Becoming a Life Artist: Week 4- Celebrating the Everyday

Today Ali Edwards is inspiring me to talk about celebrating the everyday. I think this is my favorite of her life principles. To me, celebrating the everyday means being present in the moment, looking for beauty in my surroundings, and recording our daily routines and conversations through photos, my blog, and my scrapbook layouts.

Here are some ways I document and celebrate the everyday:

• Project 365: A photo a day for a year. I have captured food, faces, and places, relationships, my job, and possessions that bring me joy. I can't wait to look back at the end of the year and see what themes emerge. You can find my weekly shots here on Sundays.
• Facebook status updates: funny things my kids say, what we're having for dinner, results of medical tests. A fellow blogger I know at Away We Go used Facebook updates as the basis for her Christmas letter- what a great and simple way to look back on the everyday moments in a year!
• Dinnertime routines: At our house we start dinner with gratitudes, in the form of "What was your favorite part of the day?" It reminds us all that every day has beautiful moments and reasons to give thanks. Simple, little moments usually make the list, such as "seeing my friends at daycare" or "getting to take a nap". Here is a week's worth of simple gratitudes that I posted a while back.
• Scrapbooks: Sure, holidays and big events have a place in my albums. But I think the layouts I enjoy the most focus on daily moments and show a more complete picture of our lives. Here's one about playing in the snow in our yard.

Are you focused on the here and now and enjoying the little joys life has to offer? How do you celebrate the everyday?