Daunting
Taking on the task of organizing my photographs has been a much larger project than I originally anticipated. It hasn't been the organizing per se, it has been the "how to organize".
I've got 12 years of history to sift through and try to make some sense out of it all. Which is not unlike actually living those 12 years and trying to make some sense out of it all.
I was finally able to pin point my approach (with some help from Caleb)...which will save me time, money, and perhaps some sanity.
I'm not putting together individual photo books for each of the kids. *gasp* I know. Pretty radical. But their lives are intermingled with ours, and together tells a story of our family. So, no separation. I've always found those type of photo books a little ridiculous anyway.
The harder determination, knowing that it is of course going to be set up chronologically, is where to begin.
I've been married before, and then had a terrible, but distinct relationship between marriages. And neither of them can really be "cut out" because that would mean locking away a good portion of the kids' history as well as mine.
So...my first step has been to separate photos by location.
Hawaii, Idaho, Japan, Michigan.
Michigan gets two piles, one for before Caleb and I were together and then one pile for the time after we started dating.
Any photos that are pre-children are going to go into a photo box for the time being.
Well, the sorting part has been EASY since having figured out this particular system. But I went ahead and made my job a little more interesting...because I like to do that to myself...as if I don't already have enough to do.
I've decided to insert scrapbook pages for certain special events. (I purchased a three ring album for our photos, so that I can insert as many pages as I want)
Therefore the following events will have their own section, and or scrapbook page:
1. Christmas
2. Halloween
3. Birthdays
4. Vacations
I am toying with putting all the Christmas photos together in a complete section...and doing the same with Halloween. Or just doing a scrapbook page for each Christmas and keeping them in the book in chronological order. Not sure yet. I think it would be cool to have sections to see each Christmas side by side.
I'm actually excited about the whole inserting a scrap book page idea.
Next, not all photos are making the book. I've decided to be picky and not just throw everything in. There is really no reason to have multiple shots of the same person just different angles in the album. It lends to redundancy, and is boring. So, repeat photos, and just plain bad shots are getting stored in photo boxes (or tossed out).
How much have I actually completed? Well...I've completed the sorting by location, and Hawaii is in the book, except for the scrap book pages that I will need to put together.
I've just started sorting Idaho by Zac's age, ending with Abby's birth.
I wish now that I would have written notes on the backs of these photos. It would have been immensely helpful in this whole process. But I wasn't that thoughtful back then.
As for the other subjects of past relationships. I've come to the realization that I have a daunting history in which my husband must accustom himself. Most people tend to think that my husband is rather oblivious of these types of things (and many other things as well), but the truth of the matter is that he is quite aware of more than people give him credit for. He just chooses to keep his mouth shut. I'm not quite so disciplined...most people aren't. So I have to keep his feelings in mind when assembling the family album.
I'm not including photos in this family album of those past relationships. I'm reserving photos of Zac and Abby's dad for albums of thier own some day. As for Kimi, her paternal father's photos were tossed out a while ago. There is a definite need for filtering out his image.
Our family albums will start with my pregnancy with Zac. There are only one or two photos of my balloon stage. But it is nice to have a beginning, one that works for our blended family.
And now I have to go, because Kimi is taunting the cat.
posted by Kassi Gilbert @ 2:24 PM
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