A Day in the Life
I thought this month’s theme would be fairly easy, so I sort of put it off. Days passed, and all of a sudden the month was basically over, and while I had take a few “daily life” photos, I’d not spent an entire day with my camera at hand. Our life is so strange because each day looks so drastically different from the next depending on if I work or not.
But … I decided to try and salvage the month’s project and shoot a full day. It was simultaneously way harder and way more fun than I anticipated.
On one hand, time goes by REALLY fast when you are trying to photograph it. On the other hand, a lot of normal, mundane things are actually really beautiful if you take the time to compose them.
Here is my “Day in the life of the Little Jordan Family in Fall ‘18.”
It could have looked way different had I chosen a different day … but that is the beautiful complexity of this project. Full disclosure that this is very “Hadley Heavy” because she was the one with me while the boys were in school.
I actually pictured more of these photos being in B&W. Much of our life is not pretty, and B&W helps with that, so I did convert a few, but for the most part, I decided to show us as we are. So … let’s get to it, but when you are done seeing my day, make sure you head over to see what Tracy filled her day with for her project.
05:00
Good Morning!!
I typically get up between 4 and 5 am. This is my time to have my coffee, prep last minute details for the day, and either workout or get some housework done. I try to also start off the day with a few minutes of time listening to a sermon podcast or praying with intention.
I struggle because I really enjoy my time alone in the morning, but when a kiddo wakes up early, I feel compelled to pour into them instead … I think this is the endless plight of motherhood. This particular morning, Hadley woke up first, which means she was the kid who had to put cold toes into the garage to feed the cat (Mr. Peabody).
At least there is coffee, which brings me to the next photo-op. Our single-pod coffee maker broke last spring. We decided to install an instant hot water dispenser so that we could easily make a pour-over cup of coffee.
06:00
By 6 AM, the day starts. Hadley is up and ready for living her best day. Our cat Mr. Peabody is not sure if he’s thrilled that a small person is awake, but he accepts the attention anyhow.
The boys are much less enthusiastic about their wake-up at 6:40 am.
7:00
If we can go to bed with backpacks by the door and lunches made, it’s a win. The kids typically work on weekly homework at breakfast (especially spelling).
07:30
Chompers
I had so much fun snapping some shots of these goofballs “doing Chompers” … aka brushing their teeth … aka messing around.
08:00
Off to School
I really enjoy driving the boys to school. We always start the drive off with each person saying a prayer for our day, and I like being able to model the practice of starting your day by thanking God. They always start with, “Dear Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you for …” and then they list a few things they are grateful for followed by praying for some things coming up in their days or weeks, which helps me know what’s on their mind. We also pray for others who are hurting or struggling. It’s a quick practice, but I love that it is woven into our routine.
08:15
After we drop “the boys-es” off, I get to spend some time with this little ray of sunshine. Three days a week she heads to preschool at 9:00, but this was not a preschool day. We were meeting a friend for a class at the gym, so we decided to go surprise daddy at work.
09:30
Hitting the gym
I am so grateful for our athletic club. It is pricey, but it includes so many services that we really love. I had fun bringing my camera there for my “day in the life” project. I walk by this stuff every day, but it brought some new perspective when I was looking for interesting compositions. They ended up being some of my favorite shots from the day.
12:00
#lunchdate
After the gym, we needed to run a couple of errands, as did my friend and her daughter. We decided to join forces for some lunch at Whole Foods. I don’t shop there that often because it is definitely pricey, but boy do they make you want to buy vegetables! Seriously, the art of their product display is so enticing! They are super smart in their marketing, and it definitely helps make them some money.
PS Hadley’s friend P has some major fashion sense … this was her “Christmas Unicorn Ballerina Kitten” outfit (my apologies to P if I worded that incorrectly).
13:00
After lunch and grabbing some groceries, we needed to pick up a new sleeping bag for Gavin for Father/Son Adventure Camp. The zipper broke on his old one, and so after lunch, we headed to REI. Hadley was a great help … hahaha. I only lost her in the sleeping bags a few times.
14:00
Impromptu Park Stop
On the way home from our errands, we stopped at this tiny park right by our house. It’s barely a park … it’s just a little patch of land that the city laid some bark on and put in 2 swings and a climbing structure. I think it was for the purpose of fulfilling a park-per-person square foot quota, but we were very happy none-the-less when they installed it a couple of years ago.
14:30
Change in gears {and outifts}
Hadley had spilled quite a bit of lunch on her clothes (pretty much a daily occurrence). So, we did a quick change of clothes. She played for a few minutes while I unloaded our groceries and the sleeping bag, but soon after we got back in the car to go pick up the boys.
15:15
Sometimes Hadley falls asleep picking the boys up. If she doesn't and if it’s not pouring down rain, we park at a lot adjacent to school and walk up instead of waiting in carpool line. I love doing this because we get to chat with friends, say hello to teachers, and give hugs to some favorite “big kids” that we know.
15:30
Gymnastics
At least one of the boys have gymnastics every day right after school. We spend a lot of time in this driveway dropping off and picking up kids. On this actual day, Tyler didn’t have practice so he stayed at school for Ultimate Frisbee club (so fun). He hadn’t come outside yet so I wasn’t able to get a picture of him. This snapshot of him is just a phone pic from this summer, but I thought the sign alone was boring, and I thought my post needed a little more Tyler.
One fun thing about this project was that I took more time to pause and observe the beauty or interest around me. Normally, I’m racing to and from places without a lot of margin to stop off at the park or play in the leaves.
16:00
Craft Store
It’s that time of year where you need to run to the craft store multiple times for finishing touches on costumes. There is a Michael’s right by gymnastics, so often times we go in there to just wander when the weather is bad and we have a few minutes to wait for a drop off or pick up.
To be continued … I will finish this post after I finish my work shifts. I did my best and got some photos up before bed for now, and I’ll get some thing else up in the next day or so.