Wednesday, January 06, 2010

March 2009 Edits DONE!


March 2009 edits finished.

Thanks for all of your kind words about our sick family. We are still sick, but I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel. My boys love the fact they are getting to watch Little Bear for hours a day because Mommy does not feel like reading and entertaining them all day. I feel like Bad Mommy, but I will get them back on a normal schedule when we are all well again. :-)

I was reading comments from yesterday's post, and I found this jewel from from Joanie...
:

I have a thought for you. I'm a Grammie now, my kids are grown and living *independent-responsible-adult-lives*. But there were years with 3 babies in 21 months that I was grateful I just found time to take the photos! I would get them developed, look at them once and then file them away in by baskets. After they'd just flown the coup I took several months and got 17 years worth of photos into the albums. It was a wonderful journey into the past and I remembered all of those hard days with joy.
So what's my point? I'm glad that I made time for my *babies* while they were still home and I could enjoy them... those photos can wait... go enjoy your boys and don't stress!


She is so right. Sometimes I get so caught up in stressing about all of my unprinted photos and never-looked-at videos that I forget about the whole point of why I had kids.

I need to stop obsessing about catching up with everything (photos, videos, housework, yardwork, letters, organizing closets, etc) and just enjoy being home with my two amazing boys.

My wise husband once said "Sure, a woman can do it all, but not at the same time." So I resolve to continue working on my edits, but in the evenings after the boys are in bed, and not obsess about my self-imposed deadline. And I also resolve to not take so many photos in the first place. This digital age is killing me!

I am also worried about buying the millions of albums I will need to store all of these photos. But after reading Joanie's comment, I have decided to get some photo boxes and store them in there for now. I will have plenty of time to add them to albums in the future. Or at least I can take my time doing it.

And I am not going to even think about the boxes of photos I have in my closet from my pre-digital life. Just breathe Rita!

Thanks Joanie, for the gentle reminder and wise words. You put everything back in perspective. :-)

Oh, and I also wanted to thank my readers who suggested getting Blog books printed through Blurb. I had never heard of them. What a great idea! If I had the time I would keep a personal blog (and not just post up here!)... Maybe one of these days. Rita, just breathe... :-)

12 comments:

  1. I feel ya! I don't even have kids yet and I realized that I have tons of stuff left unedited. And not only that, but I realized that since getting my DSLR, I have yet to print a picture, for myself. Sad, no.

    I do recommend doing a book. My family prints one a year with all the best photos from the past year at Christmas. It's sort of like our new digital version of the photo album.

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  2. Too funny. I was printing all my photos and buying albums at kohl's when they went on sale and still spending a fortune. Then I discovered Blurb.com and now am printing digital photo books instead. Great site, great product, great value. I've done books twice a year but I'm now trying a whole year's worth. It's best to have your book printed/shipped in November/December as that's when they tend offer free shipping and discounts in time for the holidays. :)

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  3. I'm expecting my first child in March and can't even think about all the digital files I have that will never see paper, never mind after the baby is born!!
    And I TOTALLY recommend blurb for photo books, super easy and the quality is great.

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  4. so well said...I scrapbooked for a short while after my son was born adn then just ran out of time for it...I keep reminding myself that there will be plenty of time to scrapbook (or whatever) later in life when they're in school, grown, etc...but I can never reclaim these moments now...still, easier said than done some days! LOL

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  5. This seems like it is kind of a personal blog in between, just print this one!! And I think you're stressing too. Take as many photos as you want, YOU DON'T HAVE TO PRINT THEM ALL!! I stopped printing photos...I can't remember when, but it was before my daughter was born, so at least a year and a half ago. I do digital scrapbooking, so I will print off my albums, and all the photos I don't use I burn onto CD's and store. If family wants to browse them or if my kids want them one day, there will be lots for them to pick through! I also have downsized my photos, like say I take pictures of my daughter eating with a fork for the first time, I might take 10 photos of her sitting in the high chair, like only 4 of them, and scrap only 1 of them. Delete the rest! So I don't think the key is to take less pictures, it's to be more choosy with the ones you keep, and only print the really good ones. I take photos so my kids can enjoy looking at them one day too! I think the mentality that we have to print everything has left along with film, when you took photos on a roll of film, you HAD to print them all, you didn't have a choice. So now we do! Whew. Sorry for my long comment!

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  6. Glad to hear you and yours are on the road to recovery. I'm with you....I shudder to think about all the photos I have stored away pre-digital. Maybe one day I will get them scanned....or not. :)

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  7. What a great post, thank you for the reminder about fussing over all those photos. I take so many that I could never, ever have the time to Photoshop them how I would want, let alone print them. I still haven't come up with a plan, even though DH bought me a scanner for Christmas that does negatives. Jeez, I can't tell you how long it takes just to scan in ONE photo; and I have boxes of negatives. And all that time would be spent away from my family. Food for thought indeed.

    PS; I have just added you to my Google Reader; love your blog. Starting to learn Photoshop, so I will be trying out the actions for sure.

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  8. I've read a book a while back, the author had some great ideas on dividing your time AND enjoy doing it...something like, priority setup. every day you'll need to set the priorities,plan ahead. you'll automatically enjoy what you do!
    Listen to your heart, you don't want it to get too much pressure!
    you can do it,Rita! :)

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  9. Rita, you are so welcome! I'm just glad that something I had to say would ease you burden even a little. Enjoy this season... it passes so quickly.
    Hugs... Joanie

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  10. I too LOVED what Joanie said. It was a great reminder for me. And glad to hear that Blurb is a favorite out there. I've been wondering if I should keep going with the albums or switch over to the photobooks. It helps to know what others are doing and it is working for them. I've been nervous Blurb would be hard, but maybe I'll give it a try and do a little of both (albums and books) this year. Also, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who takes WAY too many pictures!!

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  11. Just be grateful you were never introduced to Scrapbooking...ohhh LORD! LOL

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  12. OH, girls!! You've got to check out Heritage Makers. It's all online - nothing to bog down your computer, total archival storage of photos AND projects FOREVER, and it's easy & we LOVE IT! It has brought friends and family together & makes the scrapbooking into storybooking. It totally rocks. I teach it now because I believe in it so much - check out www.YourHeritageStorybooks.com!!! Seriously a solution for every photo you've ever taken...Edit, upload, create, publish = your heritage is in your home for your kids to learn from and you to be proud of!

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Rita