5 Reasons to Document a Day In Your Life

Need a reason to document a day in your life?? I've got FIVE good ones for you today and I bet you will be charging your cameras and cleaning off your memory cards in about 2 seconds flat if you make it all the way to the end of this post! 

If you've been wanting to record a day in the life, now is the time! Ali Edwards' will be completing her second DITL of 2016 this Saturday and I totally encourage you to check it and play along! I've captured and recorded a single day for the past five years along with Ali (and on my own a few times) and the photos and memories are some of my very favorite. But the pictures....oh.my.gosh. They make me cry the ugly cry every.single.time. As much as I would like to think I remember everything, I just don't. Waaahh. I hate it, but it's true. We just can't remember it all, so thank heavens for cameras and notes and the stuff of life.

Week In The Life: Sunday Photos

I'll be sharing the highs and lows from each day throughout the week:

Sunday highs: Scott cooking breakfast, getting organized for the week, soccer in the backyard, morning family walk, finding Anna reading Drew books, the sound of kids laughing and playing, washing, folding and putting away all of our laundry (high five for that), the best watermelon ever, family that lives close by, day date with Scott, walking around downtown, The Pit, Rye, outdoor concerts, sneaking closer to the stage, singing at the top of our lungs on the drive home

Sunday lows: looming deadlines, no creative motivation, most of the places being closed downtown, staying up too late

Week In The Life: Saturday Photos

I'll be sharing the highs and lows from each day throughout the week:

Saturday highs: family breakfast, yummy Americano, Anna's outfits and her love of boots, morning walk down to the farmer's market, cool breezes, Lara Bars, drawing and coloring, Coconut Charlies, the kids changing back into their pajamas after we got home from a walk, homebodies, hanging with friends, walking downtown Wake Forest, Lafayette Village for dinner, kids running around, umbrella lights and fire pits, camp outs on the floor, happy kids

Saturday lows: farmer's market closing early, showing up for a birthday party that is next weekend (womp womp), having to work on the weekend, chasing Chase around the backyard when it was time to leave, lines at the food truck festival

Week In The Life: Friday Photos

I'll be sharing the highs and lows from each day throughout the week:

Friday highs: it's Fri-yay | no line at morning carpool | quiet work time in my office | morning shower | finding all of our names spelled out in scrabble tiles on the couch (by Drew) | lunch date at Gonza's with my boyfriend | chips and salsa | Jumpin' Beans | Anna's first soccer practice | dinner at a new restaurant | hangman | Christmas pajamas | potty dance for Anna | jumping on the bed

Friday lows: sub-par meal at Gonza's | no cash for the photo booth | craziness at dinner | kids acting like crazy kids | running out of printer ink | forgetting Anna's shinguards for soccer practice

Week In The Life: Thursday Photos

I'll be sharing the highs and lows from each day throughout the week:

Thursday highs: running with Chrissy | yummy salad | lunch duty | Scott home | afternoon coffee and chat with Chrissy | hydrangeas | family "fancy dinner night" | chicken tacos | evening lake trip | finding "fools gold" and magic rocks | walking sticks | Blue Jay Point Park | summer sunsets on the drive home | awesome neighbors | preseason football | quiet time reading my book

Thursday lows: carpool lines | heat and humidity (it's getting ridiculous here in NC) | Anna crying when I left school after lunch duty | sandy kids and dog and sand all in my car | piles and piles of laundry that need to be done | deadlines

Week In The Life: Wednesday Photos

I'll be sharing the highs and lows from each day throughout the week:

Wednesday highs: half way to the weekend | iced coffee | no line at Target | new make-up | taking Chase to doggie daycare | playing with paper | more texts with Marcy | legos, legos and more legos | my staple lunch: sausage, eggs and avocados | sweet comments on Instagram | watercolors | being 15 minutes early to pick Anna up | monster drawing from Anna | swinging at the playground | quick trip to the library | dinner with Mimi & Poppy (high five for not having to cook) | forehead kisses from Drew | tired pup after doggie day care | hot baths | Scott coming home today

Wednesday lows: Chase running after the neighbor's dog bright and early | the rush of the morning (even if I feel prepared and ready, it's always, always hectic) | Scott being gone | trash day | hitting my knee on the side of the chair | live chat problems | work craziness | black watercolor paint everywhere | messy craft room | out of this world humidity (so much for drying my hair) 

Week In The Life: Tuesday Photos

I'll be sharing the highs and lows from each day throughout the week:

Tuesday highs: pretty morning light | Anna super excited and easy to wake up this morning | a great workout with my neighbors | taking a shower before work | playdate for Drew during my work call | productive morning | carpool line by myself | loud music | instagram break | iced coffee at the gym | texts from Marcy | Drew getting so excited over legos | power kale salad from Panera | Drew holding my hand | evening bike ride with the kids | bubble baths | Drew coming in and singing to me after I tucked him into bed "I've been loving you, you've been loving me, in my sweet heart" | a quiet house | making dinner plans with the bestie 

Tuesday lows: creative drought | Drew getting sick when he wasn't with me | back pains | camera focus issues | Chase pulling on the walk like a crazy dog | pouring rain on the way to gymnastics | no umbrella | white pants and mud puddles | traffic on the way to pick up Anna | stinky trash | Chase stealing all of our socks | Drew's boo boo | Scott gone for the night | drying my hair | humidity 

Week In The Life: Monday Photos

I totally didn't plan on doing Week in the Life this year, but...

I have loved every single photo, detail and memory I've captured in my previous WITL books (2014, 2013, 2013 Project Life, 2011), but I'm not sure I've got a whole week in me this go 'round. 

I think there is a lot of pressure when it comes to documenting AN ENTIRE week of your life (at least there is for me).  I get all stressed out....like I might miss something, or forget my camera, or maybe the photo won't tell the story like I pictured it in my mind.  I talked myself out of recording our days this year because I just wasn't sure I would get it "right".  But somehow today, I found myself reaching for my camera trying to capture our moments.  I originally told myself I would try to do ONE photo of the day - that can't be that hard for a picture-taker like myself, right.  I obviously couldn't stop at just one, though.  How do you choose just one?  So I gave myself the freedom to snap away without the worry of what kind of album I would create, or even if I would print these photos. 

I challenged myself to just see our life through the lens.  And like always, I am so glad and so grateful that I decided to pick up the camera.  I don't think I will ever tire of documenting and recording our days.  I do it all the time anyway.  There shouldn't be any pressure or expectation or comparison.  You shouldn't have to worry about albums or pockets or filler cards.  It should be just as it sounds - a week in your life....documented.

I'll be sharing the highs and lows from each day throughout the week:

Monday highs: TCX | sunny skies | Drew excited to go to the gym | tea parties | Anna starting a diary | Chase's ollies in the yard | crepe myrtles and their bright flowers | brussels sprouts. lots and lots of brussels sprouts | grilled chicken salad | reading Me Before You | Drew's naked belly | playing vet doctor with the kids | giggles | evening walk with just Scott and Chase | photo editing

Monday lows: leftover homework | carpool line | Drew's messy room | potty accidents | Anna's meltdown during dinner | unloading the dishes | Drew's ouchie 

Week In The Life 2014: The Pictures

Some weeks are plain and ordinary.  Some weeks are awesome and crazy.  Some weeks are blah.  I'm not really sure where to fit in our past week.  We definitely had some highs, but we also had some lows.  Anna was sick from Thursday on into the weekend, so, as you can see a lot of our days are at home....being silly, resting, drinking coffee.  I'm a super big homebody, so being at home day after day was actually kind of awesome.  It gave me lots of time to snuggle, reflect, rest and read.  My week usually consists of school drop offs, carpool lines, early morning runs, Girl Scout meetings, school meetings, errands, etc.  When you have a sick child, you can't just venture out to do those things.  I found it interesting that this glimpse of our week isn't necessarily our "typical" week.  And I'm totally okay with that.  I like that I got to capture a week from a different angle.  I like that I got to stay home alllllllll day long, and in-between taking care of Anna and trying to keep Drew from tearing our house apart, take pictures!

Looking back through my previous years, I noticed that my shots were a lot less "intentional" this year and more random.....more of a "snapshot", rather than a "story".  I would normally use my timer to try to get myself in the photo....more of me in the shots, but honestly, my "actions" were pretty repetitive throughout the week, and pretty blah, so it didn't even dawn on me to take those photos.  I love looking back on our week and I am so thankful for this project!  Thank you, Ali, for your inspiration!

Here is a look at our week....in collage form, obviously.  :)  

I haven't really decided how I plan to document these photos.  I wrote down a lot of my thoughts throughout the week, so I am contemplating creating a mini album or journal.  But part of me really wants to upload them to Artifact Uprising like I did last year.  I'm still thinking on that one!  How are you documenting your Week In The Life?

About Week in the Life™:  A seven-day documentary project, Week In The Life™ began in 2005 as an annual opportunity to capture the simple everyday details of life with photos and words. The albums I've created are some of my most treasured in that they are wonderfully true representations of my family's life at a particular point in time. From the mundane to the profound, it's those simple little everyday moments that I treasure most.

Week In The Life: A Look Back

Ali Edwards is embarking on her Week in the Life project again next week and I'm torn about how I want to approach this project.  I've participated in her project two of the last three years, and took some time yesterday to look back through my albums.  This project, although tedious and time consuming, is so worth it.  Just flipping through my books from 2011 and 2013 made me want to jump right in and get started.  I took two very different approaches the two years I completed this project.  I don't think I could pick a favorite.  One is jam-packed with photos, words, quotes, recipes, ephemera....and one is much more minimal and clean.  I think my "style" has evolved over the years and both albums represent my personality at that particular time.  

This is a look at my 2011 album.  I used an 8.5x11 We R Memory Keepers album and Ali's WITL digital templates.  Each day includes on large photo, small baseball card photos and one photo collage.  This book is very photo heavy with little embellishments or "fillers".  I did include a lot of words about our "daily life", and while I didn't think much about this when I did it, it might be my favorite part of the book.  I loved looking through the receipts, recipes, tags, etc.  They brought back so many memories!  I also loved all of the words, quotes and lists I included in this album. Those memories definitely fade with time and having them recorded is the best!  As you will see at the end, I used Ali's Daily Sheets, which I highly recommend.  Looking back through our timeline and daily events vs. today's happenings is crazy!

I skipped over 2012 because I felt like our days were pretty similar to that of 2011 and wasn't sure I had it in me to document a whole week.  I picked back up this project in 2013 and took a very different approach this time around.

For 2013, I decided to create ONE Project Life spread and a digital album through Artifact Uprising. I really wanted my album to be photo-heavy and really didn't want to bother with adding in embellishments or extras in my book.  Having it printed and bound was the best decision for me last year.  And I love our little book.  It's very different from my 2011 album and I love that!  So much has changed, but so much is still the same. 

I printed all of my photos in an 8.5x8.5 soft covered book from Artifact Uprising.  I love their books so much (and have printed several more since this one)!

For this book, I started with a recap of our day and one large photo, followed by a few more photos or photo collages (depending on the photos I had for that particular day).  After I had edited my photos, uploading and building this book was a piece of cake.  It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish (which is waaaaaaaay different than the amount of time it took me to do my 2011 WITL album).

I wanted to have something a little more tangible about our week, so I put together a very simple Project Life spread.  I picked one photo from each day of the week and filled the pockets with a title card and then seven daily photos.  I used Ali's Days of the Week script brushes to add the day to my photos.  The middle row of 3x4 cards were filled with some journaling and other filler cards....basically just to make it pretty!

This spread is one of my favorites!  I just love the photos and a quick glimpse of our week!!

I'm still a little undecided on this year.  I think I'll definitely incorporate something into either my Project Life album or maybe a mini book, but I'm not quite sure yet.  I did purchase Ali's awesome WITL kit, so I do have that available.  What about you??  Are you participating this year?  Are you following Ali's lead and creating an album, or are you taking your own twist on the project??  I'd love to hear your ideas!!