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.
JULY
July felt… intense. And busy. Which feels weird to say after months of lockdown and life slowing down.
I’m grateful that we made it to the end of term after fourteen weeks of homeschooling and me playing the role of both Mum and teacher. Grateful for the summer holidays and the knowledge that there is no schoolwork to do. Grateful that my work is busy enough that I can pay the bills (because I know for many, many people that simply isn’t the case). Grateful that we got to spend three unexpected bonus months with Neil and grateful that he still has a job to go back to even if we do miss him being home all the time now that his furlough has ended. Grateful that visitor restrictions lifted enough for us to see my parents for the day (even though we still weren’t allowed to hug them). Grateful that we got the opportunity to escape to our happy place by the sea in Cornwall for a week and were able to take Sophie with us as our ‘bubble’. Grateful that we’re all still healthy.
Grateful, grateful, grateful.
I think we have to be really. Because I know if I spend too long really thinking about the current state of the world and all the things that are going on in it, I’ll lose it. Being grateful for what we are lucky enough to have is pretty much keeping me going right now and it’s what I come back to every single time I feel frustrated about our much-talked-about planned adventures not coming to fruition or not being able to see the people we love.
There are lots of photos this month. It’s felt good to capture more moments and document the shift from lockdown to something that feels *slightly* more normal (if you can call mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing ‘normal’). The details, the bigger picture, the wild array of emotions that seem to come with this strange era. A glimpse into the first half of what summer was like in 2020. I’ve done my best to record it all – the messy magic, the creative chaos, the highs, the lows and everything in between. It’ll matter in the future even more than it does now.
This is us.
