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. A legacy, of sorts.
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 and life that it’s really important to me that I capture the ordinary, everyday times that we spend together as well.
The pieces 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 feature – The Moments In Between – is a space for me to share all of those magical and messy parts of our family life that would otherwise just stay in a folder on my laptop, never to see the light of day.
JANUARY & FEBRUARY
I have barely picked up my camera over the last two months. January feels like it was forever ago. Did I really start the year sick with Covid? (I had genuinely forgotten about that until I looked through my photographs and found the self portrait I took to document it). Are we actually two months into 2023 already?
It feels like so much has happened and yet as much as I’ve tried to stay present in each moment, it seems to have passed by in a bit of a blur. Time just hasn’t been the same since the first lockdown in 2020 – it’s certainly altered my perception of how it passes anyway.
I feel a little sad that I haven’t frozen those blurry moments into sharp focus with a click of my shutter, whilst simultaneously not minding too much as I dislike the winter months and don’t particularly want to remember their un-inspiring greyness anyway.
Neil spent most of February travelling in New Zealand and I held down the fort at home, navigating three weeks of solo-parenting with as much grace and patience as I could. I think I did ok. Mostly. We made it anyway, and we’re very glad to have him home again. We missed him. The whole dynamic of the household alters when there’s a person missing.
My attention has now shifted to looking forwards to the arrival of Spring; to the light and warmth returning; to the earth waking up; to all the fun things we have planned over the next few months.
But it’s important to acknowledge where we’ve been and not move on too quickly otherwise the blurriness will just continue. And even though I didn’t capture many images, those that I did take represent my ongoing quest to look for the magic whenever and wherever I can – I see a flurry of rainbows, hearts and flowers in this small collection. And that’s pretty magical to me.
This was our story in January and February…
