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 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.
NOVEMBER
I’ve barely picked up my camera this month so there are very few photos to show for November. I’ve wanted to, but circumstances just haven’t really allowed. The weeks have sped by in a flash and yet somehow it’s also seemed to be rather groundhog-day-ish: non-stop work; non-stop distance learning; non-stop rain. Days where it felt like it barely got light at all. We didn’t have very many adventures (just a couple of walks down the trail near our house), staying home instead because of the girls taking it in turns to have to self isolate.
It felt like a heavy month too with lockdown 2.0 firmly in place, talk of further tiered restrictions once lockdown ends and the unexpected loss of Neil’s lovely Grandad. He was the last one out of all of our grandparents who was still with us, so it seems especially sad and unfair that it happened during this strange year without being able to say a proper goodbye.
The moments that I did manage to capture are little slices of life in between the monotony, the extraordinary in the ordinary. I’ve done my best to document them because they matter more than I think any of us realise. I’m grateful that I did capture them because when I look back through them, I feel something: joy; freedom; confinement; frustration; admiration; contentment; love… I remember exactly why I pressed the shutter for every single image, wanting to freeze that moment forever, looking for the light in the darkness.
I’m hopeful that December might be a little more light-hearted, a little bit more fun, given the upcoming festivities of birthdays and Christmas. And hope is important, now more than ever.
For the time being though, this was our November.
This is us.
