Togetherness is a funny thing. You can be together so much, for so many hours in a day and yet still not find or make the time to be together. I know that must sound like it doesn't make any sense but I hope I am not alone. The pace of life during term time is like a freight train hurtling down a never ending track. My pledge to try and keep school holidays free from laptops is so much harder in reality than it is to promise and divvying up school pick ups and cross checking diaries on a Sunday night have meant the last month or so has felt like a surreal existence. On survival mode to half term.

We're there on the sports pitch to cheer Sammy on, we are there at parent's evening hearing how he is a credit to us, with a sense of warmth washing over our bodies - a mix of pride and sheer relief that we are doing something right. We piggy back them upstairs, their dangly chicken legs hanging on our hips and drop them into their twin beds, then take turns to read their school books, before we swap and get under the second set of covers.

We are together all the time.

Yesterday was match day and I watched one of the dads playfully wrestling with his son who had been substituted so they all had a turn on the pitch. He works in Hong Kong and had flown back just for 3 days before another long stint abroad until Christmas. And when I went to bed last night I thought about just how hard that must be to have months apart as a family. And how it's so normal for us that Rich and I spend so much time together that we've sort of stopped appreciating the little things they must long for.

Even taking a family photo has become almost impossible. It's become a point of principle, Mama wants a photo for the dreaded Me and Mine! But when we were out with my sister at the weekend (Ok so I know this is a September link up but sssh it's the very best I could do and it will be November otherwise!) we were talking about how her in laws were asking for a family photo of them and how few they actually had bar selfies on their camera roll.

It seems like the easiest thing all getting in together for a photo but sometimes it feels more trouble than it's worth. I've done my fair share of dog treats. Tempting them with sweets or chocolates in my hand! And do you know that's ok. Life isn't all about a perfect picture. It's ok if you have to persuade your brood sometimes, because what you get at the end reminds you that it is worth it really.

People say a picture tells a thousand words but really they never tell the thousand words behind the scenes!

The thing about Me and Mine is that it forces me to capture a moment, whether anyone else wants to or not. And even though there was a hint of eye rolling before my sister took this, as soon as the boys jumped down we looked at the photo and smiled. Because the truth is, there are times in your lives when children have to come first, when work has to come first, when family routine dominates everything, when you might feel less together or up together than you'd like to be.

Trying to make everything perfect is hard and I'm not sure the perfect family exists. I know for a fact from my early photography days that even those magical family portrait sessions have tense moments too. 

The house isn't up together, we are not up together. There's overdue dentist appointments to book, bags for the charity shop that haven't made it out of the hallway, half finished DIY projects, library books that should have been returned in July and it's been so long since I had a hair cut my barnet is like a bird's nest every morning. 

But, we are all in it together. 

I've decided it's so much better to not be in pursuit of perfection. I'll take my lot and all their moaning and groaning because they are mine. 

It doesn't matter when you share it, it matters who you share. Come and join in with us and show us you and yours. I love that this group of bloggers share everything from beautifully composed portraits in picturesque locations to last minute selfies. That's what makes this project so heartwarming and honest. I want both of those and everything in between. I love the candid shots that people capture by accident and the happy smiling faces all looking at the camera. And I love my Me and Mine for September. Which is already printed and in a frame. Let's hope the grandparents don't read this because they are getting one for Christmas!

Pop over to see what Lucy, Jenny, Fritha, Alex and Katie have been up to.

There’s something about sunshine in September that makes you that little bit more grateful and gets you racing to head outdoors. In fact I remember when my sister got married on the 10th October in 2010 and it felt like the hottest day of the year - in October! Instead of the lazy hazy days of summer where juggling school holidays, adventures and work seem to halt our impromptu outings, the start of the change in the seasons makes me become a stereotypical Brit, discuss nothing but the weather and desperate to hold onto sandals and summer dresses. To make the most of those golden hours. 

School routines have brought back shouty morning memories, me clapping at them like a mother hen hurrying her chicks to get dressed and out of the door and we start each day in a muddle. We've tried getting up earlier, we lay the clothes out the night before but everything has become a battle before 8am, unless Granny is stopping over and my feral school boys are replaced with golden angels.

Sammy has careered off into Year 3 and lower school and hasn't looked back. He has a sports bag almost as big as him, and I can hear his voice changing. More eloquent in just a couple of weeks back at school. My timelines and feeds that were full of school uniforms, happy toothy grins have slowly drifted back to cat videos, (I'm more of a dog person myself but the one where they eat ice cream - hilarious) celebrity gossip and even a few Christmas countdowns - umm no way jose - I am still living in a white dress. I loved every little and large nervous excited face and every status bursting with pride. 

Because I loved how positive the internet was, everyone wanting to share those precious milestone moments. Babies to big kids.

September is like starting the year all over again, a month to unsettle summer habits and a month to settle back in again. We are all trying to work out what our roles are and where are jobs are going, boys testing boundaries as their confidence grows in relation to the size of the playground they now hare around in, on the cusp of something bigger for Rich maybe, if the wind stays blowing in the same direction. 

We are just trying to work hard and be nice. And sometimes it takes longer to get somewhere that way. 

You can feel that slight dip in the temperature as the sun sets signalling the cooler winds of autumn are riding the airwaves but on a bright day, when the golden rays are blasting down onto our faces, I forget that we are not in a mid July daze. 

I've felt better about myself, felt happier with a glow.

We Heaths are not ready to pack up the flip flops just yet. 

Weekends are back to being being pepper potted with school parties, reading books and housework but on the sunniest of Saturdays we headed off from home with the dogs in search of a corn field we’d spied the week before. The boys had been talking about this incredible maze with “storks taller than you Mama” and when we found it we peeked through the rows before heading to a grassy spot in the garden for a picnic. Luckily the local farmers all know us as it's a small village and no one gave a second look as we hopped the gate for a nose. 

It’s like they were chasing the light. I could hear giggles and rustling as they hurried past me to catch up with each other. When you run through a field you realise why children love it so much. You just can’t help but scream like an excitable 5 year old and we watched as they disappeared into the green. 

I made a promise to the boys last year to try and play as much as possible over this summer and we’ve had the time of our lives. An absolute whale of a time. Little moments like these are what they remember. Bonus weekends. Simple pleasures like a surprise picnic with all their favourite things to eat bursting from the basket. 

We sat, we ate, we tried not to let the dogs hoover up all the salami and sausages and we packed the leftovers back into our hamper, to save for after school snacks. And I know we are not the only ones who appreciate those unexpected sunny days. I love seeing other families, sharing their photos, making the most of this borrowed time before we are all cooped up, hiding from the drizzle.

September be glorious for us, show us the summer’s last hurrah!

This isn't really a sponsored post but I wanted to say thank you to Joules for a lovely surprise birthday gift and these outfits. We've lived in them!

I love how it's become completely normal in the age of Insta-lives to stand in the middle of a street or a shop doorway and hold your phone or camera to your feet. No one really bats an eyelid and incredibly (When you think about it feet aren't the prettiest thing in the world to photograph!) they tell such a story that they are often some of the most captivating. Sharing just a hint of where you are in the world or where you are heading.

And I'm not the only one who loves it, there are 404,000 plus photos posted to the #ihavethisthingwithfloors gallery which I can get totally lost in lusting after the tiled floors in Morocco, Hollywood stars, chalk messages left on pavements and sidewalks and little people and fur babies poking their heads into the frame. So this was my coming home week and a couple of days, in floors, joining in with the a week on my feet campaign with Luxury Flooring. Can you tell I bought a new dress for holidays and barely took it off?! I did have another in my new favourite fretwork white dress but it looked like I never wash my clothes!

My week starts with my solo adventure with the boys. I almost wish I snapped one of these of the three of our pairs of feet at every new place we visited. They look so little and I love how they lived in these towelling robes which I bought a size too big so they will last for next year, meaning you can hardly see their hands in any of our holiday photos!

We went back to the same beach at Calpe a few times because of it's beautiful golden sand, there's always a lounger free for those of us who have run out of hands (and inclination) to carry fold up chairs under the weight of inflatables and picnic bags and gentle waves that the boys barely stopped jumping for 5 hours. We had our own little routine where we would make a base camp, play in the sea and then after lunch head along the promenade people watching towards an ice cream stand and sit in the shade on the walled planters filled with palm trees and I'd watch as they frantically tried to lick their lollies before they dripped down their arms and legs onto the patterned tiles.

We have this saying in our family "Gala dinner night" and it's our phrase for the penultimate or last night of the holiday where we go some a little bit fancy for a special meal as a celebration of the holiday. We headed into Altea old town which is a glorious traditional area with a historical central square around the church. There's a dozen cobbled stepped streets that veer off from the main courtyard which fills up with little stands selling gifts and handmade wooden toys, ceramics and paintings. It's beyond picturesque and there's not a cheap bit of tat in sight! Every street is a photo opportunity and one day I will take a trip there on my own as they boys' patience for endless "ooh hang on look at this pretty bike resting against a wall" only lasts so long. There's a viewing platform that looks out over the sea and where everyone tourist or not stop for a family photo. But I stopped for the compass!. 

I had planned to take a photo of our three feet at the airport but between pushing all the luggage on my own, car seats that kept falling off the precarious stack of suitcases and boys who were on totally uncoordinated toilet trips (are you sure you don't need to go? No - oh wait three minutes later - I need to go now!) I ran out of time and was just thankful we made it onto the plane still smiling. We had a heroes welcome home from Rich after 2 weeks of him working at home and us sunning ourselves in Spain, a banner tapped to the garage door and the dogs tails couldn't have wagged anymore wildly. And the next day a beautiful bouquet arrived in the post from a new Instagram friend. I walked in the garden to take a photo and noticed how the petals have started to drop in the flower beds filling up the cracks in the path. The misshapen pathways that lead you around the back of the house and down to the vegetable patch are one of my favourite things about the house. Sometimes I wonder what it would look like with a perfectly laid patio, without moss and odd corners but I don't think it would suit us at all. It's organised chaos. A bit like us. 

My feet barely touched the ground when we got back from Spain and I am not complaining in the slightest. I feel like the boys and I have had the time of our lives this summer. I couldn't have packed in any more if I tried and in the few days we had at home before our next adventure I popped to my favourite shop in Mere, Sprout and Flower for a browse and a few carrots for a fireside Christmas shoot I needed to upload for a lovely client. It's all Christmas deadlines at this time of year!

I could spend an hour capturing all the little details in Sarah's green grocers and flower shop, everything from the painted green doorway with vintage watering cans hanging between the bunting, to the beautiful tiles at the entrance. Perfectly imperfect. I took a couple of shots of the basket of sweet peas on the counter, the Cheddar strawberries and left with one purchase, plus the carrots. You'll never guess what it was!

So my new love is the one I found at the green grocers - totally normal to buy a shutter instead of fruit and veg right?! My neighbour who grows the most beautiful cut flowers (my patch is looking in a rather sorry state being so unloved over the summer) drops a bucket full in our porch on a Thursday before she heads to the local WI market on a Friday. These were delivered before I got home and were just going over as we packed the car to head to Southbourne for a last holiday with all my family and I couldn't leave without hastily taking a few photos that I will share on Instagram over the next few weeks, it felt criminal to leave them without a bit of faffing!

Southbourne is my happy place. I've been pushed along the high street in a pram at 6 weeks, toddled along to Elizabeth's bakery in sandals in the summer, wellies in the winter for a poppy seed plait and dragged my boys in a wagon along to my favourite shop Coastal Creatives for a browse through all the driftwood gifts and pretty things. There's a few lovely doorways, but I spotted this marble mosaic one which was getting a serious makeover. The builders inside the shop who were refitting all the shop furniture gave me a smile as I stopped and snapped my feet and I gave them an embarrassed wave as I scuttled off!

The end of a whirlwind whole summer really was a 24 hour blast to the big smoke. I helped Rich at a big food trade show before the boys went back to school and they had a last sleepover at their grandparents in Poole. We literally dumped the suitcases from Southbourne on the living room floor and packed up a rental van with tea, crates, business cards and leaflets and set off for London Olympia. The traffic wasn't very kind and we finally got to bed at the hotel Rich was calling home for three nights at almost midnight after a very late dinner at the pizza place around the corner. Shattered.com. And that was before the show started!

We stayed at a budget hotel that had picture perfect London monochrome tiled doorways and just before the taxi arrived to pick us up at 8am I snapped a quick photo. It was a little bit like "look what you could have won" as we raced through the empty Sunday streets to the exhibition hall. No time for a saunter around the Kensington streets and I let out a comedy weep as we flashed past pretty bakeries adored with floral arches, pastel front doors and Figaro cars parked outside wrought iron railings almost begging to be photographed!

I collapsed onto the train at Waterloo late on Saturday evening and nose dived into bed, in an empty house. I don't think I've ever stayed here completely on my own with no boys, no Rich and no dogs and with the cases still littered all over the floor I woke up feeling desperate to get back to some normal routine. Back to ballet pumps and jeans and darting between home and school, pjs and barefeet on weekends and some time standing still.

Where have you been this week? Have you snapped your feet?! 

In collaboration with Luxury Flooring