My favorite personal photo book completed last year? That is akin to asking me to pick a favorite kid! How about I share two? First up, an idea I’ve had on my mind for a long while. Years ago, I heard Stacy Julian talking about a memory keeping project she did when her son was a senior in high school. She called it the “180 Days: Senior Year Album”: a photo-a-day project with simple journaling prompts to capture the details of what life was like for her son his final year in high school. Yes. To. This.

When my daughter started at a new high school in 2017, I knew it would be a year of many firsts and changes. It felt like the perfect time to actively document her everyday life. Acting on inspiration from Cathy Zielske’s take on Stacy’s project, I embarked on a year-long journey to capture my freshman’s daily stories and share a few nuggets of wisdom along the way…

Keeping the formula simple and consistent was the key to success with this project. One photo per week + my commentary on what happened and, if possible, a few “mom” thoughts layered on top of the facts.

A reminder set for every Sunday night encouraged me to take a few minutes each week to stay on top of the project. This was a critical step – I don’t think it would be possible to sit down at the end of the year and truly capture the essence of a year – the thoughts, feelings and emotions – that I was able to document by writing in the moment each week.

With 40+ weeks in the school year, I pushed myself to get creative when shooting memorable moments. I was also not afraid to screenshot a Snapchat post and may have even snagged her phone to record a text exchange from when she was accepted into the school a capella group…

Of course I included some favorite moments in video form using my favorite QR code trick. A photo from the freshman retreat paired with bus footage of her playing the ukelele and singing along with new friends, this makes my mama heart pretty happy…

Photos by herself and more often, photos with friends, all combine to tell the story of this special year in her life…

From her first experience with activism to teaching a friend to ski for the first time, knowing that I had a place to document and ultimately print these memories motivated me to capture more photos than I normally would have throughout the year. I also know from my Week in the Life projects how much we will appreciate noting the little details of life now, from riding her bike to school to her favorite grab-n-go breakfasts…

Her August 2018 birthday was the perfect deadline to motivate me to complete this book and surprise her with a tangible keepsake of an awesome freshman year!