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 monthly 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.

JUNE

I’ve sat here with my fingers hovering over the keyboard for quite some time now and I’m still not really sure what to say about June.  We’re somehow halfway through 2022?  And it’s been such a challenging six months in so many ways.  I’m hopeful that we’re coming out the other side of it now, albeit with a few more bumps in the road ahead of us that we still need to navigate.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that we made it, we survived.  There were points where I wasn’t sure we would, which isn’t meant to sound as dramatic as it probably comes across.  It really has just been a very hard first half of the year.

And June?  June itself was for holding space.  To settle after the transitions of May and to gather our energy for the promise of July.  It felt quiet and dependable: the days lengthening in the lead up to the Summer Solstice in exactly the way they always do; school runs and work days melding together in a comfortable tandem rhythm; everything just ticking on unremarkably.

Except in amongst those ordinary days, there are remarkable moments.  And whilst I’m not allowed to capture as many of them as I’d like to now that they’re teenagers, the ones that I do catch are absolute magic and the only proof I need that this little project of mine really matters.  In more ways than I know yet.

This was us in June…