This year I decided that having failed in Project Life... three times... I would not put that pressure on myself again. What I would do instead was a variation on Katie Nelson's Round Up. Every month, Katie "rounds up" what her family has done/read/watched and creates a layout. I want to take that base and build an album out of it.
To start, I took her list of roundup questions and printed them and stuck the sheet of paper on our message center in the kitchen. I keep a pen handy and the whole family is invited to add significant events, books they've read, gifts they've given or received, etc.
In addition, I'm taking a photo a day on my iPhone. I'll have those photos to use in my Round Up. I've also made myself start planning for the round up during the month. For example, after we watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory four times in one week, I knew I should include a photo from that episode in our Round Up. So while I was thinking about it, I went ahead and grabbed a photo from the internet.
Finally, I've created a folder on my EHD just for Round Up related items. Inside this folder are the templates I plan to use, a resource sheet that tells me which fonts and colors I should be using to maintain continuitiy, and photos, screen shots of texts, etc that I want to use.
I'm excited to sit down in a few days and do my January layout, which I'll share here. It makes me happy to have this very specific way to capture my family each month. I can't wait until a year from now when I have that album in my hands. It's gonna be great.
