Sharing the little moments that make my life beautiful!
"The joy in motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenge, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction."
--Elder M. Russell Ballard
I don't have a lot of pictures of myself. The pictures I take are most often of my kids or a project. Sometimes I get the Mister in a picture and sometimes I get one of us together, but very rarely is there just a picture of me.
I'd like to remedy that. I want my kids to look through old pictures and see me growing and changing with them.
The following pictures were not taken with the intention of posting them here, but once I looked at them they made me so happy that I had to share!
I was folding the laundry that was piled high on my bed. My little man, W (who, by the way, is now a very busy 18-month-old toddler), was playing on the bed and I pulled out my camera to capture his sweetness.
But, he didn't want to be in front of the camera. He was much more interested in what was happening on the back of the camera. So, I pointed the camera at myself and took some pictures of myself for him to see.
He giggled and clapped and smiled for each new pose. Some of them, he even mimicked and then laughed some more.
It was a fun and playful moment.
What really struck me when I was looking back at the pictures was that the simple thing bringing him so much joy was me. It wasn't the magic of the camera, it was the joy of looking at my face!
He was seeing a face that loves him. Every day. Every second. No matter what.
A face that takes time away from the mundane laundry to play with him.
I am his mother and something about these pictures reflects how special and powerful that opportunity is. I will watch him grow up. No, more than that, I will be beside him as he grows and learns...as he fails and tries again and succeeds. I will teach him love. I will teach him strength. I will teach him kindness and joy.
I will struggle. I will get frustrated some days and I will fall short many times. But, I will always be there for him and his sisters. And, they will always be my joy.
I found this idea here at Ten kids and a Dog. Head on over there for her tutorial and stay awhile at her cute blog. It's got some great ideas!
We love to paint here in this house. This is basically a tape resist on canvas.
I couldn't find my masking tape, so I used some clear tape that I found floating around. I don't know what it is designed for, but tape is tape, right?
We'll see...
So, I got some cheap little canvasses. I have a ton of them, because I love them. You never know when the mood to paint something will strike.
I taped off the shape of some snowflakes.
Can you see it? Instead of one big one, I gave the girls a bunch of little ones.
Then I told them to paint away.
And they did!
L didn't want me to take pictures of hers, but she got a really nice blend of yellow and white (she chose the colors...yeah, it was basically just light yellow).
O chose blue and red.
It took her a while to understand that we were going to be taking the tape off. She initially just painted where the tape was and I had to explain a few times that she needed to paint the whole thing because the tape we were putting on the tape was going to be taken off. She got it in the end, though.
After our paint had dried overnight, we took the tape off.
Then we decided to add glitter.
Everything is better with glitter.
And chocolate.
Anyway...
I gave them a little plastic cup filled with Elmer's glue and they each got their own bowl of glitter. They were instructed to paint the glue on the snowflakes and then sprinkle the glitter over the glue.
O was very careful about the whole process.
She sprinkled the glitter very carefully and very precisely...but she still managed to get it over the entire painting. I'm not sure if she did that on purpose or not.
L, on the other hand, was not so dainty. She globbed the glue on and then dropped the glitter on top in fistfuls. And look how seriously she took her work.
Here is O's finished project.
(L didn't want me to take a picture of hers, but it was lovely too, trust me.)
My Mister is on a much needed break. He has been in nonstop school for the last year and now finally is in the midst of an almost 4-week break.
And what does he want to do with that break?
Well, we've been spending a lot of time at the park. We've been eating dinner as a family. He and I have been staying up late catching up on movies and favorite TV shows (Psych, anyone? Grimm? Once Upon a Time? Survivor?...). We've been hanging out with friends. We've been talking a lot. We have maybe been laughing a little. I haven't been cleaning the house as much as I used to. He's been doing the dishes! =)
It's been exhausting! The good kind of exhausting, of course.
Oh, and we've also been looking for a new house. Yeah. Remember when I mentioned the sudden rush of things to be taken care of? When the Mister finishes his PA classes at the end of summer, he will be ready to start his rotations: the last step of his education before he has to take a big scary test and enter the real world as an official PA.
We had anticipated that he would be assigned to do those rotations in a city that is about half an hour from here...the city we do our shopping and stuff in. You would think that I would have learned by now that when I make plans something always changes them! He was assigned instead to a city that is about an hour and 15 minutes north of here...much further away. For convenience (and money) sake, we have decided to move up there. It's just easier.
Here's the kicker...he starts his rotations on August 27. Baby boy (W) is due on August 19. Mister's finals are August 13 -17. It's a little crazy.
But, no worries. Arrangements have been made to induce labor and we are hoping to move in July. All is well, and we are excited for a change of scene, but expect a little craziness now and then. (Do you like how I say that like that would be something new?)
Anyway, I digress. I was talking about how nice it has been to have him home. It makes me think how nice it would be to have this set up all of the time. Of course, that's not how life works. We have to be responsible.
Have you ever seen Into the Woods? It is one of my all time favorite musicals. It is full of so many little life lessons and it is super fun to sing along with.
Here's a song from it that has been on my mind:
Now, please don't assume that I'm trying to say I would like a "prince for...whatever." Really using this song is a reach for the point I'm making, but it was a good excuse to listen to a good song. =)
Still, If our lives were only made up of beautiful and extraordinary moments, would we appreciate them as much? Do we give the not so beautiful moments of life enough credit?
Life really is made up of little moments. Sometimes they can seem so boring and ordinary and we forget to see how beautiful they are. I have to remind myself to step back and look at the moments of my life. The things that make up me...the things that make me happy, or even sad for that matter...the things that make me feel and try to appreciate them for the gifts that they are.
So, I'm starting my Moments series.
And in honor of Mother's Day (which I know I'm late for), here is a moment of mommyness from my life.
L is 2 years old and lives up to that in every way possible. She is a feisty little fireball with a beautifully sweet personality. She is a joy.
This is our tradition. I am cooking dinner and cleaning up the house.
She comes in and assumes this position:
Then she says, "Again, Mommy!" and I say, "Ready...Set...Go!"
And she goes!
From the living room a few seconds later, I hear "Again, Mommy!"
