Life Collected

Sunscreen. Lee was headed out on a "field trip" for school and was going to be outside all day. The barcode on the back of the can? Currently one of Liza's favorite things. Ever since she started scanning her own books at the library, she hunts for the barcodes on everything!

My sunglasses. I don't leave home without them and have had this pair of Ray Bans for at least 5 years. The earpieces are cracking and sharp, poking my ears and head. It's time for a new pair. I looked them up online the other night. Turns out they're a men's model. Who knew? I love them so much though, I'll probably get another pair.

My watch. A Christmas gift years ago from my hubby. The battery died after Liza was born. I was too lost in mamahood to get it fixed, so it sat in my jewelry box until this past December. He pulled it out and replaced the battery. It's been on my wrist pretty much ever since.

Red Bean and Quinoa Chili recipe. It's what I was making for dinner that night. From a favorite cookbook, "Feeding the Whole Family: Recipes for Babies, Young Children, and Their Parents" by Cynthia Lair. Amazon tells me I purchased it on June 22, 2009. Must be a good one if I've been cooking from it for the last three years. We actually had a kale salad from it this evening!

Bag of garbanzo beans. They were headed for the pot for an overnight soak. I used some of them for the next night's meal. The rest got bagged and stacked in the fridge this evening.

Pottery Barn Kids catalog. We're in the market for a twin bed for Liza. I bought one at a used furniture store (along with a dresser, bedside table, and vanity chair) and had big plans for refinishing it all. Everything but the bed looks promising. Unfortunately, I wasn't a careful enough shopper. It's not solid wood. We'll keep looking.

So many stories in one simple picture. 

Pictures of life in progress. I love them. I'm drawn to the piles on the kitchen counter, the stuff on her art table, that stack of books on my nightstand, the food on the plate in front of me. They're often taken from above and rarely include people, but the stories they tell fascinate me.

When I look at other people's pictures, I'm always searching the periphery - zoning in on the surroundings. Is it just me? Perhaps it's my writer self trying to soak up all the details (that's code for saying I'm really nosey, I think). I see the faces, but more often than not, I'm drawn to the bits & pieces of life surrounding those faces.

Last night I went back through my flickr photostream and created a new collection called "Life Collected". I've got nearly 30 shots from the past three years of our stuff. It's unbelievable how much our interests/lives have changed in that relatively short period of time. But, each picture takes me back to that moment, and I loved revisiting each of those stories.

Try it for a few months. Photograph the stuff of your life. What seems ordinary to you right now probably won't be in six months or this time next year.