Me and Mine - A Family Portrait Project August
This family portrait project has really brought things home this month.
Over this summer, it has felt like we have been away, more than we have been at home.
We had a brilliant holiday with best friends in Spain, a romantic trip to Honfleur, a birthday visit to my brother and sister in law in America and, as I type this, we have just finished a glorious week with my sister, brother in law and little niece Yasmin lu, at our family home in Southbourne, near Bournemouth.
That's a ridiculous amount of flights, a ferry ride and countless trips with the boys in our red wagon, down the zig zag path to the beach hut.
We have been spoilt. Spoilt with time, spoilt with excitement, I was spoilt with presents and we have been spoilt with sunshine.
But what we realise every time we arrive home, with bags of dirty washing, tired children and dogs who are not sure whether they live with us or my kind in laws, is that we are totally spoilt with our home.
We adore our house and the home we have created.
On paper, on this blog, our life seems almost too lucky. Holidays, Facebook and Twitter photos of picture perfect happy times, which I am sure a lot of people end up getting irritated by. It isn't always, I can assure you. Behind the rosy scenes there are worries, terrible anxiousness and heart ache. It's just that I have chosen to keep those things private.
BUT. What this summer has taught me most of all is that being spoilt with holidays is meaningless and that the times you have as a happy family at home, with the boys jumping on the trampoline, the garden littered with toys, whilst we hang out the washing are the best times.
The times you couldn't live without.
We have tentatively started thinking about moving over the next 18 months. With my in laws moving to Poole in September and my Mum and Sister in Ashford and Bracknell, we really need to put a pin on a map half way, and move!
BUT. I adore our house. I love that this is where we brought both our babies home. The memories make my heart ache.
And yet, a week with our darling niece (and her Mummy and Daddy), including 24 hours with my Mum, watching how much unconditional love she has for my own darlings, plus realising how much of a Father and Mother to me my in laws are, combined with the fact that my Mum and my Sister are my best friends, makes us think that next year, is the year to move! Phew that was a long sentence!
So, in case we aren't here in a few years, I wanted to take a photo of us, dogs and all, at the home we adore.
My Me and Mine for August. A snap shot, at the end of a happy day in the garden. No perfect make up, hair that hasn't been washed, boys clothes with food stains and yet I think it's the loveliest photo of my little family we have ever taken.
Join in with us, now I've shown you me and mine, show me you and yours! Once you've linked up, go and have a peek at the lady who started it all. I am very grateful to Lucy for helping me realise how important our little family is.
