Every Moment Counts

I was talking about this last week on my blog, how the moments of childhood pass so very quickly and pretty much every moment counts.  I've been trying to live more mindfully over the last couple of weeks, I've really slowed myself down, I've taken my camera out of high speed shooting again and I'm back to shooting the way I used to, mindfully, taking my time, and making sure that each precious  image I capture is exactly the way it's supposed to be.  In our lives at home I'm trying to be more aware and more present in the time we spend together and in the last week at least, by catching up on editing so I'm completely up to date, it means I have more time during the week with Looby, something I feel that is so important.  Yes we still have times of work but she needs those as much as I do on our home education journey.

This week I've been taking a challenge called "Every Moment Counts" it was set by Families online and when they got in touch to ask if I wanted to take part, I had to accept, a chance to take at least one mindful image every day for a week, it actually proved to be more of a challenge than I thought even though I do take photos every single day whether that's on my iPhone or on my camera.  I'm happy with what I did though, if anything it proved to me why living mindfully is the way forward, as someone who can be accused at living life at a million miles an hour it's so important that I slow down and enjoy the present, the now, the immediate because otherwise time does pass so very quickly and before you know it, well let's just say I don't want to get to 100 years old and have regrets.

So here are my seven moments from last week - 

1. Together, I caught them unawares, they really are the best of friends, Holly and Looby have a real sisterly relationship and from time to time they do get grumpy with each other but at the heart is real love and togetherness.

2. Tradition, last week we were learning about Hygge in our home education and Looby wrote the Hygge manifesto, Hygge is so full of tradition and gets the Danish through the cold winter nights and the darker times of the year, we really did learn a lot about them last week.

3.  Laughter, yes, Looby the comedian who thought I wouldn't notice that she'd put a giant bear in the trolley at Costco, she thought she was hilarious and much laughter ensued.

4. Three things - self explanatory really but Abigail came over and they're teaching Holly to be the ultimate agility dog, I have to say she's doing so well and enjoying it, Looby is buying weekly agility training things and how long, I wonder before we see Holly Bobbins at Crufts?

5. Colourful, there's no one more colourful than Looby and her new autumn jacket is proof that we don't need to conform to the dark colours of a uniform code anymore, it's no wonder that she's so happy since we started our home education journey.

6. Love - No explanation needed, Holly adores human sister Looby

7. Reflection, yep, we could have gone for a thoughtful photo but no, Looby is still trying to teach Holly to self actualise, Holly of course just thinks another girl and her beagle live on the other side of that glass!!

So there you go, 7 moments from the last week of our lives, some were just phone moments, a couple were with my camera but each one is special and precious, we can use technology for good I think, as long as it's not all the time, something which I'll be reminding myself of as we go through the rest of the year and beyond.  It's over to you now though, what are you doing to ensure as a family that each moment counts?  I'd love to hear your comments and ideas.