Johnson Smiles

And I'm back with my week in the life posts.  I did in fact finish plug away for the remainder of the week taking photos (although less than years past) and jotting down notes as things came up, but I had trouble finding a chunk of uninterrupted time to get the blogging done.  Although I still much prefer blogging as I go each day, I do still plan to blog each day in an effort to make putting the album together less overwhelming and time consuming. Here's Wednesday, which was....well, Wednesday.  The middle of the week and another dreary rainy indoor day. Wednesday morning started with Luke asking me if I was going to run.  I mumbled yes before opening my eyes and realizing that it was 5:02.  I lay in bed for a while longer frustrated that I had missed my running window, but still not really wanting to get up.  I finally stumbled downstairs for coffee around 5:30.  I was met by Cora shortly after who had woken early with a bad dream.  S...

Tuesday was another day where I felt like I was forcing myself to move forward with this project, but as always, when I look back I'm glad I did.  I was more intentional and made a point to pick up my big camera throughout the day.  Although I'm often frustrated with the picture quality on my aging DSLR I like how I have to be more intentional about getting the shot than I do with my phone.  Photo quality aside, I find that the pictures with my big camera often tell a better story than the ones on my phone, simply because I'm paying more attention as I work to get the right exposure and composition.  My phone photos tend to be more mindless snapshots.  I still hope to get better at this as the week goes on. Before I get started I feel the need to add/warn you that as I read through and edited this post I found it felt a bit negative and exhausting.  I was tempted to change/delete some things, but realized that's kind of how yesterday afternoon felt. ...

Last year when I did this project I was really focused on telling stories.  Looking at each of the pictures and telling the story that you can't see.  My goal was to capture the behind the scenes story of our daily life.  I ended up with a LOT of content, but looking back on it now, I love all the little details that I ended up with.  My focus this year is observation. More on taking notice of who we are right now and observing how we move through our days.  Having just moved to a new house and neighborhood everything is new to us right now.  Routines are still developing and we're still figuring out the rhythm of our new surroundings.  I don't have as many stories about the way things usually are, or the schedule of our days because we're still figuring it out!  In some ways I love the newness of everything, and in others I'm desperately searching for those routines that keep me moving forward and ensure things are getting done. Day 1 felt a...