This is going to be a mammoth post, but stick with it because it's worth it!

Here's the past month and a bit of my 365 Project.

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Well, that's a surprise isn't it?

When I posted my last 365 photo on Sunday 26th April, I stated that I just couldn't bear to do it anymore. Life had become far too stressful as a school inspection announcement on top of my dad's lung cancer and sister's breast cancer just became too much to deal with; I couldn't see a way out of the stress and 365 was the one thing that I could control to remove as a contributory factor.

I thought I'd never do it again, but it seems that I have missed it far too much. Six weeks without daily photos has mostly been a God-send, but by and large I've missed it. I've missed capturing the little moments that make up the wonders of life.

I thought I might venture back at the start of the school holidays, but actually the end of school inspection coincided with The Boy's sixth birthday, so it seemed a perfect 'Day One' photo.

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See that photo of my gorgeous son there, swinging into action at Mountain View Ranch last Sunday? That's one of those metaphor jobbies it is.

I can't do Project 365 any more.

After 1,577 days of taking a photograph of our lives every single day consecutively I've had enough.

When I started the project on 1st January 2011 I never thought I'd finish a month, let alone a year. And yet four years and four months I'm still at it, until today. I've had a wonderful time being part of this global project (and running the Project 365 linky in the UK parent blogging world), capturing the every day in our life, remembering the important and unimportant moments and reminiscing about my funny little boy.

But enough.

Serious family health issues over the past few months have made me re-evaluate several factors. A very important work announcement today has hammered home how stressful life is going to be over the next two months. And I'm tired. I'm tired of remembering on a Saturday evening that I need to do a round-up post. I'm tired of keeping my fingers crossed that I took a photo every day in the past week. I'm tired of staying up until gone midnight on a Saturday getting the posts done. And I'm tired of forcing moments in order to take a photograph worthy of being in my Project 365 round-up.

I want to start living again, enjoying the moments rather than capturing them on 'film'. Keeping them in my mind's eye and for me. And I want to start enjoying blogging again, because I haven't since February.

Thank you to everyone who has nominated me for a Britmums Brilliance in Blogging award in the Photography category again this year, it means so very much to me, especially when there are so many talented photographers in the same category. I know that Project 365 is the reason you nominated me, and I'm so grateful. This is not the end of photography on my blog, hopefully it will free me up to be more creative and enjoy my photos a little more, rather than them feeling like an obligation.

Good luck to everyone else completing the project, I'm always here for advice, but for me now the journey has come to an end.

I want to feel like that little boy on the swing above, enjoying the freedom of life.

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