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 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.
MAY
Every month, when I sit down to write this chapter of our story, I read back over the words I shared in the previous month’s ‘Moments In Between’ post. Truthfully, I’m never sure how on earth I’m going to follow the words I’ve already written. How I’m going to be able to un-jumble my thoughts and feelings enough to make them coherent to people who live outside of my head and my heart.
Sometimes I feel like I’m still in the same place and nothing much has changed. Sometimes I feel like things have moved on so fast that the contrast from one month to the next leaves me a little dizzy, like when your favourite author throws in an unexpected plot-twist that leaves you reeling with the enormity of it.
May felt like the latter.
Was it really only last month that the shops re-opened? Things aren’t ‘normal’ yet by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re more normal than they were. We’ve seen family we hadn’t seen for months. They were allowed inside our home. We had permission to hug them whenever we wanted to. And it felt SO good.
I have had my first dose of the vaccination. Neil is now fully vaccinated and back at work full time too. There are so many things to be grateful for in this ongoing season of uncertainty, nestled in amongst the challenges and the daily practices we each use in different ways to keep our shared boat steady on the waves.
It’s been a month of celebrations tinged with worry, of travel with an overlay of cautiousness, of hopefulness combined with realism. More positives than negatives and, really, all I ever want is for the balance to be tipped in favour of the direction of joy, so I’m calling it a win. We made it through intact, we had fun, we loved and laughed and cried and connected. We made memories and were together in moments that mattered.
We’re approaching the time of year where many transitions take place. Endings and new beginnings. I’m not sure my heart is ready for it yet although I don’t think my heart is actually going to get much say in the matter because time marches on and children grow up and life happens. We’re not quite there yet though and so instead of speeding ahead I’m going to slow down and relish these moments.
These images that tell the story of who we were, who we are and who we’re yet to become.
This is us.
