Let's Reflect...

I just finished week 23 and did a total panic that the year can't be halfway through. And then I realized it isn't. We've got till week 26 to be halfway through.

What I love:
1. Seeing the whole page as one big layout as I put it together. I actually place my journal cards first and then add the pictures so I can make sure I've got my spread flowing the right way.
2. Mixing black and white with bright colors. So me and I don't think I'll ever get bored of it.
3. Getting pictures into the spreads and getting them printed. My kids call dibs when the printed layouts arrive because each one wants to be the first to look at them.

What I hate:
1. I feel like I didn't really find my groove until about week 8 and I'm not really fond of my layouts for weeks 1-7.
2. Back at the beginning, I was trying to fufill CT obligations via my weekly Project Life spread. I've figured out that for me, I need the freedom to use whatever inspires me in my weekly spread, so I've started doing past years for CT work and just letting myself do what I want with my weekly spreads.

What I realize is important to me:
1. Fulfilling my own need to be creative. I always considered scrapbooking my art, and I find doing Project Life is just as valid as a form of art as creating layouts was. I find it's very important to me that I take an hour or so every week to indulge in art.
2. Documenting the everyday. The events are important, but the everyday is what my kids love.

What's not important to me (you didn't ask, but I'll answer):
1. Documenting the hard times. We've had some this year, but I've chosen not to include them in my album. I just don't see a need to remind my daughter that she didn't make dance team after working her butt off in tryouts, or that my son's car is going to cost more to fix than it's worth and it caused me to have a major freak out yesterday, or that I had a rough day at work. I'm always going to know that my life isn't all rosy, but I don't feel a need to document the less than rosy times. I know some strongly feel the other way, but I just don't need the reminder when my obsessive-compulsive little mind isn't going to let me forget anyway.

Changes looking forward:
1. Maybe adding a little bit more embellishment going forward. A piece of flair and a strip of washi each week going forward is my loose goal. I'm just not a big embellisher... I'm more a journal cards and word art is plenty kind of gal. But I have a lot of embellishments and I should probably make the effort to use them.

And my favorite layout is always the one I just finished, which I can't share until next week. But here's my most recent week:

 

I tend to read the forums on my phone which I hate typing too much on... so I mentally answered these questions a while ago, but forgot to actually type them!

1) What you love
I love just getting these photos and stories out there. I like being able to document events without photos, photos that have no real backstory and photos where just a caption or a sentence or two suffice. That was where I fell apart with regular scrapbooking. I was only documenting big things before. Plus when the kids were smaller, I was with them most of the time. Now, as they get older, so much happens without me around, but I still want it documented.

I'm still loving using the exact same template each week. Sometimes I'm not sure I like the sameness of every spread, but it's the consistent template that helps me get it done each week. It's one less decision to make. Maybe by next year I'll have a different comfort level with the flow of things and will be able to branch out.

2) What you hate
I wish I would have started mixing up the background papers on my pages from the beginning. I think it would be a fun way to make each week it's own. I'm like Kim in that I didn't find my groove until several weeks into the year and because of that, I don't really love some of my first pages. I was very new to PL and was just getting back into digiscrapping... I had no real stash of supplies to work with it.

3) What you realize is important to you as you document your life
This year I've realized that it's important for me to actually be in the photos occasionally. I also realize that there is no wrong or right thing to document. If I feel compelled to photograph my ice cream cone from our end of the year treat outing last night, that's okay..... and it's also okay that I have no photos of some other event that we attended because I just wanted to sit back and enjoy it. I guess as I progress through the year, I realize that one of the most important things is that I'm present in the things that I'm documenting. PL has helped immensely for this vs. when I did more traditional pages. I used to get spun up trying to get page worthy photos and wasn't always "there" at the event. Now, I know I can take a quick snap with my phone and be good!

4) Anything you want to change/focus on as you look towards the second half of the year
I was caught up in taking a photo a day earlier in the year, I'm doing better about that now. I do love that I ended up documenting lots of everyday type things during that time.... but I also was a little on edge all of the time about making sure that I had something from every day. I would love to start doing a little more with embellishing. My pages are pretty simple. I do like them that way, but I would love to liven them up just a little.

It's hard to pick a favorite week... but this may be it...

 

1) What you love: I love that I'm getting down those pictures in a significant way, with those little stories that I know I will forget. I love capturing the little things my family does. I love using little embellishments on my pages, but not too much. Wordarts, sometimes sticthes. I also love to get more than one photo in one spot, so I use journal card multi photo templates, and I balance that out with bigger photos in the page. I love that with project life I'm taking more pictures too, my camera is always near.

2) What you hate: Weeks where I know I will need more than a 2 page spread. But I want to get as many photos as I need to make me happy so If that means 3 spreads then that's fine. It just takes longer to complete.

3) What you realize is important to you as you document your life- I realize that my pages are more about my kids, cause they're doing all the growing and new things. But, often I want to be in the pictures too. At least once a week or every two weeks.

4) Anything you want to change/focus on as you look towards the second half of the year- I don't think I want to change anything- I like my PL the way it is (something I can't say about my 2012 PL). I think I found my style!
Oh, and like Kellie said, get the kids involved. My daughter this week, week 24, has shown a lot of interest in my PL. She asks me if she can type stuff on the journal cards. (She wrote a little note to her dad on Emily's 'Hey Daddio card' that I thought was cute). I definitely want to get her point of view too! She wants me to teach her how to scrap, maybe a summer project...

My favorite spread: A favorite? I can't choose but here's one I love:
Week 24- Cause I just love my daughter's journaling and those little moments:

 

1) What you love I love the PL format because it allows me to get all the stories and pictures into an album quickly and efficiently. I have been a scrapper for years, but there was always a list of stories to be told and layouts to be completed, so I always felt behind. And many times, stories got pushed to the wayside and never told. But with PL, all it takes is a picture and a few journaling lines, or even just a caption and its done. Love that. I also love that my hubby is constantly looking at our album. (I leave it out and open to the most recent week in my office). He travels a lot, so it helps him keep up with what we are doing while he is gone.

2) What you hate I don't think there is anything that I hate. I like to use multi-photo templates for the 4x6 spaces to get more pictures in my spreads. So sometimes I wonder if I am going to look back at the album and wish I printed full size pictures instead...only time will tell. And I guess I can always go back to the jpeg and reprint them if needed. I also get frustrated when I sit down to do my week and realize I don't have enough pictures. Some weeks are just really boring, and I never get inspired to take out the camera.

3) What you realize is important to you as you document your life I have always had this need to tell our stories. Probably because I have forgotten so much of my childhood, and I don't want to forget my son's. This is truly the best format for me to do that. In fact, this is the only scrapbooking I do, with the exception of a yearly Christmas Album, Vacation Photobooks and a school album for my son (using the PL system).

4) Anything you want to change/focus on as you look towards the second half of the year Just to remember to take more pictures each week, so I have plenty to work with.

Sorry, I don't post my pages online, so I don't have a fave to show you. Love the pages that ya'll posted though. Mine are very plain in comparison!

 

1) What you love
I love the whole idea of documenting our lives. I love that it makes me focus on each day and what is going on in life. Kind of a stop-and-slow-down kinda thing. I love catching fun little things that are happening in the news or whatever that will be interesting to look back on in the future. I am happy that I haven't given up yet even though I'm so far behind. We had some family crises for a couple of months, and I fell behind, but I'm determined to catch up. I'm not very organized, but I love putting everything together and getting a page/look that I am happy with. I also really like being part of the PL community. I also love collecting the PL cards. LOL. It is so hard to pass them up sometimes.

2) What you hate
How far behind I am/how long it takes me to get a spread done. I'm not a planner, so it is hard for me to figure out what I'm doing and what I'm going to use on any given week. Then I usually just end up going through my pics and figuring out how many I have and if I need to fill in. I also don't love that I'm not really journaling much in the past few weeks... just a bullet point of the week's activities. I also hate when I have gotten a page done and forgotten about/missed something. I also hate that my DH and DD don't really care about the whole thing at this point. Ugh.

3) What you realize is important to you as you document your life
I love all of the little details and most of the time don't remember little things from year to year, so I love having them captured. I also feel like it is important for future generations. They may not care, but at least if there is someone who does, they have info. My grandma is 93, and I'm trying like crazy to get her to document some of her stories, but she refuses. I wish there were other family members who were still alive and could share stories.

4) Anything you want to change/focus on as you look towards the second half of the year
Getting caught up. LOL. More journaling and more photos of everyday life. I don't always think to take pics, so that is a struggle for me. Staying motivated. I just signed up for a blog hop so I could be accountable to keep going.

And finding my favorite was hard, but I think I like the randomness of this week.

 

I'm so far behind that I need a couple of days of quiet time to just sit and put the pages together but one thing that stands out to me in my pages is to try to journal more about my thoughts and feelings for the wk. I'm going to try to work on that for the 2nd half of the year.

 

1) what you love
I am one journal card away from being caught up to this week! *fistpump* I never thought that I'd stay up-to-date, but the most I've been behind at any given time was two weeks. Sticking to one page per week has also been helpful, too, as it only takes an hour or to put together, and not worrying abt anything matching gives me the opportunity to use my pretties. My decision to continue to scrap 'regular' pages makes the process much less stressful as I know that if I 'miss' anything or don't have enough room to give it the attention it deserves, I can always scrap it on a separate page that will go in the same album alongside my PL pages. I've been trying to include video when I can, and that's been superfun to look back on. Putting the page together Monday night really gives me a happy sense of closure & time to reflect on the previous week as us introverts just love to do.

2) what you hate
There's really nothing I hate abt my PL pages. I am slightly envious abt some people's hybrid *cough Kellie cough* pages, but the $$ and time to create & print digital files was just not in the cards (ha ha!) for me this year, so no hatin' here.

3) what you realize is important to you as you document your life
The small stories matter to me as much as the big ones.

4) anything you want to change/focus on as you look towards the second half of the year
I just need to keep reminding myself to take pictures through the week. Since I work FT, most of our fun activities are on the weekends, and that's usually the only time I remember to take photos. My camera has been broken, but should be fixed this week, so that will help, too, since the camera on my phone is pretty sucktastic.

 

1) What you love Looking back and seeing my weeks. Even not so special weeks look special to me now. Using my iphone!
2) What you hate I used to hate trying to figure out the dates and numbers for the weeks, but this year I simplified like crazy and am not putting dates, just the month and year.
3) What you realize is important to you as you document your life That every day is a blessing and that we really do forget what went on through the year if we don't have a way to look back. I feel so blessed as I page through my books.
4) Anything you want to change/focus on as you look towards the second half of the year Just to keep going!

I can't pick a favorite so I'll put this weeks.

 

1) What you love I love using a template each week. Makes it so much faster to get a page done and so helps when you fall behind.
2) What you hate That some weeks I'm playing catch up.
3) What you realize is important to you as you document your life It is important to me to get journaling on each page so when I'm gone my kids can read about our life.
4) Anything you want to change/focus on as you look towards the second half of the year I think things are doing okay except wish I had more free time so I didn't fall behind.

I guess out of all the pages this year so far my favorite would be my birthday week. Mainly because my grandfather was still alive at that time and we share a cake every year together. In May my grandfather passed so it's been difficult scrapping.