Week In The Life™ 2014 | Wednesday Words & Photos

For Week In The Life™, Wednesdays seem to be the day people find their groove or give up. 

Don't give up. 

There's a middle ground. After doing this many times I expect to let up on my enthusiasm a bit by mid-week, but I keep going. 

And as you've seen over the last few days, I do a whole lot of the same stuff every day. Some people might find it boring, I find it normal. I actually like that I can take almost the exact same shot of me sitting at my desk or waiting for my coffee or saying the prayer for the kids at night. Those activities are my life, little things (and bigger things like sitting at my desk to work) are what make up most of my days. 

One of the reasons I do this project annually is to celebrate those little everyday repetitions. 

Some of you have heard me tell the story of being in the middle of Week In The Life™ in 2011 and that being the week that Chris decided for sure that he was leaving. It wasn't intentional or mean-spirited to make his final decision during that week, it's just what happened. Was it crazy to keep going and documenting? Probably, but it's a big part of my job and it just happens to be that my job includes sharing the stories of my life. If I wasn't doing this as part of my job I might have just bagged it for that year because it's hard to make sense of anything at a time like that (a very big understatement). Of course at the time I didn't come on here and write it all out because it wasn't the time or the place for that specific story. But I know when I look back through those photos and that album exactly how I felt. 

What I learned (and knew already to a certain extent) is that the process of documenting our lives helps to shed light on what is good even in the middle of the most challenging times. It can teach us to look for the best parts of our lives, of ourselves, if we are simply willing to watch and listen and open up. 

If you are looking for more support and ideas for working through this project please remember we've got an awesome, active Week In The Life™ community set up that you can access for free here. 

WEDNESDAY PHOTOS & STORIES

About 70 with my DSLR + 30 with my iPhone.

The story of today is that it felt really normal. 

Simon might have eaten two chocolate chip cookies for breakfast and Anna might have begged me to take her to the mall because she could not go another day without having glasses like everyone else in the house, but other than that it was quiet and the kind of pace I like to have during the week. 

The story of today is that after dropping Simon off at school, Anna and I came back and I took the garbage out, broke down that big pile of cardboard boxes for recycling, and ate oatmeal with almonds, raisins, cranberries and bananas. 

The story of today includes Anna being off school for conferences. She made it for a bit playing in her room until the idea about going to the mall popped into her head. I'm not a big mall-goer so I'm not sure exactly where "take me to the mall" came from but she was pretty intent on making that happen. 

Before we ventured over there to find her some play glasses she got dressed - head to toe pink naturally - including very pink lipstick. I'm cool with her wearing lipstick around the house generally but not to school or other activities. Again, the lipstick is really not my influence (ahem, Katie) but I gotta appreciate that she's got her own ideas about who and what and where and why. 

So with all that pink going on I asked her if I could take a couple photos and not surprisingly she thought that was an okay idea. 

Yeah. 

She's five. And she's awesome. 

There's a little room outside my office where we shoot most of my projects. It's got really nice light and white walls.

For the two images above I switched my lens to the fixed 50mm 1.4 - people often refer to it as a portrait lens. 

Above you can see (in Aperture - the photo management program I use) all the shots I took of her. Some silly. Some serious. Some blurry. 

I don't take these kind of photos all the time because I usually trend towards more everyday environment shots, but man I'm so glad I did this today. This project is a great reminder and chance to take some shots like this of family members or friends. Hoping to get Simon in front of that wall this week too. 

The story of today includes a trip to Costco for Halloween candy and hot dogs. We did quickly hit the mall before this where she found those glasses at Claire's. 

The story of today includes four giant bags of Halloween candy for Friday night. 

The story of today includes a nap. 

And a ride home on the bus. I can't wait to do some sort of comparison with this shot and others I've taken of him and the bus over the years. These days he only rides it home once a week and I (or Chris or Katie) pick him up on the other days. He could ride it everyday but it's long (because it's a special needs bus). He doesn't seem to mind. Mainly I just want to keep him on there at least once a week so it continues to be part of his routine in case we needed to adjust it to more days a week for one reason or another.

Some of the photos I took today I ended up editing using Milk & Cookies BW in Rad Lab.

Rad Lab is super easy because all I have to do is open a photo in Photoshop, click a button to launch it and then click once more to select an adjustment/filter for the photo. My consistent personal favorite is “lights on” which seems to lighten and brighten just enough.

The story of today included Simon calling my Mom to interview her for a school project on family trees. He talked to her for a half hour or so, asking questions about her parents and grandparents and who they were and where they lived and what they did. I loved listening to him talk to her and I know she was happy on the other end. They have a special relationship those two. He's also getting easier to understand on the phone which makes these kinds of conversations more fun. 

The story of today includes chicken drumsticks, rice, and fruit for dinner. 

The story of today includes me taking a little nap while the kids watched TV after dinner. I like our hang out time. I like our big brown couch. 

SHARE YOUR WEDNESDAY

I'd love to have you share a link to your WEDNESDAY words and photos below. Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link. In addition you're invited to come over to the free Week In The Life™ Community Gallery & Message Board.