You may have read my post last week and you may not have. I want to share with you this weekend some of the gifts I have received from our gracious and amazing God. There have been so many that this list is incomplete, but I want to share with you some of the things I have given thanks for.
Little boy pretending that his sweatshirt is “High Shining Armor” running around with a fake helmet on.
Looking back at a video from March 2nd and seeing the weight that I have lost!
The bushes in front just about to bloom and share that amazing aroma that they give off when they open.
The sunshine coming to warm up the afternoon and free the boys from the house.
A chance to trust a little boy to take photos and enjoy the cute things he chose to capture (with his finger in each photo)
Random playdates with the neighbor
Little brother repeating what big brother says and does no matter what.
An evening drive to get ice cream
Watching the sunshine creep down our fence waiting for it to touch our yard and let the boys free
Watching littlest slide down the stairs on his tummy to “run” to get his treat
Licking the beater
A MIL who gives hubby and I a date night
Listening to big brother tell little brother all about the things he’s imagining them doing.
Big brother teaching little brother a new word, “Owl”
A sweet call from my husband giving me an early mother’s day present.
I was reading a dear friends blog. Kari’s blog is in my “must read” folder on my reader, that is overflowing with too much too read, so that I don’t miss a post.
For this I’m so thankful for. For the other day she was writing about a book she was reading, One Thousand Giftsby Ann Voskamp.
For some reason I was thinking it was a devotional. Some reason I felt like I needed a devotional even though bible study was starting in only a week or so. But the way my friend described the book pulled me in and I quickly added it to my kindle wishlist and as soon as TJ came home I asked if I could buy it.
I was surprised to find that it was more of an autobiography, but her prose pulled me in quickly. When I figured out the meaning behind the title I wanted to know more. I wanted to know how she did it. I wanted to count my own gifts. I wanted her experience of seeing the world in a new light.
Then I started to count my gifts and my heart lightened and my world brightened.
Driving home from a job that is hard on my soul my eyes opened up. I looked out beyond the highway and saw the scattering of dark clouds that threatened rain and I thanked God for them. I thanked Him for the beauty of the sun rays that seeped through the cracks between those clouds. I found myself being filled with His love and His beauty and my heart was no longer heavy from the day.
I want to share my list with you, though I’m not sure how I will do this yet. If I will do as Kari is doing and post my list every weekend. I thought this would be a wonderful meme, but meme’s are so hard to build. I have also thought that creating blessings in images would be beautiful and even have started counting some of my blessings on my pinterest.com.
I stopped, I don’t know why, too busy to take a pause that is so important. But I’m starting over, I’ve been slowly adding it in and today I will share with you my gifts.
Waking in the middle of the night to rock my baby who had a bad dream
The feeling of his weight draped on me
Hearing him suck his thumb as he snuggles back into his blankets, he only needed a few minutes of love
Watching the light start seeping through the blinds as the morning dawned
A new day
Listening to the shower as my husband gets ready for his day
Being awake enough to say good bye to him
A little more sleep
Little boys who climb into my bed to snuggle
Listening to battle hymns being song by my little boy
Finding forgotten grapes in the bottom of the fridge
Little toddler “ank ooos”
Peanut Butter Sandwiches
Crossing things off my to do list
Listening to a toddler try singing with no words
A wonderful husband that lets me sneak out of the house for a little while to go thrift shopping after bedtime
God fills our lives with amazing little gifts that we forget to stop and thank him for, but I am going to take the time to pause and enjoy these moments, to count each one.
This summer we may be doing a book club at my church, maybe I will try and do a book club here also. Maybe I will do a dare to see who can count to a thousand with me. I’m not sure but I know that this book was an amazing life changer for me, so I hope you will read it!
Is it terrible to say that my first reaction to you coming into our lives was not that of glee and joy. But you my little boy have filled our lives with so much glee and joy. I was stressed about the idea of having a new little one so quickly. After waiting and trying for your brother so long, I was not expecting a such a quick repeat. I was afraid you would be a whirl wind of a little boy just as your bother.
But you are so much different than your brother. You Zarek are my little sunshine. You wake up with sunshine smiles, hugs and kisses and you just fill my day with warmth and happiness. You love to snuggle and share your love. You love to give out random kisses and have a huge heart. When Zaney gets hurt you run over to give him so many loves.
This last year I have watched you become the most efficient walker, runner, climber I have ever seen. You love to climb on everything and have only fallen a few rare times. Your words are slow to come but I suspect that is because you want to be confident in your wide range of movement.
You are also very quiet when you speak, I think that you are just more quiet in general. Though this last month you have really started picking up your words and even saying sentences. One being “Go Away” so clearly the first time I heard it I was sure it wasn’t you. I wonder who would have taught you that phrase? Maybe a big brother, even though he loves you and loves playing with you somedays he’s done and says this to you.
I love to watch your compassion grow and strengthen, you obviously will have a heart for animals and for people. You try and make sure everyone is happy and if not you try and comfort them with your sweet two year old way.
You have definitely decided that you are two and that this means you know how this world works and if mommy says no she must be wrong. Part of me is happy to see this strength of character, but part of me is sad to see the two-year-old defiance start to come out. Tantrums have started, but I know you will quickly grow out of them!
We have had such an amazing year and I cannot wait to see the years to come. I’m sorry your letter is a little late, life has been so hectic in this last few months, but I wanted to make sure I finished it!
One of the points of this project is to not portray yourself as perfect. Life isn’t perfect and one of your goals when taking photos should be showing your life. And when you share an imperfect moment in your life with your photos you suddenly become more real to your audience.
Today has been a day of fun and frustrations.
Laying in bed this morning I realized that I was supposed to take some files over to the church for printing and then looked outside to see the rain and realize my husband has the car.
I started working on making some table number card holders for an event I’m helping with at the church to realize I was out of salt and cream of tarter halfway through the project.
So I decided we will make this fun! I bundled the boys in their new rain gear and we went to the church, went to the store, and went and had a pizza date!
I got home fought with the card holder project till I was completely exasperated at making a mess and with nothing to show for it. Have to love when I project doesn’t turn out how you want.
I then sat down to relax realized that Lynda had sent me the linky for Project 52 and I hadn’t found a good time to take a shot. Sigh.
Then I knew what I would do. I pulled out the camera and showed off my imperfections. Showing off my messy kitchen with the sad results of a bad end to a project. Sharing myself with makeup rinsed off with rain, hair that needs a haircut. And lastly giving you a smirk to show you I’m not always in the perfect mood.
Join Project 52: Self Portraits
Lynda (from Daily Window) and I are putting up a new linky every Monday and inviting you to participate in this project with us. I hope you will join us!
This month we are taking a break from themes, so just pull out your camera and start snapping your photo!!
You have a full week to link up with us. There are only two rules:
You should share a recently taken self-portrait
The link should be the absolute URL of your photo or entry, not a link to your homepage. Links to Flickr pages are fine!
If you want to use the Project 52 badge feel free and grab it and use it on your post. You don’t have to do every week with us you can post just once even and you don’t have to follow the weekly theme either. We just hope that you will join us for some fun.
I finally got my new camera and I’m so excited and a little overwhelmed too. I chose a camera that would stretch me as a photographer. I wanted something that I could mess with manual controls to start learning more about ISO, aperture and those fun things. I decided I didn’t want to jump straight into a DSLR and overwhelm myself to the point I only kept the camera on auto mode.
I went into a local store to try out the camera’s after reading many reviews and narrowing it down to one camera. I was looking at the Canon S95 I read many great reviews on it and it did one thing that I knew I wanted took good low-light shots. Living in the Pacific NW this is a must, we rarely have good weather for those amazing shots and I do a lot of indoor photos of the boys.
I found out the store was price matching even online prices (from certain dealers). I started playing with th G12 and debating buying a little larger camera with a little more omph. Then the sales person also pointed out a new camera for me to look at it was the newest Nikon point and shoot. I forget the name because after reading the very few reviews I decided it was not for me.
I discussed the G12 and the S95 with my husband and we went back to play with them a little more. After handling them I decided on the G12, I felt like I would be more likely to learn all those dials with them right there. I went up to the sales person and they had none in stock, grrr. They offered me 5% off the display model but it had been on the floor for months. The salesman mentioned the Nikon P7000 was the comparable Nikon camera but was a little more.
I played with it and found the images were even better than the G12. I pulled it up on Amazon just hoping they may have it in my price range and wouldn’t you know they had it on sale $140 off making it less than the G12 and the S95! We went to lunch so I could think about my options and read the reviews.
So after such a long story I ended up getting the Nikon P7000 and I’m very excited about it. And now for my photo this week:
Join Project 52: Self Portraits
Lynda (from Daily Window) and I are putting up a new linky every Monday and inviting you to participate in this project with us. I hope you will join us!
This month we are taking a break from themes, so just pull out your camera and start snapping your photo!!
You have a full week to link up with us. There are only two rules:
You should share a recently taken self-portrait
The link should be the absolute URL of your photo or entry, not a link to your homepage. Links to Flickr pages are fine!
If you want to use the Project 52 badge feel free and grab it and use it on your post. You don’t have to do every week with us you can post just once even and you don’t have to follow the weekly theme either. We just hope that you will join us for some fun.
