Project Life 2012: Week 2

On the weekend I read a bittersweet, yet heartwarming blog post by Vicki of MotherBlogger. Her posts are always emotion-evoking, usually in the form of happy, genuine laughter as you can relate to her most recent tell-it-like-it-is mothering experience. This post, however, evoked an mix of empathy, appreciation, and sadness as she shared the story of a letter from her late father to her nephew.

As she notes the letter, written long before her father's death, "a paper portal into how wonderfully, unforgettably crazy he was. When the memory of him starts to fade — the inevitable desaturation of time — we need only reach for this letter and there he is, his voice plain as day in that beloved scrappy handwriting."  You can read Vicki's post full here, though I recommend you grab a tissue.

In reading the story she so generously shared with us, I was reminded of why I've embarked on this journey of documenting a year in our lives in the form of Project Life. In some way, this is my letter. Through these photos, word, and little snippets I am hoping to capture what our everyday looks like. These are the moments that make up the story of our life together. I am creating this book for right now, to help me focus on the present. I am creating this book for many tomorrows from now, so all three of us can look back and remember. And while I hope my days are plentiful yet, I am creating this book as part of my family legacy - leaving something for Hudson and his family to enjoy years down the road.

With that in mind, here's a glance at Week 2 in the Project Life Album less one insert page that I'm still working on covering D's excursion to Montreal. I'll share that with Week 3.

This is the two page spread, plus a card from D's sister. I just punched a hole in the card and the envelope it came in and stuck it in. The card included some photos from the holidays, so I used the envelope to hold a few of those in the album.

The left side. A couple of the stories captured here include the seemingly constant 'no' we're saying to HP as he continuously stands up to the TV stand, playing guitar with Poppy, and HP's first mall ride with his cousin Logan. The to-do list is of the things I wanted to remember to do before heading out to mom's for a few days. I just used one of the cards from the kit to jot the list down and then added letters. Done and done.

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The right side: On this side you see the stories of our new Jetta, the sickness that drowned us early in the week, and Hudson fascination with doggies and how they crack him up. He laughs like tickle me elmo every time!

This is a card that opens up to allow for more journalling. In this one I've written a letter to HP about just holding him while he napped when he was sick. This is so not something we do regularly, but it seemed to be the only way he'd settle that day. I wanted to share that whole story with him. To the right of that is something much more mundane, our grocery list.

This page also captured the story of HP's first word ... da da da, spoken first on January 8 and then continued repeatedly ever since!

These really are the little stories that add up to a much bigger one. I am so grateful to be telling it.