living in the past

Well it's official ... 2017 has come to a close.  When my blogging got it's second life a couple of months ago, I had only printed blog books through 2012.  I love tangible memories - saving everything online still seems a little odd and cold and impersonal.  The bookshelves on the left side of our fireplace house my ancient photo albums, blog books, shutterfly books, all sorts of memories, and I love seeing my kiddos pull out a book and sit on the couch flipping through it.  There's just something about holding it in your hands and actually seeing it.  I suppose that's the reason I still read books, it's just not the same on a screen.  Despite having not printed them out, I had blogged pretty well the years 2013, 14, and 15 so those books were a fairly easy order.  The years 2016 and 17 were a different story though - and actually so is 2018, but I'll come back around to that. 

Off and on for the past two months maybe, I've been recreating 2016 and 2017 and backdating a lot of posts.  It's been a little weird and a little fun living in the past.  Hard to believe so much has changed in just a few short years.  Probably most noticeably is Chloe as she made the transition from preschool to elementary during this time period.  And for better or worse, her friends have completely changed.  Oh how I miss the days of Couper and Alice and the sweet innocence of the church preschool.  It was such a fun walk down memory lane posting about those days. 

In fact, I think I delved a little too deep into those memories.  I've got a lot of posts and a lot of pictures within those posts.  It sure felt good to finish those years and capture some of my babies' childhoods!  Now to wait for a coupon code for the blog to print site I use.  There was a 35% off one that was good in October, but I wasn't ready yet.  I've waited this long to print, so I'll wait until another code comes along.  And I'm not going to start into 2018 just yet.  I want to see what the 2017 book looks like first.  How well it prints with all those pictures, how many pages it is, that sort of thing.  Then I'll be able to better evaluate what to do with the year 2018.  I did post one post that year 😝  And while 2019 started slow [nonexistent], I've really gotten back into the swing of things.  So far now, woo-hoo, 2016 and 2017 have been relegated back to the past!  Bring on 2018 and 2019.  And before we know it 2020 too, eekkk!!