A Week in the Life: Saturday

There are also of emotions that I am feeling at the moment, as I write this last little bit before posting my last set of pictures.

Relief. Excitement. Gratitude. Exhaustion. Love.

Documenting the last seven days has been an amazing experience. The biggest thing for me has been seeing myself so much through the camera. I usually take a tonne of pictures of my kids, of events, of things, of my family, but I am not usually the one in front of the lens. It is very odd to look at my life as if I were getting a glimpse into someone's life. And that is exactly what this past week has felt like. It has felt like I have been given a glimpse of something of the sacred, but when I reflect of my life, it seems so the opposite of sacred. It just seems so ordinary.

And actually, my life is ordinary. It involves backpacks and lunches and computers and meals and runny noses and reading and cuddling. It involves knock-knock jokes (that aren't really funny) and discipline and laughter and bread and temper tantrums. It involves everyday conversations and red wine and snacks and washing dishes and cutting carrots. All the ordinary stuff that 99% of the world's population does every day.

And yet, when I look at the pictures from this past week, I can see the sacred in the ordinary. I am not just wiping a nose - I am telling a little three year old boy that his needs are really important. I am not just talking with my husband - I am deepening a very intimate relationship with every moment that I pay close attention to what he says. I am not just helping to a five year old learn to read - I am nurturing a deep love of books and literature that will be a constant companion for the rest of her life that will open up more worlds to her than she could ever imagine. I am not just drinking coffee - I am taking a few minutes for myself to stop, listen and be.

So much of the every day is so very, very sacred. And those moments are not ordinary. This is the biggest lesson I have learned from this project called A Week in the Life.

We woke up to the kids reading together in Eden's bed. They often will do this on Saturday morning - wake each other up and then read books together. It is wonderful just laying in our bedroom and listening to their conversation.

A quiet moment with a cup of coffee after a morning trip to the farmer's market. Sheer bliss. (how in the world did I forget to take pictures at the market?)

The girls and I playing a game of Crazy Eights.

Getting the hair ready for soccer. They both wanted two french braids in their hair this morning - a very time consuming process, but it keeps their hair totally out of their face.

A chilly Saturday moming make-up game. (damn you snow!!)

Ephraim practicing his soccer skills with Daddy on the sidelines.

In the afternoon, we went for a visit to Dad and Joyce's place.

Eden organizing her file folder - the place where all the papers she brings home from school goes before it finds a home. This is (not surprisingly) a weekly job - she brings home ALOT of paper.

We are having a bbq tonight with a very special group of friends, and I spend a bit of time this afternoon getting ready for the festivities.

Mike took the kids out for a little jaunt around the block before the guests arrived.

This is usually how we will find Ephraim in the back yard - pushing something (anything!) in his yellow dump truck. He loves that thing.

The obligatory after-dinner-crazy-eights-card-game. The girls just discovered this game, and are relentless.

Having a bit of a conversation before the last guest disappears.

Doing the dishes in the quietness of the house. And feeling really, really blessed.

And that's that. A week of our lives documented in photos+words.

Looking forward to getting all these photos printed up. I am hoping to work on the album this week and next and have it done very soon.