I want to remember… a beautiful, full day.  Wrapping up school for the week.  Catching up on chores.  Exercising with the kids.  Visiting with my mom and my sister.  Going out to dinner with my sister, just the two of us!  Relaxing at the end of the day with Mark and a movie.  Today was a good day. 

I want to remember... how much the kids love it when I throw their sheets “overboard” from the second story.  They try to catch them, but end up all tangled up underneath.  Thank goodness for their laughter and happy squeals or I’d be a little worried!    

I want to remember… how every time we wash the boys’ sheets, they choose which bunk they want to move to.  This time around, M is moving down to the bottom and the other two boys are back on top.  I’m sure it won’t always be this way, but musical bunkbeds is working for us right now.

I want to remember… poor J’s legs after exploring in the woods with his friends during our playdate on Monday.  He is all eaten up and says, “Oh mama, they are SO itchy!”  I had to cut off the Band-Aids at six.  

I want to remember… how much time I spend in the laundry room.  While I’m so grateful to have a room at all, I’m feeling the need to make the space work better for us.  My brain was buzzing today as I worked.  

I want to remember… that we’re on day three of solid Playdough playing.  All four of the kids have taken a turn at the table, adding in their “guys” and pretending all sorts of adventures.  I think I have swept the floor at least ten times today, but worth it.

I want to remember… big squeezes around the neck from my best girl.

I want to remember… following Mark’s flight as he flew home from California.  He’s been on a business trip since Monday and we’ve all missed him so much.  It’s been almost ten years of marriage and I still get butterflies anticipating his return.  M made welcome home notes for the garage door.  

I want to remember… the soothing sound of an evening rain storm.  Thankful that we’re tucked safely in our home.  

I want to remember… heading straight to the coffee pot after a difficult night with TJ.  After chugging down a cup, I felt ready to take on the day.  M and I made breakfast for the crew; I was in charge of the bacon, biscuits and fruit and he made the scrambled eggs.    


I want to remember… our current routine of easy-going mornings.  We meet for breakfast and then go our separate ways throughout the house for an hour.  During this time, there is Lego building, reading and lots of imaginary play.  The house is calm and I’m able to enjoy my second cup of coffee, check in on Big White Farmhouse and get prepared for the school day.

I want to remember… how much TJ loves the window and hiding behind the dining room curtains.  If we can’t find him, he’s typically sitting there happily, waiting for someone to find him.


I want to remember… Sophie’s gentle reminders to spend a little one-on-one time together.  With school back in our days, I’m not as readily available to play with her, but we’re figuring a way to fit it in.  Today she pulled out Jenga and said, “You help me make this, Mamma, so we can play?”

I want to remember… that my daily T25 workout is a family affair.  M hasn’t missed a single workout and I love that we are finding a new way to bond with exercise.   Sophie watches the videos and pops in here and there too.  At the end, we do our secret handshake and make protein shakes.  


I want to remember… picnic lunches in the tray while watching Lego Movie, one of their favorites.  Hearing Sophie bashfully sing “Everything is Awesome” is one of my favorites.

Day One.  Total photos taken today: exactly 100 (!!) 

I want to remember…how the present Mark and I got to save for J’s birthday was discovered and he couldn’t wait to give it a try.  They played happily for almost an hour, growing and cutting hair.  I love how J calls Playdough his “clay”.


I want to remember… that Playdough is messy.  So messy.

I want to remember… how much the kids are enjoying school.  We are slowly finding a groove and a routine is forming.  I definitely was unprepared for the little two’s desire to participate, but what a blessing.  I love seeing their four faces around the table, hard at work.   


I want to remember… the rules that were told to me when I asked the boys how we act on a playdate: “No fighting.  No gettin’ angry.  Be respectful.  Take care of our brothers…and our Sophie!”

I want to remember… how hilarious Sophia can be.  Everyday, she says something that just cracks me up.  Today, I overheard her tell TJ, “You gotta kiddin’ me, dude!”  Later on, I could hear her giggling as she would peek out at me in the kitchen.  When I asked her what she was doing, she ran to the other side of the room, yelling, “I a neen-ja!”


I want to remember… starting a new read-aloud and listening to the boys belly laugh around me.  They had me read a particularly funny part over and over.  

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a storyteller.  


When I was a child, I would write long-winded stories in colorful spiral notebooks.  As a teenager, I traded in fiction for scrapbooking and told the stories of my adventures with a combination of photos and cardstock.  Now as a busy mother, I’ve left the paper products behind for an even easier method: journaling our beautiful everyday here on this blog. 


This week, I will be participating in Ali Edward’s project, Week in the Life.  I hope this will be a time capsule of sorts of our time right now in late summer 2015.  My goal is to remember us at the beginning of our school year, with one foot still in summer’s goodness and the other preparing for all that autumn has to come.  This project will be a more intense version of my weekly “Around Here” posts, but the general feeling is the same: capturing our everyday in photographs and telling the stories behind it.


I will be attempting to post each day’s photos and stories on the following day.  So Monday’s photos will go up on Tuesday, Tuesday’s on Wednesday, etc.  Most people who do this project take their photographs and create a physical album, but I am content to simply add it into the Blurb book I’m making with all of my weekly posts.


A few notes about my goals/hopes for this week:
    

• I want to try to attempt a self-portrait each day.  This may not always be my face (feet or hands count too!), but I’d like to rise above the critical thoughts of myself and include what I look like at 30-years-old, even if that includes no makeup and a top knot.
• I’d like a photo of everyone all together.  I’d love one of all seven of us, but even all the kids together would be great.
• I want to find detail shots of rooms/areas of our home that I normally don’t photograph.  I also hope to challenge myself with zooming out and showing more of an entire room, messes included.
• I’d like to photograph what each of us is “into” these days: favorite shirts, toys, books, movies, etc.
• I want to take shots of some of our meals, especially the ones that feel like summer.  
• I may document the super play-by-play of our day once, but I haven’t decided when.

Here we go!