Okay, so now that I've talked about how not to take pictures all the time, I wanted to talk about something related that's on my mind right now. Since we all take lots of pictures of our family, we have to actually do something with those pictures. I blogged earlier on about some ideas for scrapbooking with your photos, but I feel that there is a bit of an in-between step. This post will help you - and me - get from taking the pictures to the scrap booking stage.

- Get a camera. No, really. I feel this is an important step to note. If you don't have a camera, or you have one but don't know how to use the one you have, or you're like me and had one that didn't work any more but you were waiting for it to heal itself - get a camera! We are still on the fence between digital and film cameras - my husband the computer geek prefers digital, and I (who, by the way, can actually work the digital camera better than my husband - but that's neither here nor there) prefer to use a real camera with film.

- Take pictures! Really - even though I just encouraged you to put down the camera in my last post, I still feel it's important to capture some moments of childhood on film. We try to take pictures right before Shabbat or holidays since we don't take photographs on those days. It's nice to set aside a few minutes where everyone is dressed nicely and (hopefully still) clean from the shower. I love taking pictures of the kids helping to put up the sukkah in the fall, and setting up the candles for Chanukkah.

- Subscribe to a digital service. If you go digital, and take a thousand pictures but they all stay in the camera, all you have to do is wait for your three year old to find a way to break your camera, or you lose it altogether, and then you may well be stuck without any remnant that you actually took those photos. Uploading to a service like Snapfish, Flickr or Shutterfly are all good programs - at least your pictures will get off your camera and into cyberspace - even if you don't print them right then and there.

- Have a place to store your prints. Let me revise that - have one place with a finite amount of space. That one place should be a drawer or box. If you give your pictures more than that amount of space, then you will never be forced to get up to the part where you go through the pictures and put them in albums. Although I am a pretty crafty person - I love scrap booking and I enjoy going through my pictures and putting them in albums - I find I just don't have the time. Also, with a 13 month old around the house, I have to be very careful about when I take pictures out.

When you've maxed out on space, or when you actually have a rainy day, dig in. Start by sorting them by family member, event or year. You may end up with a few smaller boxes before they make it to albums, but you'll get there... and hopefully I will too!