Week in the Life

I recently completed my fourth Week in the Life photo journaling experience. My intention is for the project to be a in-depth look at our lives for one week. Seeing how our lives change year-to-year as the kids grow older is really rewarding to me.

Traditionally, I have done the project as an 8.5X11 size. All four years fit in one album and I love being able to flip through all the stories in one album. The kids get a kick out of it too.
This year, Ali offered a kit where your project would be housed in a separate album. Seeing her work-in-progress makes me wish I had gone that route. But, from experience, I know that I can complete this project because I keep it simple.  I ended up using an older template for the base that I purchased before her 8.5X11 option was available. You can see 2010/2013 pages here and my 2012 pages here. 

Though this is an activity you could do on your own at any time, I prefer to do it with a virtual support group. So, I've followed Ali Edward's dates (which is why I skipped 2011 when we were on vacation). I didn't realize that this year would fall on an incredibly busy work week for me. At the end of the week, I had only a fraction of the number of photos that I would typically take during a single day of this project. But, I made it work - mixing photos from different days to still tell the story of our week.

I kept embellishments minimal this year. On the left is what my image looks like printed.  On the right is a (not well lighted) photo of what the finished page looks like. I added one to two embellishments per daily spread. 

With the white background, the pages look a little off center, but in the album, they look great.

I added numbers to the kids photos to reflect their current age. Charlie refused to get a haircut during soccer season, so he's a bit shaggier than usual.

Friday was Halloween. This was such a crazy year, I didn't even get a single group shot of the kids in costumes.

Less photos and journaling than I had planned for the week, but I'm still happy with what I pulled together.

Week in the Life Recap

I have {mostly} wrapped up my Week in the Life project. The pictures are uploaded & being printed. When they arrive, I will add some journaling and put everything into the album. 

I first attempted the Week in the Life project in 2010. Midway through the week, my photos disappeared. Nick was out of town so it took awhile to gain access to them. Between the move (we've had two since 2010) and life, I never did anything with the photos. I took a look at the pictures again last week & could not believe how much our lives had changed. It inspired me to get those photos printed too. While it makes me sad that I don't remember some of the details of our lives in 2010, it has inspired me to journal more of the "mundane" details in the 2013 project.

I do this project in 8.5 X 11. In addition to what you see, I have some wallet sized pictures printed & I will create wallet sized cards to include journaling. 

A lot of these photos are not that great of quality or composition. I wouldn't normally think to memorialize them. But, this project is tough for me. As much as I love taking photos, getting in 30+ a day is a bit much.  Besides, I love the emotion in some of the blown out or completely grainy photos. When I look at how different the kids were in 2010, I am very happy to have a special place to put those photos.

Monday 2010

Monday 2013

Tuesday 2010

Tuesday 2013

Wednesday 2010

Wednesday 2013

Thursday 2010

Thursday 2013

Friday 2010

Friday 2013

Saturday 2010

(because Nick was headed out of town, I started with Saturday rather than Monday in 2010)

Saturday 2013

Sunday 2010

Sunday 2013

Week in the Life: Thursday

I will admit today I was a bit fatigued with this project.  The skies are gloomy.  I'm tired of the darkness in all the photos and I've been too busy at work to take pictures of the little details I thought I would capture this week. Today was a day that felt much like a repeat of Tuesday. I know it's downhill after today. I also know I will be happy with the finished project. So, here we go.

Choir is a before-school activity which is usually nice, but after last night, we were all dragging a bit. Still managed to get her out the door time.

I wasn't up for walking in the rain, so I dropped the kids off. Can you see the next project on Nick's to-do list? Replace the seat belts the puppy thought were a chew toy.

Feeling especially grateful after seeing the damage around town today. This is not far from our home.

Hit the gym.

Got lots of these.

All after school activities & after care were cancelled today because of flooding concerns.  But, the kids & the dog are done being cooped up.  Four wet days is just too much. This is not Seattle!

It made me happy to see the girls playing outside.

I was still working when Nick got home so he took the kids out to dinner by his office. They were happily surprised by a world-class magician and $1 kids meals. The timing was perfect too since Nick had to go back into work to let the clean-up crew in (his office had some flooding after the rains).
Happy Friday everyone!

Week in the Life: Wednesday

Nuts. 

That is the only word to describe yesterday.

It started off fine. It's been raining like crazy. Nick was running late so he took the kids to the bus stop.

Rocky sighed & rolled his eyes & ignored me because he didn't get to walk with the kids.

I worked - a lot & didn't take any photos because I planned to capture more in the evening. Besides, how many pictures of my messy office & annoying puppy do we really need?

I grabbed one on the phone after art class. Between the bus driver & art class, the kids are getting a lot of candy this week.

The girls were happy to show off their still life art work.

She was very proud of her shadows.

He didn't finish his so he didn't want a photo of it (first week, lots of rules to go over). He's relaxing on the couch listening to a little Mumford & Sons.

For some reasons, the kids don't get homework on early release day. I was busy with a work project so the kids were playing Minecraft. We don't have many bad weather days here so I don't feel that guilty to allow a bit of screen time when the kids are stuck inside & I am working.  All was well until I heard screams. I came upstairs to find tears streaming down faces. Apparently, someone was feeling left out & decided to burn down the village.  All electronics were removed for the night.

Did I mention it's been raining A LOT? The new gymnastics schedule apparently coincides with the train schedule in the area.

Between the Minecraft disaster, rain & the train, we were late for gymnastics. But, she was much happier afterward that I am glad we went.

His ride came before I could capture one with a less cheesy smile.

After dinner, chaos.  The rains picked up tremendously. The girls were watching a soccer game with Nick & they came running upstairs. The flood warnings we had told Greta weren't likely since we lived toward the top of the hill started to come true. We had about 4 inches of standing water in our backyard & water was gushing into our window wells at an alarmingly high rate. 

Our basement isn't finished, but the kids play down there often so it is full of stuff. The girls & I picked up as much off the floors as we could & piled it on the ping pong table. As many cardboard boxes as possible were piled on top of the plastic storage containers. Nick was in the backyard trying to divert water away from the house & down the hill. I came out to try to help move buckets of water, but it wasn't doing a thing. The water was above my ankles.  The water level in the window well was steadily rising so the girls collected every blanket & towel in the house & tried to create barriers in the basement so that if the water came in through the window, it would be diverted to the drains.

Rocky was anxious all night (Ella said it was because he could sense the danger).  Ella woke up with every flood warning that came across our phones (two rooms away). They were sure they wouldn't have school this morning. I told them there was no chance school would be canceled - and I was right (at least for our school district). The neighboring county was hit even harder than we were which means that school district (i.e., the school across the street from our school) is closed.

This morning, the standing water in the backyard & window wells are gone. The basement is dry & we are feeling very lucky. Nick said the damage on the drive to work was impressive.

This is the bucket I left outside about 8 pm when I gave up trying to divert the water.
And the rains continue today.

Week in the Life: Tuesday

I still didn't take as many photos as I expected, but work tends to get in the way of these type of things. Here is our Tuesday in review.

Started the day with hot lemon water. It's no Starbucks, but it's cheaper & I feel better afterwards.

A bagelicious morning for the kids.

We are having rainy fall weather so Nick waterproofed the soccer shoes before he left for the day.

No, he's not allowed on the furniture. That's why he's not making eye contact.

My on-the-go photos are always blurry. At least the rain let up for the bus stop walk.

Early morning conference call.

Visit to the gym (I forgot to stop the monitor after class).

A dirty puppy who wanted inside.

A load of laundry between phone calls.

Guarding against the men in brown.

Decompressing after homework.

"Mom, I'm pretty sure that Ava said if you save these wrappers, you can turn them in for gold."

Build-a-Bear adventure camp.

I think it takes longer to get the bike out of the garage than it does to bike next door.

I found a self-timer for the iPhone so I could get in a pic or two today.

Catching up on a year of badges.

The rain cancelled soccer practice so instead of needing to be three places at once, I only needed to go with Greta to her bridging up ceremony. I'll grab some pics of the ceremony from other parents.

I think the rainy weather made everyone a little stir crazy today. The kids were bouncing off the wall for the babysitter. When I got back from my neighborhood event, the dog couldn't settle down. He doesn't like his routines interrupted & both Nick & I were gone tonight.

Nick was off connecting with his artistic side at a client event.

Another masterpiece to add to our collection.