At the start of January I began a new year-long photography project: Life In 52. The idea is simple – to take one photo a week for each week of the year. It’s a lifestyle photography project, documenting little snippets of my life that I want to remember.
The project is being hosted by Sarah Cornish from My Four Hens Photography, who I had the privilege of learning from directly on my solo trip to Colorado at the photography retreat she ran last year. When she announced this project I decided to use it to put into practice everything I’d learned.
There is a Facebook group dedicated to the project, where participants can post their images each week to share their work, hold themselves accountable and also in the hope of being featured on the blog on the Life In 52 website. Go have a look at the blog – the collection of submissions (and the stories behind them) are breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring each and every week.
I’ve had eight of my images featured so far – the first one in Week 6 of the project, and then subsequently in Week 9, Week 16, Week 26, Week 32, Week 37, Week 40 and now Week 44 as well. I’m so proud that they’ve been chosen. I’m looking forward to putting together my final collection of images at the end of the year to see how much I’ve grown – all fifty-two images that will sum up the story of 2018 as it was for us. I can’t believe there are only four weeks left to go now until the project finishes!
Here are my submissions for Weeks Forty-Seven and Forty-Eight:
WEEK 47
“I had a poorly one home from school with me today. It’s times like this I get (re)reminded of what’s actually important. Emails, clients, work, physio appointments, errands… They can all wait. Snuggles on the sofa and an epic battle of Harry Potter Scrabble once she was feeling a bit better were the order of the day, along with mugs of tea and hot chocolate, lighting her favourite lavender-scented candle ‘just because’ and watching YouTube videos about bullet journalling. Yes of course there are squabbles and protests about having a shower from all of them but when that gets followed with squeezy cuddles and declarations that they love me “because you make everything better Mummy” and we connect whilst doing maths homework (fractions, ugh) my heart just feels so very full. I am so grateful that my three girls chose me to be their mama”.
WEEK 48
“After-school snuggles on the sofa. Sometimes I spend 4-7pm washing dishes, sorting laundry, tidying the house, emptying the bins, putting out the recycling, helping with homework, cooking dinner, wrangling the girls into the shower and breaking up multiple arguments. And sometimes I sit down on the sofa with them and they take it in turns to curl their body into mine and lay their head on my lap and hold my hand and sigh that deep sigh of contentment and I feel every single part of me relax because I know that’s exactly where I’m supposed to be”.
You can follow along with all the other submissions from the Life In 52 project on Instagram by following the hashtags #lifein52 and #m4hlifein52. And you can see the featured posts from the group each week on the Life In 52 blog (updated every Monday).
