by Ashley Scobey

It’s 8:00am and I’m chasing my toddler around the house. He’s naked, and we were supposed to be in the car 10 minutes ago. We are running late, as usual, and the day is already off to a relatively stressful start. With meetings and e-mails and meals and school, sometimes it feels like I rarely have time to wash my hair, let alone take time to be a faithful steward of my childrens’ tangible memories. It’s so easy to join the ranks of millions of Moms whose photos sit untouched on devices - in their very own technology prison. We are, as a group, busy. We are also, as a group, often the gatekeepers of some of the most important parts of life: making memories and creating a legacy. And so much of this happens through pictures. Not the kind of pictures that sit on your first generation i-phone in that drawer over by the kitchen (or at least I think that’s where it is… I can’t quite remember). It happens through the kind of pictures that we can touch. The kind of pictures that get printed.

We live in a time where photography is more accessible than ever. People are taking photos and documenting moments at an unprecedented rate, and that’s worth celebrating. We’ve gone from an age where people had to stand completely still (usually with forlorn expressions on their faces) for hours in order to take a single image, to being able to capture moments at the speed of light. If I take 100 photos of my children each week (and, believe me, I do) it’s ok to let go of the pressure to print them all. So go ahead and leave your guilt at the door. I consider it a win to print the 10-20 images each year that remind me how much I love our life - how silly our kiddos are and how smoking hot my husband is.

Take the photos that make you feel alive; the ones that reflect the center of your beautiful being - and print them.

In my life, the easiest way to make sure things get done is by scheduling them and automating them. And, lucky for us, you can do both of these things with printing your memories.

Scheduling: Kind of like taxes (but way more fun and less expensive) you have to set aside dedicated time to printing your family photos. I schedule a three hour block of time each quarter to go through the pictures in my phone and in google photos, print images, design albums, and plan photo projects (you know, the ones taking up 75% of those Pinterest boards).

Automating: Wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a service that would automatically print your images for you? Maybe, for example, a service that would take the pictures that you post on instagram and turn them into albums? Well hold onto your hats - such a service EXISTS. Actually, a few of these services exist. Our family uses Chatbooks, a website that links to our instagram and automatically sends us printed albums when we’ve posted enough photos. I love them because I can go in and tweak the books before they’re printed, and my kids love them because they can sit down and relive our epic family road trip without having to stare at a screen.

Make a date with yourself. There can be chocolate or wine or CHOCOLATE AND WINE. Make it fun, schedule it, and follow through on printing some of the most well captured moments from your year. Comment with some of your favorite ways to preserve your cherished memories! I can’t wait to read all about it!

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Ashley Scobey is a homeschooling Mom of two who is living in the beautiful town of Golden, Colorado with the love of her life (since 6th grade). She believes in chasing big dreams, especially when they scare you. She loves to cheer people on and help them understand just how much they are truly capable of. She is one-half of the Wedding Photography team The Scobeys, where she gets to spend her time taking pictures of people in love. It’s a pretty awesome gig and she spends most of the time just being really really grateful.