Week In The Life 2015 – Thursday’s Words and Photos

Wondering about the Week in the Life photo/documenting project?  You can find more about it in THIS POST.

The story behind the photo:
While I hadn’t exactly been slackin’ this week, today was the day I needed to buckle down and get a round of drying racks (wall-mounted laundry drying racks can be found in our Etsy shop) painted and ready to get on their way.  I hit the shop bright and early leaving the kids at home to do their morning routine.  When I took a break to let the paint dry and check in on the kids, the first thing I was greeted with was my mom telling me Tyler had been sneaking screens and lying about it all morning.  I’m not surprised because for some reason lately he can’t seem to be able to entertainment himself and needs to be redirected constantly (all the more incentive to keep the no screens ban going so he can figure it out) but it also wasn’t something I wanted to deal with as I had things to do.  So in compromise (to myself) I took him back down to the shop with me and put him to work where I could monitor him raking up branches from the willows and vacuuming the shop.  It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best solution I could find to the problems of the day.  I want him to learn self discipline.  I want him to learn than life isn’t about doing what we want to do exactly when we want to do it.  I want him to learn that even if it’s not “fun” we can do it without complaining and in a timely manner (that kid is king of the stall tactics and distractions) because so many things in life may not be fun but we need to do them anyway.

 The story behind the photo:  sometime before 7:00AM Kaitlyn was the first to wake up an invade my morning quiet time on the computer.  She just wanted to cuddle and read over my should, which was fine with me.

She loves that keyboard and enjoys piano lessons.  Although she has been less than stellar about remembering to practice this summer, she will often stop by the keyboard a few times a day just to mess around.

Today I started the waking him up at the time he will need to wake up for school.  He took his time waking up and getting up, which is fine.

Washing the towels and swimming suits from our water park adventures.  It always makes me feel accomplished to get the washing machine and the dishwasher going first thing in the morning.

Today’s main task:  paint drying racks (wall mounted laundry drying racks which we sell on Etsy.)

He was telling me all about his plans for a treehouse and showing me where it would be, how it would connect the neighboring trees where one would have a TV and two beds and…

I had him read aloud to me while I worked on the blog.

Drop and give me 20!  (or 10 or 30)  This is our new way of dealing with the kids when they complain or try to talk me out of making them do something I asked them to do. Tyler needs the reminders more than Kaitlyn, but both respond in that way more often than I’m happy with.  Even if it doesn’t work to remind them to think before they speak, at least my kids will develop a few muscles 😉

My brother is almost as photo-crazy as I am 😉  I love that he takes photos and I love that he shares them, especially when I’m not there to see it myself. And I love that he loves spending time with my kids.
After dinner, Wyatt had taken the kids out for a riding lesson.  The caption on his IG post reads:  Double riding lesson with the niece and nephew tonight.  Kaitlyn has graduated to the enormous Casey and Tyler tells me he likes machines more than horses because “they don’t have a mind of their own.”

The story behind the photo:  I had stepped outside to see if I could spot the kids riding horses in the field but they had already put the horses away and were walking home.  Instead I captured this hazy sunset.  The haze is not normal for the area but has set in the last few days, presumably from the fires burning in Washington and Oregon.  The sun is an intense red at sunset and sunrise, but I miss seeing the mountains clearly.

The story behind the photo:  Sam has made it a habit the last few weeks to take the kids up to the gym with him so they can swim (Kaitlyn in particular really misses the pool when swim team has a break from practices) while he runs on the treadmill.  This particular night Kaitlyn forgot her goggles and her poor eyes were all red and unhappy the rest of the night (even with eye drops).  That didn’t stop her from enthusiastically cataloging and prepping her school supplies and she is now all set for the big day (next week).  I love that she’s excited for school.  I love that she likes to organize and get things ready all on her own.  (can we say Mini-me?!)

Final photo count:  61 photos on the DSLR (my “big” camera) and only 3 on my phone, almost all of which are straight out of the camera and unedited at this point.

I am noticing that I don’t snap many photos of the adults in my life (including myself) – whether that is because I don’t think they would be as enthusiastic about the WITL if I were to be taking a lot of photos of them or it’s not wanting to take what may be unflattering photos of them (my mom in particular spends a lot of time in her pjs with hair and makeup undone).  Though I may wish I had a few more of them, particularly of me and the husband, I think at this point I’m still ok with the amount of photos I’m taking and that I’m getting an accurate and (hopefully) interesting representation of the ins and outs of our daily lives.
Anyone else doing Week in the Life or some other photo project?  I’d love to see/hear about it!