1. My Brown Eyed Girl

I'm attempting to do a one photo/post a day for the month, but here I am already a day behind, so we will see how it goes.  I am still going to be intentional about shooting every day, even if I don't get a chance to post daily.  I'm already forseeing weekly posts. 

Day One Prompt was Brown.  I am featuring my brown eyed girl, who loves everything pink and brown, including chocolate. She gets that from her momma. 

Here she is, my brown eyed girl, with chocolate smudges on her face and brown boots on her feet.

 She is quite a character and has a style that is all her own!

 She came running out in this outfit, minus the tutu announcing that she matched.  In her words, "see I have stripes and stripes", never mind they are entirely different stripe patterns.  Later she added the tutu to the ensemble when she discovered it in my GW bag.  I had bought it to add to my photography prop stash, but looks like she may have other plans for it.  Really, how can I say no to those eyes?

 She can hold her own with her brothers. 

 I love the sassy and sweet that makes her unique!

 That little smirk, that lights up my day and challenges me all the same.

 Her precious, sweet spirit, that is free...to skip, jump, sing, roll, giggle, and enjoy every moment of every day.

I love you my sweet, brown eyed girl!

(These images are looking mighty fuzzy here on blogger, they were nice and sharp in Light Room, I wonder what is up?)

Saturate

 

 This afternoon during a lull of activity and dinner preparation I decided to tackle cleaning up the kitchen floor from the multiple spills throughout the day.  Caked upon my floor were the remnants of cereal, chocolate milk, soup and various other crumbs adhered to the wood surface.  Well aware that my time was limited I opted to grab a spray bottle and saturate the splattered surfaces, letting the water soften and loosen the hardened grime.

 Saturate: 

• to cause a substance to unite with the greatest possible amount of another substance, through solution, chemical combination or the like
• to charge to the utmost, as with magnetism
• to soak, impregnate or imbue thoroughly and completely 

Antonyms - dehydrate, dry

 In the moment of effortlessly wiping away the loosened grime, it occurred to me the importance of saturating myself with the Word of God and His Presence. When I'm saturated with Him, my spirit is united with His, I'm charged to the utmost with the magnetism of His love and grace, the dirt and grime of life softens as it's penetrated with Him.  Soaked in His presence I experience the fullness of joy and have love overflowing.  Immersing in Him fills me with life abundantly, just as a saturated photo is satiated and abounds with rich colors.  A daily soak in the Living Water of Yhweh, Jehovah, the Great I AM is all I need to live fully and freely.
 

 

TIA

Here are some photos from my week along with unrelated random thoughts.

Autumn Morning Sunrise

Over the weekend we had our first meeting for our upcoming mission trip to Uganda, and learned about, "TIA", or This Is Africa. TIA is code for relax...you're not in control and sometimes you just have to accept that life happens differently than you may expect, no matter how well you've prepared and planned. As our team leader was explaining this phenomena, I thought to myself how this actually sounds like life as a mother of 7...maybe TIA should actually be TIL. This Is Life!

Oldest & Youngest

Just yesterday I had a TIL, day. I had written up my plans the previous night. My day was full of things that needed to be done before I leave town later in the week. Then I awoke to a small child, with a burning fever. TIL! My day quickly switched from a list of "to do's" to being a mom who just sat and cuddled her little one ALL DAY LONG.

My Boys

God knew that I needed that time to breathe, relax and cuddle just as much as my little one did. Amazingly most of my to do list still got done...not sure when or how, but God provided and met each need. All I did was submit to the plan He had for me for the day.

Little Sneak

God really does care and He knows even better than we do what we need and when, but sometimes the expectations we place on ourselves or receive from others, place pressure on us and makes it difficult to to accept and submit to the plan that God has.

Embalming Experiment

Personally I long for much margin in my day, so that I can accept the interruptions and breathe deeply and enjoy life. I rarely seem to have that margin. Life is busy. Over the weekend as I had deadline backed up to deadline, I made an emergency run to the store and took my four year old along.

Watching Mommy Bake

As I was dragging her along through the store, it broke my heart that we could not slow down and enjoy the trip. She wanted to ooh and ahh over each pretty thing we passed, to taste the samples, to say hello to the strangers. I had a deadline...must get items, get home, finish task, get to party.

Making Music

In the end my project didn't get finished on time, the over the top cake we attempted to make fell and we had to settle for a normal cake and I missed precious moments with my daughter as I rushed through the day. It was in those moments of rushing that God spoke to my heart and reminded me to slow down and enjoy each moment, as a little child who lives life with enthusiasm, joy and passion and no concept of time. Praying for wisdom as I plan each day, to leave time for enjoying each precious moment He has given me.

The Joy of the Lord

This year I am heading up a local mentor group for new homeschoolers.  The ladies in this group have been such a blessing to me.  Their enthusiasm as they begin, their transparency as they share their struggles and failures and the accountability I have to point them to Jesus, our source of strength and wisdom in our lives and homeschool journey.

This morning as I was praying for this lovely group of ladies, the song..."the joy of the Lord is my strength", popped into my mind.  Looking up references to the joy of the Lord, I discovered Nehemiah 8:9b-10.

"...For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.  Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry(grieve); for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

Here is what I took away from these verses(this is not proven theology, just what my Spirit received as I read and pondered these verses):

1.  They wept when the heard the words of the law.   Many times I weep when I compare who I am and what I've done to what my heart longs to be and do according to the standard set in His word.  The truth is often times painful.

2.  They were encouraged to go, move forward, follow the way He had for them, to eat, drink and give.  Why because God is holy!  It is in His holiness that we can rejoice!  One of my favorite songs is, "Who Am I"  by Casting Crowns.  I love this part of the chorus:

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done 
But because of who You are

3.  Finally they were encouraged to take heart because the joy of the Lord is their strength.  It is only in Christ that we can be who and what He has called us to be.  It is only in Him that we will be kind, patient, loving, good, unselfish....

As we go the way He has for us today, I encourage you all to let His joy be our strength.  I know I am going to begin to search His word for verses on joy!  I need joy and strength desperately. 

"Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning;  Great is Your faithfulness.“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly or the salvation of the Lord."  Lamentations 3:22-26

Little Things

In the busy and hard of life it is easy to become distracted and miss or forget the joy of the simple, little things that form our lives.  One solution I've found for this is intentionally grabbing my camera and capturing some of the simple, joy filled moments of our life.  Moments like...

backyard baseball...

sliding at the park just before sunset...

tossing mulch...

swinging at sunset...

climbing trees....

 blue eyes and dirty faces...

spinning with big brother...

board games...

playing quietly with cars...

and my favorite, snuggling with mommy.

Browsing back through these images reminds me of all I'm blessed with and have to be thankful for.  It reminds me of how our lives are a compilation of all the little things.  

Today I'm linking up with my IRL friend Kim over at:

Stepping Out

Sometimes as a stay at home mom, life seems to be filled with the mundane.  My heart gets that the daily tasks I do of caring and nurturing my brood, is of eternal significance and is no small task, but for the most part my day is filled with cleaning up messes, mediating squabbles, sorting, washing, folding, and putting away, over and over and over.  It is easy for my head to become discontent with the daily hum drum of life and long to be living a more exciting and exotic life.  In reality, I have settled for mundane.  I've rested in the comfort of it all and have resisted, out of laziness and fear, a life of passionate pursuits.  Sure I can blame it on exhaustion, but the truth would be it is more convenient to settle for good enough, than to pursue excellence and passion in the daily tasks, He has set before me.  In settling, I've fallen into the trap of just getting by and surviving.  I've become complacent in most all areas of my life. Complacent can be comforting and require minimum effort,  and let's face it when it comes to difficult and hard, I am a wimp.  God has a purpose and plan for me and that purpose does not include complacency.  He has been stirring my spirit for some time, opening my eyes to the abundant blessings I'm immersed in as it contrasts to those suffering around me.  He has been weaving connections across the states and the nations.  He has a plan that He is unfolding.  A plan that requires me to give my all in the here and now, as I raise my brood and prepare for that which is to come.  This plan requires stepping out in faith...trusting Him...embracing the difficulties and trials that it will bring...doing something that is so far outside my comfort zone that I feel my fear will clobber my faith before I take the first step.    I really want to crawl in bed and pull the covers over my head and hide from the call, akin to how Jonah responded, but my heart longs to obey, despite the weakness of my flesh.  In obedience I am stepping out in faith, responding to the call....I will be sharing more as His plan continues to unfold.

Community

Over the weekend we celebrated my oldest son's 16th birthday. We spent Sunday evening celebrating and fellow shipping in the community of our family, neighbors and church family.  What a sweet time of fellowship it was as young and old came together to celebrate, bless and encourage my young man as he quickly approaches manhood.

We had a total of 50 here ranging in age from infant to 89.   We gathered and sang praise songs.

 Our pastor encouraged and challenged our son to be noble and true. 

The men gathered, laid hands on him and prayed for him to love God, seek Him and become a mighty leader. 

The little children ran in and out of the house, giggled through the prayer and rolled down the hill.   We served up hotdogs and brownie sundaes, along with a game of water balloon toss and a game of ultimate Frisbee.  

 It was a fun time and one I will always treasure, not just because of my son's birthday but because of the opportunity to celebrate it in the community of fellowship.  For the last couple of years, since we moved back to Georgia, our family has been lacking in this community of fellowship. We had our family and extended family, but the community of friends was void.   Earlier this year God led us to a church, where community is valued and treasured.   We now reside in a place where young and old worship together,with no programs to distract and keep us busy.   This is a place where we come together and pray for one another with compassion. We meet at the park throughout the week and on Sunday evening for family picnics and games of kickball. There is no youth group or nursery but there are relationships being built as we study the word together and encourage one another in our journeys.  Our family has blossomed through the community and relationships it has nurtured.   We are so thankful for those we now live in community with and pray that each of you would be so blessed as to experience the love of community.

 

Last weekend my oldest, participated in his first 5K. He did awesome finishing in 25 minutes. He had only trained for a week! That first race hooked him and he was out running EVERY SINGLE DAY this week. I'm looking forward to watching him continue to improve his time and skill of this adventure.

The Moose Turns 9

This week we celebrated 9 years with our Moose, a nickname he definitely lives up to because of his ability to charge ahead full speed, with no fear. Living up to his name, he wanted to do some aerobatic flying for his birthday. We arranged for a friend of my husband's to take him up. You can see in the photos that he is not the least bit scared or nervous, as he straps in and suits up.

 

His younger siblings tagged along to watch. Little Man is just as passionate about the planes as his daddy and big brother, actually the girls are enthusiastic too.

 

I get a thumbs up as he taxis past and then he is up, up and away!

 

After thirty minutes of loops, rolls, 360's and hammer heads, they return for a high speed fly-by before landing, where my husband was greeted with a very happy boy, who never felt the least bit queasy. According to my husband he has the makings of a fighter pilot. I'm sure he is bullheaded enough for the job. Happy Birthday Moose. I love every minute with you and am so thankful for the way you embrace life and live it to it's fullest.

366 Rewind

We spent last week up in Iowa catching up with friends and attending a good friend's daughter's wedding. It was a fabulous week where I was so busy visiting that I took very few photos, as in less than 20. Here are a sample of the few I took.

 

Beautiful wedding and very fun reception. I captured a friend's children and my little man as we sat at the table.

 

Since we were out of town, we had to brave the crowds on Mother's Day, so we opted for a favorite midwestern fast food joint, Culvers. Good food, good fun with my guys and to top it off, Mother's got a free scoop of their famous custard. MMMM.

 

We spent the majority of our time at the park, visiting and playing with friends. The weather was gorgeous and made me miss living there. My only regret from the week is that I did not get any photos of my kids playing with their friends.

April - I Clicked It Up A Notch

April was a very busy month, and May doesn't appear to be any less busy.  April did provide me with many opportunities to practice and grow in my photography.  I had some intentional sessions with my kids, where I practiced different techniques I had read about. I coached my sister in law through labor and then photographed the delivery of my niece.  I had an oh, so fun afternoon doing newborn pics with my new niece and I had paid senior shoot.  Thank you to my sister in law for showing off and talking up my photography work. It was really hard to choose a photo for this month.  I kept going back and forth between the sweet, cuddly newborn shots of my niece and this shot of my daughter.  I decided to feature this one not only because I think it is beautiful, but also because of the depth of expression I captured and the fact that I was pushing myself outside of my comfort zone with this.  Instead of waiting on sweet light, I went out mid-day and shot full sun, using only a white quilt, spread on the ground as a reflector.   I intentionally over exposed, to blow out the background.  I love what I captured. 

Thankful Thursday

It's been far too long since I've taken the time to post a Thankful Thursday post, so tonight, I'm taking a few minutes to get one up. Here is what I'm thankful for this week in pictures.

1. Thankful for brother love.

2. Sister love.

3. Family Love

4. Tag your it!

5. Baby Antics

6.  Overly animated child.(None of these were posed, but all expressions that I just happened to capture.)

7.  Flips down the hill.

8.  Free entrance to a local museum and the friend who texted to remind me that it was today.

9. Swinging from trees.

10.  Hubby flying his new plane home safely.

 I'm also thankful for some photography tutorials and tips I discovered over the weekend that has greatly improved my straight out of the camera images.  I'm thankful that tomorrow I get to do a newborn shoot with my new niece.  It's definitely been a great week of shutter love!

What are you thankful for this week?  Link up over at