Me and Mine – January 2018

Throughout 2017 I took part in three different photography projects.

Living Arrows involves sharing a photo of one or both of the children every week.  The siblings project is about sharing a photo of the children together, once a month.  And the Me and Mine project involves taking and sharing a family photo every month.

I found that the hardest project to complete was Me and Mine.  Finding (or making) the time each month to get all of us in front of the camera together just feels hard for some reason.  But I was so happy that I stuck with it last year, and really love having a whole year’s worth of family photos to look back on.

So I’m determined to stick with this project again in 2018.  

January was such a wet month here in Swansea, we didn’t get many chances to get out for some nice family photos outside.  And going into a new year I think I’ve made my peace with the fact that some of our photos will be taken inside, in less than ideal lighting.

I know I get caught up in seeing other people’s gorgeous, posed family portraits in pretty locations, and I start to think that’s what I want for my family too.  And some months, yes, in all honesty that is what I want!  But for the most part I want to just have a record of our family each month, as we really are.

And the reality of January is that we spent a fair bit of it cwtched up inside.  So here we are, inside, cwtched up on the bed, hiding from the wet and windy weather outside.

This was January!

When I look back at these photos at the end of the year I’ll remember how much time we spent at home this month.

How many times we watched Moana after Nerys had the DVD for Christmas.

How she started to show a real interest in picking out her own clothes to wear, more often than not choosing short sleeve tops and dresses to layer over long sleeved ones.  And how Rhys, even in the middle of winter, wanted to put shorts on after school rather than trousers.

I’ll remember how Rhys’ front teeth were still wobbly but refusing to actually fall out.  How he amazed me with his knowledge of all things Minecraft related.  How happy we are, just to hang out together at home.

I do hope that February might bring with it a few more chances to get out and about though, it feels like we’ve not been to the beach in ages!