Publishing the Memories

A little over a year ago Chad had an idea. He thought we should do a blog post a day and then publish our blog into a book. He was inspired by a good friend of our that does a blog post almost everyday of the week. I liked the idea, but was a little unsure about doing it everyday. Chad assured me he would contribute to the blog so I wouldn't have to do all the work.

We did really well for the first half of the year. Many of our blog posts were done just before midnight, but we made our goal everyday. I was glad we were getting so many little memories written down, but it was getting to be a little much. Sometimes it was hard to come up with something to write about and it made busy days even busier.

One day Chad read an article about simplifying and he shared it with me. We decided that we didn't have to do a blog post everyday. That made a big difference. I was still determined to blog several times a week, but I no longer felt compelled to do a post everyday.

Toward the end of the year I came across a really good coupon for a Blurb book. Blurb is an internet company that allows you to download your blog and arrange it into a book. The coupon was good until sometime in February. I thought that was perfect. It would give me plenty of time to work on the book and get it done shortly after the new year.

Ahh, the best laid plans . . . ! If I wasn't involved in anything and had tons of time that might have worked. The holidays consumed me and I put the book on the back burner. I got a couple of email reminders telling me that my coupon would expire soon, but I thought I had until the end of February so I wasn't worried.

One day, after receiving another email, I decided to look at the date on the coupon. To my surprise it said it would expire at the beginning of February - two weeks away. Panic set in, but I still thought it would be okay, because I had two weeks. Well, I don't know if you have ever made a book before, but it takes a lot of time and I'm a perfectionist so it takes me even longer.

I quickly found out that choosing the blog to book option isn't as easy as it looks. I didn't like the way the program put the book together, so I created my own custom pages. I was glad the program let you create custom layouts, but it added more time to my quickly disappearing two weeks.

I spent almost every waking moment of the two weeks in front of the computer working on the book. Chad and the boys were very supportive. The boys willingly watched movies and played games while I worked (I know good parent, right?). Chad stayed up with me almost every night (partly just to make sure I actually stopped and went to bed). Chad also helped with some of the layouts and proofread most of the entries.

In the end we finished the book by the deadline, all 418 pages. I didn't think we would make it, but I was praying that we would. We learned a lot of things that will help the process go much more smoothly next time. In fact, I'm already working on this year's book so we don't have another two weeks of stress and no sleep (even though I am a little behind on the blog now).

I am really glad we did the book - it was worth the time and effort. I love the final product. It is so fun to have all those memories right at our fingertips. We love to look at the book and remember the fun we had last year. It's a great way to keep our family history. I'm already looking forward to looking through this years book!