Christmas Photography

Pinterest has become a new pastime for me.  I’m not actually a member yet, I’m on the waiting list.  But that doesn’t stop me from perusing hundreds of pins and bookmarking every favorite idea I come across.  These ideas range from crafts to do with Hayden to recipes, and led to my first attempt at a photography shoot.

Oh, I take pictures all the time.  And I do mean all the time.  But I saw this adorable photograph and just had to try it on my boys.  So I hung up white sheets, taped lights to them, laid down the toddler mattresses and covered them with a furry soft blanket.  The tutorial showed icicle lights, but I only had straight lights on hand, so I purposefully strung the lights rather haphazardly (if that makes any sense.)  I was so proud of my set up and couldn’t wait for the boys to wake up so I could try it. (Unfortunately the tape couldn’t hold the sheet up anymore and fell before I thought to get a photograph of the backdrop.)

I gave up when the urge to yell at Hayden for rolling over his brother for the umpteenth time almost overwhelmed me.  Then I loaded the pictures to the computer and, being addicted to taking photos and obviously a glutton for punishment, we went back downstairs after lunch with the plan to take a few more pictures of the boys together since those turned out the worst.

I was chagrined to see the sun out in full and shadowed lines across my carefully planned photo op.  So, I did what any desperate mother pretending to be a photographer would do and I used painters tape to tape a white sheet over the window. 

The lighting was actually much better than the morning’s light had been.  The boys were still pretty uncooperative and some of the morning together photos were actually better.  Then I put Hayden down for rest time and went back down with Mason and shot about 10 more pictures while he didn’t have his brother trying to claim the spot light.  Those are definitely my favorites of Mason, the lighting was so much better and I was able to get his attention with some funny noises and also just take pictures of him playing with the ornaments. 

I have to say that the results made it totally worth it.  The pictures aren’t perfect, some are awful, the focus is off on some of them and there are random feet, fingers and toes missing in others, but overall there were several that turned out pretty good.  I learned so much about picture taking, the hands on experience was great and thankfully I’ve got my boys to experiment on so no else’s children were tortured in the process.  I’m also excited about the pictures and proud of myself for venturing out and trying something new.

Purposeful Moments

It only takes a moment to create memories that will last a lifetime.  The holidays always start me thinking about family, togetherness and traditions.  Its so easy to get caught up in the mayhem of the holidays, the buying gifts and forgetting that the whole point of a family dinner is the gathering itself.  Not the turkey on the table or the gifts under the tree.

I’ve been trying over the last few years to do things with Hayden (and now Mason) that will hopefully become lasting traditions throughout the year.  Some of those things are big things, such as Thanksgiving dinner.  Others are smaller, but still significant.

For the past two years, the day after Thanksgiving we go to a light festival of some sort to kick of the Christmas season.  The first year we went to the Memphis Zoo Lights.  Last year we went to the Shelby Farms Light Drive.  So this year I wanted to do the same, but being in a new place, plus the cost and distance made it hard to find an event that worked for us.  Eventually I found a wonderful neighborhood just 15 minutes up the road where 6-7 houses decorate elaborately and all the lights are timed to music.  It was small but beautiful.  It was so fun to see an everyday neighborhood transformed into a Christmas light show.  It really lifted our moods even higher and put us in the “Christmas Spirit” if you will.

But again, it made me think of all the things that create a sense of family.  The rest of the weekend was spent Christmas shopping and decorating.  It would have been easy to get busy and just want to get it done.  But instead, I let Hayden put ornaments on the tree anywhere he wanted… and I didn’t move them.  He helped Daddy put up lights outside while I fluffed trees inside and put up stockings.  We spent time saying, “Merry Christmas” over a cup of hot cocoa (even with it being 65 degrees out.)

Those tiny moments in between, the purposefulness of it all, creates traditions, connection and lasting memories that will tie us together for years to come.  They are what make us family.



{This Moment}- Holiday Beginnings:Sweet Endings

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

How Does Your Garden Grow? Front Yard

Our front flower beds needed mulching, badly.  So this weekend we planned a “garden day” for Saturday.  It was a wonderful day.  Don’t get me wrong, it was work.  We trimmed bushes, weeded, spread mulch and more.  Arnie is still sore from shoveling, wheeling and dumping mulch.  But really Hayden made a day of work into a day of fun.  He had a blast following Daddy around with his little wheelbarrow full of mulch and dumping it just where he thought we needed it.  He dragged around the rake, jumped in the leaves, “helped” us prune bushes, plant flower bulbs, pretended to be a frog and entertained Baby Mason. 

He chattered away and the things that came out of his mouth just melted your heart and made you want to sing.  Just a few of my favorites…

“You’re a good cutter Daddy.”  When Arnie was pruning several of our large grassy-bush things.

“I love mulch!”  Of course, he loved carting it around, throwing it, climbing on the mulch pile… you get the idea.

“Garden Day is a great day.”  Randomly said, throughout the entire day.

Its truly amazing what being outside in the fresh air and doing something productive can do.  Hayden, at 3 years old, has such pride in those flower beds now.  We pull out of the driveway or go outside and he talks about how “we did that” and that it “was fun” and “garden day is a good day”. 

I can hardly wait until spring when the daffodils, tulips and buttercups start to push up through the dirt and mulch and point out to Hayden how the work of that one garden day brought beauty all the way into the spring.



{This Moment}- Sleeping Sweet

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired By Soulemama



Wash On

Yesterday my new dishwasher arrived!  Arnie spent all evening (ok- until midnight) hooking it up.  Aside from starting it for a few minutes to make sure the hook-ups didn’t leak, I didn’t run it yesterday.

At first not having a dishwasher didn’t seem like a huge inconvenience.  After all, people washed dishes by hand for thousands of years.  And I’ve read on so many blogs and in so many books how meditative and relaxing it can be to have your hands in a sink full of hot soapy water, rhythmically washing and rinsing.  Um… no.  Not for me at least.

I found that I spent so much more time cleaning the kitchen that I had less time to do other chores around the house, it made me want to cook less and the evenings that we usually try to squeeze some family time into were completely taken up by soap suds and wash cloths. 

Arnie would be spending time with the boys.  Trying to appease Mason, who’s getting cranky and tired; and trying to reign in Hayden, who wants to get some quality wrestle time in with Daddy.  And there I’d be watching from my position at the sink.  I didn’t like it at all.

Today I spent the day loading my dishwasher after each meal, making my typical clean up simpler than it has been in a long while.  Later, (in an attempt to get back on track with cooking all homemade meals) I defrosted some homemade spaghetti sauce, browned the meat and added a side salad.  After dinner while Arnie was wrangling with both boys, I started in on the dishes and then Hayden asked if he could play his preschool lotto game.  (Its this one from Eboo.  He absolutely loves it and asks to play it multiple times a week.)  I was so happy that I could say, “Just let Mommy wipe down the counter tops and we’ll have time to play before bedtime snack.” 

I pressed start on the dishwasher and off to the coffee table we went to play his board game.  It was so wonderful.  Hayden, Daddy and I played while Mason kept pulling himself up on the coffee table giggling with delight whenever he almost got one of the cards.  It seemed so silly to blog about a dishwasher, so much so that I almost didn’t post this, but anything that helps me to create cherished moments with my family is worth blogging about.  And today, we had just that.

So I completely forgot to take pictures of us playing his lotto game.  (Ooops!)  But here's one of my new dishwasher!  :-)

{This Moment}- Photo Op

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.



Inspired By Soulemama

To Pause

It’s the time of year when you wish for your pace to slow.  To pause.  To enjoy the brief days before they become shorter still.  Yet this is the time of year when, alternatively, things get busier.  Our family has seven birthdays just between October 21^st and November 17^th.  On top of that the calendar fills with social events, service projects and very soon, Christmas shopping. (For me anyway- I know many thrifty mamas are already well on their way.  Maybe next year I can manage that.  Maybe.) 

But today the chill in the air and the falling, crunching leaves make me just want to curl up with a good book.  Never mind that I did exactly that yesterday.  Or I could just sit and stare at the tree filling our front window with all its brilliant red glory.  Then again I’d love to simply knit and watch the boys play (that is- if they’d let me.)  Or perhaps I could peruse the internet reading my favorite blogs and searching for Christmas gifts ideas for my little ones, who actually need absolutely nothing but Mommy- ahem, I mean Santa, wants to spoil anyways. 

Instead, I will do more cleaning, organizing and start packing for our quick weekend trip to Michigan for my father-in-law’s 50^th birthday, which my mother-in-law so sweetly offered to us.  We’re right in the thick of everything, with a food drive the week we get back and then preparation for my parents visit to us for Thanksgiving.  After that… well I’ll write about it later. 

Sometimes the busyness can feel overwhelming.   That'swhen I have to remind myself to enjoy the pauses when they come and to otherwise embrace the busy, sometimes chaotic but usually celebratory time of family, friends and love.

Today's Pause...

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Moving into the new house at the end of May, I purposely didn’t plant a garden.  I knew life would be too busy and settling in to the inside of the house more important.  But now I’m itching to get some compost in the ground and prep it for the spring.  I want to have a garden next year, and my thoughts are to do the hard prep work this fall, let the compost sit over the winter and then come spring… viola! Planting time!  Of course I’m completely an amateur gardener, so learning what to do in a new state is a bit intimidating, especially since I only had 3 small garden beds at our old place.

The main problem is, we live at the top of a hill that has lots of large granite rocks (read: boulders) in the ground all through the yard.  In addition our dirt isn’t, well, dirt.  Its Georgia red clay.  How do I till that?  Without a rotatiller? Ok, that’s three problems, not one.

The debate is- raised beds or work with what I have?  Raised beds would probably be easier, but the size of the garden I want hardly makes that economical.  But working with what we have, well I don’t know much about how stuff grows in red clay.  Especially vegetables, so if we have to do lots of supplementing to the soil that might not be practical either. 

On Friday we went to the library and I picked up several books on Georgia gardening and might get a soil testing kit to send to the state for soil analysis.  Hopefully both will shed some light on how to make my soil produce or help me make the decision to do a huge raised be garden instead. 

I’ll certainly post pictures once we decide what to do and start the work.

Celebrations- Birthday Time

Yesterday was my sweetie’s birthday.  Not one of the little sweets, but my awesome husband, Arnie.  Overall it was a laid back day, with bits of birthday fun thrown in.  After church in the morning, he decided on a yummy cheesecake for his birthday cake, went for a nice walk in the neighborhood and ate dinner at one of his favorite Mexican restaurants, Los Maguey.  We did gifts before Hayden went to bed.  I tease him and tell him he’s getting old.  (Ya, know 29 is almost 30.  Although I don’t actually think 30 is old either, but its fun to joke.)  But its so easy to take those we love for granted, and what better way to celebrate them than think of what wonderful things they bring to us.

He’s a wonderful provider.  I get to stay home with our kiddos while he works and supports us so diligently.  I’m so grateful.

He brings laughter to all of us.  Whether through tickles or teasing, he always has the ability to make us smile. 

He loves our little boys beyond measure.  There’s no question that they are his world and he’s an amazing Daddy.

He loves me even with my quirks.  I love to do things “grannies” do, like garden, knit and sew.  And in spite of my penchant for natural home care products, home birth and organic food, he supports me through it all.

If you can’t tell, he’s a pretty great guy.

We love you and hope your birthday was wonderful!

Three Reasons I Love Early Saturday Mornings

I’m not a morning person.  And I really mean that.  The baby woke up early this morning and Arnie and Hayden still needed to sleep, which means I got up with Mason.  So instead of wishing I were cuddled warmly under the covers with my eyes still shut, I focused on the three reasons I love early Saturday mornings.

Reason 1:  It actually is kind of nice to lie on the couch rather listlessly and watch the sun come up through the front room window while Mason played on the floor next to me.  (Hey, it was early and that’s all I was capable of.)

Reason 2:  The morning is the quietest part of the day.  Even after the kiddos go to bed, we usually have the TV on or something making noise, even the white noise machine to help the kiddos sleep.  I enjoyed the simple quiet this morning.

Reason 3:  It was way too fun to watch Mason as he crawled around chasing a balloon from Hayden’s birthday and playing with an empty box.  His big giggles were a joy to wake up to.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by Soulemama

The Fall of the Year

This is our first fall in Atlanta and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Autumn is my favorite season.  The last five years we were in Memphis and there I wouldn’t call the months of September through November (or December for that matter) “fall”.  But I’ve been pleasantly surprised here.  I’ve noted places to go apple picking next year.  And except for a few days, its not been too cold, in fact, most of October was actually warmer than I would like… but now its perfect sweater weather.  On top of that, we’re getting beautiful color.  The trees are vibrant reds, perfect yellows, and crispy browns. 

Its such a beautiful season and the colors for me really signify change.  Hayden’s circle time has switched to our November poems and songs and I just love the poem by Ellen Robena Field called A Fall Song.  I think I love it more than he does actually.  He tends to prefer our very active Scarecrow, Scarecrow and Three Red Apples. 

A Fall Song has four parts and I love them all, but one of my favorites is this one:

Now the days grow cold,
As the year grows old,
And the meadows are brown and sere;
Brave robin redbreast
Has gone from his nest,
For this is the Fall of the year.

Yes, the year is growing old.  Thanksgiving is only three weeks away and while I’m reveling in the season I’m also a bit sad that things are going by so fast. Hayden’s birthday came so quickly and the day was so busy that I didn’t even have time to blog about it (I’ll be sure to get pictures of it up though.)  And Mason only started crawling a month ago but he’s already working up the courage to stand up and move along the furniture.  So while I sit and sip on hot apple cider (cinnamon stick included) I reminisce and enjoy the season that our lives are in right now- full of pitter patters and bumps, as well as the actual season. 

I hope you’re enjoying your “fall of the year” just as much as I am.

The view out our window.