When you think you have the whole ‘living in the moment’ thing down, a five and a two year old then comes along and shows you how it is done the correct way.

I have taken up a personal 365 day photo challenge for 2018, where I will take a photo every day for the year. Easy right??… Right???

Starts off… “Hey, this is fun”… to… “Let’s just take a photo for the sake of getting my photo of the day”… to… creating moments with your family, and forcing you to try new angles and different lighting with a different perception.

It’s in these moments that I appreciate and it’s the unplanned moments I love even more.

Through the lens of a camera, you start to notice the beauty of small things, such as the morning sun shining through your children’s window as they play together and getting along for a change.

It’s not about the grand trips any more. Life is hard, and being a full time working mom of two, I have learned to love the simple moments I have with my kids even more, and to just disconnect myself from technology, as it distracts me from being present with the ones I love.

I love how this challenge has changed my way of percieving things. I look at things in a total different angle now, unposed, unplanned… just as it happens, (I just need to remind my husband not to tell the kids to look at me all the time and say “cheeeeese”).

I love how it’s has opened my eyes to take time to really notice my children and how it has made me more conscious of how the setting sun glows through my daughter’s messy, wild and untamed hair at the end of a busy day or their dirty little feet after a full day of playing outside.

One morning, I had just put out clean linen on the washing line to dry, to moments later I discover my children playing amoungst my clean linen. I did not get upset (even though I did have an internal tantrum), instead I saw the fun they were having together and when I saw how the sun was casting the most beautiful shadows on my “not so clean anymore” linen, I quickly ran to fetch my camera.

I could have chosen to moan at them, upset their morning and wash the linen again in a gumpy mood. Or, I could sit there with my camera and capture the naughty, innocent, joy on their faces. Sometimes we need to force ourselves to slow our pace down and learn to be happy in the present moment, because right now is the most important moment in your life as tomorrow is never promised.

As parents, life can get really busy, trying to juggle work, kids, schools, and before you know it you are laying in bed after a tiring day, to get some rest to try do it all over again tomorrow.

Life does not need to be like that, and the world exists as you percieve it… So, slow down!!

I believe in celebrating the imperfect real moments in life. I’m not talking about a day you plan to play supermom while you assign your children roles to be well behaved. I’m talking about a day just like any other. The kind of day that seems to repeat itself over and over until one day it doesn’t.

So I urge you to pick up that camera, as it forces you to look at the ordinary moments as a perfect documentary life moment in your world, and right there… right ‘now’, nothing else matters.

When you start, you will notice that it really opens your mind to see things differently, with your life documented as a work of art filled with many magical ordinary moments.
Not only has this photo challange made my instagram account look oh so cute, but it has forced me to be more creative and to find the beauty in life and in each and every moment, and open your mind to see things differently filled with many magical ordinary moments..