Week In My Life Starts NEXT WEEK!

Yes, I know I don’t post on here often. But if there’s one thing you can count on me for, it’s the annual Week In My Life! We’re going on year FOUR of this life-capturing event.

Week In My Life starts next Monday, October 21 so get ready!

This is my third year saying this so at the risk of sounding repetitive, here it goes:

I know you want to remember these big and little moments too… before they are just fuzzy memories with no pictures or words to spring them back to life. So let’s do this thing!

Why You Should Capture Your Life, Too (Even If It’s Just for a Day)

I really REALLY want you to do this. Not for me but for YOU! It’s a lot of work but the reward is that you’ll have a slice of your daily life that you can show to your children as they get older (and can look back on yourself when you’re feeling sentimental).

A few things you should know:

• Don’t feel like you have to document a full week if it sounds like too much. Even a day will capture a slice of your everyday life.
• This is for you so don’t feel like you have to post every single thing you did that day. Publish as much or as little as you’d like for public consumption and then keep the rest for your own memory keeping.
• Let go of the idea that each shot should be free of clutter (like clothes hampers, toys, etc). THAT’S life, right? Embrace the perfect and not-so-perfect surroundings of your life.
• If you already have reviews, giveaways, guest posts or other things planned next week, no worries! Just participicate the days you can (you can even combine multiple days into a post if you want).
• What if you don’t typically blog about yourself or your family? Turn this into a series around a topic you DO write about: ex. food- series on what your family eats each day, ex. green living- how you live green in daily life and challenges you come across, ex. budget living- how you still to a budget for a week, etc. etc.

If that doesn’t convince you, here are some moments that I captured last year:

Last year, I was just getting my contract for Blog Design for Dummies. Can you believe it?

and I caught a typical, messy weekday morning…

The year before I snapped Ethan stealing a bite of Daddy’s breakfast.

And the very first Week In My Life when Ethan wasn’t even a year old.

… and Noah was really into trains.
So many little and big moments I might have forgotten without this special (yet exhausting week).

How It Works

Week in My Life will run from Monday, October 21 to Sunday, October 27. Each day, I want you to record your life through pictures, words and maybe even some video. The morning after, publish your post highlighting the day before. So on Tuesday, you publish Monday’s day and so on. If you tweet, we’ll be using the hashtag #weekinmylife.

Each day there will be a linky so you can link up your posts.

You don’t need many supplies but here’s what I’ll be using:

• Camera
• Tripod
• Remote control for my camera (I’ll use my self-timer too)
• Notebook and Pen
• iPhone to record videos, take notes, take pics when my camera isn’t within easy reach
• A checklist of things I want to be sure to document
• Printables!

These first printables are snazzy journaling sheets for those of you who want a little something to take notes on. I created two PDFs. The one on the left side includes full sheets for every day of the week. You can print off as many copies as you think you’ll need for taking notes. The one of the right side has a shorter “notes about the day” section but also includes two extra sections. “Best and worst of today” is pretty self-explanatory. For “things i noticed,” this could be anything… your child is starting to ____,  you feel unorganized, coffee really DOES help. See? Anything!

The printables are something you only need to fill out once per parent and child. These are simple questions about you and your family right here and now. The movies you like, the things you’re into, the funny things you say, ANYTHING you want to remember about you and your family.

Click on each image to open the PDF then save to your computer. That’s it! Psst…. I have the daily Week in My Life graphics available for download on Monday if you want ot use them!

Week in My Life Q & A

Do I need to commit to the entire week?

Absolutely not! You may already have a giveaway or guest post planned… or you may just not want document your life for a FULL week. No problem! You can document the full week, one weekday combined with the weekend, a day or even just a routine within a day! It’s up to you and whatever you’re up for.

What if my routine is the same every day?
I think very few of us have a COMPLETELY different day seven days in a row so they’ll be some of the same things going on each day. You don’t need to document your day from morning to night if you don’t want. If your morning routine is about the same each weekend, just document it on one day. Maybe the next day you capture the evening routine and so on.

In addition, you may go crazy if you time lapse a full day (i.e. at 8:00 we did this, 8:12 we did this) so pick a different part of the day to do.

I’m not sure what my family will think.
Have you ever been to a wedding where you hardly notice the photographer because he/she is so discreet? Be like that. Be non-chalant. Capture your family AS THEY ARE. They’ll probably like it better because you aren’t asking them to pose and say cheese all the time! 🙂

How much do I have to blog about?
Girl, as much or as little as you want! For me, I’ll probably only post a few highlights and save the rest just for myself. Feel free to post all of it. Just a little. Or even just share a moment that really captures this time in your life. Up to you.

So tell me… are ya in?