document life now

year of weekends: complete

Last year, I started an album I called "year of weekends." I simply took the original Project Life kit and chose to use it to document our weekends. Weekdays have never been the meat of our family time... we're early to bed, early to rise and our day to day life is very routine. Weekends are about quality, memory making, family time.

Between my kids and myself, we kept up with it very well. I didn't always print photos in a timely manner, but we got journaling done every single Sunday.

Until my birthday.

I stopped then.

So I had this gorgeous documentation of the first half our 2011... and nothing for the second half. 

It's not like we stopped doing things the second half. I just couldn't make myself put it in an album. I couldn't find the enthusiasm I had to document.

As you probably know, I recently started gathering items for a new project I'm doing using the same Project Life system. It made me feel a little guilty to realize that I had completely and totally dropped the ball.

I started to think... there are no rules. Why can't I finish it with what I have? It might not be a documentation of every single weekend, but it will document the highlights of our year. At the very least, I'll feel like I documented our year.

So I ordered photos (thankfully I save an edited 4x6, full res version of all the photos I've shared here on this blog). I put it together on Sunday, and the girls filled in the journaling. It's done. 2011. In the can. 

I feel good.

year of weekends: feb 4 - 6

I skipped a week in there. Sorry about that. I just didn't get the photos off my camera. No other excuse.

The weekend began Friday morning... we had a pipe freeze under our house. This is the pipe, which Dan and Brady found when they went under the house to reinsulate under our bathroom. The plumber fixed the broken pipe (well, he cut out the bad and put in good), but he tore out a bunch of insulation in the process, then warned me if we didn't get it replaced quickly we'd have all kind of freezing problems. I made Dan crawl under and do it. He was not thrilled. He made it much more complicated than it needed to be. And he got really dirty.

We spent a big part of Saturday watching The Big Bang Theory on DVD. We have seasons 1 and 2. We really need to get the newer seasons.

And then Chesney showed her unique talent. Mykiah seems to think she could go on America's Got Talent and make us all rich.

 

year of weekends: Feb 11-13

We took a road trip.

At the end, there was pizza waiting.

On Saturday, there was lots of sledding to be done.

and cupcakes to be frosted

Then snowmen and women to be built.

On Saturday night, my mom made chicken fried steak.

After we returned home, we had to hurry and get Valentine's cards and treats done.

And that was our weekend.

a year of weekends, week 4

Didn't do much this weekend.

Friday night we ate at Chili's. I took a coaster to put in my Project Life binder... it says "Don't think of it as a coaster, but as a throne for your margarita." Yes, I had a margarita. Mykiah spent dinner lecturing me about alcohol being a depressant and horrible for my state of mind. I spent the evening making jokes about being too depressed to do anything.

It was one margarita. One. On the smallish size.

We were actually planning to go visit my dad Friday and Saturday, but then the forecast came out and it looked dicey (probably would have been OK). So we backed out. Then I thought, "Hey, we can run down and see the twins on Saturday." I spent Friday night coughing instead of sleeping. Dan told me I shouldn't go see the babies when I'm sick.

He was right, but I still hated him for it.

I decided if I couldn't see babies, I was taking some sick time.

Ran to buy groceries (and tons of VitaminWater) and then got lunch at my favorite little burger joint.

Pretty much went to bed and stayed there until it was time to make dinner. I made lasagna. It was really yummy, but I used oven ready noodles, and even though I used 2 containers of sauce, it was still on the dry side. I should have had some sauce on the side. The ricotta filling was amazing. I did good there.

When I was at the Walmart, I was doing this last run through the check out lines while Dan checked out and saw a new product. Pop Tarts Popsters. Chesney loves the Pop Tarts. I used to really like blueberry unfrosted Pop Tarts, but in the last twenty years I've outgrown them. I'm eating oatmeal this week. It's sad. When did I turn into my grandma?

Anyway, Ches and her Popsters...

If Saturday was uneventful, Sunday was even more dull. I did laundry, read, and watched TV.

Chesney took over my laptop and played Webkinz. All stinking day. Normally I would have said something, but did you see me? I was in no condition to complain to anyone about anything.

Love the reflection of her pj pants in the laptop. Coolness.

I was in bed before 8:30 both days. I know when I need sleep, and I'm not one of those people who functions well without sleep. It was nice. So nice.

a year of weekends -- jan 14 to 16

We started out the weekend with a celebration -- Chesney's birthday!

She had planned every minute of the weekend, and thankfully none of her requests was hard to fulfill. Her first request was for dinner at a local deli.

 

My baby ordered a grilled cheese and tomato bisque soup. Not sure where she learned to like tomato soup. Not from me and her dad, that's for sure.

She ate it all... but gave me her pickle. Bonus points to any child that gives mom their pickle.

From the deli it was home to celebrate with her cake. She had a cookie/cake/ice cream pie thing from Schwans. It was gone quickly... cuz it was yummy.

For her birthday, we had stumbled across some Monster High dolls on the shelves at Target. I had managed to snag two for Christmas, and then they went out of stock. And stayed there. So when we saw these, we grabbed them. Unfortunately, she knew what she was getting, but that didn't take any shine off for her. She played with her dolls all day on Saturday.

Except when she went outside to play in the snow. She was dying to play in the snow from last weekend, but I wouldn't let her during the week because the wind chills were nasty. In fact, school was cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the frigid wind and scary temperatures. Saturday was a day when she could finally bundle up and get out there to play in it.

On the other hand, the weekend for me meant trying to get some rest. By the time we got home on Friday, I had lost most of my voice. I usually do at least once each winter, but I've already taken a few sick days this month (due to helping with the twins) and I didn't want to actually be sick. So I rested. And drank a lot of fluids. Sucked on Vitamin C drops and took Day Quil and Ny Quil. Slept.

And there is our weekend. In pictures and words.

 

a year of weekends, week 2

Not necessarily the weekend I expected to have, but a good one nonetheless. Friday was the day I said goodbye to little McCoy. Dan's sister arrived to take over, but not before Dan got this wonderful photo that I love.

After we left the hospital, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some dinner, but I was honestly so exhausted that the thought of doing anything in the way of dinner prep overwhelmed me. We ended up buying some Vitamin Water and I called Pizza Hut on the way home. Pizza Hut is the only place we have in our small little town, and to be honest, I get quite sick of it. It was also the only choice in my hometown growing up. I need a little variety. A little Pizza by the Chef. But no one felt like driving into the city just for pizza, so the Hut it was. I ordered a taco pizza for Brady and I, and a Baby Bird pizza for Chesney and Dan.

That's an inside joke --- the first time I ordered Dan a BBQ Beef pizza, Chesney thought there were dead baby birds on it. And still she ate it and loved it.

Saturday was an errand day. We ran to the hospital one last time to take some clean laundry. Ate across the street and picked up my sister's birthday gift card. Stopped at the grocery store to get groceries for the upcoming week. Picked up some movies while we were there. Dan had been dying to watch Dinner for Schmucks, and so he did.

Sunday was the day I turned off the technology (for the most part) and caught up on my DVR. I'd missed a lot. I needed my Mentalist, and Hawaii Five O (can't believe how much I like that show). Dan and Brady yelled at the TV under the guise of watching a football game, but felt perfectly superior to me when Mykiah and I were sharing our love of Makenzie from Toddlers and Tiaras. Because loving a 3 year old who talks like a truck stop waitress is so stupid compared to yelling at a TV during a sporting event.

The best part of Sunday came late that afternoon. Snow. Falling softly and lightly.

Isn't the super macro setting amazing? I would have played more, but... freaking cold out there.

You can bet that Sunday night, there were some Lund family members going to bed with their PJs inside out, visions of snow days dancing in our heads.

a year of weekends 12-31 to 1-2

By the way, I'm including Friday with my weekends. So many time we go out on Friday while we've still got momentum, and we crash on Saturday, digging ourselves out by Sunday. So I'm including Friday, which last weekend including New Year's Eve.

Chesney was the only one of the family to make it until midnight. She took a photo of herself on her DS to mark the occasion. This isn't a photo of that, but it's close enough.

New Year's Day found Dan playing the Wii, Brady flying that ever-loving remote control helicopter my parents gave him, and Chesney playing Squinkies.

On Sunday, we got to go visit the newest member on Dan's side of the family (which he shares with his twin brother, McCoy). Ryder's in neonatal special care until he gains a little more weight, which means he's only about 10 minutes from us. We couldn't resist going up to meet the little guy.

There was some work in there, and lots of laundry, but those photos pretty much show our weekend. I really, really like this project. I hope every weekend in 2011 is as much fun.

a year of weekends

In November, I won a Project Life kit from the amazing Becky Higgins. Perhaps because it comes directly from her, I feel a bit of an obligation to actually do some sort of picture-a-day project this year.

I've tried -- and failed -- twice before. I hate admitting that. I hate not finishing something I set out to do.

However, our weeks pretty much go like this.

Monday: The kids and I go to school. Dan goes to work. We come home. Eat dinner. Watch TV. Go to bed.

Rinse and repeat x5.

Nothing interesting as photo subjects. And it's worse in the summer. We are just not a family that gets out and does things after a day at work/school. We rest and enjoy being together.

The weekends, though, are something else. We get out of the house. We might go for a walk at a nature center. We might have a movie marathon. We visit family. We do things. I take 90% of my photos on weekends.

Last week, I was cruising blogs and came across Peppermint's Frick on a Stick, and her idea for A Year of Weekends. She says this about her idea:

A Year of Weekends is an ongoing album project that embodies my desire to stay grounded in the everyday unsung moments that make up the weekends of my life while also giving me a playground to express myself through design and storytelling – without any pressure to be poignant or a trendsetter. My goal is to always design these pages around products I already own or designed myself, which allows me to revisit some of my favorite kits and products and either use items for the first time or see previously used products in a whole new light. Sometimes the pages will be irreverent, other times they’ll be serious or emotional, but all of them are created in celebration of the extraordinarily ordinary moments that fill the 48 hours of each weekend.

This year of weekends thing, I think I can do.

So I hauled out my Project Life box (it's the original kit, not the kit currently available), and looked at all the goodies. Found my good journaling pens. Looked at it, and reimagined it as my A Year of Weekends album. Even took out a pretty little journaling card and wrote that title on it and stuck it in a page protector.

My goal: 5-7 photos per weekend, printed up every two weeks (after Dan's pay day). Journaling done on Sunday evening of each weekend and tucked into a page protector. Photos will be downloaded and edited either Sunday night or Monday evening after work. If it's a particularly eventful weekend, I'll allow myself a double page spread.

I hope that next year, when I post after the first of January, I'm able to show you my completed album. And that I'll tell you of my plans for a 2012 album. If I don't, I'm not going to beat myself up, though.

OK, I lie. I beat myself up constantly. But I won't beat myself up in front of you.