Family photos, glossy coats and my plan to feed us all up

Yesterday afternoon was one of those lovely afternoons where you get engrossed in an activity and look up to find it has got dark.

Belle was at her Dad’s, and Bee came home from school to find me having a little lie down in bed, as you do, in preparation for having to stay up past 10pm later that evening. She came and sat in bed with me and decided she wanted to get herself some moo cards and stickers. If you haven’t come across these before you should really have a look – they are mini business cards you can personalise with up to 100 of your own photos on the back, so every card has a unique design.

Anyway, I digress.

I had recently uploaded all the old photos from our wind up, clockwork computer, onto an external hard drive, so we wouldn’t have to wait three days for every new picture to load, whilst listening to the tower whirr and grind like an old fashioned windmill. Blimey, am I really talking about hard drives? Gosh, this is a terribly dull post. Basically, the point is that we ended up spending a lovely two and a half hours looking through all our old photos and gasping over how tanned and plump and glossy we all looked. Look at these chubby cheeks:

Mummy blog

I love this one too at the donkey sanctuary. Belle has such a serious expression on her face, as though she is presenting a Open University programme on donkeys:

Donkey sanctuary

Now last year, as part of a competition with my pregnant sister whereby I had to weigh less than she did at nine months pregnant (she is very thin, honest), I lost about 20lbs. At the time I was thrilled, but looking back I’m not so sure it has done me any favours. I certainly don’t generally feel happier because of it. Looking back I can’t help but feel that actually I looked pretty good with a bit of extra weight. Sort of fuller and rounder, and younger too. I don’t know. Like this one of me and Bee at a festival in summer 2008. Look at that cleavage!

family festival

I look at the three of us now, and I worry that we have lost our shine. We all look a bit pasty and tired. Our skin doesn’t glow like it did. I know it’s winter, and I’m sure we’ll all look much better in a few months time, but I do wonder if we should more often look back through at pictures of ourselves and pay more attention to our exteriors, as a way of looking at our interiors. It was obvious from the photos over the years when we were going through happy periods, like here:

family festival

You can also see when times were perhaps tougher. Yet it is so easy to ignore these obvious outward signs, albeit unintentionally. I’m not saying we’re having an awful time or anything, but I think it would be fair to say the last six to twelve months have been hard work, with lots of changes, and that this is starting to show.

So my plan for the next six months is to feed us up, get us out in the sunshine and shake off the cobwebs. By the end of the summer I want us all to have shiny coats, waggy tails and wet noses. Hoorah! Now where did I put that Dairy Milk…

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7 Comments

  1. 27 March, 2010 / 8:07 am

    I really relate to this, i was looking through old photos of me and the family on our hols 2 yrs ago, I was just pregnant with Milly and we all look so happy and smiley and YOUNG!
    I don’t think you realise at the time how much happiness radiates out and also how sadness shows.
    Feel like ive aged about 10 yrs in just 2 ;D
    Not really baby Milly’s fault tho. More the worry of life since those heady pre-credit crunch hazy days!

    I think things are beginning to look up though, and i’m sure we will all find a bit more sparkle this year! ;D

  2. 27 March, 2010 / 8:37 am

    It is amazing isn’t it? It really does shine out, but we don’t realise it. I feel at the moment like I just look drawn and tired and OLD. I want to be glossy again! Roll on summer.

  3. 27 March, 2010 / 11:21 am

    That really is an amazing cleavage!

  4. veryanniemary
    27 March, 2010 / 4:59 pm

    I’m all for a girl with a glossy coat….

  5. 27 March, 2010 / 9:20 pm

    I am so with you here, was looking through my pics the other day and found one of me about 3 weeks after I split from my hubby and was 6 months preg. It’s just a face shot, but I had mosquito bites on my cheek and had puffy eyes from all the crying, my hair was a state even though it still had highlights in it and had been straightened. I looked awful and i so nearly deleted it but I stopped myself because no matter what it makes me feel looking at it, that period of my life happened and i got through it. It reminds me of my strength too!

    • 28 March, 2010 / 1:46 pm

      I think you were right to keep it. If you don’t have the evidence of the bad times, you’ve nothing to look back on, nothing to show how far you have come. And reassuring too to know that even when times get tough you just straighten your hair and plough on!

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