Posts in category: Personal

Is anyone else feeling slightly out of step with the way time is passing at the moment?

The children are back at school today after a lovely 2 week break, that feels like much longer than 2 weeks.  In a surreal way though, not in a dragging kind of way.

The last week of term, and the children’s Christmas concerts and everything feel like they were months ago, not just a couple of weeks ago.

And now we’re already at week two of Living Arrows for 2018!

We made the most of the dry weather on Sunday and wrapped up warm for our standard walk on the beach and play at Victoria Park.

It was so cold on the beach, but the children still happily played for quite a while.

They were burying treasure for each other and then drawing trails in the sand leading to it so that they could go and hunt for it.  They don’t always play so nicely together, but when they do it is just amazing to stand back and watch.

We all really love our little routine trips to the beach, and I especially love the opportunities it gives me to take photos of my family!

And now we’re back trying to settle into the old school day routine.

I have a feeling it’ll take a bit of getting used to for all of us.  We’ve all really loved the slower pace of the Christmas holidays, where we’ve not had to rush around in the mornings to get out the front door.

We only took our Christmas decorations down on Saturday so I feel a bit like I’m still yet to emerge fully into the new year.

Normally I’m itching to get the tree down and life back to normal by new year’s eve, but something was different this time.  Maybe it was the fact that we had a real Christmas tree for the first time, so it felt like more of a big deal to take it down!

I’ve really enjoyed it though, this cosy little Christmas bubble, and I’m not in a big rush to completely burst it.  I’m writing this while burning the last of my gingerbread scented candles.  And I’ve been working my way through the bottle of pumpkin spice baileys in the fridge over the last few evenings.

Normally I would pack these kind of things away and save them for the next year, but this time I feel like just enjoying them as much as I can.

I think that might be a bit of a theme for the next year.  To just enjoy things as much as I can.  To stop worrying so much.  To not rush on to the next thing, but to slow down and appreciate how much there is to enjoy about the moment we’re in.

I got a bit lost I think last year, I let my anxiety creep in a bit too much, but I’m starting to find my way again now.

There really is so much joy to be found in this life, so much to be thankful for, it really is pretty glorious when you slow down and appreciate it.

We did it.

We made a whole year of the me and mine project, taking a family photo every month.

And I am beyond happy that we stuck it out and made the effort each time.

Our last set of family photos were taken on a little walk through Singleton Park, enjoying a break in the rain and a break in the usual school/work routine thanks to the Christmas holidays.

They were also made easier and more fun to take because I remembered to pop my remote trigger in the camera bag before we left the house.  So much better than taking multiple photos with the timer function!

Along with Living Arrows, this is a photo project I’m determined to carry on with in 2018.

It might seem a bit of a hassle at the time, but I’m so grateful that we took the time each month to take a photo together.  Because now I have this little collection of family pictures to look back on!

Some things really are worth taking a bit of time for.

I can’t see me ever regretting taking the camera along with us on a trip out and taking a few minutes for a quick family photo like these!

One of my plans for 2018 is to get our photos sorted out, and actually print a load out and start putting them in good old-fashioned albums.  And I love the thought of having at least one photo of the four of us together each month in those albums.

Taking family photos is so often one of those things that we think we’ll get round to in the mythical land of ‘later’.  It’s too easy to put off getting in front of the camera, and the weeks and months go so quickly, I really appreciate having this push every month to just get on with it and take these photos.

I’m really looking forward to doing this all over again in 2018!

For the second year in a row I’ve taken part in the Living Arrows project, taking and sharing a photo of my children every week.

I absolutely love joining in with it, taking time to snap at least one photo of Rhys and Nerys each week. 

As much as I love photography I think there would likely be weeks when I didn’t pick up my big camera and photograph them without the Living Arrows project.  So I really appreciate having this little prompt each week to capture them on camera.

They really do change so much over the course of a year, it’s amazing to look back at all the photos and see how much their features have changed and how much older they suddenly look.

Take a look and see how different Nerys in particular looks from the first photo to the last!

I love looking back at these photos and seeing quite how many of them were taken while we were out and about at the beach or the park.

We really are so lucky to live where we do, to be able to make the most of little windows of sunshine and breaks in rainy weather and pop out to the beach for a blast of fresh air.

2017 was quite a big year for both the children.

Rhys moved into year 2 at school and has settled brilliantly.  He had a bit of a tricky time towards the end of year 1 so I’m thrilled that he’s doing so well now, and has a teacher who is lovely and really seems to understand him and how to get the best from him.

He has come on in leaps and bounds with his reading and loves going to bed with a pile of books to read before he goes to sleep.  He prefers reading non-fiction and learning about history and the world around him.  But he’s also discovered the joy of fiction as well, thanks to my mum sending him a copy of Flat Stanley which he read in one go and absolutely loved.

I love looking back at his photos from this year and seeing the 2 of him looking so proud with his trophies, one for completing a 1k race back in September, and the other for getting the most dojo points at school one week for working hard and trying his best.  It was just lovely to see him so happy after working so hard to achieve something.

Nerys started in the nursery class at school in September and also settled really quickly.

I think going to the Rising 3s class as soon as she turned 3 was definitely the right thing for her.  She was so ready to start at school and loves getting her school uniform on and spending time with her new friends.

She’s learning her letters and numbers and is so proud to show me what she’s been doing when I pick her up from school.

I’m really quite excited to see what 2018 brings for all of our family.  To see what new things the children will learn at school, to see what interests and passions start to surface.

And I’m looking forward to a whole new year of taking photos every week for the Living Arrows project!