A week in the life of Katie and clan

For the last six years I have participated in Ali Edwards' "Week in the Life" photo documenting project. For six years I have taken one week out of the year to focus on the Story of Us.  In six years I have learned some interesting things about myself and my family as I looked closely at our life through this little camera lens.

I love and hate this project. On one hand, focusing on the "daily" pieces of our life is challenging. So much of our daily bits are just plain ugly: the dirty dishes piled, the school clutter, the endless laundry and this year especially the copious amounts of shed dog hair. Looking back at this glimpse of our days I see how  our lives haven't really changed much. We shop at the same places, we eat basically the same foods, there are still "hot spots" of clutter and sadly the furniture and clothes are still the same; these things make me feel so ordinary and unchanging.

The flip side to this story is my love of seeing how the kids have grown, how among all the unchanging bits of life they are changing into grown up people right before my eyes.  This is also very bittersweet. This year my oldest is off at college and the next oldest works away from home 2-3 days per week. This dynamic change is both great and achingly difficult as we (myself and the two youngest) navigate a new norm.

Monday was one of those difficult days. I took 4 photos of our day. I took two photos of one day's worth of dog hair and my frustration at the dog mounted.

The children bickered non. stop. and were sent to rest and rethink in their rooms several times. One of the many arguments between the youngest two centered around these zucchini pun'kins and the lighting/handling/displaying thereof. Sometimes the silliness of the arguments causes me to wonder.

 My hubby and I went to town for date night and I immediately regretted leaving the camera home as the sky was an amazing display of color and clouds. Hubby and I broke out and tried a new burrito place that serves ...TORTA'S! We reminisced about our Mexico trip (and the amazing Torta's eaten in Mexico) from earlier in the year and promised to bring the kids for a special Torta treat.

After Torta's, my hubby and I stooped in for a quick visit with our college boy. There were lots of hugs and talk of grades and job searches and college life in general.  He loves his school, he thinks college is the best. thing. ever. We parents couldn't be more pleased at his love of college, but we miss him terribly.