Friday, February 20, 2015

A happy din is a good kind to have.







































































Whew!

Did you make it though all those?

These photos were a few of my favorites from last month (of over 3,000 I took)
while I was taking Ashley Campbell's DSLR course.
I'm sure there should be a post written for every one of these pictures because they are
true representations of what goes on in this house.  I'm equally sure that's not going to happen
any time soon.

As for what does go on in this house, it is good stuff.  Let me tell you about a piece of it!

Tonight as I sat at the dining room table, a swelling cacophony of  life in its most vibrant
reality engulfed me.  Emerald reclined in the crook of my left arm while I fed her mush made from
stewed chicken and broth, with avocado.

Her legs hung over the right side of my lap, but not still.
She be-bopped those two little pudgies to the rhythm of something like Love Potion Number 9
which was turned up to near full volume.

It's been our evening pre-dinner tradition lately to play Oldies - loudly - while finishing up
meal preparations and setting the table.  I've never been one for much dancing, but something
about that music... I can really appreciate Emerald's desire to kick up her heels!  Ok.  It's true
I wasn't completely still either.  It's a wonder all that food got safely to her mouth. Haha!

Glancing across the room into the hub of the kitchen, there are at least five hoodlums tearing
lettuce, sprinkling pizza toppings, unloading the dishwasher, and sneaking occasional pineapple
tidbits faster than big sisters can catch.  Miles, he sits on a red chair in the midst of the activity
(the one pilfering pizza parts) and I see him bobbing and swaying to the musical jive.  I think he'd sing if he could.
It makes me smile.

Times like this I think I should grab my camera to capture just normal everyday fun.

I seriously consider if there's a way I could actually hold that hulk of a camera in one hand
while delivering mush to Emerald's face.  And keeping her hands out of it.  And off the camera.
And then, no.  Reality smacks me and I grin at the crazy thought of it.  And I know most of these
moments just have to be lived in.

Noting a few good things:

* Miles and those eyes.  Ay yi yi.
Two big boys sharing the light of one head lamp under which to late-night read.
* Susanna and her casual stance on Math homework.
* Hoodlums playing games, hoodlums in candle light, hoodlums in the shower. Lots of hoodlums.
* That five-year-old boy with the hole in his jeans. Mmm.
* One word: Carolina.
* Zack and Miles.  Waking up in the morning together and with a book.  Does it get better?



8 comments:

Cinnamon said...

Love love love all your hoodlums :-) Such sweetness in your home with the holes in the jeans to pondering children. Love it all!

Need some pictures of you in there Mama :-)

~Cinnamon

PUPPPsMom said...

Miles' brow. :) Sue makes me laugh. And that one of the knee peeking through the jeans. I really like it.

Marie said...

So much sweetness in each precious pic!!! I know you are busy but it's a good kind of busy!

Brenda said...

Your description was perfect. I had it painted in my mind and I see such a blessed family.
Soak it in my friend, time passes so quickly. Even simple days are precious memories.

Emily, wife of Jeremy said...

I read all your new blog posts but never comment. I love seeing glimpses into your life. So precious. Do you print of your pictures to save them or just let your blog be your memory saver? I blogged for about 6 years but the children kept increasing and my time decreasing. :-) I have yearly printed version of my blog but since not blogging I struggle with keeping up with our memories via pictures. Just wondered if you had a way to keep track. :-)

Momma Bug said...

Dear Emily, I'm so glad you comment occasionally - thank you :-)

I've never printed a blog book. I've tried once or twice but have never been smart enough to figure it out. Very frustrating!

What I do, is use Costco to order whatever photos I want online. They don't charge shipping, so my pictures just show up in the mail and as soon as I can, I plop them all into albums. I use the Coscto photo albums because they hold a LOT of pictures and have room to write a note in the margin if I want to comment on an event or occasion.
I sometimes stick several photos into one slip in case the kids want to pull some out for themselves as they sprout wings and take flight (Whaaaaah!).
For my own pleasure, I've chosen to put together a scrapbook for each child's first year. Not something I have time for (and am more backlogged than I've ever been before), but have wanted each one to have that as a gift from me to them. I know it's almost every mother's story that one or two babies get a baby album, and the rest get a box of pictures :-) (I was a lucky firstborn, but there were six more after I me and I don't know if they even got a box). Silly tradition I've stuck to (didn't know there would be NINE albums to keep up!) but I'm really hoping each of my children receives their album as a practical expression of their value to me.

What company did you use to print your blog? Was it pretty easy to do?
I would still like to try doing that one of these days!

Emily, wife of Jeremy said...

Each of my 6 (well not the newborn yet) have their own photo album covering their first 12 months or so. That's about all I can do. LOL. I used to try to do one of those baby calendars with the stickers to show all their "firsts" but that kind of died after the first 4. : (

I have used Blurb for printing my blog. You download Booksmart on your computer and then you can import your blog and just go back through and provide little tweaks to it. I have had to not be a perfectionist though or else I would never get it done. : ) This past year I used the same program, Booksmart through Blurb and just a photo book for the year with captions under some of the pictures. I made it a priority to input all the pictures at the end of each month so I didn't get too far behind. In the past I have done photo albums with actual photos but several of them have pages that have torn out or pictures that were snatched by little hands. I'm hoping the book version does better. Our family pictures are very important to me. I imagine myself as a grandma looking back at our lives. : )

RavenM said...

Beautiful pictures as always :)

So many precious moments captured in light and in word <3