Resolution Overload

I am the self growth type year round I must say...but January is always overload.  I can't even choose a resolution.  

No drive throughs (even Starbucks)
be punctual
less diet coke
more water
exercise
count calories
budget better
take a vitamin
floss daily

take action on my photography

have more family dinners
plan more
stop complaining
get laundry done weekly
laugh more
update the ipod
finish baby/scrap books
take a photo class
take Dave Ramsey class
take marriage enrichment class
be a better wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend
And there are more~!

This list might be a little too extensive.  I maybe I'd be more successful if I gave up something. 

I resolve to not make tacos for dinner this year.  DONE.

There are so many things I want to share with you from the past few weeks.  I don't know where to begin.  Let's start with the biggest thing.  My sister and her family visited from California for two weeks!

Nichole & Ed have three girls; Audra 6, Lillian 7, and Gwen 3.  They lived in the  Broadripple area until 15 months ago they moved to Southern California.

I have no words for how I feel about my sister.  Just that I feel her.  You know in my soul.

So we had six kids in our house and weeks of constant activity.  Museum, bounce house, Christmas parties, New years party, family visits, snow play, crafts galore, play dates, and tons of laughs.

Here are a couple of photos of their girls in the snow for the first time in a long time.  I have over 500 photos of their visit, so I'm sure there's more of this to come.  My thought for you today is, you can't choose your family.  But I would choose mine if I could.  I have to go chase a couple snow fairies (Ruby and Lucy are outside making angels) but I'll be back in a flutter of a fairy wing...

The imagination of a child seems to swell at Christmas time.  As if their sugar cookie's sprinkles are each a fleeting idea of laughter and love.  Like snow flakes, each one different from the next.  I could sit and play for hours telling Christmas stories of fairies and elves just watching their eyes twinkle.  

With secrets in their eyes, the blue winged 

hours 

rustle through the meadow 

dropping shadow  

Yawning among red flowers 

the moon child with her golden hoop 

and a pink star drifting after, 

leans to me where i droop 

I hear her delicate soft laughter

-Winifred Welles

Eylie and I met at Ballet class.  Her smile lit up the room even then.  Her imagination and joy of life is beautiful, a true artist in the making.  She loves nature and learning and her Mommy and Papa.
Here are some pictures of her and her lovely family, dear friends of mine.

6 going on 16.

Alluring

Delightful.

Silly

Heather made this quilt herself, it is timeless, unique, and exquisite just like their relationships.

I love the body language here.  Beautiful.  Just Divine.

May we be ever grateful for each child's bold individuality and free spirit.  Enjoy the eye candy.

You must have a silver penny to get into Fairyland.  

Whitney surely took me in.
Into her sugar sweet world of tiptoes and giggles.
All smiles with wings on her tiny heels.
She is the lovely face in your mind's eye when you read the famous story of sugar plum fairies
dancing in a little girls head. 
She is delightful and fun with a velvet soft smile.

 Being a Butler Alumna myself, I loved taking these photos for a fellow grad.  Future Bulldog?

 

Pretty in Pink and shimmering wings

These are a few of her favorite things

She gave me a grin and sang me a song

then she threw her ball and ran along

*Love how they look at each other*

Sugar plum fairy

Like a hummingbird, her still moments are fleeting and precious.

Thank you for sharing your day with me, Meg.  It was JOY*FULL seeing you and meeting your fairy princess.  Reader, I am sending you all a magical day.   

Believe.

Snow

I woke up to snow yesterday morning.  I whispered into Ruby's ear "look outside".  Commence joyful giggles, yelling for her sister screaming to my KISA. 

"It's snowing!  It's snowing!  

Mysterious white dusting across the suburban houses that surround our circus big top.  Gracefully painting our small town into a Thomas Kincaid winter painting.  By noon we had bundled up and stripped down three times, had three hot cocoas and three ginormous marshmallows.  All with pink cheeks and toothy grins.  The first snow of the year did something magical to my children.  Enchanted them, they didn't argue the whole day.  They were spellbound into happiness.  Holding hands and making snow pies then eating them with cold silver spoons, shivering.   Our house is a glow with newly placed holiday decorations and feels especially cozy with the blanket of the season viewed out the windows. 

Then this morning I drove away from my early morning school drop offs, passing the small town's phone pole decor of trees, candles, and snowmen.  Writer's almanac was on the radio when something struck me.  Like a soft touch on my shoulder, like a winter fairy's lullaby. 

I am content.  

I sit quietly now in front of the computer with a full Starbucks cup and feel it still.  Here I am, with my palms up to the world.  Ready to accept whatever is meant for me.

Content.  

Look at me.  Look how happy I am.  I should call my KISA.

Books

Have you ever read SARK's books?  I recently rediscovered them on my shelf and fell in love all over again. 

"You are living Juicy!  Ride into your life on a creative cycle full of juice, abundance and ecstatic wonderment.  You are a star!"

"Joy is the natural result of enjoying.  There is so much to enjoy!"

"We need more magic."

"Living Juicy is: jumping for joy on the inside!  In the midst of our daily lives, we must find the juice to nourish our creative souls.  if we rush around never look closely or practice self denial we will begin to feel dry and cracked, for the lack of sweet, wild moments that elevate us, and those around us.  the name for this is living juicy. 


It makes me happy and inspired.  Check her out.  You will be delighted and filled with creativity.  I will continue to quote her here. 

Love, me

P.S. Thanks for reading, you made my day.

Funny how confidence seems to come in waves.  I have been all pumped up about following my passion and making my creative dreams real when POOF.  I read on a photographer's blog (one I REALLY respect) that taking photographs that people like on Facebook doesn't make you a photographer.  She went on to say charging people doesn't either.  Having a DSLR camera doesn't mean you can call yourself a photographer.  (Which leads the question, what does make you a photographer, but that's another post entirely.)

This made me contemplate my own decisions and well, my creative existence. 

Way back when, before I had kids, I was a mental health therapist.  (I hesitate to type the word was, as it is still such a big part of my identity.) I remember after graduate school I would refer to myself as a therapist and feel like I was lying or exaggerating.  It said that on my business card, why did I doubt it?

I have a confidence issue.  It wears off on others.  What I mean is that when one doesn't believe in themselves, no one else does.  Even after five years of work as a pediatric and family mental health therapist, many of my family and friends didn't understand what I did for a living, or respect it.  I always seem to give myself too much or, more often, not enough credit. 

So I am trying not to allow that to happen again.

I am a photographer.  

I am still learning.   I would never compare myself to a seasoned professional because I am neither seasoned nor professional.  But I AM a photographer.  I just decided.  And I can make it so.  Create your own destiny, right? 
As a therapist I might have recommended that one should set high yet achievable goals.  I can and will refer to myself as a photographer. 

And if you think I'm not, please don't say it out loud, I am working up some confidence here.