It is that time of year again when I start to wade through the thousands of photographs and videos I have taken of my children and family throughout the year and decide that it is time to do something with them.

The sheer magnitude of the task makes it a daunting one, but I know that if it gets left any longer it will never happen…and I like to record things.

As a child I always loved to flick through our family photo albums.    I loved the hidden stories, the background details, the way that they could spark a memory of something almost forgotten.  I loved the sense of belonging – of being part of a family with a special and shared history.

Even now, when I fly up to see my parents, a visit isn’t complete without a cross-legged hour in the study pouring over the pages of one or other of those big heavy albums.

To me, they are treasures of immeasurable value – they are my family jewels.

Combine this with my passion for writing (I have kept a diary of sorts for as long as I can remember) and you end up with something like this.

That’s right, for a whole year, I managed to write down entries about my family a few times a week and kept it in a word document.  At the end of the year I put it all together with a selection of photographs from my humungous collection, using Blurb…and then…(and this is the really cool part)…I had a copy printed for each of the children, and one for Hubbster and I.

Each of my children also has their own book – dedicated to the first year of their life, documenting all their ‘firsts’ and housing the millions of snaps I took of them.

I’m really rather proud of them, as I know that they will provide my children and I with much joy in later years, when we think we have forgotten the finer, or seemingly mundane details of their early years.

The 2009 Diary is by far the most detailed book, and my personal favourite, as it encompassed our life as a family.

It includes special messages of love.

Important family occasions.

Loved ones that are no longer with us.

The fun, the laughter and the love.

And possibly lots of crap that everyone but us would think was as boring as bat shit.

My intention, of course, had been to continue this book producing tradition annually, with a copy being made for each child.

But, as I soon found out, life with three children under three was far more time-consuming and exhausting than I may have initially thought.

2010’s Mummy Diary is a hotch-potch of images – still a treasure in my eyes, but not exactly what I had intended.

2011’s Mummy Diary is looking to be a conglomeration of images and blog posts that I wrote about the children and family life (and let’s face it, there have been some hilarious antics from them)…but it still lacks the finer details…the everyday stuff – the boring stuff I guess.  God damn it!  I want to remember all the boring stuff too – because it is the boring stuff that makes our family unique, right?

So…here it is.

 This is my plan for 2012…

We’ll have the photo’s…of course we’ll have the photo’s.  I lurve the photo’s and I’m not showing any signs of slowing down on the parent

paparazzi front.

I’ll include my favourite family related blog posts.

But…and this is the challenge…the manageable challenge…I will write at least one sentence to each of my family members everyday and record it in a word document.

I hope that sitting down at the end of the day and taking ten minutes to reflect on the day and taking the time to record something…anything…from the day…will not only benefit me (and remind me to be mindful and appreciative of my loved ones), but also be the treasures that they hold dear in years to come.

Just one sentence everyday for each of my children, one for my husband…and this will be the toughy…one for myself.

So…you fancy doing it with me?

Click here for hints and tips on getting started.