it is what it is

Thanks to the Clickin' Moms breakout session by Erika Ray , Let's Get Real | An Honest Approach to Photography, I'm looking at things differently. In this session, much of what Erika talks about is just being real with the images you capture. Essentially, capturing your everyday and all the potentially messy, beautiful details that go along with it. It sounds easy enough. But, for me anyways, this will take some practice. I realized, even before this breakout, I've been way too concerned about comparing myself to others. Although it can be inspiring, more frequently it turns into me doubting myself. I start to wonder who will want to look at my photos and read my words on my blog. Well, you know what? It's for ME. I'll post what I want. I'll use this as a journal of our lives, as an outlet for myself. Because frankly, it's just too time-consuming and exhausting for me to be concerned about what other people think.

So...also through Clickin' Moms, I am participating in my very first ever monthly blog circle. Why am I doing this? I think this will give me the kick in the butt I need to use my blog to document my everyday life more consistently.  Along with actually keeping up with my blog, my main goal that has come from this breakout session is to capture images of our life in a real and beautiful (at least to me) way. Because life - It is what it is. I find myself thinking and saying that a lot more often these days. Because, you know what? It's true. Whether good, happy, sad, messy, bad... it is what it is. And I want to capture it. I want to have photos and albums to look through years from now and see our life, how we were actually living it.

 

As I was looking at a photo to include in this post, I came across this one. I love it because it captures so many things that I want to remember. Like how they want to be physically close together even though they fight and argue, their mannerisms, and how they worked together to make this spot to lie down and enjoy some TV watching.

Thanks for visiting! Now go on over and visit Christina Guzman to see the next post in our blog circle.

regroup

So that goal of completing a 365 project isn't going to happen this year. What was I thinking? It's too much, at least for this year. That's not to say I don't ever want to try it again. I'd love to accomplish taking a picture every day for 365 days. Maybe next year. 

I haven't even kept up with my blog like I would like to. I think my problem is I want to do too much. I need to keep it simple and just aim for posting at least once a week, not five times a week. Okay, moving on.

Today will be a story about what happened this morning with this guy. 

This morning, P's preschool had their annual Fiesta Day with a float parade to kick off the day. We made a float, and by we, I mean me. He did pick out what to put on it, but I did the hot gluing. P was pretty excited about it and was walking around the house with it before we left for school. Then we got to the actual parade site. And that he doesn't like so much. It's loud. There are lots of people, and the attention falls to him. P does not care for these situations very much at all. His teachers tried to coax him into walking his float. I tried. And when I tried, he picked his up float off the floor and shook it around in protest. Well, we sat out at that point. Here's the thing. I don't care if he doesn't want to march his float around in the parade. I really don't. It's just a preschool Fiesta parade, and if doesn't want to, then that's cool. Except I felt embarrassed and frustrated. And I hate that. 

After the commotion of the parade, P went about his day and had a super fun time with all the Fiesta activities the preschool plans and puts on for the kids. 

I thought about the morning and P not wanting to march in the parade, and had an epiphany of sorts. Why was I upset? Why did I care? 

I don't like that attention either. Just like my 4-year-old, I'd rather not have that. And that is so totally okay. I so want to know what my boys thrive on. It's also really important to understand what makes them shut down. Now, I'm not saying that they should totally be sheltered from what makes them uncomfortable. Sometimes they'll just have to deal, and that's life. But I don't want them to feel like their personality traits are some type of shortcoming. So, this morning was a sort of lesson for me. I already knew all this deep down, but it's good to organize my thoughts about all this.

Let me also just say that P has the most wonderful teacher, and she, along with a couple other teachers, smiled and said nice things this morning. I love that preschool and those awesome teachers. 

After thinking about all that today, I ran across a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. The book sounds fascinating to me. As much as I like to talk and be social, I think I may be more of an introvert than not. Same goes for my boys. I'm interested to see what insight this book provides to better understanding introverts. I also watched this video, in which the author makes some good points. I'm looking forward to reading this. Does anyone else lean towards being an introvert?

Day 8, sort of

day 8 | 1.8.2013 | favorites

I did not take a photo today that I wanted to use for this project. Since this is my 365 project, I get to devise the rules, right? I am going back to 2012 for day 8. This will be something I will be doing throughout this project, which takes some pressure off taking a picture every day. It also allows me to catch up.

These are some of my favorites from 2012.

(The stuff on his forehead is "glue" to help close a cut he had from a fall. The brown stuff is paint.)

My goodness, C looks like a total almost pre-teen to me in this picture.

Day 6 and Day 7

day 6  | 1.6.2013 | date night

What is there to say about date night? It's always great!

day 7 | 1.7.2013 | new book

I started this new book and hope to follow along with this book club.