Every two years since 2006 I have undertaken a personal project called “Week in the Life”.  One week spent documenting, with photos and words, all of the little details in our lives.  A labor of love for sure.  You can read more about this project and get a glimpse of my 2006-2010 books here.

As my 2014 project date was approaching, I knew it was time to finish the 2012 book!  When my book arrived I shared this quick photo and there seemed to be interest in taking a peek inside so here we go…

Why every two years?

1.  I find the changes in our lives are more noticeable at the 2 vs. 1 year mark.

2.  It is a lot of work and I’m often still recovering from the project one year later!

This year the book format was to have 4-5 layouts per day, depending on the number of photos I took.  Typically there was a morning, mid-day, afternoon, and evening layout.

I like to capture my “Week in the Life” around the same time of year (April/May) because:

1.  It is fun to compare what we are doing now vs. the similar season in past years.  While much changes, there are common themes that also emerge.

2.  There are no major holidays to contend with, just our normal daily routine.

3.  Routines are more established at this point in the year – i.e. I feel more comfortable sneaking into a dance class to take a picture in May than I might in September.

While I change the design every time, I try to capture similar content for each day and sprinkle it throughout the layouts – what we ate, little things I’m grateful for, random observations, details about our daily work, and funny things the kids say.  This book was based on a design from the talented Nettio Designs, unfortunately the template is no longer available.

This year I added a few Highlights pages which I’m sure will be funny to look back on in a few years from now!

My kids were 2.5 & almost 1 when I made my first “Week in the Life” book.  Life was all about diaper changes and mommy-and-me music classes.  We are well into the soccer practice and homework phase of our family life and this project continues to be the perfect way to provide a glimpse into our world at a moment in time.

Even if I didn’t document anything else from 2012, I know my family would have a sense for what their life was like and how very grateful I am to be sharing it with them.  If a “Week in the Life” seems like too much , perhaps consider recording a “Day in the Life”, I promise you won’t regret it!