Show and Tell 03.18.26

Back with another installment of my Show and TELL series – here’s what I’m trying, eyeing, loving and learning this spring.

TRYING

My Southern Kitchen recipes | If you follow Southern Living on Instagram, you’ve seen Ivy Odom’s videos. I ordered her cookbook, My Southern Kitchen, a few weeks ago and ended up bookmarking about 2 dozen recipes I want to try this year. As I was poring over the text, Andrew said “Are you… reading? A cookbook?” But her write-ups for each recipe are so fun and nostalgic! This cookbook is more for get-togethers and occasions, not so much for simple weeknight dinners, but I’m excited to challenge myself in the kitchen and try some things out of my comfort zone. Plus, there are some twists on some southern classics that I want to become more familiar with. Fried chicken, banana pudding, homemade sweet tea – there’s no excuse for me not to have at least attempted some of these at this point in my life.

These last few years I’ve really forced myself to try more things in the kitchen and it’s been so gratifying, so I’m excited to make my way through these recipes and hopefully have a few more excuses to host friends in the process.

Growing herbs and cherry tomatoes | We’re trying our hand at some different herbs this year, along with some cherry tomatoes from seeds. Attempting to not overwater things this time around (my biggest gardening downfall) by remembering a little nugget from Joanna Gaines’ children’s book We Are the Gardeners – herbs have manners. They like to sip, not gulp!

EYEING

For the first time in our entire marriage, I actually sent my husband links for things I’d like when he asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I know – huge. I’ve always been a birthday minimalist but this year, I’ve got my eye on a few things and wouldn’t mind opening any of them for the big 3-6! I sent him these earrings, this cap (so I’ll quit stealing his), and this velvety Jo Malone perfume. I haven’t worn perfume since high school, and especially not since I’ve been trying to be more conscious of what I put in and on my body, but this smells so good I don’t even care.

Speaking of gifting – I needed to get a gift for a friend a few weeks ago, and it was someone I’d never bought a gift for. I texted her sister for gift ideas and she sent back a screenshot of a Note on her phone: Gift Ideas for ___. It had things she likes and is into (baking, gardening, champagne), things she’s not into (coffee, for example), things she does for hobbies and relaxation – it was just ten or so things but it pointed me in the right direction and was SO incredibly helpful. I think everyone needs to keep a list like this! Especially for kids, too. I love when I text another parent to ask what their child might like for their birthday and they say “They’re really into ___ or they would love ___ toy.” THANK YOU. We’re gonna give the gifts anyway, so let’s just make it easy on each other and get what we actually like and will use!

LOVING

Home finds | A new living room rug that finally feels like the rug we should’ve had in there all along, and vintage Texas coffee table books I found at a precious little antique store in Johnson City when I stopped on a whim on the way to Fredericksburg. Things that make our home feel more us!

Hilmy Cellars winery in Fredericksburg | Speaking of Fredericksburg, when I went with my girls in February I stopped by this winery on my way into town. Andrew and I had done a tasting at Hilmy Cellars back in 2018 and both agreed their wine was the best of any we’d tried that trip, so I wanted to stop in again and grab a few bottles to take back home for him. When we opened a bottle of their cab after dinner and poured ourselves a glass, we both just sighed that sigh when something’s almost too good for words.

I don’t know what’s different about their grapes or their process, but the difference is stark. I already can’t wait to go back for more (or maybe I’ll just join their wine club?) plus now they have a full kitchen – with a shakshuka pizza on the menu! We started making shakshuka at home a few years ago – a pizza version sounds amazing. If you’re in Fredericksburg anytime soon, make a stop at Hilmy.

Entering my baseball mom era | I’ve looked forward to being to be a baseball mom since the day we found out it was two boys! And somehow they’re already four and a half, starting their first activity of their own after sitting on the sidelines (a.k.a. the dance studio waiting room) for most of their lives. It’s finally their turn! I had to laugh – after our first t-ball practice, Hayes saw another little boy drinking a Gatorade and said “Hey, what’s that?” Ohhh, sweet boy. Many Gatorades are in your future!

LEARNING

How helpful it is to only keep half of my closet in sight at a time | I recently swapped the fall/winter clothes in my closet for my spring/summer wardrobe, packing up the cold weather things and leaving only warm weather things hanging up. Keeping my out-of-season clothes packed away, out of sight/out of mind, has been more helpful than I ever realized it would be when I started doing this a few years ago. Obviously for visual clutter purposes – it’s easier to see my options when clothes aren’t crowded and bunched together– but there were times as I was grabbing things from my spring/summer bin to hang up again that I thought “Oh, I forgot I even had that and I'm not that excited about it” (to the donate pile it goes) AND there were things that I thought “Oh I'm so excited to wear this again this spring!” Not seeing things for a while really changes your perspective. Same thing as I was putting my fall/winter clothes away– as I folded up each piece I thought “Did I even wear this at all this season?” Seasonal swapping really forces you to edit your wardrobe and be intentional, and it’s helped me keep my closet so much more manageable!

How much I need His mercy | I started Paul David Tripp’s New Morning Mercies devotional last year and have really been enjoying the simple, straight-to-the-point, way he reflects on God’s unending mercy. It’s just one page a day, with an accompany Bible chapter that goes along with each devotional, but his words have helped me look at the gospel from different angles and what it means for my life in new ways. I recently heard a clip from a podcast with Lauren Akins and she was asked “What is God teaching you right now?” I considered the same question for myself and in this season, I think it’s that He’s helping me to realize that I need the good news and mercy of the gospel more than I thought I did.

Growing up in church, I remember many sermons and discussions about grace, but I don’t really remember the flipside of that conversation. There was a whole lot of grace and goodness talk, but not a lot of sin and inadequacy talk. The gospel was framed as more of a nice thing than a necessary one. It was more just “God loves you so much and He loves you exactly the way you are.” Which sounds great, and He does love us endlessly. But it leaves out an important part of the equation – the depravity that we cannot overcome and the fact that we are not, in fact, good enough for Him, exactly as we are, because He is a just and fair God. If we were good enough on our own, if we were adequate, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to die. The gospel wouldn’t be the gospel.

So as an adult, wrapping my mind around the innate terribleness of humans, wrestling with how that works with us being made by God in his image… it took a little while for me to get there, mentally. But realizing how much I need God’s grace because I truly don’t deserve it and cannot do a single thing to earn it anyway… it makes the gospel so much more integral and meaningful for me.

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That’s a wrap for some springtime show and tell. Thanks for reading!

Show and Tell 01.21.26

I told myself I’d start blogging more after saying goodbye to my photography business and going back to my roots here on The Big and Bright, which began in 2014 as a blog. Well, that was August and this is January, and the posts have been few and far between. After running a business for ten years that required me to show up online and consistently be creatively polished, a break was much needed. I haven’t been in as much of a sharing mood in general these days, embracing all things homeschooling, homemaking, and homebody-ing… (a homebody always, but the other two – who woulda thought??). But I do miss blogging just for the hell of it, writing just to write, and I really miss the freedom to share whatever I felt like without worrying tying it up in a pretty little bow for Instagram.

After a conversation with a friend about the rise of Substack and how it reminds me of the days of Xanga (lol) and the early blogging days, when blogs were actually blogs, before Instagram and influencing, I was inspired to start sharing on here again. Honest thoughts and snippets of life, but with the structure of a series to help keep me motivated. So, here’s the first installment of what I’m calling Show and Tell, or T.E.L.L. (because I can’t resist an acronym), where I’ll be sharing hopefully monthly about things I’m Trying, Eyeing, Loving, and Learning.

TRYING

Walking | What a novelty, I know! For the last 2 years, I’ve been pretty consistent with strength training (using the Moves app – can’t say enough great things about it!), but after the holidays I felt like my body was really craving some gentler movement again for a while. I’ve been walking just for 30 minutes 4 or 5 days a week and it’s been so refreshing! I love my walking pad for colder days.

Film camera | I’ve had an old Canon film camera for years, but hadn’t used it since high school and was a little bit intimidated to start again. I needed to reteach myself how to load it and use it and I just wasn’t ready to re-commit, but after I got on a disposable camera kick last year, I wanted to keep that going without having to keep buying disposables. A few YouTube videos later, the old Canon is back in business and I’m excited to see what I can capture this year on film!

“When you get a chance” | Working for the last few months on making this phrase a go-to in our house, especially with the boys. They’re getting better at prefacing their requests with “Mom, when you get a chance, can you please ___” and it’s so refreshing to hear. They’re learning that most of their requests aren’t as urgent as they think they are; they’re pausing to notice and recognize what I’m in the middle of, they’re interrupting way less often… if you’re feeling snappy with your preschoolers amidst the million requests and demands each day, add this one to their repertoire.

Rowe Casa Hair Spritz | 35 has not been kind to me in the hormone or hair department, and in my desperation last fall, I dropped some $$$ on Divi’s scalp serum in hopes to combat some thinning spots around my hair line and part. Unfortunately I haven’t loved anything about it – it makes my hair super greasy and I was having to plan my hair wash schedule/hat-wearing days around applying it, it drips everywhere, and I just looked like a wet, greasy mess. I kept seeing ads for Rowe Casa’s hair spritz, essentially for the same purpose, and thought for $39 it would be worth trying. So far, so good! It dries really nicely. Wish I would’ve skipped the Divi mess and gone with Rowe Casa in the first place!

EYEING

Swimsuits | I love my Summersalt suits but I’m in serious need of a couple more options to add to my rotation before this summer. Must have decent bum coverage (why is this so rare?!). MUST come in Long Torso. I was ready to invest in a Hunza G after seeing them for years, but then I walked into Walmart the other day and was SO impressed by their cute spring swimsuit collection. Two totally different ends of the quality spectrum I’m sure, but the Walmart selection is still intriguing. Might have to do both – Hunza G for a one piece, Walmart for a two piece since the long torso part doesn’t matter there. Going back to try some on asap!

Gallery wall finds for the boys’ room | This has been a long time coming, but after finally finding the perfect red rug (proud of myself for choosing COLOR!) for their room, I’ve started collecting things for their walls and can’t wait for their room to feel complete. Savage Sam is one of Andrew’s favorite childhood movies and the boys love it now too – I found a Golden Book of it from the 60s that I can’t wait to frame alongside some very special pieces.

LOVING

A slower homeschool pace this semester | Last fall was our first semester of homeschooling. Figuring out our groove, tweaking our schedule as we went, and learning SO. MUCH. along the way. I started out the school year trying to approach things from a “if we finish we finish, if we don’t, whatever” more loosey goosey mindset, and honestly, that’s just not me. I am Type A through and through, and while I feel like that’s not represented as much in many of the homeschool spheres online (like maybe it feels frowned upon to be a more rigid homeschool mom? Because flexibility and ditching “norms” is one of the main benefits of homeschooling in the first place?), I’ve learned that for us, having clear plans laid out brings more peace to our days, and a lack of structure brings the opposite. I love our open-and-go books, but sometimes I need more open-and-tell-me-when-to-stop. Over Christmas break I mapped out our entire second semester in more detail, setting objectives for each month and each week, still with wiggle room but with clear stopping points for each day, too.

The other factor in our pace dilemma was figuring out that Kindergarten wasn’t the level she needed for Language Arts and Math. One of those things you don’t know until you dive in and give things a little time, but a few weeks into the fall, I knew she’d do better with first grade curriculum. That’s the beauty of homeschool – being able to meet her where she’s at! Then it was a matter of bridging the gap, figuring out exactly which parts of Kindergarten to skip (most) and which parts she still needed to review (some), and then purchasing/getting into a new groove with first grade books. But we’re all caught up now, doing just one short lesson a day in each subject, feeling relaxed, unhurried but knowing she’s exactly where she needs to be, on track to finish in early May and start again in August working a full grade ahead. I’m absolutely blown away by all that she’s learning and capable of already, and it truly is one of the greatest joys of my life to have been able to teach her at home this year and savor our days spent together.

Aura Frame | Truth be told, I’d never had any desire for a digital frame until this one. I just didn’t think they did photos justice. If a photo was worth displaying, it was worth doing it “right” in a real frame, with a mat and some intentionality behind it. Enter: the Aura Frame. My sister-in-law got one for my in-laws for Christmas, and as soon as she set it up at their house I went to the website and bought one for my parents. The app interface/photo sharing features and the smart photo pairing are so cool! My brother and I both have the app and can easily send photos to our parents’ frame – it’s a fun way to stay connected. After seeing my parents’ frame all set up, I couldn’t resist getting one for our house too, and the kids have been loving it (to the point where we’ve had to turn it off during meal times because they’d sit there asking a million questions about each photo, not eating - lol). We have the Carver 10” mat frame in Clay, which shows one landscape photo at a time or two portrait photos at a time at whatever interval you set.

Our family yearbooks are wonderful, and I’m still always team #printyourphotos, but we’re not flipping through those daily and I hated that we have so many beautiful photos that we don’t get to see every day. I’m reminded of so many more sweet memories now – our wedding photos, vacation photos, everyday moments with the kids – and it makes me smile all day long!

Valentines day tags | I couldn’t resist some DIY tags after seeing ideas for animal cracker and pirates booty valentines. Canva for the win!

LEARNING

How to cook on stainless steel | Andrew (the real chef in our household) had been wanting stainless steel pans for years so we splurged on a set in 2024 – and then I spent most of 2025 hating them. Everything stuck and it just pissed me off every time I cooked until I FINALLY learned how to use them correctly. Turns out the missing ingredient was patience (lol) and if you just give the pan a few minutes to really heat up on medium before turning things down to low, adding your butter or oil and then giving that a few minutes to get nice and hot, things don’t stick at all. I don’t dread washing pans anymore and it’s so nice!

It really is your screen time | There’s a reel going around along the lines of – “Your house isn’t ugly, your screen time is just too high. Your clothes are fine, your screen time is just too high. There’s nothing wrong with your face, your screen time is just too high. You’re not doing a bad job as a mom, your screen time is just too high” etc. etc. etc. and you know what? They ain’t wrong. All these things we devote so much time and energy to, that I’m sure we wouldn’t care HALF as much about if not for constantly being bombarded with comparison and noise. I feel like there’s been a shift lately across the board, a general feeling of disenchantment with all the overconsumption - the hauls, the houses, the links upon links upon links.

Don’t get me wrong, I like sharing the things I love too. I’m not completely against it all. So I feel a little hypocritical saying all this, but even as someone who just enjoys sharing things with my friends, not trying to make an income from it, not sharing (or buying) hauls for the hell of it, it’s still just… a lot. And we have the choice to not engage with so much of it.

We’re a generation trying not to raise iPad kids but never far away from our own devices and I’ve been feeling the tug of it all – community and creativity vs. privacy and peace… It had been weighing on me and I really started thinking a lot about what my kids might remember about me and my phone usage (going back to one of my favorite writings on motherhood – what are the “always” statements your kids will say about you some day?). I just really, really don’t want them to say “she was always on her phone.”

Since the start of the year, I’ve cut my average screen time down significantly… like, by hours a day, which is so embarrassing to admit but also probably not uncommon. These are the main things that have helped make habits easier to break:

1) Mass unfollowing and blocking of the big-time influencers. It’s weird to me that some of us have been following some of the big names for over a decade now. We’ve watched their children grow up, we’ve watched them all build beautiful homes, we’ve watched haul after haul after haul… at the end of last year I just decided that as much as I liked these accounts, devoting my mental energy to them, spending so much of my TIME tuned into all of it and feeling annoyed or inadequate for whatever reason just wasn’t serving any fruitful purpose in my life. I unfollowed pretty much all of them, and to get my algorithm to quit showing me so much of those types of things, I blocked them too. Even ones I liked following! Sounds like overkill, maybe, but there’s a fine line between being inspired and coveting, and I found myself on the wrong side of that line too often.

2) The Brick. Probably my favorite purchase of 2025. The LIFE it’s given back to me, my gosh. My phone stays Bricked for 20-ish hours a day now, which means I’m locked out of certain apps until I physically tap my phone to the Brick device (it’s magnetic so mine lives on the fridge), and it is THE BEST. I block myself from access to all social media apps, the internet, email, shopping apps, even Zillow – anything that steals my attention in little pockets of the day, keeps me from being fully present when I need to be, or tempts me to scroll or shop. The rest of my phone still functions like normal and mostly I love that it takes self-control out of the equation. Bricking really does get addicting! A lot better than being addicted to the opposite. If you’ve been considering one, this referral link takes $10 off and let me tell ya, the ROI makes it absolutely worth every penny!

3. Putting the screen time widget on my home screen. That’ll humble ya REAL QUICK. A recommendation from @siececampbell who has a ton of helpful ways to rely less on your phone and embrace a more analog life.

4. Having plenty of alternative activities close by – @siececampbell recommends a small analog tote bag to make those things as accessible as your phone. I try to bring one or two things with me anytime I know I’ll have downtime, like waiting for Steele at dance or in the preschool pickup line. I got myself a book of crossword puzzles and the Q-Less game, and also love to toss a sketchpad or journal in there, plus books, devotionals, etc. Things to keep my hands and my mind occupied when I might otherwise want to scroll. And I love Emily Lex’s watercolor workbooks for nights at home!

5. Being okay with not being in the know. I’m not even talking Instagram things or trends, necessarily. I used to whip out my phone for anything and everything, just so I could KNOW. What does that word mean? Where is that plane going? What movie was that guy in? What’s the data on XYZ? What is so and so’s opinion on such and such? Is there anything on sale at ___ right now? Those little things added up to so much extra screen time for me and I finally decided I needed to be okay with not knowing all the answers to all the questions. And not knowing has been just fine so far.

It’s wild (although not surprising) how much more productive I’ve been and how peaceful I’ve felt lately. So many things I kept saying I didn’t have time for or just couldn’t get around to – no, I just wasn’t stewarding my time as well as I should’ve been most days. Still a work in progress but I’m so grateful for the shift.

I don’t really do resolutions or words of the year, but if I had to narrow it down, I think “slow and steady” and “kindness” are the words I’m going for this year. Slow and steady at home, being content and present, embracing an unhurried pace, and being kind to myself, my kids, and others. Cheers to 2026!

Ten Year Anniversary Trip | Spain on Film

The highlight of 2025: our ten year anniversary trip to Spain. We visited Mallorca and Barcelona and packed so much into seven short days back in June. This was a dream trip and I’m so glad I brought along a little Kodak disposable camera (yes, the kind from the 90s!) to document it. All the photos below are from that camera, not edited in any way. I was blown away by what it captured! Scroll through for some of our favorite bits and pieces of Spain on film.

I went back and forth about taking my big Canon with me, but ultimately decided I didn’t want to worry about keeping up with it or lugging it around (it’s heavy!). I looked into other small digital cameras like the G7X and film-look cameras like the CampSnap, but you just can’t beat the look of real film. I’m so happy with how these images from a good ole Kodak Fun Saver turned out, and while the price ain’t what it used to be, it was absolutely worth buying a 4-pack for our trip. I had the film processed by mPix (same lab I use for our family yearbooks) with a prepaid mailing label and the scans hit my inbox the day they received the cameras – great service as always. I highly recommend a disposable film camera to document your next vacation! I prefer the look of Kodak film (more golden tones vs. Fuji’s striking greens) but you can’t go wrong with any of the options below.

I did err on the side of caution and told the airport security agents I had film cameras with me – at DFW and Barcelona they told me not to worry about it; in Mallorca they did a quick hand check – not sure if that really made a difference but I didn’t want to find out the hard way if the scanners could damage the film or not. Worth the extra minute at security to be careful!

Our hotel in Mallorca, Hospes Maricel, blew us both away. The views of the pool and the ocean from our room, the service and spa, the food and drinks – we’d be back in a heartbeat. The Shameless Tourist found this gem for us – travel plans are not our forté so we decided to leave that to the experts for such a special trip and we are so grateful for the care and attention to detail they put into our itinerary. From restaurant recommendations and reservations to meaningful experiences like a tennis lesson at Rafa Nadal’s tennis academy, a sailing trip up the coast of Mallorca, a guided tour of the Sagrada Familia, and a tapas tour with a Barcelona local, they absolutely made the most of our budget and made this trip so incredibly enjoyable.

We ventured to Port de Soller for our sailing excursion and had the most beautiful day on the water with our guide. We stopped at 4 different spots to snorkel, paddleboard and explore but did plenty of relaxing, sunbathing, snacking and Cava sipping on the boat, too.

After a sailing day, a day of tennis at the Nadal Academy, and a day to relax and enjoy massages at our hotel, we had dinner at the marina in Palma on our last night in Mallorca before heading to Barcelona.

Street markets filled with treasures, sky-high cathedrals many centuries old, Gaudi’s mindblowing designs dotting the city, and quaint corner cafés abuzz at midnight… Barcelona was something special. We had one of those meals that leaves you speechless in this little spot at the back of Babula Restaurante after a day of exploring the city.

For the last night of our trip on our actual ten year anniversary (6/27), we enjoyed dinner with a view 250 feet above the city, overlooking Mount Tibidabo, the 1992 Olympic sites, the Sagrada Família, and everything in between. The menu at Altamar Barcelona was incredible, but watching the sunset with my husband, reminiscing on our trip and on ten years of marriage, talking about our hopes and dreams for the next ten and beyond… I’ll never forget it.

I’ll cherish all the photos from our trip, but these film images will forever be special to me. Grab a few disposables to toss in your carry-on the next time you travel – you won’t regret it!

Art Projects We've Loved for Kindergarten Homeschool

Let me preface this whole post with – I am not the crafty mom. I had 3 babies, then 3 young toddlers, and crafting was the last thing I wanted to do. Art projects have been few and far between in our house (honestly, I left the crafts to their Mother’s Day Out teachers), but when we started homeschooling for kindergarten, I knew I had to get over my disdain for the mess and the chaos involved, because there are important art skills they need to develop!

I stumbled upon Deep Space Sparkle while looking for Kindergarten art lessons and I can’t even tell you what an incredible resource this website is – projects for every grade, explained simply, and all intentionally designed to teach age-appropriate skills they can build on. She makes things that could be intimidating very approachable and simplified for all experience levels (aka none in this house!). Deep Space Sparkle has a free download with developmental milestones in art for Kindergarteners through 8th grade – it was a super helpful for me in setting my own expectations and figuring out what to focus on.

Minimal Supplies

With minimal storage for homeschool things in our house, we’ve made do with a short list of art supplies. Aside from the usuals (construction paper, crayons, watercolors, and tempera paint) the only supplies I’ve bought are watercolor paper (no soggy papers!), a pack of 50 oil pastels, sponges, and a better variety of paintbrushes.

Van Gogh Landscapes - Mom’s on the left, steele’s on the right. I was so impressed with her details!

One Year of Kindergarten Art Projects

Surprisingly, our Art Day Fridays every other week have become one of the things I look forward to most about our homeschool routine! My type-A, control-freak tendencies have had to pipe down as I let go of the reins and let them get after it without me intervening, and the messes have all been worth it. The projects we’ve done are easily adaptable to include the boys (on-level for Kinder but can simplify for 3-4 year olds, minimal hand-holding required) and we’ve all had so much fun working on these together and learning new things. Several are from Deep Space Sparkle; others I just googled or found on Teachers Pay Teachers. Here are the projects we’ve done this year/have planned for the rest of the year, in chronological order to make sense seasonally.

1. Half Face Self Portrait

2. Butterfly Wing Watercolor

3. Vase with Stamped Flowers

4. Oil Pastel Fall Leaves

5. Scrap Paper Scarecrows

6. Color Wheel Turkeys

7. Van Gogh Winter Landscape - This one was part of our Advent study – we love and have done several of the Brighter Day Press seasonal studies!

8. Here, Near and Far Winter Trees

9. Winter Trees Watercolor

10. Proportion Snowman

11. Waterfront Houses

12. Positive and Negative Space Heart

13. Bird in a Cherry Tree

14. Kandisky Circles

15. Paper Weaving

16. Tints and Shades Underwater Scene

17. Recycled Robot

18. Paint Like Pollock

19. Alma Thomas Rainbows

half face self portrait

scrap paper scarecrows

here, near and far winter trees

And because I have ZERO chill, I’ve already planned our art projects for first grade, in order based on seasonality. Doing one project every other Friday morning has been really manageable, so we’ll keep that same routine going!

One Year of First Grade Art Projects

1. Oil Pastel Self Portrait

2. Watercolor Monsters

3. Matisse Collages (along with a color wheel review/Matisse video)

4. Big Rigs in the Mud

5. Sugar Skulls for Dia De Los Muertos (we’ll watch the movie Coco too)

6. Bug Drawings

7. Impressionism Rain Art

8. Sponge Paint Poinsettias

9. Van Gogh Cityscape

10. Peacock Paintings

11. Turtle Line Drawings

12. Tropical Birds on a Branch 

13. Rainbow Hot Air Balloon Mosaic

14. Georgia O’Keefe Oil Pastel

15. Field Trip (we’ll go somewhere outdoors and paint landscapes)

butterfly wing watercolor

paint like pollock

alma thomas rainbows

Storing Kids’ Art Projects

After our projects have their spotlight on the fridge or the wall, I’ve been storing our favorites in our keepsake file boxes. For the bulkier/oversized ones, I bought this clear storage box so we’re not stuffing and folding them. I’m really trying to be selective though and operate under the mindset of “we can’t keep everything.” Simple as that. We don’t have room for it all, we won’t have room for it all, and it’s ok to enjoy things only for a while. We’ve kept 4 or 5 art projects from each semester and so far, that’s manageable. I’ve also taken pictures of everything, so if we want to maybe have a little photo book printed at some point of all of our projects, we can!

I hope these lists can be helpful as you’re planning your homeschool lessons, especially if you have younger siblings at home who want to be included. It’s been so fun to see what they create!

32 Memory Verses for Kinder and 1st Graders

Memorizing scripture was not something I did until well into adulthood, but I wanted to make it a priority within our homeschool plans. Knowing these truths by heart and being able to easily recall helpful verses in different situations is something I hope will serve my kids in ways they can’t even comprehend yet, but will hopefully appreciate as they grow.

We memorize a new verse each week, copying it on a lined dry erase board each morning and then on Fridays, I have her find it in our Bible, read a few surrounding verses and I briefly discuss the context with her. We did 16 verses our first semester and we’ll repeat same list next semester to really get each one down. I’ve loved working on these weekly memory verses alongside her and have been blown away by how many she knows by heart already and how quickly she’s gotten familiar with where different books are in the Bible. Laying the foundation!

This post contains affiliate links.

Memory Verses for kindergarten

For this age, I wanted to build a foundation for scripture memory with verses that are short, simple, and easy to recall.

1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

2. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. Colossians 3:23

3. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Jeremiah 29:11

4. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

5. My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:2

6. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. James 1:19

7. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Isaiah 43:5

8. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

9. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

10. Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7

11. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

12. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 107:1

13. God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7

14. Love the Lord God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. Mark 12:30

15. Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

16. For God so loved the world, He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life. John 3:16

Bible Study Books for Kindergarten

We’ve also been studying the truths in The Ology by Marty Machowski – this book is gorgeously illustrated and explains things in such a beautiful way for kids (ages 7-9, especially). This text has been instrumental in helping her get more familiar with the books and people of the Bible and is one we’ll come back to in the years ahead as she grows in understanding. Between memory verses, The Ology, and a daily reading from Indescribable, a devotional for kids by Louie Giglio, we love our kindergarten Bible study routine!

Bible Study Books for First grade

Along with more The Ology lessons, these are the devotionals and Bible study resources I’ve purchased for 1st grade:
How Great is Our God
The Wonder of Creation
Mom & Me Having Tea Bible Study
Bible Character Studies & Activities (Daniel, Jonah, Joseph, Esther, David, Samson)

Click on a title below to purchase.

Bible Memory Verses for First Grade Homeschool

These are the weekly verses we have planned to memorize (and discuss the context of) next year!

1. All people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

2. I praise you God, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

3. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:31

4. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

5. The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies are new each morning. Lamentations 3:22

6. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything gives thanks. Thessalonians 5:16

7. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

8. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. Hebrews 12:1

9. The body has many parts, but the parts make up one body. God has put each part just where he wants it. 1 Corinthians 12:12, 18

10. The Lord always keeps His promises; He is gracious in all He does. Psalm 145:13

11. Come to me, all of you who are weary, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

12. Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2

13. Do not worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for what He has done. Philippians 4:6

14. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

15. Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

16. So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10:31

Below are some of our favorite Bibles and Christian books for kindergarten and young children. Our children all received a Beginner’s Bible around age 3 and they are very well loved in our home. I’ll catch them sitting on the couch flipping through the pages all by themselves. I bought the Storybook Bible (104 Bible stories/short studies) for Steele now that she’s reading on her own and has a basic understanding of the major Bible characters. And Any Time, Any Place, Any Prayer is a wonderful book for explaining prayer to elementary kids. So grateful for all of these!

Click on a title below to purchase.

Our Kindergarten Homeschool Routine and Curriculum

We’re a month into our first year of homeschooling now, and after making a few shifts and really finding our groove, I’m thrilled with how our weekly and daily routines are falling into place.

After spending months researching different curriculum options back in the spring (I gave myself a deadline to purchase everything by June 1st so I wouldn’t be overthinking it all summer), I’m pretty happy overall with what we landed on. I’ve been able to quickly figure out where we’re lacking, how we can supplement, and how to structure our weeks to be most efficient and not bog our days down with schoolwork – because isn’t that the whole point?!

Sharing below about each of our picks, what I like (or don’t) about it, and how we’re fitting it all in each week.

Kindergarten Curriculum Choices | Core Subjects

The Good and The Beautiful Language Arts | Steele completed TGATB Kinder Prep last year, so we were somewhat familiar with this one. Their Level K Language Arts is open-and-go with zero prep or busy work and I can see why TGATB is a popular choice, but I do agree with critiques about their language arts curriculum being “wide, not deep” — the lessons often feel a little disconnected and surface-level. I’m not sure this is a long-term fit, but she enjoys it, so we’re sticking with it for now, probably will move on to the first grade book soon, and filling in the gaps with a great reading comprehension workbook and THIS for spelling/vocabulary.

Handwriting Without Tears | We’re loving the Level K Handwriting program and its foundations for cursive later on, as well as Keys for Me, their beginner computer skills course. Super impressed with both! I ended up also getting their Building Writers workbook, which has been a great supplement.

Singapore Math | A huge YES for us! This program is unique in so many ways and has tons of research to support its methods. Steele has a strong grasp on lots of math concepts (seriously, get your toddlers watching Numberblocks and prepare to be amazed) and I was hopeful this curriculum would keep her challenged. It has blown me away! We’re finishing up KA/KB (lots of valuable lessons and foundational things I wanted to make sure she’s confident with) and we’re excited to settle in with the Grade 1 set this fall. This one’s a definite win and we haven’t looked back!

Answers Bible Lessons | This ended up not being a good fit for us, unfortunately. It’s very dense for a 5-year-old. I decided to wait before trying to find a replacement for this one, as our devotionals and seasonal studies incorporate lots of Bible time.

Supplemental Curriculum

The Ology | More here! Its Truths and discussion questions are helping us build solid faith foundations before we dive into another Bible curriculum.

Indescribable: Devotions About God + Science | More here! We’re enjoying these — quick, interesting, thought-provoking — and will continue on with the others in the series, How Great is Our God/The Wonder of Creation.

The Good and The Beautiful Science | TGATB has five overarching science units for PK-2, all of which can be taught in any order and adapted for multiple ages, so the boys can participate too. The lessons are quick, minimal prep if any, engaging, age-appropriate and creative. We love it!

Beginning Geography | An intro to maps, landforms, bodies of water, continents and oceans – more here. She’s learned so much from this already! A worthy addition.

Brighter Day Press Seasonal + Holiday Studies | We got the Labor Day, Autumn, Thanksgiving, Advent, and Spring studies and have enjoyed them even more than I expected! They’ve been a great way to round out each week with fun, enriching activities and they’re easy to do with multiple children/ages.

Exploring Nature | More here. Several are climate/location dependent, but we’ll get at least a dozen good, simple activities out of this book.

Deep Space Sparkle Art Projects | I happened upon this website when searching for kindergarten art projects and I’m so thankful. Lots of artist studies and projects organized by grade level, designed to teach art skills in an intentional way. We’ve had so much fun with these!

Our Weekly Homeschool Routine for Kinder

One theme I kept seeing as I was thinking about how to structure our days: we’re not trying to replicate public school at home. I wanted to intentionally leave room for play, rest, outings and activities throughout our weeks. It took us a little bit to figure out how to fit all the pieces together, factoring in things like dance practice, the boys going to preschool two days a week and being home with us the other three, and spreading out our writing-heavy days, but we’ve found a great routine. Most days we are done with our work by lunchtime or we’ll save core subjects for the boys’ rest time.

There are a lot of physical homeschool planners out there, but I prefer digital so I can easily edit and move things around. I made this template on Google Docs that I copy from week to week and fill in details where needed. We print each week out and check off as we go, but I usually let her pick the order of our subjects each day and if something comes up and we need to adjust, it’s not a big deal. Here’s what our typical week looks like!

As for the boys – they are newly 4 and still two years away from officially starting kinder (early September birthday so we’ll wait til they’re 6). Two days of preschool a week is plenty for them right now, but they of course want to be included and both love to “do school” too, so we encourage them to join us for devotionals, seasonal studies, nature, art, music and science lessons as those aren’t as age-specific. They play outside or independently while we do other subjects, or if they want to be at the table with us, these preschool workbooks keep them pretty busy (thank you Larson for the rec!). It’s not always calm or quiet but if we need a break, we pause and play! If we need to chill out, we sit on the couch and read. If we need to head to the park, we go.

I’m not aiming for a specific number of days for our school year – we started the last week of August and I want to be finished by mid-May, with plenty of breaks and hopefully some travels in there too! Most of our curriculum is intended to fit a typical school year and I think we’ll end up with somewhere between 30 and 32 weeks.

Future Curriculum Picks

Always keeping an open mind of course, but here’s what I’m interested in adding to our lineup for next year and beyond:

Singapore Math Sprints (mental math practice for 1st grade/up)
BJU Press Writing + Grammar (2nd grade/up)
Bite Size Social Studies (1st grade)
Notgrass 50 States (2nd grade)
Handwriting Without Tears Cursive (2nd grade/up)
The Good and The Beautiful Science, History, Creative Writing, Music Appreciation (3rd grade/up)
World Watch News (3rd grade/up)
Not Consumed Bible Studies (all ages)

Lots on this list influenced by Francie Outlaw — I love her heart for homeschool and for teaching her children in general.

No curriculum is perfect, no single program will cover every single thing we’re wanting or needing – but that’s the beauty of getting to custom-tailor things. We can piece together a plan that works beautifully.

Homeschooling is teaching us both so much and is truly one of the best decisions our family has made. It’s given us SO much joy and peace. If you’re considering homeschool for kindergarten, I’m cheering you on!

A Bittersweet Goodbye After Ten Years of The Big and Bright

Ten years ago in April, I shot my first wedding. In two weeks, at the very same venue no less, I’ll shoot my last. And after wrapping up a few more upcoming newborn sessions and three days’ worth of mini sessions this fall, I’m officially hanging up the photographer hat after Thanksgiving, and saying goodbye to this business I’ve poured so much of myself into for the last decade. At least for a long while!

This was not in my plans before this month, but I can’t say it hadn’t been on my heart. Looking back, there are so many ways the Lord was preparing me for this and protecting me from things not meant for me, my family or my business.

family photos by maddie ray

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So why walk away now? Fall is always a photographer’s busiest time of year. The majority of my weekends between mid-August and mid-November are booked with some sort of session (I was booking weekdays only for a while, but with Andrew’s job demands and us not having any family close by to help, weekday sessions were becoming harder to make work on my end). As our kids get older, trying to fit my business into the little time we have to spend all together just isn’t feasible or sustainable anymore, even if I were to outsource more. It’s been wearing on my family, not just on me.

Our daughter starting kindergarten and our boys turning 4 this month really hit us hard. It’s all going by so fast. We’re acutely aware that this is the only childhood they get – it’s happening NOW – and we want to make the most of these years with them. We don’t want to look back and have regrets. We realized we can’t keep putting off traveling as a family or getting away for the weekend together, or even just savoring slow Saturdays at home. As I say to my twins all too often, “There’s only one mommy,” and there’s just not enough of me to go around anymore.

Andrew would’ve never asked me to step away, but I knew something had to give in order to prioritize what’s most important to us as our children enter such formative years, and I’ve felt such relief and peace about my decision. I’m sure it was no coincidence that the Sunday after I told him I wanted to call it quits later this fall, the message at church was about the Sabbath and general concept of rest. How God designed it for us, intentionally. The pastor compared it to the concept of tithing – something that in the moment can feel… wasteful? That’s a lot of money (tithing), and a lot of time (setting boundaries with rest) that we could be using productively… building our businesses, more more more… but at what cost? It’s human nature to be stingy with our money and our time, but He wants us to trust Him with both. And when we do, whether we see it or not, the fruits of that trust and obedience are always better than the fruits of our labor.

These last ten years have been more than I ever dreamed. I’ve had the honor of being welcomed into your homes, your wedding days, your surprises and announcements, capturing your families’ milestones, sharing in your biggest and brightest moments, getting to know so many of you and seeing you again and again over the years, from engagement to wedding, maternity to newborn sessions, your first family sessions and your second, third, fourth and beyond. Watching your children and your families grow. Finding an outlet for my creativity that stretched me in the best ways, that kept me inspired and excited about work for an entire decade. That’s something I don’t take for granted and I’ll of course miss those parts and the friends made along the way, immensely.

I’m going to savor this time of being able to focus solely on my family and our home and not worry about keeping up. I’ve been encouraged by some wonderful friends who’ve made similar moves in recent years and have no regrets whatsoever. I’ve learned not too hold too tightly to any plans (it really isn’t up to us anyway), so, as I’ve said a lot over the years – never say never. Who knows what’s in store for the future, but for now, the next several years at least, I’m being pulled to wear my wife and mom hat full time, and I’m so grateful for that.

Thank you for being here – for trusting me, for encouraging me, for every show of support along the way. The Big and Bright has always been about YOU and I hope you cherish the memories we’ve captured together for years and years to come!

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To my DFW families looking for someone new: these are, in no particular order, photographers I trust and whose newborn/family work I deeply admire!

Jordan Mitchell
Kristen Howell
Meghan Tidwell
Lakin Stearns
Maddie Ray
Taylor Pettigrew
Ana Dufreche
Tate Smith
Gaby Caskey

This website isn’t going anywhere (not with ten years of photos and blogs!) and I’ll most likely still blog occasionally – I enjoy sharing my favorite finds, our travels, organization tips and the systems that are working for us in our home, and ramblings on motherhood. I share all of those things on my personal Instagram and I’d love to stay in touch with all of you there!

Homeschool, Here We Come!

File this under: posts I never thought I’d be writing. But here we are! Finishing up our oldest’s pre-K year at a local church preschool, eager to start Kindergarten, at home, together. It feels surreal to even say!

I started considering homeschool for our daughter (keeping an open mind for our boys, more on that later) a few years ago. So many things about it sounded like a great fit for our family, our beliefs, and our values, but of course I had so many questions and hesitations along the way. When I first brought it up to Andrew, I honestly expected a little more pushback, but his support from the get-go was so encouraging and gave me the nudge to keep pursuing the idea more seriously. I got the confidence I needed to finally say “ok, this is what we’re doing” when I *very nervously* told my mom (who has spent 40 years teaching and working in public education) about our plans and she had nothing but support and encouragement for our decision.

Why homeschool?

The main drivers behind our decision were freedom, faith, and family. Which sounds so cliché, but really, all of our reasons for homeschooling boiled down to these three things. We want the freedom and flexibility it will allow our family to structure our days like we want to, to learn about the things we want to at the pace we want to, to get out and go places when we want to. We want the ability to incorporate our faith into our children’s education because our faith is at the core of who we are and everything we do as a family. And mostly, we want to preserve childhood for at least a little longer. We want to give our five year old time to be FIVE. To play with her brothers and friends, to spend hours outside, to not be woken up at the crack of dawn and hurried out the door or be beholden to a rigid schedule. I’m so incredibly excited and grateful for, if nothing else, one more year of slow mornings at home with my children. I don’t take for granted the privilege it is for our family to have this opportunity, and I’m going to try to steward this extra time we get to spend together well!

Our homeschool style + Priorities

Before I could even begin to narrow down curriculum choices, I had to articulate what our goals and priorities were for home education – essentially, what “style” or method would work best for us. There are several popular methods of homeschooling, and it looks like we’ll be blending aspects of a couple of them. I like the structure and predictability of an open-and-go curriculum (Traditional), but we want more than just workbooks, too. It’s important to us to emphasize reading, art, nature, music and scripture (Charlotte Mason), and I’m excited that a lot of our curriculum has a common thread of foundational faith teachings. I want field trips, outings, cooking together, and camping and hunting with her daddy to all contribute to her overall education, too. There are learning opportunities everywhere!

Trusting my own discernment

Researching curriculum was incredibly intimidating for me. One of the main advantages to homeschooling is getting to tailor what we do to her strengths, abilities, personality, and interests, so I didn’t want to pick something that ended up feeling “wrong” for her, something that didn’t challenge her enough, something too rigid or not rigid enough. I set a goal to have our choices made by June 1, and started to familiarize myself with some of the more popular options several months prior, looking through scopes and sequences, reading reviews and sifting through comparison blogs. I knew at some point I just had to trust my own discernment, place my orders, and know that nothing is set in stone. If something ends up not working, we can always shift and try something else.

I shared more details about our specific curriculum choices HERE!

Tuning out the noise

The public school/private school/homeschool debate isn’t something I want to devote a lot of mental energy to. All three options are great for different families, in different seasons, for different reasons. I don’t want to fall into the comparison trap and do my best to put my blinders on, focus on MY children and MY home and our family’s situation, and not worry about the rest. I don’t follow many homeschool accounts (really, just one) because the overload of information and opinions can be way too much noise, but Francie Outlaw’s account has been one I’ve loved for years and I appreciate so many of her insights on parenting, family values, systems for the home, and homeschooling. Many of our curriculum choices were influenced by her, and I plan to use her Weekly Planner system to map out our lessons and keep us organized.

Keeping an open mind

As I mentioned, we’re going into this very open-minded and taking things one year at a time. I know I’m going to be learning right alongside Steele this coming year, figuring out what works best for us, adjusting as we go, and giving us both a lot of grace along the way. While I fully believe that a well-rounded education doesn’t require a classroom setting or following the standards set by our state, we’re also not opposed to public school or private school options for the future, and we have two more years before we need to make a decision for our boys. So we’ll see how this year goes and go from there. Here’s to our first year of homeschooling!

Keepsake Organization Part III: DIY Family Memory Boxes

Last on my list for organization projects to kick off 2024 (along with family yearbooks and file boxes for each child) was finding a good storage place for some of our most special family keepsakes. Our wedding memorabilia, mementos from our dating and newlywed years, and our family’s small keepsakes and loose photos all needed a home, and this set of archival storage boxes is perfect!

I got this idea from listening to Nancy Ray’s Work and Play podcast. She’s a former wedding photographer and a huge advocate for treating your family’s photos (professional photos, camera photos and iPhone photos alike) as what they truly are – your family’s legacy. Her approach inspired my giant personal photo overhaul, changing the way I approach, manage and store our family’s digital photos, but she also encourages safekeeping of printed photos and tangible memories. Her Legacy Photo System involves five boxes, but that was a little much for our family’s needs. Two is perfect for us now, and we can always get more if we need to.

These acid-free archival boxes with metal-reinforced sides prevent photos and papers from damage and from yellowing over time and while they’re obviously not fireproof or waterproof, they’re lightweight and an easy-to-access place to store things for generations.

As I was gathering photos from various places to put in these boxes, I realized that most of them have the file name and/or year they were printed in fine print on the back; however, that info isn’t really helpful if it doesn’t match up with when the photo was actually taken.

So I took a sharpie and wrote helpful information on the back of each one – date taken, ages, event if applicable. It made this project take a lot longer, but I know I’ll be glad I have those notes in many years when my memory gets fuzzy. You think you’ll remember, but I could barely remember things about photos that were taken 5 or 10 years ago, so I know it’ll only get harder!

In our wedding box, I put our save the date, stationery from our wedding, letters we wrote to each other, mementos from the day we got engaged, a handmade banner my then-7-year-old cousin sewed for us, the USB with our wedding photos, and all of our loose printed photos from our wedding. Essentially, anything pre-children goes in this box.

Our family box will house all of our printed family photos that aren’t in our yearbooks or in frames, along with any other small mementos from trips or events that we want to hang onto over the years.

The cut sides on these boxes are on purpose, in case you want to slide out something on the bottom out from the side instead of having to pick everything up. Shop these exact archival boxes HERE or via the widget below – I did the 2-pack, size 11”x15”x3”, which will hold years and years’ worth of photos for us, even 11x14 prints.

This was one more of those projects that allowed me to breathe a deep sigh of relief once I finished. The peace of mind from having these precious keepsakes organized, easy to access and in a safe place – it’s priceless!

Keepsake Organization Part II: DIY Kids' File Boxes

Along with getting caught up on family yearbooks and photo boxes, one of my organization projects for the beginning of 2024 included getting a system in place for our kids’ papers. They’re still just in a Mother’s Day Out preschool program right now, so it’s mostly handprint crafts and coloring pages in our house. After they get their spotlight on the fridge, I don’t just want to toss them, but also don’t want them to pile up. I want to keep them in order and from getting damaged.

Enter: these DIY kids file boxes. They’re the perfect solution for keeping school papers worthy of saving, along with other paper things like birthday cards, letters, photos and more, organized and contained all in one place. When they leave the nest some day, they’ll have this to take with them and everything will be easy to access and revisit.

I have to give credit for this idea to Francie Outlaw and her Filing System for Childhood Memories – I followed her steps pretty closely, just tweaking and adding a few things along the way.

These DIY kids memory boxes are really pretty simple. A clear file box for each child, one colored hanging folder per year (we color code pretty much everything in this house), with 2 manila folders in each. Starting with Pregnancy/Before You Were Born, First Year, 1 Year, 2 Years, 3 Years, 4 Years, 5 Years, and then Kindergarten all the way through 12th Grade – even a College folder if you want to include that.

The first manila folder for each year holds documents – things like report cards, certificates, notes from teachers, class photos, birthday cards and letters. The second manila folder holds classwork and artwork. For the pregnancy and first year sections, I put things like ultrasound photos, baby shower cards, birthday cards, and their baby book in those folders.

What I Used to Make Our Kids’ File Boxes

For each box you’ll need: one legal/letter file box, 21 colored hanging folders, 42 manila folders, 42 labels, and a name decal.

You can shop everything I used to make these DIY kids file boxes by clicking here (everything is from Amazon) or using the widget below. The only thing I purchased elsewhere were the name decals from Etsy. She has tons of font and color options. I ordered the 2.5” size for the front of each box.

Each box took me about an hour to put together, mostly because I used my label maker (if you can use a printer to print file labels this will go much quicker!). Little bit of a tedious project on the front end, but this will set us up for ease and success going forward. If you’d rather buy a box already put together, here are a few premade kids file box options from Etsy!

Tips for Storing Kids’ School Papers and Memories

WHAT TO KEEP: Paring down these kinds of things is harder for me than paring down my own keepsakes. There’s a painted handprint for every holiday, things they colored, precious papers with their name in giant, carefully drawn letters. To each their own, but during these MDO/preschool years, I’m trying to keep 3-4 handprint things, 3-4 things they wrote/colored, and 3-4 other crafts per year.

For crafts when they’re small, I like to hang onto things that are actually their handiwork – not things you can tell the teacher mostly did for them. For cards and letters, I try to only hang onto ones that have more than just a name signed – any with sweet notes they’ll really love to go back and read later on! The goal is to keep the folders from being stuffed to the brim, so I’ll put things in there I think I might want to keep, and if/as they get full, I can go through and pare things down even more. We’ll see how things change as they get older and are bringing home different things, but this is working for us right now.

DATE. EVERYTHING: You think you’ll remember when something’s from, but it’s tough! As I started going through our kids’ storage bins and moving all the papers into these file boxes (they each also have a big bin where I put other keepsakes like clothes, memorabilia and bulkier things), I was finding so many cards, papers and pieces of artwork with zero way to know when they were from. I’ve made it a habit now to jot down the month/year/their age on the back of things as they come into our home and I know I’ll want to keep them.

Again, if you’d rather not go the DIY route and would prefer to have one of these ready made for you, there are several fully assembled kids’ file box options available on Etsy!

Personally, I enjoyed putting the boxes together myself and being able to choose the colors of the folders, customize the name decals, and add the extra folders where it made sense. Again, HERE is the shoppable post with all of my supplies. And if you’d like to print my yearly About Me template, right click below to download.

If you’re overwhelmed by the influx of school papers and not sure what to do with it all, this is a great starting point. Happy filing!

Keepsake Organization Part I: Family Yearbooks

What a labor of love and a long time coming. Our family yearbooks are finally here! I set out to make these happen a few years ago after seeing my friend Melanie share hers, but I knew I needed to get caught up after doing a complete overhaul of my digital + iPhone photo organization, changing my mindset around taking photos of my children, and really getting serious about those photos being our family’s legacy – not just taking up space on my phone.

Twenty years from now, our kids won’t be scrolling through our phones to revisit their childhood memories. We NEED tangible memories – and to narrow it down so they’re not burdened with an overload of photos.

I cover all the details of how I manage and store my personal photos on this blog, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but part of my system includes copying my iPhone photos onto my external hard drive (and a backup drive and the cloud) at least once a month. As I’m doing that, I go ahead and pick some favorites from that set of photos to save for our annual yearbook. This makes it super easy at the end of the year because we already have our very favorites saved and ready to go.

Why I Chose mPix for Our Family Yearbooks

After lots of research and even starting an account to test things out on four different websites (Artifact Uprising, Milk Books, Blurb, and mPix), I ended up choosing mPix to create our yearbooks. Artifact Uprising’s products are gorgeous but a book the same size and same number of pages was more than twice the cost of mPix. I also very much preferred mPix’s layout options and the ease of their drag and drop features over any of the others.

TIP: If you do an mPix book and want the most easily customizable pages, choose “Empty Page” as you’re building out your spreads, then drag and drop the photos you want onto that page, then change the layout if needed. Way faster!

Product Information for our MPix Family yearbooks

I went with the 11x8.5” Premium Linen Hardcover photo book, in the color Sand, with silver foil debossing on the front cover, and a dust jacket. I really would’ve preferred our last name and year foil stamped on the spine itself, but that option was super hard to find on any website in my price range. I ended up loving the dust jackets anyway! I chose a photo from the beginning-ish and end-ish of each year.

Doing a landscape layout meant I could fit more portrait-oriented photos on each page, plenty big but still with plenty of white space so it’s not too overwhelming. I did 3-6 photos per page for the most part.

These books come with 20 pages – ours ended up with 35-45 pages each (about 250 photos per year), so the extra pages, plus debossing and dust jackets made them about $120 a piece. I think these are WELL worth the cost. The quality is incredible – the cover is gorgeous and the matte pages are beautifully printed on sturdy cardstock. Plus, mPix usually runs a 40% off sale sometime in January, or you can get 25% off your first order any time.

Helpful tips for creating family yearbooks

Double check that whichever website you’re using has an auto-save feature and if not, save your work after each page – mPix does not have auto-save and I learned that the hard way, unfortunately!

Beware of issues with HEIC images (what your iPhone probably defaults to). None of the websites I tried accept HEIC photos, so you’ll have to convert to JPEG (use this website to convert several at once, or you can open one in Preview on a Mac and Export it as a JPEG). HOWEVER – when you convert from HEIC to JPEG, the image loses its original date taken info, so keeping things in chronological order was a complete mess. From now on, I’ve changed my phone settings to capture everything in JPEG (Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible).

Another tip – make a Shared Album with your spouse to house your favorites/best of the best, so their favorites from their phone get included. I’d been keeping track of my favorites all along but getting caught up on five years’ worth of books meant Andrew had to go back and look through five years of photos on his phone and pick out his favorites, too. Having him put them in our Shared Album will make things easier from now on.

We’ll also do a Shared Album for videos that’ll make our yearly family movies even easier, too. For these, I just drag and drop all of our videos from each year into iMovie and it automatically puts them in the right order and makes a compilation. No transitions, no fancy editing, just all of our favorite videos from the year strung together to make one long movie. It’s so easy but such a treasure!

Thoughts on Quality over Quantity

Honestly, I haven’t been taking as many photos of my kids these days. They’re little busybodies, and while I want to remember these days, I also want to cherish them as they’re happening and not have my phone or my big camera in their face constantly. I took about 650 total photos and videos on my phone in 2023 and about 1000 in 2024 – there’s no magic number, but narrowing down 250 favorites from those was tough enough, and we still ended up with beautiful yearbooks full of photos that make us smile.

No Matter What – Print your Photos

These yearbooks are incredibly special to us and I know will be cherished for a lifetime, and hopefully beyond. Whatever you do, no matter how you choose to do it, whether it’s monthly Chatbooks, big yearly albums, a combination of both, or even just regularly printing 4x6s of your favorite iPhone photos and putting them in an old-school album – print your photos. It’s so worth it!

How I Organize Our Important Family Documents

If you know me or you’ve followed along for a while, you know how deep my love runs for all things organization. Today I’m sharing how I organize our most important family documents – things like legal documents, taxes, insurance, and medical bills. Everyone has their own system for this – just sharing what’s worked for us and what’s helped keep the paperwork under control over the years.

My Filing Rules

When it comes to important papers, I have two rules. One: do something about it NOW. Whether that’s paying the bill (when feasible of course), calling customer service, filing away a paper where it actually should go – don’t put it off. Deal with it as soon as possible as things come in.

And two: if there's also an email/online copy (utility bills, most receipts, etc., something I could print if I needed to) I don't keep a paper copy. Sign up for e-statements and auto-pay, auto-archive those bills to an email folder so they never even hit your inbox, and read/toss the papers that come in the mail. There are rare instances where I do like to have paper copies, or multiple copies, of things, but for the most part, I want these things on auto-pilot so I’m NOT wasting time messing with actual papers.

Our Fireproof File Boxes

I keep our important family documents in a fireproof file box like the ones below (scroll through the widget below to see options - our heavy duty one is from Walmart, another great fireproof option with extra pockets is on Amazon), with colored hanging folders and tri-cut manila folders. We actually have two boxes – one is not quite enough room to hold everything for our family, but the peace of mind from having these things safely tucked away is worth it.

How I Color Code Our Files

A pack of hanging file folders with FIVE colors (like these!) makes it so easy to color-code these things. Here’s how I handle ours!

BLUE = LEGAL

This section includes things like passports, birth certificates, immunization records, social security cards, wills, powers of attorney, advanced directives, and business formation documents. This may sound morbid, but having an attorney for a husband and a funeral director for a father-in-law (they’ve seen some drama when it comes to these things), I cannot emphasize to you enough the importance of having an estate plan, which includes things like wills, powers of attorney, and advance directives in place – especially if you are married and ESPECIALLY if you have children. The complications your family members will have to deal with (or fight over) if you don’t have specific plans in place… just not something you want to burden your loved ones with. You do not have to have a large or complicated “estate” to be worthy of having an estate plan – these things are for EVERYONE.

Texas friends – if you do not have these things in place, Andrew and I highly recommend our attorney friend Marley Elliott! She’s helped us with all sorts of things, from estate documents to business formations. She’s super great at explaining things in an easy-to-understand way, very fairly priced, and can do everything remotely.

GREEN = FINANCIAL

This is where I file anything credit card-related (disputes/payoff records, but not statements – opt for e-statements, always), retirement/investment account documents, 3 years of tax returns, and any loan/line of credit documents.

YELLOW = HOME

The yellow folders house anything related to our home, including property taxes (these could also go in Green but since these are more “active” tax documents, I put them here), lease/purchase/refinance documents and anything real estate-related. I save home repair invoices here and receipts for major purchases (furniture/appliances). I also keep a couple of copies of a recent utility bill, as these are needed occasionally. Otherwise, all utilities are handled online!

RED = INSURANCE

All things home/life/auto/health insurance go here! I have a separate file for each family member's medical bills and explanations of benefits (EOBs) for the last 3 years. Definitely keep your EOBs for a while (this is one thing I do prefer to keep hard copies of, in addition to online copies) – I’ve learned hard and expensive lessons there.

Always, always compare your medical bills to what the EOBs said would be covered, and do not be afraid to call and advocate for yourself. Doctors’ offices make billing mistakes (intentionally or not, at the expense of patients who aren’t paying close attention) ALL. THE. TIME.

If any family member has a significant medical procedure, I keep all documents and bills related to that in a separate file. And on that note, I keep all pregnancy/delivery-related bills and EOBs in a separate file for each baby.

I only keep the current and one most recent previous car and home insurance policy – if our coverage changes, I like to have one previous record to compare it to, but that’s about it. No need to keep years’ worth of those things.

ORANGE = OTHER

This is where I keep things like job records (offer letters, contracts), vehicle purchase and maintenance records, charitable giving records, veterinarian records, and hobby-related things like membership documents and large purchase receipts. School records (report cards, transcripts, etc.) are kept in our kids’ personal keepsake file boxes. Read more about those HERE!

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If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the never-ending influx of paperwork, I hope this was helpful! Obviously every family’s will look a little different. Just having a specific place for things to GO makes a difference in keeping clutter under control so it doesn’t pile up, on the counter or on your to-do list. If you’re on a decluttering mission this year, taking care of tasks related to these things and safeguarding this kind of documentation would be my number one place to start.

Shop all of our important document organization items, all in one place, HERE.

Favorite Buys of 2023

Recapping my favorite buys throughout the year – I had some specific items and categories I wanted to focus my shopping efforts on in 2023, and some unexpected wins too. Here’s what I loved the most!

JEWELRY

Monica Vinader oval pendant + Amazon adjustable gold chain | after getting rid of a LOT of old/outdated jewelry (looking at you, Kendra Scott earrings), I was on the hunt for a few gold jewelry staples. This engraved oval necklace is my new everyday necklace and after searching high and low for a gold pendant I could do 3 lines of engraving on, I love how this one turned out. They include 2 sides of engraving, so I did our wedding year + the kids’ birth years in roman numerals on the front and home team on the back in script – it’s so special to me! With the 14-24” adjustable chain I can move it so the pendant hangs at just the right spot no matter what I’m wearing.

Brinker + Eliza heart necklace | I’ve loved this statement piece (stacks well too) – it would also be a great piece to engrave!

Julie Vos Savoy hoops | Became a big Julie Vos fan this past year. I’m eyeing more of her pieces but wide gold hoops like these had been on my wish list for a while and these fit the bill. Lightweight and good backings so they stay tight against your earlobe.

clothing

Joyspun t-shirt bra | A $13 Walmart find — no wires or seams but makes ‘em look alive without being a push-up. A winner!

Banana Republic wide-leg jeans | If you have wider hips/bigger thighs like me, these are worth a try. Not too tight, not too baggy. I got the black wash and this dark wash denim pair – love the raw hem and the pocket placement is perfect. (BR does come in Petite and Tall but I’m 5’10” and their talls are too long on me, FYI).

BEAUTY + FACE

Revision Brightening face wash | Magic. It truly does brighten your complexion immediately! A little goes a long way – it took me several months to finish a bottle using this every single morning.

Alpyn BHA Liquid Exfoliator | Added this to my routine in the spring (a bottle will last you 6+ months) after reading the insanely good reviews and have zero regrets. It’s helped with texture and tone so much! I rotate between this and my beloved Luna Oil.

Merit makeup | I’d been wanting to try a cream based makeup routine and liked that Merit had cleaner ingredients, but I was impressed by how smoothly it glides on and how glowy it makes my skin look. I got the Minimalist (complexion corrector) in Bisque, Flush Balm (blush) in both Stockholm and Beverly Hills, Day Glow (highlighter) in Cava, Bronze Balm in Clay, Tinted Lip Oil in both Au Naturel and Jeté, and their brush. I wouldn’t put it in the longwear category, but for a daytime routine that looks incredible natural or a glowy, pigmented nighttime look, it’s worth a try!

THE tortoise sunglasses | These are all over Instagram but dangit, they’re a classic look and for $30, feel really nice. I got rid of every pair of sunglasses I owned except these and my favorite aviators from two years ago – they’re all I wear!

HOME

Let’s Love to Cook | I could not stop talking about Larson’s resources all year long because they truly have changed my life. Sounds dramatic but really, using her cookbooks has helped me to ENJOY cooking with confidence and not be intimidated by the process of making from-scratch, hearty, healthy meals for my family. Cooking with my kids became a regular thing in 2023 thanks to LLTC. And the pre-made meal plans and grocery lists are just a no-brainer. Can’t say enough good things!

Silpat reusable baking sheet | Eliminates the need for cooking spray, parchment paper, etc. With all the things I’ve been making and baking (see above) this was a must.

Label maker | A tiny but mighty winner for my home organization efforts in 2023. Works with an easy-to-use phone app.

Locket frame | As soon as I opened this frame, I immediately bought another one for another room. Gorgeous! Comes in antique gold too if that’s more your vibe.

KIDS

Karaoke set | This thing is so fun! Has bluetooth so you can play any song from your phone, and it’ll turn down the artist’s voice so you can sing karaoke, or you can just play it like normal and sing along (comes with 2 mics). Our kids have loved it but it would make an awesome gift for any age or great to have if you’re throwing a party.

Tangle teezer brush | So good I bought two to have on hand. Frizzy + fine little girl hair has met its match.

Personalized dry erase board | I bet Steele wrote her name 487 times this past year thanks to this. Bought a few for gifting, too!

Raising Emotionally Strong Boys | One I’ll read again and again as the boys get older. So much wisdom and practical advice for all age groups (lots of validation and answers for moms of toddlers) but especially relevant for mamas of elementary-age boys. I really enjoyed this one.

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Still loving everything on my 2022 list, too – there’s some good ones on there. I’d love to hear if you have any of these and love them as much as I do!

Brothers Turn Two | Little Blue Truck Birthday Party

Another year, another book-themed birthday party for our boys. Last year, it was one of my favorites – this year, it was theirs! They’d been requesting to read every book from the Little Blue Truck series (we now own all of them) so much throughout the summer that we had to put them away for awhile (IYKYK). But when it was time to start planning, I knew they’d love a Little Blue Truck theme and knew it would be an easy one to DIY!

You can shop everything from this Little Blue Truck party all in one place HERE on LTK.

I found the sweetest watercolor Little Blue Truck invitation template on Etsy, along with matching milestone posters that I thought would be cute to hang and let guests read a little spotlight on each of our boys. Both templates were super easy to edit online and I had everything printed at Office Depot. Click below to shop Little Blue Truck party invitations and designs!

I’m a sucker for some punny party food labels, so for our Little Blue Truck themed party food, we served:
–Cow patties (chocolate cookies)
–Truck tires (Oreos)
–Hay bales (Rice Krispie treats)
–Chicken feed (Chex mix)
–Pitchforks & shovels (forks & spoons)
–Fresh produce (fruit tray and burger fixin’s)
and a fillin’ station (drinks).

I saw the dump truck full of chips idea on Pinterest – a little sticky tack rolled up in a ball held the bin at just the right angle and voila! And if you’re wondering why the dump truck – there’s a very grumpy dump truck that Little Blue Truck ends up befriending in the original story.

We ordered a lemon blueberry cake from a local baker (my husband’s idea – he said “lemon blue” for “Little Blue” just made sense lol) and I had her keep it simple on top so I could use a few of our farm animal toys as cake toppers. I love how it turned out!

The big hit of the party was a surprise we saved for after burgers and cake – our guest of honor! I thought it would be a long shot to find someone local with an old blue truck they’d be willing to bring over for the party, but knew if anyone had the connections to make it happen, it’d be my father-in-law. Sure enough, he knows a classic car enthusiast with the perfect “little blue truck” who was more than willing to drive it over from the next town for us for the afternoon. So kind of them.

The boys were starstruck – Shep was nervous to sit inside but Hayes was SO pumped. They got to go for a ride around the culdesac in the truck bed and “drive” in the driveway and had the biggest time. The adults enjoyed checking out the ‘58 Chevy, too!

Felt like this was a little glimpse into my future – I’ll need every bit of the 14 more years before they’re actually driving to mentally prepare!

Their personalized Little Blue Truck shirts were another Etsy find – the seller was so great to work with and I was really impressed with the quality of the design and the screen printing. I love that they’re not necessarily “birthday” shirts, and I sized up, so they’ll be able to wear them quite a bit! They also got these Little Blue Truck pajamas – such a hit.

Such a sweet day celebrating our big two-year-olds with family and friends. Time sure has flown with these boys and the days only get more fun! We love you, brothers!

My Deep Cleaning Rotation

Keeping things organized is just part of my nature. Always has been. Keeping things clean… not so much. I’ve never cared as much about cleanliness as I have about edited and simplified spaces, but as a mom with three little ones and a big dog running around creating messes all day long, clean is a higher priority now.

Of course we have our daily cleaning routines — running the dishwasher, doing a load of laundry, sweeping, wiping down surfaces. Other tasks I’ll do as needed - vacuuming, cleaning toilets, etc. But when it’s time for a deep clean – when I want things to feel CLEAN clean, I’ll set aside a bigger chunk of time. I’d rather clean a space from top to bottom all the way than doing a little bit here and there.

I was inspired by Francie Outlaw to create a set of deep cleaning lists for our home. When she first shared hers, admittedly, I didn’t get the hype. I thought “Who needs a checklist for cleaning? Just clean!” But the more she shared them, I got on board and appreciated having a checklist for each area of our home to make sure I’m really being thorough and not forgetting anything.

While she has physical notecards, I realized I prefer the lists as a Note/checklist on my phone, so I can mark things off as I go, easily add a notation for when that particular deep clean was last done, and I don’t have to worry about cards getting dirty. Plus, I can edit the lists as needed, as our kids grow and things look different, and as the items in our home change. So far it’s worked great!

For my lists, I grouped certain spaces if it made sense to knock them out together. From start to finish, each area takes about 1-2 hours and I’ll complete them as needed. I’ve made it a goal to get through the entire list a few times a year: early summer, pre-holidays, and hopefully once more. Feel free to copy these lists and tweak to make your own set!

MASTER BATH

• clean sink + bar keepers friend

• clean window + lights + mirror + decor

• clean shower

• clean toilet

• disinfect tub

• disinfect counters 

• wipe down cabinets

• wipe out drawers

• baseboards

• empty trash + clean trash can

• sweep + mop

• wash bath mat

• wash linens

• refill soap

• inventory

MASTER BEDROOM + CLOSET

• wash sheets + pillowcases + duvet cover

• all dirty clothes in hampers

• dust furniture + fan + shoe shelves

• wipe down decor + TV + mirror

• clean windows

• clean under furniture

• vacuum curtains

• baseboards

• tidy dresser + nightstand drawers

• make bed

• sweep + mop

LAUNDRY ROOM + HALF BATH

• dust shelf + decor

• tidy cabinets + inventory

• wipe down washer + dryer

• clean inside washer + lint trap

• clean window

• clean toilet + stool

• clean sink + bar keepers friend

• refill soap

• wipe counters + decor + mirror

• baseboards

• empty trash

• sweep + mop

• iron clothes

KITCHEN + DINING

• clean appliances inside + out

• purge + wipe out fridge

• dust all lights

• clean + disinfect sink

• soak silverware

• wipe down coffee area + refill machine

• refill canisters

• refill soaps + clean soap dispenser

• refill centerpiece candles

• clean windows + blinds

• clean trashcans

• wipe out drawers + cabinets

• wipe down cabinets + backsplash

• tidy + disinfect countertops

• wipe down table, chairs, buffet + decor

• disinfect booster seats

• wipe pantry shelves + inventory

• wash linens

• baseboards

• sweep + mop

LIVING ROOM + Stairs

• tidy + rotate toys

• wash pillow covers + blankets

• wipe down coffee table

• dust lamp, decor, mantle, tv

• wipe down picture frames

• clean + vacuum out fireplace

• clean windows + blinds

• vacuum curtains

• vacuum couch + under cushions

• clean + sweep under couches

• sweep stairs

• sweep coat closet, tidy + wipe down shelves

• baseboards

• sweep + vacuum + mop floors

• wash Ruggable

KIDS’ ROOMS

• wash linens + make beds

• tidy bookshelves + baskets

• dust furniture + decor

• dust fans + lights

• clean under furniture

• tidy closets + dust shelves

• baseboards

• vacuum drapes

• clean windows + blinds

• vacuum floors

• empty + clean vacuum

UPSTAIRS BATH + HALL

• sweep upstairs hallway

• dust hallway frames + windowsill 

• clean sink + bar keepers friend

• disinfect bathtub + tidy toys

• disinfect non-slip mat in tub

• clean toilet

• dust lights

• wipe down counters, mirror, decor

• wipe cabinets

• wipe out drawers

• refill soap

• baseboards

• empty trash

• vacuum rug

• sweep + mop

• wash linens

• inventory

GARAGE

• tidy toys

• rotate seasonal things to/from attic

• tidy + wipe down counters + cabinets

• wipe down workout bench

• wipe freezer + fridge inside and out

• put donations in car

• break down boxes + take out trash

• inventory

• sweep floors

OUTSIDE

• leaf blow

• pick up dog poop

• wipe down chairs

• clean windows

• clean grill

• shake out and sweep around door mats

• sweep porch + patio

• sweep doorframes + cobwebs

• clean dog bowls

• disinfect patio table

• wipe down tv

• water plants

A quick note on cleaning products — at the beginning of 2024, I started fresh with all new cleaning products. We now use Branch Basics for everyday cleaning, wiping surfaces, etc., and Force of Nature as our disinfectant. Both are completely non-toxic and fragrance-free, and I’ve been so impressed with their effectiveness. The Force of Nature link above will get you 40% off and earns me extra capsules for sharing. I recommend the Year’s Supply — it’s a really great value and should last you closer to 2 years or more!

Hopefully this was helpful to you, even just to articulate what exactly it takes do a true reset in each area of your home when it comes to cleaning. Whether you’re frequently hosting or in the thick of motherhood with young kids, it feels good to know that even as the daily messes pile up, your home functions at a baseline of cleanliness, with an extra fresh slate when you need it.

How I Manage + Organize My Digital and iPhone Photos

Consider this a sequel to my post on Living with Less and Prioritizing Simplicity in our Home. This time, we’re talking all things digital photos! After doing a giant organizational overhaul of our home and the things in it over the last couple of years, I still felt like I didn’t have a handle on our personal photos. I’ve always kept my clients’ photos organized, with systems in place for culling, storing, and backing up securely, but I couldn’t say the same for my personal photos. The number of Recents just sitting on my phone was in the thousands, and I know I’m not alone there.

As a photographer, of course I value professional photos. They’re artful, intentional, and they help me to remember certain seasons in a really beautiful light. I like to record things for our family with my big camera, too. But iPhone photos can be just as important - the little day to day moments, the funny videos, the vacation memories. They all hold extreme value.

Just like I prefaced the first blog, let me say again – a lot of this might sound harsh or extreme. It’s taken some perspective shifts and lightbulb moments to change some hard-wired habits and ways of thinking. Just like clothes and belongings, I get the attachment to photos and the anxiety/worry/guilt that comes with trying to pare them down. I get it. Your memories are yours alone and what’s important to you is important to you for a reason. So again, this is what’s currently working for me. If something’s helpful to you, great! If not, keep on keepin on.

The WHY Behind My Digital Photo Overhaul

It’s funny to look back and think about our own childhood photos. My mom was great at keeping photo albums and I loved flipping through them, but those albums held dozens, maybe a hundred. Certainly not thousands upon thousands of photos.

Now, we (80s and 90s babies) are parents to the most photographed generation in history. But what purpose is that actually serving? At what point does the sheer number of photos outweigh the benefit of keeping them all? Snapping photos has become almost a comfort thing for us in some ways. We think I HAVE TO CAPTURE THIS RIGHT NOW OR I’LL REGRET IT, instead of allowing ourselves to be fully present and then letting the moment pass on by. But do we lose some of the meaning, the intention, the value of a memory captured if it’s just floating around in a sea of tens of thousands of other memories captured? It sure becomes harder for memories to stand out and be appreciated…

I think some of us are scarred by the lack of tangible memories and sad that we don’t have more pictures from our own childhood. Which is understandable. But the challenge is this: you don’t have to overcompensate for that when it comes to your kids. I actually kind of appreciate the 90s way of NOT having every single little moment captured and saved. There’s gotta be a happy medium that exists between a lack of childhood memories captured on camera, and way too freaking many.

The number of photos on your phone is only going to increase. If your kids are little and it’s already at 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 - what’s it going to be at when they’re in high school? And beyond that? There is no physical way we can go back through and enjoy and relive 100,000, 500,000, a million photos some day down the road. It’s just not feasible. Even if we just wanted to look through a few at a time, or refer back to a certain memory, or photos from a certain season or event, how is that going to work if our photos aren’t organized? Are we going to just hope our iPhones still function the same and we can scroll back through 15 years’ worth of photos? That is a lot of scrolling.

I look at this as doing my future self and my children a favor. Not burdening them with more than they could ever possibly go through. Keeping only the best of the best. Keeping things manageable, for their sake. There’s a fine line between a lot to appreciate, and just plain overwhelming. Just like I’m not going to burden my kids with storage units worth of physical items to sort through one day, I’m not going to burden them with hundreds of thousands of photos, either.

the hardest part: culling

I’ve tried to make a habit of deleting iPhone photos as I go, culling through them daily or just right after I take a bunch. I also LOVE the strategy of using the search feature in the Photos app to search for the current date (ex. July 25) – it will show you every photo and video you’ve ever taken on July 25th of any year. Look through them, smile at some memories you forgot you captured, quickly decide which few are worth keeping, repeat. Doing a nightly cull is a good starting point for going back through and narrowing down/deleting photos from throughout the years, until you’re more caught up.

What does this look like? Blurry, awkward faces, closed eyes – gone. I don’t need 12 pictures if they all have a very similar pose or facial expression. If there are multiple people in a photo from a given event, one or two of that grouping is plenty. If I’m keeping a photo, there needs to be something distinctive about it. A good example every mom can relate to – taking the monthly pictures of your infant. Did you not take 27 pictures of them with the “4 months” sign? And 85 pictures with the “11 months” sign because they were rolling over or crawling off in half of them? I’d go back through those types of “bursts” of photos and narrow it down to literally just one or two (the horror, I know – but you can do this!). If it’s scenery, same thing. I don’t need 3 pictures of the same sunset or skyline, beautiful as it may be.

Distinctive is the keyword. Distinct poses, scenes, angles, facial expressions, actions being captured. 90s mindset. I try to think about it from a photographer’s perspective – the client only knows and cares about the photos you deliver, not the ones you delete. Your kids one day will not know or care about the okay photos you deleted – they’ll be able to better appreciate the good ones you kept.

It might take months on the front end to get things culled and at a more manageable number, but imagine the weight that’ll lift! Make a goal to have your number cut by a certain percentage by a certain date – a third by Christmas? Half by this time next year? And you’ll get to relive some memories as you go. Culling is the most time-intensive part. Beyond that, getting photos and videos off your phone and into folders every couple of months. once you’re caught up, takes minimal effort and time. 

off the phone, onto the external hard drive

A big influence for me in all of this is Nancy Ray – I listen to her podcast pretty often and have always heard her talk about her Legacy Photo System. She’s a former wedding photographer as well and has created an entire course about managing and organizing your family’s photos – your legacy! In her words, “Your phone is a phone. Not a storage device.” Phones get lost. They break. Did you know iCloud only syncs — it doesn’t actually create a backup? If someone gets ahold of your phone and wipes it clean, guess what - your photos are gone forever. Do you really want to trust these memories to iCloud alone? Bottom line: when photos and videos are only on your phone, they’re not permanent.

To get them off my phone and stored safely, I use two hard drives: my main external hard drive, and a backup hard drive. I store very little on my actual computer because I don’t want it to get bogged down and run slower, so all of my client photos (and now personal photos too) are on an external hard drive. My backup hard drive’s only function is to create an exact copy of my external hard drive.

So to get photos and videos off my phone, I use Image Capture (standard on Mac) or even just AirDrop. From there, I drag and drop into folders on my external. Each folder name starts with the year, then the month, then the event name. If there are multiple images from a particular event, that gets its own folder. Random one-off photos and videos can go in a seasonal folder, like 2023 Spring, 2023 Summer, etc. Here are some examples:

For something that spans multiple months (like Pregnancy – I wanted to keep all my ultrasound + bump pictures in one folder) I name the folder with whatever month it started.

After culling a tonnnnn of my kids’ baby pictures, I found it was easiest to group what was left, just day-to-day moments that don’t really fall under an event, into six-month increments: 0-6, 6-12, 12-18, 18-24 months. Beyond that, I do (Name) 2 Years Old, (Name) 3 Years Old, etc., for the miscellaneous photos and videos. For random family photos, scenery, a picture from a random date night, things like that, I do seasonal folders for each year - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.

Phone Settings

I realized as I started transferring photos to my hard drive that having Live Photo turned on was creating more work in the long run for me, so I turned it off – controversial, I know. Yes, it’s fun to watch Lives back, but when you import a Live Photo, it automatically creates a photo AND video version of the file and that’s just not worth the extra culling effort or file space for me. I tend to use Portrait Mode most of the time anyway.

Also, after realizing my iPhone photos were importing as HEIC files vs. JPEG, I did some research on what’s best. HEIC files retain the same quality at about half the file size of JPEG, and both types can be edited in Lightroom. However, after running into compatibility issues with printing companies and album software, converting HEICs to JPEGs became too much of a hassle, so JPEG it is for me.

Backing up my photos securely

Getting a quality external hard drive is important, but even the sturdiest external drive isn’t made to last forever. From personal experience and hearing from other photographers, it seems like 5-ish years is a normal life expectancy for these things. Which means having your photos backed up in multiple places is IMPORTANT.

My backup hard drive runs with Time Machine to create a copy of what’s on my external, and I keep it in our fire-proof safe when it’s not plugged in. On my phone, I have the Amazon Photos app, which constantly backs up new photos (not videos, but if you have Prime, it’s free to back up unlimited photos, so it’s silly not to take advantage.)

Beyond that, I knew it was worth paying for some sort of reliable cloud storage to protect these memories – as dramatic as it sounds, it’s our family’s legacy at stake. Like I mentioned before— iCloud doesn’t actually back up an extra copy of your photos, it only syncs what’s currently on your phone (so if your phone is stolen and photos get deleted, they’re gone for good) SCARY. Dropbox is a good alternative and is what Nancy Ray uses - its base plan is $119 a year for 2TB, but I didn’t need quite that much space. I have about 8,000 total photos and videos right now (1200 of those are our wedding photos) for a total of 98GB. Google One (what they now call all your storage across Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, etc.) has a 200GB option for $29 a year, which is perfect for me. To be honest, I hate the Google Photos interface BUT, I love the rest of the Google Suite’s integration enough to make up for it, and I like how Google Drive allows you to copy entire folders over from your computer and it keeps the same hierarchy. So Google Drive is where my photos are currently residing on the cloud!

But what about…

Accessibility? Does it bother you not being able to look at old photos on your phone?

Nope! Not an issue, because I still can! I’ll keep the current calendar year’s worth of photos and videos in my Recents folder on my phone, and if I want to look back at something else, I can easily find it on my Google Drive app. It’s all still there, organized into folders just like on my hard drive, it’s just not taking up storage space on my phone itself.

What about things like screenshots, quotes, recipes, etc.?

I did create a folder for those things within each year, however – screenshots are usually something I need to do something about. So as I’m culling, if it’s important enough to hang onto, I’ll either write it down on paper, copy it into my Notes app, email it to myself and file it within Gmail, or move that to-do item elsewhere.

How do you reconcile all this as a photographer? Don’t photographers advocate for MORE photos?

Obviously I’m a proponent of investing in professional photos for your family on a regular basis. There’s so much value in hiring someone to capture your entire family in an artful, timeless way. That said – it will always and forever be quality over quantity for me. It’s okay to only keep your very favorites from professional photo sessions. We cull your photos before we edit and deliver them to you - you’re allowed to cull even more! It’s our job to give you a gallery of what we feel is artful and beautiful. We’re providing you with options, and our goal for you is to really, truly enjoy your favorites. Maybe it’s the whole gallery! Maybe it’s half of them. Just like you do with your iPhone photos, decide which ones are most meaningful for you and your family’s legacy. Go for the ones that immediately make you feel something. Print them, frame them, put them in an album or family yearbook. It’s okay if you don’t hang onto the rest. 

My Goals from Here on Out

I’m planning to sit down and transfer photos from my phone to my computer once a month or as needed. Now that I’m caught up and culling daily, it’s really not too daunting of a task anymore to stay current.

A couple of years ago, before I even started this whole process, I started adding photos to Family Yearbook folders on my desktop. Like, the best of the best. Probably around 150-200 photos per year. I also created a Shared Album on my phone so my husband and I can both add our favorite iPhone photos that we want included in these yearbooks. At the end of this year, I finally got caught up creating those annual yearbooks for our family using mPix hardcover books. After trying out a few different options, I loved mPix’s customization features the best, but there are tons of great album companies depending on your preferences. Even an old school photo album with 4x6s of your iPhone photos is a great option! No matter what you choose, having your photos printed for your family to look back on and hold in their hands – there’s nothing better.

Something Andrew requested was a yearly family video, too. I finally caught up on 5 years’ worth of annual videos with iMovie and it was actually way easier than I expected! I just drag and drop my favorite video files and it can compile everything, in chronological order, into one continuous file. Nothing fancy, just all our favorite clips from the year combined into one long one, but so fun to look back on!

I also got archival storage boxes for our loose printed photos that aren’t in frames – one for our life pre-kids (dating/engagement/wedding/newlywed years) and one for our family memories.

Final thoughts

Just like with our home and downsizing our belongings, the mental load of managing all of it gets HEAVY. Getting to this point in downsizing our photos feels like a giant weight has been lifted. I feel like I can be much more present, enjoying the moments with my kids rather than having my phone in their face all the time. For the really important things (big life events, milestones, vacations, gatherings) I bring my big camera and leave my phone put away as much as possible, but when I do go to pull up the camera on my phone, I try to ask myself now “Am I taking this to share? Or am I taking it for us, to save?” It’s ok to take things for the purpose of sharing sometimes – we live in a connected world – but if it’s just for me and my family, I’m sure going to be more intentional about taking fewer but better photos. Quality over quantity.

Less, but better. That’s what I’m going for in all aspects of life in this season and it. is. freeing.

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Thank you Maddie Ray for some of my very favorite family photos.