A Weekend in Photos

Photo by Audrey

This Moment

Playing along with Amanda today... in her words: 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Even on a Bad Day

There are days when it feels like I'm out of step with the rhythm of the world... like everyone else knows something I don't know, and I'm the odd woman out.

On days like these, it would be so easy to slide down into If Only Land:

If only my kiddos would stop yelling...

If only the grocery store would have stocked the one thing I came in here to get...

If only I would have noticed that my car needed gas, before I parked it at home, the day before I had a to-do list a mile long...

If only I hadn't missed that call...

If only I had remembered to say...

If only they hadn't...

If only...

If only.

Then I remember- when I got married, all I had to do was choose the guy and plan the event. There was no one deciding if I could get married. There was no one deciding who I could marry. I remember that I got to choose my home, my place in this world. I remember that I can go to the grocery store any time I want, pick out what I need, pay for it, and go home. I remember that, when I welcomed my firstborn into this world, I rejoiced over the fact that she was a girl... and so did everyone else in my family. I remember that I can go to bed every night and relax without worrying what will happen in the middle of the night... will we be safe? Yes. Will we have something to eat in the morning? Yes. Will the hubs have a job to go to the next day? Yep... that is, if he chooses to.

It is so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day complications of this life, but if we stop for just one minute and break everything down to the bare essentials, we have to admit to ourselves: we don't have it that bad. In fact, we have it pretty darn good, even on a bad day.

Burrrrrrr.

If you would have asked me, a few months ago, what I thought we'd be doing at the end of March, I probably would have guessed something that involved bare feet, bare arms, maybe even bare knees, definitely some time in the garden, maybe a project with sidewalk chalk, maybe something with the hose... I never would have thought we'd be huddled around the fireplace, with a fire going, sweater-clad, and finding excuses to be wrapped in blankets at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

I never would have guessed there would be two nights in a row, the week before Easter, that would be in the 20's and would wipe out all our sweet spring sprouts.

I never would have guessed... but here we are. They're predicting that, by the weekend, we'll be back into the upper 70's.

For now, though, may I just say: burrrrrrr.

12/52

A portrait of my kids every week for 52 weeks.

Henry after breakfast, self-accessorized. 

Audrey with a book that she doesn't like read to her because it's too scary, but she likes the pictures.

Right Now

Right now, I'm...

...wandering down a path off of Memory Lane, brought on by the beginning phases of planning Our Last Second Birthday Party.

Honestly, I sat down at my computer to focus on designing invitations, choosing a menu, breaking the tie votes between cake and cookies... but all I seemed to be able to do was flip through pictures of what things looked like last year.

Last year... it couldn't have been that long ago when I snapped these photos, captured these plain everyday moments that so consumed us... and now they're long gone. Every day they're pushed farther and farther away by the days that followed them. They were just yesterday, then they were just last week, then they were this past spring, and now they are last year.

I guess that's the way it goes... slowly, quietly, subtly. If you don't look up every once-in-a-while, you may not even notice.

Here's to noticing.

Happy Monday.

After All...

I've noticed many families north of us have been lamenting the disappearance of spring under extra unexpected inches of snow (check out this blog, or this one, to see what I mean). I must admit, I felt a touch of... guilt, maybe? Or gratitude at least... knowing they were so far away from digging into warm soil, planting seeds, and truly feeling like spring is here, all the while we were barefoot with windows wide open and many a spring sprout out in our garden plot.

We all know the seasons are fickle, sometimes cruel companions around these parts... Are we warmer earlier than most this time of year? Yep. Do we get to plant our gardens at the end of February and all throughout March? Most of the time, indeed. Does that mean we're any better off from anyone else? Not necessarily...

After the amazing show this morning, I was even more amazed to find anything of substantial size left semi-standing under the piles of hailstones.

And by piles, I mean piles...

How quickly the tables turn around here! How fast we are reminded of how little control we actually have in the world. It's kinda hard not to feel a little beat down, much like my garden must be feeling today, after taking it all in.

Yet despite the carnage, the debris, and the amazing bergs of hail everywhere, there is still this...

...and it is still, after all, spring.