Project Life: what I've been up too

Have you heard about Project Life by Becky Higgins?  I've been seeing & hearing about it for a couple of years.  Previously I thought "not for me... it's one more thing and I like to *scrapbook*".  Mainly, I have looked "over the shoulder" of Mish's PL pages as she shared them on her blog.  Now, I've been scrapping for decades!  I have scrapbooks going back to junior high.  You know the ones: pictures, ticket stubs, notes passed in class, etc.  Books stuffed full of my life as a teenage girl.  I only stopped that scrapping shortly after getting married because I had a real job and husband and life and was busy!

I started it up again a couple years later, but this time I was introduced to scrapbooking as we know it today.  The traditional layouts (1 or 2 pages), a title, some journalling, embellishments (i.e. stickers!), etc.  I did this back and forth over the last 13 years.  I have multiple albums full for my kids and a couple of family albums.  But, they are just one event after another: birthday, easter, 4th of july, vacation, school, fall/halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, vacation, (and then start over)... what happened to our daily life?? I didn't really think about it.

Then, a little over a year ago I lost my mom.  She had lived with us for the previous 5 1/2 years.  My children only knew life with her in our home.  And she was gone.  I had lost my chance to document those days with her and them.

Most of my friends and even close family would never know that we are the family that might play music at dinner and the kids will get up to sing and my dh and I have even been known to dance to "Kiss the Girl" from Little Mermaid around the kitchen.  My husband  turned my mom's room into a craft room for my kids and I to craft together and spend time together in her room making good memories.  We can work on their Smash books, make cards, or watch the NYE ball drop drinking cocoa.  We have pajama day at schools, babydolls eat dinner with us, and watching a Star Wars movie for the first time is a BIG deal in our house!  That is our life.  And I want our kids to know that *this* time is a great time- we didn't just get up and go to school and wait for big events to happen.  We didn't just let life happen to us, but we captured the joy life has to offer.

I've kept up with PL weekly (I'm currently caught up on wk 4 bc all my pics went into the sleeves last night and all my journalling was done after going over my Awesome Notes app from the daily notes I keep).  It takes me 30 min a session after I email and print the photos at home. I have decided to keep it to the absolute basic.  I make cards, I still scrap for the kids, I can papercraft to my heart's content in other areas.  I won't allow PL to get overwhelming to me bc I won't set any expectations except to document our life.

I have loved this journey and am so glad I decided to do it.  It has been so worth it.  And the kids and husband love it so far.  The album sits out even now.  And they already look through it. :)

Enjoy!

Kristin