project 365:2010 update

so i've only been doing this 365 project for 10 days now, and i can already tell you; it's hard. i never plan out a shot for each day, i try to just see where each day carries me. but sometimes i admit i find myself scrambling to take a picture of something before the light gets too bad. which is not what it's supposed to be about. it's supposed to be inspiring me to look for beautiful things in my everyday life, not necessarily to go outside of my normal patterns to find something i think is photo-worthy. y'know?

one thing that i've noticed though is that it has helped me look at things with a more critical eye. and even though i've taken ten pictures, there was only one time i didn't cringe while uploading them to my flickr account, and that was with this picture. not because i think it's great, but because i know that when i took it i was feeling inspired, and not, "oh crap i've got to take a picture, quick!"

here's to more of the feeling inspired moments and less of the other kind.

and i hope all of your new year's goals and projects are going very, very well.

brushing aside waves to look for water

home life. it doesn't offer many surprises. there are so many chores. it's easy to get discouraged (for me at least.) i get frustrated with my children a lot. i let them watch too much t.v. i feel like there are too many improvements that i need to make.

luckily i get reminders, almost daily sometimes, of how lucky and blessed i am. seeing nie-nie on oprah, conference, capturing a moment with one of my children in photo form, or reading a really good quote.

like this one that my friend kat put up as her facebook status a few days ago, "If you seek some special life outside of daily activities, that is like brushing aside waves to look for water."

i'll follow the sun

i love taking photos into the setting sun. it gives the kids a kind of halo effect around their hair and i think it looks so pretty.

i know where the summer goes

today might have been the last swimsuit-wearing, playing in the water day of the season. 

sometimes don't you wish you had a camera on your kids twenty-four hours a day so none of the precious moments would be missed? that's how i felt today. so i apologize for the abundance of pictures.

p.s. i'm having trouble getting my images to look right in blogger, sorry.

squishy little sweetheart

this squishy little sweetie came to visit (along with her mom, a.k.a. "traveltwin," dad, and brother this weekend. it was the most fun i've had in a long time.
now that they've made the move from down under to the states, i only have to convince them to move into my neighborhood! (i wish...)

sweet m. is 6!

m. has a little collection of matryoshka dolls (and kokeshi dolls, too) so we thought, "matryoshka doll party!" (you know from this blog's banner that i'm a fan!)
we read about stephmodo's party for her daughter and used her ideas for games: pin the bow on the matryoshka and hide and seek with matryoshka dolls. each little girl got her own little wooden doll to paint, and we read this book. here are some images:

popsicles

(taken through the screen door...i snuck up on them.)

i'm enjoying the summer so far, are you? when m. first got out of school i was worried and stressed, i thought, "how am i going to keep both of them entertained all day long?" but things have worked out quite well. we've had a few craft days, we've been to the zoo, we've gone to park day, the library, and we went to the river to feed the ducks a couple of times. but mostly things have been really laid back. kiddie pools in the backyard, swimsuits all day long, and popsicles. lots and lots of popsicles.

fun, fun, funny in the sun, sun, sunny

easter weekend, part one

our easter weekend was delightful and highly productive. we decided to head down to my parents' house because sweet m. had monday off of school and we hadn't seen my mom and pops for a good bit of time while they were down under helping nene with her babe.
so off we went! on saturday we had a lovely dinner with lots of family about, complete with lots of chatting afterwards. (my oldest brother is a huge lost fan like myself and we had a great time analyzing the show.) sunday was more quiet, with just the kiddies and the grandparents; the kids got their baskets before church and we had an indoor easter egg hunt after. (the ground was kind of muddy and not conducive to little children in their easter best running amuck.)



my parents have the most lovely magnolia tree in their front yard. i got a little camera happy with it.

my older brother is a sweetie with kids. little c. loves playing with him!

little c. had just woken up when we had the easter egg hunt. when we told him to go find his eggs he started crying! but luckily when he found the candy inside he perked right up.

sweet m. loved her hello kitty easter basket from last year so much that she played with it all year long and wanted to use it again this easter! i was happy to oblige!

*tomorrow: part 2 of our riveting saga...