ETC - Embrace the Camera

Sometimes embracing the camera is about embracing the person on the other side of the camera. Loving  your photographer. My mom took these pictures of the kids and I this weekend at Touch a Truck (most fun family event ever!).  And while they capture the kids and I in a real moment, they don’t capture the massiveness of the bulldozer whose scope we are sitting in…but I love my mom anyway.

Hope you enjoy our ETC moment…check out these others at The Anderson Crew.

This is Grace last year and then this year...what a great
way to see how she has grown!

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!

I bet y’all thought I forgot about today! Well I didn’t…I just had to have some success first so I could write about it.

AND I DID!

In taking this picture, I learned that
the only good pictures of feet are
those that involve sand!

I finished and submitted my Accounting Mid-Term with two days to spare! WAHOOO!

I have also gathered all the base pieces to the kid’s Halloween costumes and found Jackson a warm and cozy all-over winter time jacket thing for $8.

I had the most glorious morning getting a hot stone pedicure with my mom at Mia Bella. Thanks to Groupon, Mia Bella and my awesome mom, I now have lovely feet and toe nails that are rockin’ “Affair in Red Square” Red…I am totally sporting open toed shoes even though it is chilly!

So how about y’all? What were your successes this week? What are you going to try harder on next week?