Admittedly, I only picked up my big camera once (to photography my own family) in April. I guess I needed a month off? A month where I didn’t need to document every single thing with all the megapixels I owned. My iPhone was always on me though, but even then, I went days without capturing the kids or what we were doing. Sometimes life just…is. It isn’t picture worthy, it isn’t pretty dresses and bonnets and gardens and wildflowers. It isn’t a perfectly clean house where no one actually does any living. It isn’t workbooks or sitting at the table doing schoolwork. It’s days on end of just normalcy. The forts built are just forts. The art projects are just art projects and everything doesn’t always need to look like it came out of an Anthropologie magazine.
So what is it? It’s just life. It’s dart gun wars and iPads and watching the silkworms get bigger and bigger. It’s super messy houses with dishes from breakfast still undone and laundry baskets obstructing the hallway. It’s breaking up kid arguments and praying deeply with children over kid-sized issues which really are as-big-as-the-world-sized issues to them.
And it’s welcoming Daddy home, eating dinner together and then going on a walk. The same loop that we’ve taken a hundred times, the one that is familiar and sweet and quick. Our family walks have become something we look forward to, and in those quick minutes we’re explorers and adventurers…or just a family of five taking some moments to get outside, burn off some energy, collect flowers and feathers, and officially end the day.