…day in the life…

Around this time of year, blogs, and more commonly these days, instagrm stories start lighting up with some of my favourite projects to see – Day In The Life. I am such a stickybeak, I love seeing how other people run their days, though more often than not I end up feeling rather inadequate, and like everyone else has their act together far more than I do!

I did the photos for my “day in the life” yesterday, even though it was a very messed up day and absolutely nothing like normal – I even managed some actual adult conversation! It was fascinating to actually stop and record, and thus think about, what I was doing and when. I had no less than eight images of different activities recorded by 7.30am – no wonder I’m ready for a second cup of coffee and a quick sit down at 8 before launching into school and general day-time “stuff”. It made me realise how much of my day I complete on auto-pilot without really considering it. It often feels like stay-at-home-motherhood is less intense now the children are older, but after intentionally recording what a day actually looks like, apparently it’s just a different kind of intense! While the house is no longer a mess constantly where two toddlers got into the toys and bookshelf while I fed the baby, it does require a constant mental load to ensure the chores get done and extras are evenly distributed and that school is prepped and everyone gets some mama time and MAMA gets some mama time and that I manage to clock off at a reasonable hour each night so I can get some sleep before the “in the dark” alarm rings again the next morning…

It seems to be quite popular to do the photos on the hour (possibly that’s the “proper” way? I’ve never actually checked what and how Ali Edwards, the DITL founder, recommends…), but I simply chose to take a photo whenever I was doing something different to when I last took a photo. On one hand, I have a complete record of my (incredibly dull, incredibly mundane) day, on the other hand, I have 51 photos of my (incredibly dull, incredibly mundane) day to edit and collage and print and trim… and that’s just the picks, not the total number of photos taken!

I have been pondering how I wanted to record the photos, and my notes on each (some really need context to explain why they are something I felt worth recording). I had thought of doing a hard cover book like I did for Car’s camp album, or even a ring bound book like I have done many times for trips and mini albums, but in the end I decided to keep it simple. I am going to simply print everything 3×4″, and create a project life spread (or five), using grid journaling card, and some self-made filler cards that have been crying out to be used instead of being left to gather dust in my stash.

I’m really looking forward to playing with paper based memory keeping again. It’s been far too long since I’ve done much, and I do love it. I should have enough fillers on hand, and hopefully haven’t sent all my embellishments to the farm for storage…

Today, in fact, would have been a much more normal day for day in the life. It’s been an even more mundane and ordinary day than yesterday. We did chores, and then started the day off with a walk. School took an off-plan turn when everyone became addicted to writing their own stories, so I filed my plans for another day and let my budding novelists at it. There’s a cake for bible study cooling on the bench that Master 5 helped with. Master 12 has been out at chess club, and once he returns, I’m thinking we need another run at Pandemic and see if we can beat it. I need to do some crafting for Master 5’s school, trim the threads to finish my current sewing make, and hopefully find time to sit and crochet another couple of hexies. Just the usual #mumlife rhythm with a hefty dose of creative-kid unpredictability. Mundane? Yep. Boringly ordinary? Yep. Would I change it for anything else? Not a chance…