There are a lot of different ways to do PL. The way I typically do it is very simple. I take one photo every day, and then I sit down at some point and write a bit about that photo. That’s it. I love seeing the ways people embellish their PL albums, but if I were to do that in mine, I would never be caught up. I've always been terrible at keeping a journal and staying on top of traditional scrapbooks, but this picture-a-day approach to PL has stuck with me for years now, and I love it just as much now as I did at the beginning. And ok, I cheat sometimes with the actual date I take the photo, but I figure the exact date isn't as important as the memory, so it doesn't bother me.
Now I’m not always completely caught up with my album. When I’m on top of it, I’ll print photos and do the journaling cards once a week or so. But a lot of the time, I’m not that efficient. And that’s ok. I’m so grateful that Project Life makes it so easy to record your memories, and I’m even more grateful that it makes it so easy to catch up when you fall behind.
Take January 2013, for example. I didn’t work on my album for the first few weeks of the year. Then the morning of January 19 came with the news that my bro-in-law had passed away very unexpectedly from a heart attack. That was an incredibly hard time for my family, my sister and her boys in particular, of course. I just couldn't bring myself to work on my album for quite some time. I knew that when I started writing the journaling cards, I would eventually have to write about my bro-in-law’s death, and I just wasn't ready to do that. And I’m not one to skip around and work out of chronological order in my PL album. I’m weird that way. :) But, I knew I would regret it if I didn't include that particular story in my album. I never stopped taking photos though. I took them throughout the trip to Arizona for his funeral. And I continued to take pictures after that. I would write down which picture goes on which day on a little calendar so it would be easy for me to catch up when I was ready. Finally, three months later, I finally felt ready to tackle the task of writing about my bro-in-law’s death. I caught up on all the journaling in just a few days. I love how easy it is to put these albums together, and how great it is to get caught up for the year in just a few days.
And now, once again, my PL album has been sitting untouched for quite a while. I haven’t touched a journaling card since June. I’m not sure how long it will continue to sit there. You see, the morning of July 8, 2014, my father passed away, and I just haven’t wanted to work on that album since. I know I will get back to it, but I’m not sure when I will feel like I can write about him in there. But I will continue to take a lot of photos, just like I have been all this time, and I’ll make sure I have one photo for each day to go in my album, and I know when I’m ready, my Project Life album will be there waiting for me to record my thoughts and my life in it’s pages, and I will be caught up again in no time.
In case anyone is interested in seeing how I documented that hard time in my life, I took some photos of my PL pages from that time. The color is a bit off in the photos, but I didn't want to wait until a Saturday with good weather when I would be able to take some more photos. It's hard to take decent photos during the week since I don't get home from work until after dark. And I think I should have taken them out of the photo pocket pages. Oh well! I will do better if I share more of my PL spreads.
To record the day of my bro-in-law's death, I took a screenshot of the text from my sister telling me that he had died along with a photo of him from the previous year.
The week after his death, including the trip to Arizona for his funeral. I blurred out names and his obituary for privacy.
I included two inserts so I could include a bit more this week. I don't typically do this, but I'm glad there is the option for times like this.
I included a picture of my sister and her family.
And I typed up the words from this blog post on a piece of cardstock to go on the back of the photo. I put a couple of the funeral programs in a 6x12 page protector.
I didn't put anything on the other side of the page protector so the poem on the back of the program can be easily viewed.
Then I finished off with photos from the airport and airplane when we were heading home from Arizona.
Even though I waited 3 months to write about it, it was still hard. But I am glad I did. I think it's important to include the good and bad and happy and sad things in life. And I just have to say once again that I am grateful for Becky Higgins and Project Life making it so easy to do, even when I get so far behind.
This is a really neat idea.
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