outside

From the very beginning of Spring, we have enjoyed being outside.  We eat outside, play, and garden as much as we possibly can.  Our garden is growing leaps and bounds, but I couldn't go forward with sharing about it without retracing the beginnings of it all - how our Spring began.

Portraits of my children

Whenever I can capture the essence of my children with my camera, I am delighted!  There are times when I view my world as through a camera lens, I can see the pictures before I ever see them on screen or paper.  It can be frustrating to me when the camera isn't seeing what I see for whatever reason, the lighting might not be strong enough for the camera, or it might be too strong, or the pictures come out blurry from the movement of the child.  These days, it’s rare for me to be able to capture that special millisecond of time because of all of the demands, but it certainly is special when I do.  Sometimes it comes from a child calling my attention, other times I happen to be a part of the action and can see the photo unfold right before my eyes. 

I love portrait photography.  It tells a story without words, it has emotion, it has meaning.  It’s like carrying that one moment into eternity; that one moment that gets frozen forever.  It’s that special. 

Last night I had one of those moments.  The story goes like this.  Elise comes up to me telling me about this bee costume she made, I look up from the computer and know instantly to go grab the camera.  She had cut and pasted bee antenaes and wings, found the perfect yellow shirt from her drawer, attached a stinger, she had thought of everything.  Out the door we went to get the right amount of lighting and click click click.  The photo I was most proud of was captured towards the end as we were wrapping up our little session.  She happened to look up at the sky and there is was, that was amazing.  Intuitively, I had an a-ha moment and snap, I got it.  Now I have a wonderful little memory of these 5 minutes spent reveling her little homemade costume, and grateful I took the time to make a big deal of her creativity.   

Together-ness

As I sat and scanned through the several hundred photos that I downloaded recently onto my external hard drive I realized that were was this pattern of together-ness throughout all the photos.  The first emotion that came to me was a sense of gratitude for how our family loves one another and also a great appreciation for the way everyone gets along and values their time with each of their siblings.  Despite all the challenges we have faced with Rosemary having so many medical needs and all the nurses that have been in and out of our family home, we are now in a place where everyone who comes and goes does feel like family.  So together, we can all relax and enjoy one another, look after one another, and love one another in peace.  In this moment, peace and gratitude fills my heart in a big kind of way.  What a lucky girl I am.

this moment ::

Inspired by Soulemama's {This Moment}

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{I know . . .no words . . . but this will need some explaining.} The past two days I have found Rosemary under: a child’s chair, coffee table, end table and behind a this blue/white sitting chair. She is on the move, but not crawling yet. I call it breakdancing, going from a sitting position to knees position all across the room or just backing up under anything she can, it’s quite comical.

Have a great weekend!

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Some words . . .

"Let's put your shoes on to go outside!" ~ Mama (35)

"No! I want to wear my feet!" ~ Elise (2 1/2)