Sharing: {everydays}

How do you file your digital photos? I file mine in folders by year and month, with older photos of unknown date getting the miscellaneous treatment within the year I'm able to best guestimate. I've tried other ways, but it seems that my brain remembers our memories chronologically 99.999% of the time. I am working on tagging my photos in order to dimensionalize them. (Tags create additional *virtual* files, which come in handy when you are looking for, say, all of dd's halloween costumes thru the years, etc.). But I'll probably always group the actual digital files by year folders, then by month folders.

Brown rice with marshmallows? Noooo, that's cut up string cheese melting in there...

So, it's fun for me to look through a month folder of photos, because I see *everyday* snippets of my life, a photography practice that's in vogue right now with scrapbookers and art journalers. When I see the shots of the healthy foods I'm trying to eat more of (like the brown rice, above), this reinforces my good behavior and helps me remember to do it. I caught myself the other day looking at a plate of food that The Hubster cooked that was not all that healthy and thinking, oh I shouldn't photo that. (As it was, I decided to not censure my record, but my camera battery was dead, so no photo got taken after all.)

Now, I wish I had a photo of that high-fat-high-calorie fare, because I think it would trigger "bad dog" self-criticism and help me say no next time. I probably didn't explain that the best way, but I hope you get the basic gist of it.

The photographic truth of our lives can trigger the memories we might not want to recall when we need to...

So, what else have I found in my January photo file beside brown rice? Well, this photo, above, of my recent genealogy software purchase, reminds me of a goal I wanted to achieve in 2011: get my main ancestor lines down on paper in a narrative and in charts. This photo reminded me that just buying the software unfortunately has not and will not make that happen on its own, darnit.

Over on my Paper-Paisleys art blog, I've been recording photos of some of my clothing combinations that I've worn during the cold weather. This has, in a small but important way, helped me take more of an interest in what I wear {ie, when dressing, I sometimes think, will these take a good photo? I still wear the "no's", but more and more I do wear the "yes's"}.

Here's a record of a new habit that The Hubs and I have begun again after 5-6 years: subscribing to the daily local paper. While the jury is still out on whether it was a fruitful change to make (local news being what it is), this photo will remind me that we did it.

Some of my naughty food meals are ones I love to eat so much that health be damned, lol. This was our Super Bowl Sunday meal: pulled pork bbq sandwiches, cole slaw and ranch-style beans. Oh gosh, I could probably eat this every day for an entire year (well, month for sure). I smile just looking at the photo. Yum......

So, anyway, you get the idea. Take photos of your life. Take lots. You can always delete them. But you can't get back what you never took, right?