Pheelings on Photography

So my readers probably all know by now that I enjoy writing.  Some of you also know that I can go on and on in my posts, too.  Fewer of you know that I also enjoy taking pictures -- mostly because I post so few of them here on my blog.

I have spent the past ten years or so, taking a lot of pictures.  When the kids came, C upgraded my 35mm Pentax camera to a digital HP camera and I began documenting pretty much every day of their lives.  I missed so much of their lives already that I didn't want to forget a single day that I got to spend with them.  Well, I don't take pictures every day anymore (but still most of them) because the kids are older and less cooperative and they don't really change in appearance as much at this point from one day to the next.

Over the years, I've been blessed to go from that first HP to a Nikon Coolpix to a Nikon D90 DSLR with three lenses and a great tripod (add a couple video cameras in the mix).  When people see my camera as almost a permanent fixture around my neck, I tell them that C doesn't get me jewelry like some husbands get their wives, he gets me camera equipment.  It really suits me better anyway -- I like the usefulness of it and I'm not allergic to it like I am most jewelry.

In all this time, photographing our kids and wildlife and landscapes as opportunities arise, then adding in church and sporting events just for something else to do in my slow-paced, un-busy life (ha), I have been satisfied being a picture-taker.  I snap pictures and photo journal, if you will, the goings on of life.

Over the years, I distanced myself from the word photographer.   The word terrifies me.

To Love Another

So I promised a followup post once we had some resolution to what caused my Tuesday to be extremely stressful.  Today we got some good news, so I wanted to write this up soon.

I've mentioned before how my sister, D, who lives nearby with her four daughters, is a single mom.  She has some incredible strength to be doing the job of two parents, basically on her own.  The father is not involved any longer.  The girls still have so much promise and joy in them even though their mom is tired so much of the time.

I know how tired I am a lot of the time and I have a partner in this crazy life.  So as well as things continue to go over there at their house, I have admiration for my sister's ability to keep doing and giving to those girls.  Money is always tight, quality time is limited and it's a house full of five females with nobody to kill the bugs or repair things.

We do our best to help D and the girls as much as we can.

On a Roll

Apparently, I needed a good frustrating day to motivate me to get stuff done!  Because since my minor meltdown about all the projects I had looming, I've been really getting stuff done.

Today, with all the kids' help, I got the whole loft playroom cleaned up, sorted and agreed upon toys put aside for the yard sale Saturday.  The kids were actually more willing than I thought to give up their stuff. 

Entrepreneurs

For whatever reason, our four youngest kids woke up feeling ready to tackle the neighborhood and earn some money.  The two older boys teamed up with ideas for doing yard work and J and O had plans for earning money by doing dog-related jobs.

Knowing the kids the way I do, I was pretty sure that this was going to end in some kind of catastrophe.  However, I do like encouraging them to be ambitious, creative and industrious (as well as working together), so I didn't want to let on that I was feeling very nervous about the whole plan.

Life is Stupid. God is Good.

You know those Life is Good t-shirts you see just about everywhere you go?  I always thought they were really optimistic, joy-focused shirts and sometimes I get a good chuckle out of them and their simplistic, yet creative artwork.  In the middle of the night last night, I thought of a new t-shirt idea.