We’re all pretty good at taking pictures of life’s big moments. Birthday parties, travels, first day of school, holidays. And most of us are getting better about also capturing the “mundane”. The everyday. The simple stuff that makes up our life.
Today I just want to put a little reminder out there, to capture the moments that aren’t necessarily our favorite moments in life. Now obviously there are challenges and even horrible things that happen in life that aren’t meant to be photographed and displayed. That’s not what I’m talking about. Sometimes we need to photograph and/or document moments because they play an important role in who we are, what we believe, and how we gain strength through hard experiences.
This POTD is a picture that not only represents more than $4000 worth of damage, but it documents an event in a family’s life that changed their outlook on life forever.
With permission, I am sharing an email I received last week. She ties her experience into Project Life, but it’s not about the product. It’s about the concept of documenting life. This is from Beth in Ohio:
Yesterday I was driving down the highway, hit a patch of black ice, and spun out across three lanes of traffic. I hit the guard rail and ended up facing oncoming traffic. I will swear to my dying day that I felt God’s hand push me across the highway. No cars hit me, and unbelievably there were no semi trucks on the road at the time. Our three-year-old was with me, buckled snugly in his car seat. No one was hurt, but our car is totaled.
What I am getting at is that even though I have just started this project for the first time, and it is just the beginning of the year, what I do for five minutes a day would have been there to bless my family if things had turned out differently yesterday. They would have had a visual and written record of the last 8 days of my life. This tiny little time commitment and the $53 is well-spent to record life AS IT HAPPENS.
Yesterday I used my first bi-fold journaling card to record the accident and my feelings about it. If I had waited to “scrapbook” it, these things would have been lost to memory. I can’t believe how much I am preserving with just FIVE MINUTES a day.
Becky, thank you for this product. What an incredible blessing it is to so many families. You have created something that allows our lives to be preserved and remembered in this time-crunched world. I feel more so much more strongly about Project Life now than I did a week ago — it has taken on a meaning that, although I knew was there, I had never felt the urgency of until now. We never know what will happen in any given day, and what better way to be cognizant of that than to remember the everyday moments each day.
My POTD for that day was actually a photo that my husband took of the damage to the car. I find that the visual reminder of the damage brings those moments back. I know that sounds odd, but I want to remember how grateful I was just to be alive, and feel that all the other stuff is just stuff.
I can only add one thing to what Beth has so beautifully communicated: Like every one of you reading this, I am so grateful that she is okay and their sweet little boy is okay. Their lives were spared that day for a reason. There is more life to live. There is more love to give.
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On a similar note of documenting our not-so-favorite moments … but on a much, much, MUCH lighter note … check out this moment that my friend Kara happened to capture in our home last month.
If you look closely through Claire’s hair, you see a face of huge disappointment and sadness. Crew, of course, just looks shocked. Yes, Crew. When you throw a snow globe on the floor, it really does shatter. For real. Don’t mind that it was Claire’s favorite Christmas decoration.
The reason Kara was even able to capture this moment is because she was hanging out with our family for the day. She was documenting A Day in Our Life. It’s one of the greatest gifts a family can have for themselves: The documentation of a day. I am so excited to share with you that Kara is adding this “offering” to her photography business. Learn more about it HERE.
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Folks, life is happening. Good stuff, funny stuff, blessed stuff, hard stuff, devastating stuff. It’s all there. This is life as we know it. Let’s do our best to cultivate a good life and record it.
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Added note: As you know, the Project Life kits are currently sold out. We are very close to having more inventory in stock. We expect those kits to be available on Amazon (for U.S. customers) by the end of January. Any sooner would be a pleasant surprise. We all want to be pleasantly surprised! Thank you for your patience (and your interest!). As always, I will communicate updates & information as we get closer — especially here on my blog and on facebook and twitter.
Tags: beth, car wreck, challenges, snow globe
Well first of all I am SO glad Beth in Ohio and her son are ok. It is so wonderful to read her words. And she is so right. On any given day we don’t know what is going to happen. It is so nice to read your blog, hear your words Becky and of others to know that there is someone else out there thinking like I do. Thinking…seeing…hearing…alll this “stuff” we call life. I am recovering from surgery from this past Friday. I really really have to make myself sit down, relax and do as I am told.LOL That as my friends all know is NOT a easy task for me. This blog I feel is one reminder to me that thats exactly what I must do. And gives me something to do with my time. Sooo on that note I am way way behind on my 2010 Project Life so I am going to sit and work on that today. AND of course open up 2011…OMG love that torquise one and start the first week. Thanks Becky for creating this wonderful way to scrap. Oh la la…love it:)
Please keep us posted as to when the kits are back in stock. I’m convinced.
I need to document our lives better and not let life’s moments slip from memory…
Do a Google search. There are companies that fix snowglobes. Claire can get her favorite decoration back.
I am glad Beth is OK. This past Christmas, moments after our Christmas tree fell over (yikes!) I grabbed the camera and took a photo. A few years ago I would never have thought to do this or that a fallen tree had any significance but it does. Things happen and instead of getting all uptight I have learned, through Project Life and taking photos everyday, that sometimes you just have to laugh… and take a photo.
Helen
I too am so glad Beth and her little one are ok. God is good!!
I love the idea of “A Day in the Life”. I wished I lived closer so Kara could document ours.
Since I don’t I have been thinking about ways to make it happen for our family. I am going to ask a good friend of mine to spend the day with us, camera in hand, and photograph our daily life and in return do the same for her. I know we won’t get the professional shots but that is ok, it will still be just as meaningful.
Thanks for the inspiration:)
Thank you and Beth for sharing this incident with us (so glad they are ok), because life is not alway good. You are absolutely right itq makes us who we are. Thanks again.
Gloria H
I love what looks to be a pretzel container on your ottoman. Guess what is on my ottoman right this moment that my daughter is snacking from? yep! a pretzel container.
p.s. love, love the torquise edition. documenting life with it.
Thanks for sharing. I love reading your blog because it’s NOT JUST the latest crafting trend, extreme home makeover or photo of your immaculate and perfect life
… you inspire. And I think that is a rare thing to come across in the blogging world.
Love Beths words and I agree completely, I’m up to date on mine for that reason, it is so easy to forget!
And, speaking of turquoise, where in the world did you get that lovely ottoman?
Soooo happy to hear the happy ending. I’ve been in that same situation and it is terrifying.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the look on Crew’s face.
I am so glad that Beth and her little one are ok!! We had a ‘littlke’ problem this last year too, that I never in my life would have thought to take picutres of, but my mother in law did, she said one day later inlife you will look back on this. We built a new house last year, ans were almost to the finishing stages, we were just painting. Our little house we were living in in town got infested with garter snakes, and yes I mean IN the house, needless to say we packed up the nessesities and got the heck out of there…..the problem being the only place to go, because the new house was not ready, was my husbands grandpas small 2 bedroom ( we are a family of 5). We ‘camped’ out there for 4 weeks, one child on a matress in a bedroom, one on the couch, one on a mattress on the floor in the living room, and my husband and I in a bedroom. We stayed there until at 6Am one morning our son came running into our room to let us jnow there was a mouse by his bed, needeless to say we moved into the new house that day even though it wasnt quite ready. I do have pictures of all of this now, they are going into last years PL and they will end up in the scrapbook as well.
So glad that Beth and her son are okay. I could have written this letter, too. A week ago tonight, on my way home from picking up my 18 yr. old from O’Hare airport, I hit a patch of ice on a curve, and left the road. My Rav4 went airborne, slammed headfirst into the ground (in a field) and flipped over on the roof. Keep in mind, I had spent 9 hours driving (round trip) and 5 hours waiting at the airport, as my daughter’s plane from Germany was delayed, and then her connected flight in Montreal was missed, and later flights dealyed. My accident happened 5 minutes from home!!! Miraculously, my daughter and I were both able to get ourselves out of the car, despite being upside down, and very disoriented. As soon as I crawled out the back seat door, I realized my back was broken or something and I couldn’t stand. So I crawled back inside and laid on the floor, which was really the ceiling. My daughter was able to call 911 and her Dad/my husband (not a call anyone wants to receive at 1:15 am.) I ended up with a broken T-11 vertabrae, spent 4 days in the hospital and will spend the next 12 weeks in a back brace – my daughter had several cuts on her hand, and major bruises from the sealtbelt and airbags.
But we are both alive. I believe in miracles, and I truly believe we should not have survived the accident, given the force we hit with. My cell phone was lost, and her’s had no battery left. Yet somehow she was able to call.
When my husband told me the car had been towed and they found my phone, the first thing I told him was that I wanted pictures – of my car, and the accident site. My daughter doesn’t get it, and neither does he. She wants to forget about that night. I will never forget. I don’t want to forget. My life changed that night. And in a way, my life started over that night. Its going to be a long road to recovery, but it is something that I want to record. Its a constant reminder how precious life is and how we should enjoy every moment God chooses to give us. Because in one heartbeat, life as we know it can change.
It is my hope to eventually be able to order Project Life, because now I know just where to start. So thanks Becky for inspiring all of us on a daily basis.
So here I sit in Oregon, miles away from “Beth in Ohio” and Kathy with tears streaming down my face. I have been in two car accidents but none as terrifying as either of theirs. So glad to hear that they are both taking a negative, scary event as taking something positive from it. I am sending positive healing thoughts their way.
On a lighter note- Yesterday I also discovered that sometimes the POTD is supposed to serve as a reminder of the crummy parts of life. My doctor put me on an antibiotic that wreaked havoc with my body. I was just lounging at home sick and not in the mood to take a POTD because nothing around the house seemed interesting enough. I knew though that if I didn’t take a picture just because I was sick I would get out of the habit and I would be really upset with myself. So- I took a picture of my antibiotic bottle, a can of gingerale and saltines. Kinda weird I guess but a good reminder that bad days happen but there will be many more good days.
So glad to hear that your friend does “A Day in the Life” for her photography business. I have thought for YEARS that someone should offer this service to families.
Anyway– just my two cents. Thank you for all the inspiration. Project Life is GREAT!
I too am glad no one was hurt in this accident… I know all too well about getting the phone call with a different outcome. But I have a question that I would like to ask people who say God intervened and saved them. Does that mean when the outcome is bad that he decided not to? Now I know what the answer is, but I think people should think twice before saying something like that. “because time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all” Eccl. 9:11
Wrong place wrong time…that is it. Thankfully it worked out for her.
oh dear Becky hehe i must say with a 11 year old and a monster 3 year old in my house i have many moments like that, pretty much unless its deadbolted he gets into it thankfully he knows its not worth touching mummies scrapbooking stuff OR ELSE LOL…..but project life has been awesome for photos of these moments lol its hard to not get a album filled with just those moments lol….my poor daughter though she loves her brother but some days its just really hard to do that with what he does hehehehe BOYS
Hi Becky, I am a very big fan of yours for years…I love your blog and products. I am ready to dive in and get my very own project life kit but I live in Austria. Any recommendations that you can give me I would really like to purchase one… i have thought about the digital version but that really wont work for me.
Thanks for your help….keep inspiring us you are GEEEEAAAT!!!
I feel for this lady but um, this car is not totaled.
I guess I have been taken down a few notches today. I wrote this in an emotional state, and simply wished to convey to others how quickly life could have changed. I am sorry that I bothered everyone.
Beth – please don’t let someone else’s negativity outweigh the good that has already come as a result of your willingness to share your story.
Read the positive replies. How many people have taken the time to tell you and Becky how reading about your experience has encouraged them to take the time to record the everyday? How many MORE people have felt the same, but not replied? We can count the answer to the first question. We cannot know the answer to the second one – though I think our estimate would be much lower than the reality.
(((((Beth))))) Beware the roller coaster – your emotions are going to fly up and sink down, often without any rhyme or reason. It’s been almost 12 years since my husband and three children were in a horrific accident. Though their injuries were severe, they’ve all recovered. Yet, once in awhile, something will smack me….
The timing of this post is great! I was getting ready to download the pictures of my boarded up picture window. We were broke into last week and are waiting for new glass to be installed. Thankfully, nothing else was broke or stolen, but I do think of it as a noteworthy enough experience to scrapbook.
Beth, I for one am so VERY thankful that you posted your thoughts and feelings after your accident. I read them the first time over on BPC, and then again today on Becky’s blog. I was not bothered in any way, but instead blessed! Your comments are true, and meaningful, and so very important. We never know what life will bring us from one day to the next. I appreciate the reminder to continue loving those near and dear to me, as well as my fellow neighbor. Thank you. (((Hugs))) to you.
So I thought about it a little, and realized that I did not bother everyone. I bothered 2 people who disagreed with me, and who felt the need to correct me in a public forum, which embarrassed and bothered me. So I feel the need to respond.
No, the car was not totaled. But at the time, we believed the damage to be much more extensive than it was. It still is not drivable. We visited the body shop today. The damage will take 2 more weeks to repair, at the very least. What you cannot see is that the wheel itself is bent, the tie rod ends have to be replaced, it needs a new tire, and the crossbar underneath is also bent. At the time, we believed the exhaust system to be involved, which would have required it to be replaced as well. This would have cost well over half of the blue book value of the car, at which point some insurance companies total it out. Which would mean I was not exaggerating for effect, which is what you implied. And after hitting a guardrail at highway speed, it sure felt like it was totaled.
To the poster who cited Bible verse, I agree with you. This was the wrong time and the wrong place. I am not versed in the Bible enough to cite scripture, and my personal beliefs are not the same as others, but why call them to the carpet in a public forum? However, since you did, I will explain. I HAVE been in situations and experienced life events that did not turn out well. And am I as quick to jump in and claim God had a hand in it, of course not. As is often said, sometimes God’s answer is no. It just takes a longer time to recognize that and see His purpose. And I feel that I try to do that more often than not, though there is no way to prove that.
I appreciate the kind words that most of you have offered. My heart goes out to those of you who were in worse situations than I – losing a loved one, being physically harmed in an accident, and even worse that you haven’t shared. My intent was not to assert that I was in the worst situation imaginable, only to share a moment that changed the way I view Becky’s project. I am humbled by the warmth and responses that many of you have given, but it isn’t about what happened to me last Saturday. It’s about realizing that at any moment life as we know it COULD change. And it’s about loving life while we have it.
I am very very sorry if I came across as preachy, I did not mean so. I am so very glad that you and your son are OK. And I am glad that you escaped this with only material loss.
Beth, I am glad you felt the need to respond – I wanted to also, but tried to just bite my tongue. I am afraid the one poster who quoted scripture was aiming it at ME. While I do believe that God saved my daughter and I on Monday night, I never BLAME God when someone is taken. I believe that God has a plan for each and every one of us. It is not our right to understand His plan. Sometimes we are able to see the good that comes from the bad, but its not always clear. And by saying that God gave us another chance, when someone else may have died in an accident, I am not saying that God chose NOT to give them a second chance. I was speaking about MY experience and MY feelings. While someone may disagree, they did not experience or feel what I did on Monday night, just as I did not feel or experience what they have experienced.
Beth, you sharing about your experience hit close to home for me, and I wanted to share. Maybe I should not have in this forum. But I do thank you for sharing, and I am glad you are okay. I hope that your car will be able to be fixed or replaced affordably. To look at pics of MY vehicle, the same poster might say it doesn’t look totalled. It was not crushed beyond recognition. It held together pretty well, actually, which I think helped reduce injuries. But trust me when I say it IS totalled!!
Sorry Becky if I have caused bad feelings on your blog. Not my intention at all!! You are my inspiration in all things creative!! : ) I no longer fear spray paint!!
Hi Becky, I see you are hoping to get the PL kits for USA customers back and was wondering if they will be available again to Australian cusomers? Thanks
Becky, I wanted to respond to this tonight because I had a similar experience in doing PL last year … last June my 5 y.o. was in a drowning accident in a friend’s pool. Her 9 y.o. brother found her at the bottom and pulled her out, where she was resuscitated by another friend. We are so grateful that she is now fine, and so aware that it could have easily gone the other way. I had to include the photos of her in the hospital, covered in tubes, and then leaving the hosp. all better … it was hard to put in the photos and write out the whole experience in our family album, to relive it yet again … but it was part of our life — a HUGE part of our life, and it had to go in.
I think the PL format helped put it in perspective, though, too. In the end, it just occupied a few photo and journaling slots. It didn’t dominate the whole album, just as we don’t want our hardships to dominate our whole year.
OMG Beth! NOOOO! I hope you have not received bad comments about this story. Yes, the car is not totaled, but I completely understand how emotional you are about it and that “totaled” would be a word that came immediately to mind. Please realise this is a huge thing for you and your reaction is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL. I want to give you a hug!
In other comments. I am quite pleased with Becky’s “Day in the Life photo” as it shows me that he house is not absolute perfection!! LOL!! All Becky’s other pictures seem to show a house from a magazine or showhome, so this real life in motion photo is quite important for me in my perception of Becky as “normal” and not “uptight”!! (said with a tongue firmly in cheek)
And third thing – will the PL be available again in NZ as the local distributor is out of stock….
Becky—this is my first year as a Project Lifer—I bought it for myself for Christmas and I just bought a little SELPHY printer—my first two weeks are done and my current week is caught up—it’s miraculous! REALLY—this hasn’t happened for me. I’m a card maker, so my tendency has been to create these BEAUTIFUL pages, but my other commitments do not allow me the time to get much done. I’ve let the perfectionism go and I’m just capturing life as it happens—I can’t wait to look back on 2011 with a full book of “life”! I’m really grateful for this product—I would definitely have spent 10 times the price to make pages my “traditional” way—even with the cost of the printer, I came out WAY ahead financially—thank you again so much for giving me the tools to “get it done”!
I really needed to read this story–right now–right here where I am in my life. So thank you Beth and Becky for sharing it.
For two years I’ve sat on the fence about doing Project Life. The first year they sold out so quickly that I decided it was a “pass” for me and I’d try again next year. Last year I was newly pregnant with our (surprise) 4th child and so sick with morning sickness I decided again it wasn’t the year for me.
Three days before Christmas my husband went in for a CT scan for a suspected hernia and came home with a diagnosis of advanced lymphoma. Saying that a cancer diagnosis was shocking and sobering is such and understatement–we have 4 children, including our 5 month old daughter.
I follow your blog regularly and had been on the fence for 2011 again about starting Project Life. My husband’s cancer diagnosis changed all that. It reinforced to me how much I want to document the every day details of how much this man–my husband and the father of our children–impacts our family each and every day and how central he is to our family life. And, as you can imagine, it is my dearest wish that our 2011 Project Life will contain these details–and details of how he fought and beat this disease into remission in 2011.
Thank you both for reminding me of why I’m doing this!
Becky talks about recording the mundane…the common….the every day moments of our lives. I like to use my Project Life book to keep track of the books I read. I take a picture of the cover of the book, then I use one of the folding journal cards to tell what I liked or didn’t like about the book. Why did I read it…..where did I hear about it…or who may have recommended it to me? I belong to a book-club and sometimes I include highlights from our discussion.
Oh my daughter did that to my son’s snow globe when they were smaller. Jackson was so upset and I told him that Siobhan was really sorry. We looked over to see her going off to find something else to destroy and both said “no she’s not” at the same time and Jackson was able to laugh! It’s little things like this that you forget which is why I am finding Project Life so useful for documenting these little incidents that you just wouldn’t have time to scrapbook properly. I did it last year and have just ordered my kit for this year. I do have a few gaps in last years so this year am making sure to take a few extra random photos for these times. Thank you so much for providing this kit to us!
The day after I read this post I was in a minor fender bender. Thanks to this post I actually took a picture for the POTD album. Thanks for reminding me that to chronicle a year in the life of my family accurately I need to include the bad with the good. And it is another way to see how blessed we really are. Just flipping through the month and only seeing one or two unpleasant photos is a great reminder of how good we really have it. Project Life is injecting my life with so many blessings. Thank you Becky!
God is truly amazing. So happy to hear a story of inspiration that ends with good news rather than bad. I also had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago. On my way to work, on a two lane highway, I hit a patch of ice and lost control. My car spun out and ended in a way that I was facing the same direction I needed to continue going. I was stuck in snow and centered. Within seconds there were cars passing (one sweet man helped me out – my car was okay too). I was so greatful that there were no other cars for the whirlwind I experienced because I would have for sure caused a horiffic accident.
Beth, God Bless you and your little boy. Here’s to everyone capturing the little moments life has to offer.
Taryn
Tum Tum, WA
Where did you find your awesome turquois ottoman?? LOVE it!
life as we know it pages…once did one titled “my life with flat tires” it was a 2 page layout with count them 7 pictures of different flat tires and a narative of each event. To date think this has been one of my “more fun” creative pages!. People love reading it, and ya know what, I can change a flat tire with the best of them now!
Scrap your van today for free….
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