Week in the Life: Introduction

This week, I'm going to be capturing our everyday life over here to share, hopefully in what becomes sort of a time capsule of what our life looks like right now as it is with our three little gremlins and whirlwind days that when I turn around and it's bedtime again I feel both relieved and confused - where does the day go? My friend Ashley from the Big White Farmhouse participated in the Week in a Life project this past summer and it was inspiring to see how it really does capture the feeling of life as it is right now.

I know there will be things that are very much a part of my life that won't make it into the posts, things that I can't grab the camera to capture in the moment.  Like the real circus show act that is trying to wrestle a one year old that has just been bathed and lotion-ed into long sleeve pajamas.  (whew, exhausting!) But, I'm excited to see the bits of our everyday life that shine through with the goal of taking photos consistently throughout the days this week.  It is daunting, but I'm excited.

I will be taking photos each day and then posting them the following day (so today's photos will be up tomorrow: Monday) and then I hope to incorporate them into our 2015 yearbook next year as a more in depth picture of our "What did it feel like to live in our home this year" section.

Some of my hopes for this week include:

• to use my 'real' camera for most (all?) of the pictures, I have become so dependent on the ease of grabbing my cellphone that my beautiful Nikon is often neglected.  Not this week!
• to use the self-timer on my camera to get myself into some of the pictures
• to photograph the real stuff of our life as it is right now, to grow this week in recognizing the small bits of our life that are both messy and wonderful.  both frustrating yet short lived in the age of raising small
• to try different angles, settings, zooms - that I aren't in my regular comfort zone
• take at least 30 photos each day

eek! I'm excited and a little scared, hah.

welcome into a week in the life of Team Studer!

What is love, anyway

It's easy to find examples of what love is, especially in today's world of gifs and memes.  Beautiful young couples tangled in each others limbs in the golden hour of evening on a blanket in a field.  Mini stories about an elderly couple who visit the same restaurant every week sharing a milkshake and still holding hands under the table.  #relationshipgoals - am i right?

"Love is beautiful with a hint of sexy."
"Love is enduring with a hint of adorable."
Yes, this is what the world teaches us about love.

Tomorrow is our seventh wedding anniversary,
and this is not what life has taught me about love,
not what we have taught me about love.

photo credit: Michelle Misner

Love is looking up at each other at the exact same time like we're listening to a frequency that only we can hear or decipher.
Love is knowing when to bite our tongue, and smirking because we know the other is biting their tongue.
Love is recognizing a mood from a facial expression.
Love is hands held, standing out in the dark with the snow up to our shins as we bury one of our pets.
Love is in the photos.
Love is knowing the stories behind the photos.

Love is forgiveness.
Love is making alternate plans.
Love is problem-solving.

Love is pulling myself out of bed while it's still dark and the whole house sleeps to make sure you have hot coffee and lunch for the day.  

Love is learning how to accept help, even if it's not the way I'd do it.

Love is learning about and being excited about the things that you love, finding a way to celebrate your passions as a family.

Love is holding the kids off with snacks until, sometimes 8:30pm so we can all eat dinner as a family.

Love is your proclamation every time I try to make lasagna that 'this is your best lasagna yet!' 

Love is your last kiss before you leave for work in the morning and your first kiss when you get home.

Love is your regular texts, 'we need anything?' while you're out.

Love is secret photos on my cellphone that you've taken of me and the kids, while I was reading or playing with them.  sometimes these are the only proof that I'm more than the photographer of our life.

Love is that toy bird that we randomly hide in each other's drawers and side of the bed as a joke.
Love is that caramel sea salt chocolate bar you passed to me like a secret in the kitchen the other day so the kids wouldn't see.
Love is the dishwasher run, a full gas tank, car keys put back where they go.
Love is sharing a cellphone charger, dessert, and who reads the bedtime stories to the kids each night.

Love is not like they say it is.
Love is not even like we say it is, sometimes.

We aren't at the beautiful with a hint of sexy beginning anymore.
(hah! at all)
We aren't yet to the enduring with a hint of adorable finish either.
We're in the middle.
We're in the part that counts.

and I choose you because i love you.
or maybe i love you because i choose you.
or maybe the act of choosing and the act of loving are one in the same.

in any case, i'm glad every single day that we're in this life together.
happy anniversary, b.
seven year itch, my ass.
xxoxox

Currently

Celebrating at my parents' annual fall festivus party last weekend.  We got to spend time with friends, eat delicious food (and enjoy leftovers all week), and the kids had a blast having so many people willing to entertain and watch them.  Bonus that we got to have a sleepover with Ninna and Uncle Jonny.

Playing with our favorite friends this week on a hike.  It was the perfect fall day to spend in the woods and so nice to get to chat with Kate while the four big kids ran along the path or hid in the bushes to scare us.

Soaking up our five and half year old boy.  In the madness that was last week, between school picture day, a short school week, karate and gymnastics practice, I totally dropped the ball on Greyson's official half birthday.  So I made up for it on Monday.  We just do a little something special to commerate their half birthdays; we sang at breakfast over chocolate muffins, he got measured in our door frame, and we completed an 'all about me' at 5 1/2 worksheet together.  Just astonishing how time slips by.

Admiring Gemma's ability to find joy in the tiniest things.  Now that we're in full-fledged pants weather, I realized she is low on leggings and so I bought her a few new pairs at the store.  Her exclamations from the backseat over each pair was filled with real happiness.  She's always saying things like, "You look SO beautiful, Mum" if I add lipstick to my yoga pants/tank ensemble.  She delights over a new tablecloth or discovering a book we had been missing.  I could use a lesson or two from that girl about celebrating all the tiny little bits of joy in my day.

Giggling about Violet.  This girl.  Her teeth are outrageous - I don't know why but it's hysterical, her little perfect toothed smile gets me every time.  She wants so hard to speak and is really testing the waters trying out words and communicating.  She loves shouting from various rooms, "MUM!" until I come in to see what she wants to show me.  She has this whine face if anything is even a little bit how she doesn't want it, this scrunch nose, lip curled face with her head tilted back.  we are in some trouble with this spoiled little thing.

Leaning into the holiday with adding new decorations created by the kids.  Grey brought home a decorated pumpkin from CCD last week and Gemma and I have been tackling fun little Halloween projects together in the afternoon like this candy corn banner.  The kids all finally settled on what they want to be for Halloween:  zombie (Grey), ballerina (Gem), kitten (Violet) - and now I'm working on collecting the items we need to assemble their costumes.

Re-organizing the living room, including the office space and kids toys.  I have just been so fed up with our home, (could I possibly type throw.out.all.the.things one more time!?!) and this week, I took the bull by the horns and tackled our main space.  The girls and I picked up two cube/stools from walmart ($13 each) and a new rug for the desk area.  We threw out broken toys, old papers and moved the furniture.  All this week, I've been lighting candles at night and the toys all get scooped up into the cube/stools by the end of the afternoon.  Brandon and I have both declared that the living room is now a place "we want to live" hahahaha, but not kidding.  Now that's my new motto for organizing in our home - make each room a place we 'want' to live.

Reading I Know This Much Is True By Wally Lamb and listening to Orphan Train as I walked this week.  I'm really loving Orphan Train and I'll be bummed when it's over (only about a half hour left in the reading!)

Baking these Peanut Butter and Chocolate chip cookies which is the best of both worlds over here.  Brandon loves peanut butter and I like them fine, but definitely not my favorite.  So I baked these up and we're all fans of them (Violet especially!) Also made this chicken corn chowder and it was gobbled down pretty quickly.