Tuesday, August 25, 2015

My Week In the Life 2015


This is my first year documenting Week In the Life (WITL) and I am very happy that I committed. Week In The Life is a wonderful memory keeping project by Ali Edwards with the idea to record the everyday life and routines for a week. I had wanted to do it last year but my plan didn't pan out and I was little disappointed with myself. However I committed myself to giving it a shot this time around and recorded stories for the week of Aug 17 - Aug 24, 2015

With kids growing up and our lives changing year after year, I want to document our current life, our stories, our moments, likes and dislikes.  I want to capture the everyday, simple, mundane, messy, fun, sweet and real details of our life. This will be a gift that I give myself and my family to look back on and cherish the little details of a different time of the year. I was beyond excited the entire week and my heart raced looking forward to what's in store everyday in terms of photo and stories.

Today I want to share a few favorites from the week that went by and the stories behind them.  Please be warned that this is a photo heavy post!
Three things that help me get thro' the day. Coffee, iPhone and Books. I refuse to start the day without coffee and the phone has been tagging along too much recently. Thankfully I have got into the habit of reading again and one of my goals this year is to read at least two books a month and I am glad to have been able to start and finish a book this week.
This little guy is in a stage where he enjoys playing with his sister, doing what she does. He loves to get hold of his sister's things and here he wanted to dress himself as a ghost with her Elsa blanket.   
I want to remember the moments when we could spare time out of our busy life and spend time with each other and have lots of fun, laughs and giggles. We were even excited that the little one joined in the fun and actually won fair and square!! Hooray for family games! 

I didn't use my DSLR as much as I wanted to and most of my pictures were from my iPhone. Too many pictures is never enough and my family must think I went crazy taking pictures! 

I also reminded myself at times to leave the camera and get involved in the actual moment! 

I want to remember the days it rained during this week and how the weather got cooler helping us relax from the summer heat. I love watching the raindrops and the droplets on the leaves reminded of the simple things that give joy.
The kids enjoy the outdoors and I want to remember that Arul takes them outside, more often than me and involves them in outdoor play. The kids always look forward to the swings and slides at the park and get excited to show us their skills. Yuvan had brought along his water gun and had fun running behind the birds

My heart brims with joy and pride because of this avid reader. She is crazy about books and can go about reading the whole day which to be honest, gets on me sometimes:) The library is our happy place and we dropped in this week to pick books for all of us. It is convenient for me to hold my books online and pick them up later.

I loved taking this shot at the library. While I felt a little silly I went ahead nevertheless and I am glad I did:) Next time I need to try at a shot from the opposite shelf!:) 
I am always looking for proper lighting to take pictures and love it when natural light gets in to our home. My heart warms at how the evening sun rays brighten up our plants here. 
I do not have a green thumb but I like Arul's love and care for plants. Every other night he checks on the plants watering them as needed. The kids love to help him with the watering and share the same care as their dad.
These two are such fun kids each with their own amazing personality. I tried to wind them down to bed on Friday, but the little one promptly handed out a glow wand to his sister and they became rock stars of the night!  
I am a night owl and usually stay up later than I should. I enjoy this quiet time to read blogs, get inspired, lookup ideas and tips and basically browse the internet. On this particular day it was hours past midnight after our Saturday game night with friends!
I want to remember this moment when she sat down to send an email to her Dad in India. She wrote down what she wanted to tell him, on a paper and then began typing away the message, stopping in between, asking me help with the keys:)  
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Saturdays are for hair wash (which I generally hate due to my struggle with my curls) and this girl so wishes for long hair ( and like Rapunzel too! ). This after wash knot and the drying process reminded me of these moments with my mother as she towel dried our hair. Megha was only too glad to hear my story which kindled many such stories from the past that she wanted me to share! 
I want to remember his bath times at this age. Before he gets into bath, he would say, "No head, only shoulders, knees and toes"! He hates getting water on his head or face but slowly he is getting over it. He loves squirting water with his bath toys and always has several "one last time" squirt moments before getting out!
I love the smile, innocence and warmth of my girl in this picture. A ready-to-dare person I can always count on, she is caring and kind in her own way. On normal days, they watch cartoons and play together and she loves to tease/annoy Yuvan. But when Yuvan was sad that Arul will not be home, she cuddled and consoled him telling him where Dad has gone and what they can do to meet him soon. 

I could't stop myself from adding this because I am that biased!! Ha!

I wanted to get one picture of us together during the week and am glad I remembered before he left to India. It is not quite easy to get us all to look at the camera but this came out good.

The nitty gritty details I caught both on camera and thro' words is what I love so much about this project!. I must confess that not all days were sweet and smooth. We did have our meltdowns, frustrations and arguments and of course I recorded these details too including how the day started, what we ate, how we spent the day, what we watched on TV, our morning and evening routines, etal. And I hope to get these recorded into a separate album because of the notes I kept daily through out the week.

If you have come this far, I am happy and thankful for your visit into my week. I totally enjoyed this project and hope to get back with a post after I complete my album.

8 comments:

  1. Priya so good to see a post from you after long and can you believe I sat and read each word you wrote and peered admiringly at your unique photos...so beautifully you have captured the memories. Very very inspiring. You have inspired me to do something similar too!

    Cheers
    Dr Sonia
    Cards Crafts Kids Projects

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    1. Hi Sonia, I am glad you enjoyed reading it and more than happy that you were inspired by it.

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  2. Love u priya...enjoyed reading ur this week blog ..very beautifully captured the photos...u have showed me the way to enjoy our moments and do something for our special ones to cherish forever ..u r my inspiration. .waiting to see u next month

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    1. Thanks a lot Deepu..we are all so looking forward to meet you and the kids..

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  3. I've one word for you, my girl...

    A.W.E.S.O.M.E

    :)

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    1. Thanks for your continuous appreciation Shree!

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  4. Wonderful Raji. Well written and Awesome photography. Keep up this and stay rocking :)

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