I take hundreds of photos every month, and most of them don’t get shared with anyone, let alone online. And yet the moments in time that those photos capture are just as important a part of our story as the other images that I do choose to share.

I originally created this blog as a way of documenting our lives, a way of watching the girls grow into who they’re going to be and a way of remembering who they once were. It’s something I want them to be able to look back on as they get older, because memories fade but (digital) photographs don’t.

It’s easy (and tempting) to only focus on sharing the fun bits, the memorable parts, the highlights and the celebrations. But I’m learning more and more as I continue through this crazy journey of motherhood that it’s really important to me that I capture the ordinary, everyday times that we spend together as well.

The bits of the jigsaw that fill in the gaps to complete the picture.  The tantalising glimpses into who our girls are becoming.  The chaos, the calm and all the moments in between.

This monthly feature – The Moments In Between – is a space for me to share all of those magical bits that would otherwise just stay in a folder on my laptop, never to see the light of day.

DECEMBER

December is always ridiculously busy with birthdays, school events, Christmas preparations and work.  You’d think I would be used to it and expect it by now but it still takes me by surprise every single year.  By the time the end of the longest term of the school year rolls around I’m utterly exhausted.  We all are.

This year we had the added fun stress of moving house two weeks before Christmas, plus two out of three girls were struck down with actual, proper flu one week after another thanks to an epidemic going around their school.  Truthfully, it simultaneously felt like the longest month in the world and as if it passed by in a blur, like someone had pushed the fast-forward button on life.

Somehow I found the energy to take more photos in December than I did in October and November combined.  I wanted to document the last days in our old house and the first few weeks in our new one, to capture birthday and Christmas traditions in their old and new forms.  Having a specific purpose gave me the motivation to pick my camera up to capture the ordinary moments again, which is something I’ve not really felt like doing for a while now.  It felt good.  I’m not back to full creativity yet but I can feel it beginning to return, I can feel the excitement I get when I see pretty light and I can visualise images in my head that I want to create and capture.

This month’s photographs are special.  I mean, they’re always special of course but these ones feel that little bit more poignant somehow because they represent the closing of one chapter in our lives and the start of a brand new one for our family.

I remember every detail, every movement, every gesture and expression, from every image. The exact reason why I pressed the shutter in that moment. The thoughts I was thinking and the feelings I was feeling. The words that were said. Precisely where we were in that particular moment.  They’re so much more than just photographs. They all have a significance for me far deeper than the surface level of what you see.

Every single one brings back layers and layers of meaning, not just of the moment in the picture but of moments gone before and now, looking back at them, the moments that came afterwards too.

Every single one speaks to me in so many ways. Every single one is a piece of our jigsaw. Every single one is like a sentence in our life story.

This is us.