Yesterday & Today

Journalling: We met over the internet. I was looking for people living in London who would help me to find out more about live in UK and London before I would move from Berlin. I found Nigel’s profile on meetic.co.uk and my very first thought was “men like him merry me” (No idea why on earth I was thinking something like that). Two month later I got my written offer from the UK office and had to tell my manager who didn’t know anything about my application that I will be transferring. I couldn’t come up with a reason acceptable enough (the truth was – I wanted to move to UK so I could quit my job and find a better one which would have been too difficult for me in Germany). So one daymy manager called me as suddenly found transfer paperwork on his table: “Anastasia, I didn’t know you are moving! Why is that?” …

Yesterday & Today

Running a bit late! The idea of week five was to document a story from you rpast that you don’t have pictures for. It took me a while to come up with the story, and at the end I abandond my plan and just journalled what was on my mind…

Journalling reads: 

Yesterday & Today: Challenging Story

Journalling:

This story begun over a year before Henry was born and over two years before we started to expect our second son. All my childhood I was afraid of being pregnant and giving birth. Even when I was just six years old I would ask strangers on a bus “Do I have to be pregnant”? But one day, in late September 2007 while I was having a coffee with a friend of mine, I realised “you know, I am not afraid any more! Just so! It just happened!”

I fell pregnant the first time we really tried. It was great – I haven’t expected it to be so easy. I was full with joy and everything was going fine – no morning sickness, no particular pains.
Early January our first antenatal appointment came. 

Yesterday & Today: Six Childhood Memories

I am a bit bound by the photos I have with me here in the UK, I would have probably told different stories if I had other/more photos here. But, hey, I don’t! To tell you the truth this week was quite frustrating for me (this part of the project assignment).

Yesterday & Today: Intro Layout

So… here is my first layout for the Y&T book. I am happy with the colours I’ve chosen but I just have painfully realised that those pictures on the cover of the book are pretty much the only ones that I will be using… I don’t have any others here… I SO would love to tell stories while actually having photos of people I am talking about! And those photos do exist, but I dont’ have them… May be one day, later this year I will get my hands on them. Might then also need to change the title of the book!

Anyway – here we go – the cover:-)

Yesterday & Today: Stories

I brainstormed several times yesterday to refine my list and I am thankful to actually have a whole week for this task as I am sure the list will still evolve.

Some of my stories will be facts (like family history) but I also want to give someone an impression about my person, my dreams and every day tastes – so this is something like a mood board – has no beginning or end or direction… I hope we will be talking about those type stories and is there anything that will help to scrap these…

I also have several stories where photos are not there now but I might get my hands on them in 6-10 months time and these stories are very big (lengthy) – hope that the layout will allow to add more pages to a story so that I can tell some sub-stories
An example would be: Family Stories: there are at least several stories that I would like my children to know about (some with and some without photos, some are from my side of the family and some from my husbands)?
Another example: my childhood – so many interesting facts but also feelings and emotions that I think are important to share…

How do I go about it? Pick one? Give only headlines of each? Questions to be answered in the next couple of weeks as I go along.

I ended up with six topics:

- Family history and stories (where all of us are coming from and cool/grim stories)

- My childhood (facts like where I lived etc, plus stories about my relationship with grandparents and parents)

- Relationships and Love (how I met my husband, how we got married)

- My parenting and children (how I parent, how pregnancy and birth were, etc.)

- ME: like/dislikes; hopes/fears; everyday tastes/preferences

It’s massive!:-) How do I cut down? Each of these areas is something I want my children to know about (in particular if I was gone tomorrow):-)

To help me brainstorm and shape some ideas I used a list of questions I’ve received a while ago through my RSS subscription. It was a post of questions for people who contemplated writing their autobiography. I found it ever so helpful!

Your Mother

1. Where was your mother born?
2. What trait did you admire the most about your mother?
3. What are the three most important life lessons that you learned from your mother?
4. Did your mother have any unfulfilled dreams or regrets that you were aware of?
5. Were there any issues that were always a source of tension between you and your mother?
6. What’s your fondest memory of your mother?
7. What activities did you enjoy doing with your mother?
8. In what ways are you like your mother?
9. In what ways are you different from your mother?
10. How have your mother’s beliefs influenced your own belief system?
11. Did your mother have a job outside the home?
12. Is there anything that you wish your mother would have been able to give to you or teach you that she wasn’t able to?
13. Did your mother have a favorite phrase or saying?
14. Is there anything that you need to forgive your mother for?
15. Is there anything you wish you would have told your mother?