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| My Girls on Concert & Science Fair Night! |
Life has been pretty darn busy. When we moved from NY to NH, and I went from working 35 hours a week outside of the house (and spending an additional hour commuting) to working 20 hours a week IN the home, I thought, "Oh hooray, I'll have more time to write on my blog!" Yeah, right... We've been here for almost 5 years now, and in the beginning, I volunteered for a lot of things because a) I was more of a stay-at-home mom now and when I worked away from home I missed out on helping at school, and b) it was a good way to meet people and make connections in our new town where we knew absolutely no one! Those things kept me busy, got me involved in the community and most importantly in my kiddos lives! And so, my blog was one of the things that got put on the back burner.
Fast forward to this past week, when my girls and I were eating dinner together two nights in a row while my husband had to work late, and my eldest pulled up my blog on her phone and started entertaining us with stories of when they were younger! We laughed so hard at some of the stories - my 11-year-old briefly reverted back to a 2-year-old for 24 hours, repeating some of the cute things that she had heard that she had said 9 years prior... But mostly we just really enjoyed having that record of our family. The girls both told me that I should write the blog again and I said they should make a list of things they want me to catch up on and I will do my best! If for no one else's entertainment than theirs -- and my mom who always read my blog posts! (Love you, Mom!)
This reinvigoration for my blog is coming during one of my busiest times of the year - Pops Concert Raffle Time! To catch up on what I / we are up to these days, I have an 11-year-old who is in middle school and is in band, jazz band and drama club. I have a 17-year-old who is in high school and is in too many bands to name (I believe it's 5 at school and 1 community band in a neighboring town). This year I have opted to drive them to school, instead of having them take the bus that arrives at 6:25am (if I drive we leave the house at 7!) and because they have so many after-school activities, I pick them up every day. Our schools are about 7 minutes from our house and I am happy to be able to do this - it is a little extra time with them each day, an opportunity to make sure we all know the afternoon pick up schedule on the way to school, and an opportunity to hear about their days a little before we get home and have homework to do. I still work from home, but I have a new job that I love - back in human services which is my favorite type of work! In addition, I still work a few hours a week for my other virtual job, which helps them and also helps support all of the extra activities, lessons, school trips, proms... I also (from year 1 here) still teach Sunday school at church during the year -- I am excited for next year when I will be back helping with my youngest daughter's class! And I volunteer for End 68 Hours a couple of times a month and as I mentioned - it's Pops Concert Raffle Time - I am the committee of one for the big year-end raffle at the high school's end of year concert.
I am super busy these days, but through all of this I get to spend a lot of time with my girls, I know a lot of their friends, their friends' parents, their teachers, and I definitely feel involved in our adopted community -- and I wouldn't change any of that! (Although if anyone wants to help me make calls for raffle prize donations or help with writing Thank You cards at the end of May, let me know! ;)
So here is the thing -- I love beautiful portraits of my girls! I learned a lot from my dad being a photographer - I am much more aware of "busy-ness" in a picture and if I'm taking a portrait of my girls or helping them pick out an outfit for school picture day, I will encourage them to wear something that matches each other or at least goes nicely together. I never want what they are wearing to take the focus away from their beautiful faces! (They, btw, have completely different styles and so coordinating is sometimes a struggle... But we manage!) I also love taking pictures at events or on trips, etc., and I like to make sure that I have a nice background so you can see where we were but also see the girls (if they are in the picture). I will wait until other people walk through so that I don't have a whole bunch of other people in the picture.
And over the years my girls have learned that I will wait for them to compose themselves so that I can get that beautiful portrait picture. I remember years ago while trying to get the "perfect" picture for our Christmas card I said, "Here's the thing, this can take as little or as much time as you want -- the quicker you give me one nice smile, the quicker we can get a good picture and move on!" I think I posted some of the outtakes of that photo shoot on here!
But in addition to learning what makes a "good" portrait or a "good" vacation photo, I've learned that some of the very BEST pictures are the candid ones! My girls get each other laughing and they act goofy and I cherish those sometimes more than the actual picture that I was aiming for! Those are the snapshots of life - not them frozen in a pose, prim and proper, but real glimpses of who they are and full of their personalities. I love the camera function that allows me to hold the button down and just shoot continuously and see what I captured later! And you know what? I've started adding some of those to the photo cards we create for the holidays! It's good to loosen up and let the kids be who they are - they'll have more fun, you'll get great photos and most importantly you'll make great memories!
