Moms Make the Best Photographers

This isn't bragging about my photography skills, but rather in how I feel about the pictures I take of my kids versus professional photos. We took family pictures back in September and I requested specifically to get vertical portrait pictures of my kids. I have a photo wall of 8x10 frames for my kids, and it hasn't been updated in well over a year. But guess what? Aside from the cost to print the pictures taken by said photographer (it would've been $100 for the 4 8x10s I wanted), I just didn't like any of them. They weren't my kids. They were staged, unnaturally posed, and fake smiles--probably because Katie was uncomfortable with her arm twisted in that position. This photographer also failed to capture any of Thora's smiles because she (the photographer) was looking at the images any time Thora finally did break a smile for us. Long story short, I didn't print any pictures whatsoever, and lament the $75 I wasted on the session.

SO THEN--to still get my photo wall updated, I did my own mini session last month. I got the kids dressed in clothes that look nice (except Thora who is irresistibly cute and cuddly in her pajamas), cleaned their faces, combed and fixed their hair. And then gave them each props that they love, provoking genuine smiles. Here are the winners that will be printed for the wall:

Tommy, with his lightsaber, doing his random karate/kung fu moves.

Katie, and her art desk. I asked her to draw me a unicorn fart.

Sundance, with her pink church bag and her Coconut Blankie.

Thora with her books, namely, A, You're Adorable, while I sang the song to her.

Here are runner-ups, which will make their way into photo albums.

Big smiles for her favorite book.

Tea party!

Big cheese.

Lego creations.

Hahahaha! This girl just climbed herself up there and helped herself.

This is when she told me she's not going to show me the progress of her drawing again. I have to wait until it's finished.

Showing Dad her unicorn fart picture. If you look closely at it, you'll see that the unicorn has a yellow leg at the back of his body. "He" is the correct pronoun because she explained to me that the blue appendage near the middle of the body is the unicorn's penis. She thought it was so funny to draw that!

New Year, New Resolutions

Today is Chinese New Year, and begins the Year of the Monkey. But I'm in a crunch to get as much editing work done for my last class as I possibly can before I'm interrupted by giving birth, which believe me, can't come soon enough. Today has been a hellacious maelstrom of emotions. I feel broken, defeated and just plain done. Anyway, quick review, then on to 23 pages of heavy editing and rewriting someone's non-native English.

2015 Resolutions

One: Complete online classes to earn a copy editing certificate. Due to having trouble enrolling in a class, that might not get complete until next March. But my grammar lab class starts on Monday! 

Two: finish typing Shad's journals. That's actually a hefty one. I started typing Shad's illegible journals when we got engaged nearly 6 years ago. He writes almost a book a year. So far I've got 170 pages typed in Word. I used to do it maybe once a month, but now I'm typing one month a day, which averages an hour of typing. I'm hoping to complete one journal a month, except for April and July when we'll be travelling, and finish the project by November for a birthday present to him.

Report: My last class (currently ongoing) ends in March. Then I'll have my certificate and be done! The journals...yeah. I still have 3 or 4 to type, but I did finish 3.5 of them, which is still a huge accomplishment.

2016 Resolutions

One: Type 2 of Shad's journals. Overachieving and doing more is welcome.

Two: Reestablish daily journal writing for myself. I quit writing in my journal last year because this pregnancy has turned me into a miserable, cranky complainer, and I didn't want that in my journal. So not only daily journaling, but also writing of gratitude and happy thoughts. That's not to say I'll censor my real feelings, but that I'll make sure it's paired with positivity.

Fun Days

Sometimes we just need a day of fun. Fun, fun, and only fun. It's so hard to make that happen when I feel the way I feel all the time. But last month, it worked. I only asked the kids to unload the dishwasher in the morning. No other chores or helping me with housework. It had snowed overnight, but I didn't notice until 11 when I was reloading the dishwasher. Katie told me that she had already seen the snow, and declared that she was going to go play in it. So I spent half an hour rounding up all the right size snow pants, boots, hats and mittens, regulating kids going to the bathroom, and stuffing each child into their gear.

Worth it.

And they even stayed outside for more than 5 minutes! Thora was so jealous when she got left behind inside that I even got dressed and bundled us up to sit on the porch swing. Let it be known that my body is so physically uncomfortable that I don't get dressed anymore unless I have to. Yep, now you know. I can barely handle being in a robe with underwear on. Anything more than that is just awful and becomes unbearable after an hour. Sometimes 10 minutes.

Later that evening, Shad was busy elsewhere with something, so the kids and I had a tea party. Dancy and Thora have tea parties almost daily, but this time I joined and let us have Chex Mix and water.

Tom is getting to be a pretty good photographer.

"Now make crazy faces!"