Documenting the Magic

As you know, I take pictures every day. No, seriously. Every. Single. Day.

With the advent of smart phones, it's too easy not to. I think that I still have some deep, internal scarring left over from when my family had to leave Cuba and we had no pictures of ourselves from that time, but that's not important right now.

So I'm always taking pictures, because, as I like to tell my kids, "I'm documenting the magic of our lives."

I already do Project Life, which means I document our lives week to week. And I love the hybrid quality of digital and traditional scrapbooking.

When Instagram came along, I fell in love. It feeds my artistic side and lets me tell our story in bright day-to-day photos.

This past week would be titled...

The Last Week of June 2013 in the Land of the Darbys

Swimming
Sunday afternoon swim at the local YMCA. I try to get in the water at least 5 days a week. Sometimes I bring my people with me.

Party lights & flags

Festive patio lights and Fiesta-colored flags decorate our outdoor movie area. Lucy sewed up the flags. It makes the whole place like so bright and happy.

Movie night concessions
If you come over for a Darby Outdoor Movie Night, there will be concessions. (Don't judge me.)

El Moro CA
Wednesday was a perfectly perfect beach day in Southern California.

Bleeding hearts
My Bleeding Heart vines are in bloom. They go completely dormant in the winter and I always hold my breath because I have such little faith that they'll return. I'm always amazed and delighted when they do.

Muffin & coffee
Coffee & muffin & computer. This pretty much sums up most of my mornings.

Nefret in surf bag
Eric went surfing early one morning this week and Nefret found a happy place to shelter from the heat.

Pamagranate
Surprise gift of "Pamagranate" Jelly. And it's not even Christmas. Totally made my day.

Roast chicken
I make a whole, Roast Chicken at least one night a week. (Two if we're having company.) It's just too beautiful, isn't it?

Herb stand
My kids saw this in the dumpster area of the local market. Score! I'm keeping the sign on it, too.

Jon & lucy
We're having a heat wave in So Cal and our air conditioner conked out. So we made the best of it by turning on the outdoor lights and they made music. I can't even tell you how much I love this.

I know it doesn't look glamorous. But that's how our days and weeks go. Of course, I will always take pictures at birthdays and holidays and all that. But this? This is the stuff of our everyday lives. This is where the magic happens.

“The days are long, but the years are short.” ~Gretchen Rubin

“My job is to document the magic.” ~ Marta Darby