As this epic project comes to a close, I look back to see that I never imagined what a beast of a project this was going to be. This was my second attempt at it, so I was no stranger to the stress of keeping up. I guess I didn’t realize how much harder it would be having not just one kid to care for, but one kid and a baby to care for and a household to keep up. Life has not stopped since I started this project at the end of November 2010. It only seems to have gone even faster. I admit there have been days where I thought I could go mad and thought about just quitting already, but I knew that I couldn’t. Even when I became five weeks behind I knew I couldn’t just give up when I had made it so far and I certainly wasn’t going to start all over again for a third time.
This project became not just my attempt to document my 36th year of life for me. It became a labor of love for my family. I keep thinking about how cool this blog will be to look back on for Asher and Eva when they are older. I cherish the few remaining discolored photos from my childhood. I can only hope they will feel the same about this blog. It won’t have the same nostalgic look as my childhood photos shot on film, but I tried to make it a bit more personal by writing a little something for most of the days. I knew I would probably forget some of those details after awhile too.
The past year has turned out to be mostly about people and portraits. I started out photographing nature and never imagined I’d find an interest in photographing people, but here I am. People are interesting and amazing. Why wouldn’t I want to photograph them?
Even though I bent the rules by substituting some photos since I didn’t have a photo for every single day out of the 365 days, and even though I sometimes posted more than one photo, I think I accomplished what I set out to do. I documented much of what happened in my 36th year of life and it turns out the main focus was on people, since most of the photos posted are of my family and friends. At some point in this project I stopped taking myself so seriously and decided it was perfectly fine to post mostly snapshots. Snapshots are great memories too. While it would be nice to create portfolio worthy photos every day of my life, it’s just not possible when I have other responsibilities.
As I conclude this, I need to thank a lot of people who supported me during this project. First of all, thanks to Chad who encouraged me over and over to keep at it no matter what. Thanks to all of you who continued to follow my blog even when I fell dreadfully behind and sometimes posted boring stuff. I will never forget how you left me supportive and fun comments to let me know you still enjoyed looking at my postings. It sure can get monotonous after awhile and you all helped me through those times.
Kasey, April, Micaela, Rebecca, Candice, Danika, Deanna & Scott: Thanks from the bottom of my heart! You were my faithful readers/commenters. 
Lastly, many thanks to all of you who let me photograph you and put up with me and my camera…..most especially my Littles. I do plan to give you a little break from the camera before Mommy goes nuts again with her camera to photograph you in front of the Christmas tree!
Finally, I haven’t really decided what I’m going to do with this blog now. I may still post some things from time to time, but I’m considering beginning a new blog. In the meantime, I wish everyone good cheer this holiday season.
xoxo
Rachel
