ETC - Embrace the Camera

To embrace the camera, one must have the camera and the SD card!

Duh, right!?!?

Not so much!

The kids and I went on a great Corn Maze adventure with the fun folks from church this week. As, I go to snap a photo of Grace holding up her prize pumpkin, two horrible things happen.

1) I realize that there is no SD card in my camera...

2) Her sweet little pie pumpkin falls out, leaving a trail of rotten pumpkin guts running down her arm!

So in true mom fashion, I stash the camera, switch to the phone and let her wipe the pumpkin ick on my pant leg. Such is life!

Linking up with The Anderson Crew...Just the Girls: Real Beauty Blog, who is sort of ETC'ing this week...and the lovely farm where we went corn mazing!

The Cow "bullet" Train

She was so excited to sit first cow! Can we say adrenaline junkie?

Jackson and his sweet friend, who happens to be my favorite
teenager and photographer!

Is it daring and adventurous?  Yes! Than my big girl is right there!
Note the nice girl in the background helping the kids...
her name is Corn Angel...!

She wasn't all the way out before she was asking to go again!

WOOSH!

Wednesday...off topic...

It is Wednesday.

Where has this week gone? A trip to Roanoke to the doctors for the baby boy – two and a half hours actually in the office, plus 2 hours on the road. It was all worth it as he is doing so much better, but I am spent…so instead of a selection of lyrics I am going to share with you a post from my friends over at Just The Girls: Real Beauty Blog.

It is about motherhood – and being a beautiful mother.

I was reading – with the help of a 15 month old – a magazine in the doctors’ office yesterday. There was an article written by a mom, reflecting on ten years of motherhood and the ten lessons she had learned. One of these light bulb moment lessons for her was not to judge other moms.

This photo was taken by Faith,
one of the super talented photographers over
at Just the Girls: Real Beauty Blog

This is a lesson I am still working on. Not judging moms – my own mothering included –is hard. There is a fine line for me as mom; of thinking I am better than another mom and worrying about the safety, well-being of children and sometimes even another mom.  I believe that a great deal of what is wrong in the world today is a direct result of not valuing children – not making our children a priority. So, while I get each mom has her own style and way, and sometimes even a different style and way for each of her kids, I take real issue when people don’t put the safety and well-being of their kids at the top of the list. Children aren’t accessories and parenting is a privilege, not a right.

As a mom, I know that my daughter flourishes with praise and support, and that when she need discipline a big piece of that is helping her learn a better way. Why is it so hard then to take the same approach with grown-ups? Not that I think I should discipline other moms who aren’t living up to my standards, but a little compassionate support and encouragement for a mom who is struggling goes a long way – at least for me it has.

As Ruth points out over at JTG:RBB even the most beautiful of moms have ugly moments, so we should give each other grace.

After all, parenting is a process not a competition.

And we can all be beautiful moms – if we try!

Thursday Round Up

Item of the week this week….check it out! Thanks…

And an extra special post over at Just The Girls: RealBeauty Blog. I wouldn’t be so eager to share, but the guy who wrote it is kind of special.

And ETC! 

My mom seems to have taken to heart my ETC post from last week, as she was very willingly in pictures this weekend. (Thanks Mom!)

These pictures are from a family trip to the park. We packed a picnic lunch (and stopped to by MCD tea…)and went to enjoy a beautiful fall afternoon. This park is probably my favorite of the local parks. It has beautiful old trees, which means shade. The play equipment is big enough to accommodate traffic of various ages, but not so big that I can’t easily keep tabs on the kids.

As I was getting these pictures ready to post and thinking of what made all the pictures I had to choose from either good or bad, I realized a few things. First as the photographer, it is important to be generous to those you are photographing. Even when just snapping family shots, take the time to say “your bra strap is showing”, or “here, let me fix your hair.” Not that ever picture has to be perfect, but if you can why not fix it now instead of hate the picture later.

Secondly, editing, specifically cropping is a beautiful thing.

 And finally, just get in the picture! The more pictures you are in the more chances you have to like one, right?

Don't forget to stop over at The Anderson Crew and check out all the other ETC fun!

Success is not mine alone...

Today I would like to share someone else's successes with you...

There are two shinning young girls that I know. They are talented photographers.

They don't just take pretty pictures, though. They bring out the best in people. They make other people shine. They capture what makes a person special and real...and they are teenagers!

As a teenager, I certainly didn't know who I was well enough to capture who anyone else is. I am constantly amazed by these girls...and not just their photography.

They are generous, helpful, modest, smart and funny...and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

They are blessed, too...to have mothers who support and foster their talents, encouraging them to do things that most girls their age would not even think of undertaking.

Tonight the girl's have their first photography show opening. What a huge success- for the girls and their mom's...and everyone who knows them and has had the privilege of being photographed by them!

I hope if you in the area you will stop by the show tonight. There is more information here. But if not, please take the time to read about the girls and their project here. And visit their pages to more of their amazing work.

And to my two favorite photographers and the mom's...CONGRATULATIONS!

Saturday....Success!

It is our last summer Saturday and it is chock full of fun, but I am going to take a few minutes to share this week’s successes with you.

1. Cute as can be Number Banners for my photographer friend. She did some Back to School shoots this week.
2. Did the filing! This was a huge undertaking. I thought I had filed recently, but alas its was all of the filing for the last 8 months.  Hubby and I also purged all the old filing from the cabinet that we no longer needed! It was the last thing on my summer’s end to do list, which leads to number 3…
3. Finished the Summer’s End To- Do list!
4. Sorted through Grace’s little toys – you know all the teeny tiny junky toys…I thought I had found a smaller container that would lead to some toy donating, but alas it held it all! We did move a few things to the jewelry box and found some missing pieces of other toys.
5. Followed the house cleaning schedule – mostly – but the house is clean for two weeks in a row!
6. Posted to the blog every day. Wasn’t quite so good about posting to ETSY, but did some work in the shop.
7. Number 7 is huge for me…Two weeks in a row made some time to get together with grown up friends for grown up time. Thank you to Janine over at the Whimsical Peanut and Ruth at Just the Girls, Real Beauty Project!
8. Read the first ten pages of my accounting homework…this a small piece of this week’s homework, but it is a huge step forward.
9. Made a super fun little boy a super fun reversible cape for his birthday! Check out the pattern here…My applique technique could use some work, but the finished product will be enjoyed, I hope, despite my lack of skill!

I think that is it for this week…some big, some small, but all successes none the less!

What were your successes this week? I would love to hear about them….