Today You

Scrapbooker and author Ali Edwards teaches a technique to capture pieces of her day-to-day life. She starts with the line: TODAY YOU... and then fills in the blanks. It looks like she's going to have some more ideas about this techniquecoming soon.

But this concept has really stuck with me. Here's a page I made with this back in January.

As I go about my day-to-day stuff, I sometimes make a mental list of it. Tonight I took the time to write it down.

Dearest Kylie: Today you

woke up at 5:30

put your hands on either side of mine and clapped my hands together

said "neigh" when you saw the horse on my shirt

said, baaa, mooo, and woof", and made elephant trumpeting and giraffe noises

napped from 10 to 12

ate peas, carrots, potato frittata, applesauce and mandarin orange slices for lunch

played at Gymboree

laid down on your back on a Gymboree mat. Smiled at the little girl who laid down beside you. Enjoyed a quiet moment of relaxation with her.

danced your baby doll around to music

chewed on a bathing suit

ate raisins at Starbucks while Granna and I had coffees and looked at pictures of you

played in the garage with your Life is Good baseball hat, a bubble-blowing wand, a piece of chalk, a nerf ball and a container of clorox wipes for over half an hour

spilled an entire cup of peaches in your lap during dinner

Today I

wished for the 200+ time that I had a digital voice recorder with me as Kylie drank her morning bottle. I really want to capture the sounds of her as she gulps and sighs before our bottle days are over. It's one of my all-time favorite sounds.

felt really scattered when I realized that I had left two cups of coffee (from the previous two days) on the window sill behind the family room couch.

worried when Karen told me that her rental car had its passenger window bashed out during the night as it sat in her hotel's parking lot (nothing stolen though).

took a much-needed nap from 8-9am while Granna took Kylie for a walk

cooked a hashbrown frittata from a new recipe for our lunch

called my Mom a laundry goddess when she did some of our laundry

made a list of 15 scrapbook pages I want to create

checked my Flickr and Google Analytics stats

read a few blogs and made a few comments

read several stories to Kylie

made a quick Target run while Kylie napped

cleaned my kitchen floor

picked up, put up, organized throughout the day

listened to an audio book while Kylie played in the garage

made a taco salad for dinner

watched Sex and the City movie after dinner

did not take any pictures or make any scrapbook pages

told my Karen, my Kylie and my Mom that I loved them.

came up with lots of blogging and scrapbook ideas between 10-11pm

I encourage you to try this technique. It helps me to slow down and appreciate my life. Now off to bed!