When Home is Different // Home Life Project January

Cold, dark days of January unfold. Crisp, icy days, and long nights. Children sit, poring over colouring books, "adventuring" to imaginary Wales, and thrilled at the comforts of home again. After six weeks away, the work on the house is almost completed, and the littles were almost more thrilled to be home than we were.

Home sweet home.

And yet home feels different somehow... the joyful anticipation of being back tempered by the realisation that all has changed. Wonderful changes, good changes... but for a time, at least... home is unfamiliar. Things do not have places... and if they do, different places. Thermostat functions need to be learned, daytime dynamics adjusted, boxes unpacked.

So we sink ourselves into normality, realising that with time, this "new" home will become "home" and there is no better way to make that happen than living out the simple everyday, the mundane ordinary, the hundreds of moments that make up the memories.

It's been nine months of building work, of decision-making, of change and adapting. We are ready for some normality again.

And, with that in mind, I spent a day capturing those moments in our "new home"... joining in, hopefully more regularly this year, with the "Home Life Project"...

The calm before the storm...

The every day ordinary...

The laughter and friendships, the bickers and whinges... family life in all its glory...

And then those little moments that you normally see out of the corner of your eye, and that are gone in a flash... and then you're thankful to have your camera at hand!

Capturing the intricacies of each little character... their interests and hobbies...

Their quirky sense of humour...

Their contemplative moments... and their cheeky little hiding places (one of the pros of living in an unfinished extension!)

A very normal weekend, captured on camera!