about, like the books I read that month and a family outing that was especially fun.

The above is a classic “dad photo.” Anytime our family gets together he always takes group shots. I love that he does this but he is never in the photos and also they are usually dark, blurry, and/or far away. ;)

So that’s that! I am still having a lot of fun with this project and I love that there is room for experimentation but I can keep it super simple and still be in love. Next week I’ll be sharing more about my entire memory-keeping framework. Thanks for reading!

February 6, 2015
LIGHT : january

Necklace from this Etsy shop and I love it.

I am one month into the year of living with the word “light,” and I wanted to share a bit about how this process is going for me. In our prompts this month (for the class run by Ali Edwards) we set intentions and there were some suggested categories to focus on, so that’s how I’m going to structure these update posts.

spiritual

what’s been going well : so far I have been keeping up with my scripture memory challenge (one verse every other week), volunteering to help out at church, being involved in our life group and my own personal Bible study.

still weighing on me : here’s the thing. Being a light and being filled with the light aren’t items you can tick off a to-do list. This is a lifelong pursuit and all I can do is try to be obedient and do better. The one thing that I really want to do better with is praying. I want praying to be such a part of my life that I do it like breathing.

physical

what’s been going well : running has definitely been a positive part of my life. I have one more half marathon to run on February 7 and then I’m going to stick to shorter races. I hope to incorporate other forms of exercise at that time.

still weighing on me : I haven’t been curbing my sugar intake lately and I’d like to clean that up.

emotional

what’s been going well : I started personal journaling again on a private blog. I still hand write in my prayer journal sometimes, but this is much more effective for me on a daily basis. I also conquered a few nagging tasks this month.

still weighing on me : the weather wasn’t good for most of the month and it got kind of depressing. I overbooked myself for a few weeks (granted, we have six close family birthdays in January that had to be celebrated, sometimes in multiple ways). We haven’t made any progress toward paying off debt, and I am very low on PTO at work because of sicknesses.

relationships

what’s been going well : several times when I felt my patience running thin with the kids, and I could tell I was about to lose my cool, I thought to myself light light light and took a deep breath and was able to stay calm.

still weighing on me : I definitely still struggle to stay gentle with the kids, especially Meredith, since she can be so intense. David and I haven’t had a date night in quite awhile, and I am working on not taking out on him any grumpiness I may feel.

creative

what’s been going well : I have a memory-keeping framework set in place now that makes me feel confident (will share soon) and keeping up with editing/ordering photos relieves a lot of stress. I am happy with where this blog is. I am excited about getting knitting supplies & lessons for my birthday.

still weighing on me : just being behind on projects and trying to let go of that self-imposed pressure.

Here is how my album is shaping up:

It’s an 8.5 x 11 album, and I plan to use it every year until it gets full. I’m hoping I can get 3-5 years in here.

This project is a little bit creative but mostly reflective. The album isn’t the focus but I appreciate having a place to keep all my thoughts gathered, and working on the prompts – creative or reflective – will help me keep my word in mind throughout the year.

January 30, 2015
week in the life 2014 : tuesday in the album

Hi there! Just want to quickly share my layouts for Tuesday of the week in the life album I have in progress. This one came together faster than Monday since I knew what I was going for.

I’m starting every day with a full page photo with date stamped on the gold foil labels. I also plan to do a rundown of my meals on this narrow 3×8 page for each day.

On the back of this one I wrote out a few Meredith quotes. The right side is some morning photos.

The below layout encompasses the bulk of my day. Work (with pumping) and running on the treadmill after. It’s funny because I really can’t document much of what I spend most of my time on – work – because of patient privacy reasons. My job is super important to me and very fulfilling, but almost all of my memory keeping is family-focused and that’s okay.

I loved this little photo of me picking up Liam from daycare. He always clings to me as we walk out to the car and I usually spend a few extra moments hugging him before putting him in the car seat (which he hates).

On the last page of the spread I wrote my gratitude list and included a couple of evening photos. The one of our family dinner is a favorite. Then again I wrote out all the happenings of the day.

Slowly this album is coming together and I am really enjoying the process!

January 28, 2015
week in the life 2014 : monday in the album

Well two and a half months later and I’m finally putting together this album! Before I share more I have a few thoughts:

>I love this project and definitely want to participate each year. I bought and used the kit, but had to put together my own album since they had sold out. This year I’m pretty sure I’m going to buy all of Ali’s kits and albums because I don’t have a huge stash of my own, I love her style, and having it on hand really helps me get it done.

>I do hope that the official week in 2015 will be earlier in the year, because this was right before the holidays and there was just no way I could devote the time I needed to put the album together.

>My three biggest sources of inspiration for the album are Ali herself, Jodie, and Andrea. If you felt like it you would be able to see where I’ve copied some of their ideas. :)

On to the album! Above you can see my title page. The front little card tells my “reason why.”

On the back of the card I used alpha stickers for our initials and typed out some info about each of us, plus what we’re into. I liked adding type to the album like this, but I didn’t have the time to keep it up so everything from here on out is pretty much hand written.

For the main title page I used a family photo from the week and stamped the dates on a label.

Now we get into Monday! I decided to use ALL black and white photos for this project. I thought that it would be easier to edit and keep it from feeling too busy. I planned to use more embellishments than usual to add color, but as it turns out I am who I am and the “extras” were kept to a minimum. In the future I think I’ll do color photos, but this was a fun experiment.

For the first photo of each day I printed a 6×8 (using Persnickety Prints) and added a label with the date. I think it’s fitting that the first photo of anything turned out to be coffee.

On the right side of the page are some morning photos.

On the left are more morning photos. I didn’t try to add too much journaling because I wrote everything out at the end (you’ll see).

On the right is a 3×8 insert where I put pics of two of my meals and wrote what we ate.

Behind the insert are photos of the kids at daycare dropoff, a filler card I created, and I stapled the chipboard 1 right onto the page protector.

On the left: my work station at the time, getting pulled over (yikes), to do list.

On the right: daily gratitude list (want to include this for each day), Liam at a checkup, the weather, and a Monday filler card.

On the left: David being funny with Meredith after work, favorite moments card + filler, David nebulizing Liam (thank goodness we don’t have to do that every day anymore!).

On the right: David giving Meredith a bath, Meredith doing puzzles, a 4×6 filler card I created using VersaMark stamping.

This is the last spread for Monday. I wrote out two of Meredith’s quotes for the day and put a picture of us right before bed. Then I wrote out ALL of my notes for the day and they fit perfectly on a 6×8 blank sheet of cardstock. I did this for each day. I tried underlining it for Monday but the rest of the days I left plain because I liked that look better.

I will post each day as I get it done!

January 14, 2015