My first Day In the Life photo project. I added my comments about the experience in amongst the descriptions of the photos. My one regret is that I can't find a way to present it to you in a slideshow format that includes the commentary. Oh well...here is a link to the photo set on flickr or you can just proceed forward and read about a 'day' from our life below!
8:38 am:
Inspired by my virtual friends at (Mere) Mortal Mama and The Trivial Pursuit of Happiness, I decided to try a "Day In The Life" photo project. Doing this project didn't actually occur to me until I was in the process of chopping leeks last Wednesday morning. So I just went ahead and started right then. It was 8:30 am and we had already been up for at least an hour and a half. There was lots of train playing and struggles to get dressed but now a half hour before we head out the door, everything was tranquille.
And why was it so tranquille? It is thanks to Dan Zanes (and everyone else in the band). It's so funny that this ended up as part of our 'day' today because we rarely watch dvds. We rarely watch anything but if we do it is usually something on YouTube. This was nice though - Felix loves listening really closely to music so he got absorbed and I was able to dance and sing along while I chopped away.
8:40 am:
9:30 am:
Out the door (this is view to the left as you step out of our front door) and off to the halte garderie. For Tibo and I, our lives are far from regular. Our schedules change frequently but I think we've done a good job of finding a balance for our family. Felix lives on a pretty fixed routine but we have just enough flexibility to spice it up regularly. This particular week I am working more than usual but I still saved Wednesday morning for myself. I need my Wednesday morning to survive. And Felix gets to spend three hours playing in one of the coolest places I know.
9:15 am:
You see? He loves it there. Me too. I feel so good about leaving Felix in this environment. It is so lovingly and intelligently adapted to his age. There is a lot of free play and rarely does he come home with "cookie cutter" art. Instead we get lots of finger paintings and pages filled with brightly colored stickers. They sing songs. They read books. And there is a ball pool. A ball pool is always cool.
9:28 am:
When I got home I enjoyed the sunlight in my kitchen while I finished cleaning up from the morning's projects.
9:48 am:
Then I sat here and worked for the next two hours. In addition to preparing for the next six weeks of school, I also worked a bit on my classes online. I didn't get too distracted.
11:50 am:
Same street, different hour, and shot from the hip. This is just a little bit further down from our house. I'm on my way to pick up Felix.
11:54 am:
I even love how bright and colorful the outside of the building is...
12:02 pm:
We saw these guys working on our way to the garderie this morning but we rarely take time to stop on the walk there. On the other hand, the walk home is always mellow and we stop a lot to explore and observe things. They were digging a huge hole in the road and Felix leaned against the fence, enjoying the show.
This just might be my favorite shot from the whole day.
1:11 pm:
Waiting for the RER C - our branch of the suburban train system.
So one thing I failed at in my first DITL is meal times. We just did the whole prep-eat-clean-up thing and I completely forgot to pick up the camera. Today was a bit out of the ordinary because I was working in the afternoon in Paris. Normally on Wednesdays Felix goes down for a nap around now but today I had to work at 2:30 so we headed into Paris to meet Tibo, who was finishing his work at 1:00.
1:17 pm:
And here 'we' are on the train.
1:43 pm:
Hopped on the metro - line 14.
2:08 pm:
And then we waited at a park for Tibo to arrive from wherever he was in the Paris region. Felix insisted that I go down the slide too and I was surprised at how fast it went!
2:09 pm:
Papa! Felix sees Tibo coming from afar. From here, Tibo and Felix head back towards home. Felix loved every minute of this exchange because it involved trains, metros, parks, playing with both of us, then a bus, more trains, and home again. Whoosh.
4:18 pm:
At work I completely forgot about taking pictures. I was in work mode. Making photo copies, teaching my lovely 13 year old boy (he was definitely one of my favorite students in a long time), and then packing everything up to head back home. I only taught an hour and half (one class) but technically we are on vacation.
I only work at this particular place during the school vacations. I am their adolescent specialist - which basically means that I am willing to work with teenagers. Luckily, I really like it too. I teach individual intensive week sessions.
4:21 pm:
I was hoping to pick up a bike for the short little downhill trip to the metro but alas, there were none.
4:33 pm:
Saint Lazare Line 14.
I love taking the train with Felix. He has such joy and excitement, it is contagious. I know more about trains then I ever thought I would. But I also love taking the metro and train by myself. An hour devoted solely to reading books. I love it. And now I am a really big dork because I know exactly what door to stand in front of when I get on so that I am right at the stairs when I get off. Kinda makes me feel like a real Parisienne...
5:59 pm:
An hour ride home and then the vacation part of the day. The leek quiche is ready to go in the oven and that leaves us time to just play. Watercolors and trains. Good music. Maman and Papa.
And unfortunately, I didn't take another photo. Next time I'll try to capture the typical evening routine but I am ok with leaving the day on this very beautiful note. I really enjoyed this project although it was quite a bit of work to upload and work with all of the photos! I would love any comments or ideas you have! (If you've made it all the way to the end..)
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This was fabulous! And so inspirational. I think this will be my next photo project. :) And what is cool about this project is that you can do it over and over again.
Posted by: Aimee | March 10, 2008 at 02:04 PM
Oh, yeah. I wanted to comment on how clean your kitchen looks! :)
Posted by: Aimee | March 10, 2008 at 02:24 PM
Thanks Aimee :) Yeah, it looks really clean doesn't it? I learned all of my cleaning tricks (or photography tricks) from you. (Ha-ha!) The 50mm lens is nice because you have such a narrow field of vision...I can keep all of the clutter out of the picture...
Posted by: Sarah | March 10, 2008 at 02:40 PM
What a great DITL entry. My favorite pics are simple ones like the leeks and the sunlight on the fruit. Or maybe the ones that give context like the shots of the metro and the street scenes. Oh, those cobblestone streets, how lovely. I just know I would have had trouble pulling Seth away from those diggers. Maybe it was the combination of all of the aspects that pulled it together. I'm sure this was quite a bit of work. You did a fab job!
Posted by: Anna | March 10, 2008 at 03:14 PM
I love this!
Posted by: Lesley | March 10, 2008 at 03:19 PM
That was so much fun! The photos were lovely! I hope you do it again soon.
Posted by: Teresa | March 10, 2008 at 03:22 PM
thanks so much! i needed to live in france vicariously for a moment on a cold, minnesota, monday morning.
Posted by: jen | March 10, 2008 at 03:50 PM
Anna - Thanks for the detailed comments. I didn't put much thought into what I would take photos of but after reading your comment I notice that it is a nice blend of quick moments, emotions, and context photos. Thanks for giving me a whole new perspective on the project.
Lesley and Teresa - Thanks! I definitely want to do it again!
Posted by: Sarah | March 10, 2008 at 03:56 PM
Jen - The day of this project happened to be beautiful but today our weather is like yours...very blustery and cold. Where's spring? I'm off to check out your Etsy shop now. :)
Posted by: Sarah | March 10, 2008 at 04:02 PM
What a lovely way to capture your life right now. My child was so entranced by Dan Zanes (and that particular dvd) when she was about 2 1/2 that she called us all by name with band aliases. I was Barbara and her father was Cynthia and our dog was Furry Colin. Her preschool teachers were mystified for some time as to our real names. Thank you for sharing - it's wonderful to see someone balancing work and child and life and ending up with peaceful watercolors and leek quiche at the end!
Posted by: MamaBird | March 10, 2008 at 05:10 PM
This was delightful, Sarah. It was like being there, again, "back home", if only for a minute. Oh, how I miss France... France me manque...
Love the last shot especially--the colors are fabulous. And the poster above Felix's head in the train--oh là là, c'est si français! Typique, non?
Posted by: La Rêveuse | March 10, 2008 at 08:53 PM
MamaBird - Your Dan Zanes story is hilarious! I really like Barbara -I'd be happy if Felix thought I sang as nice as her. :) I only work part-time and so does my husband for the most part so it is great that we find a way to both have lots of time with Felix and both split the work/household/kid care 50-50.
La Reveuse - That poster is great! It is an exposition about sexuality at Cite des Enfants. Tibo was just saying that he hopes something like that will be around when Felix is old enough - it starts at age 9! Thanks for stopping by my blog... :)
Posted by: Sarah | March 10, 2008 at 09:05 PM
Oh, how I enjoyed your DITL and got to live vicariously through you for a few minutes. :)
And our household survives on Dan Zanes most every day.
Beautiful photos. The quiche sounds yummy and GIRL I am jealous of your beautiful city.
Please do this again soon!
xoxo
Posted by: Mere Mortal | March 11, 2008 at 05:01 AM
What a great project and thank you for sharing your life in France. I love the stone streets - great shots all of them. I studied French in middle and high school, but 14 years later, I have a bit of a hard time remembering the language.
Posted by: Stacy | March 11, 2008 at 10:08 PM
Hey miss Sarah! What a beautiful glimpse at your life! I hope that we can catch up soon-- and until then, keep it up - these are some gorgeous photographs!! (not to mention that lovely little boy who so sweetly poses for them!)
bises
Posted by: Libby | March 12, 2008 at 10:20 AM
Just lovely! What you think is mundane, everyday stuff, looks really beautiful in these photos.
Posted by: kristen | March 13, 2008 at 12:19 AM
gorgeous photos - and a beautiful photo essay :^)
Posted by: Lori | March 17, 2008 at 10:52 PM