I have decided to mix it up a little and hold a  “We Need a New Family Portrait” contest.

The inspiration came from my recent discovery of  an old family photo of my very own clan. If I had a scanner that worked I would share it with you because it would  be worth it (believe me) but sadly I can only describe it for you. It’s around 1977 or 78. My mom  has a huge fro. My dad has a modifed fro. My bro has a blond fro &  I am wearing an adorable dress with smocking of some sort & my hair is really long & strangely not in any kind of fro. My mom remembered it fondly because she actually had to pay my father 10.00 to come along & get his picture taken with us.

Priceless.

Since my scanner wouldn’t work, I researched some other family photos online and I think I found some lovely ones.

You are speechless, I know.

Everyone needs a beautiful family portrait and not just once every 20 years. It is my mission to honor a most deserving family with a complimentary session fee (worth 200.00) and a big ole portrait to hang over the fireplace.  So here is how you play;

1. Current clients are not eligible for obvious reasons.

2. You must send me your old and outdated family photo via email by February 10th at midnight. If you have NEVER had one taken of you & the children, you can dip into your past & share images of you with your family before you had kids of your own.

3. You must be willing to allow me to post your photo here on the blog.

4. Voting will begin on February 14th and end on Feb 18th. You can send over your friends and fanily to vote for you and have them leave comments because one lucky commenter will be chosen at random to win something too:)

Now get digging through those shoeboxes and show me what you got!

I want a do over.

I want to travel back in time & get another chance at being a teenager & I want to look like this.

Thank you.

This face sitting at my table.

And that’s just one.

Sometimes people tell me that they could never homeschool their children but since I have never even had my kids attend preschool I have nothing to compare it to. It is simply what we do and all that we know. It affords us a level of freedom that we could not have otherwise and cultivates some real and amazing relationships between all of us.

And also, I have 3 other faces like this one to look at all day. Yum!

Poor winter.

Everyone moans & complains about winter…the cold…the snow…the cabin fever! Once Christmas is over, winter is wished away & the calls for spring start. I think the reason winter gets such a bad rap is that it impeeds the quick pace of life.

The elements of winter force us inside. Our systems slow down. We want to sleep more, eat more & generally be more lazy than when the sun is shining & our skin is soaking up the warm air of summer. Sometimes it even snows & then we are all trapped inside with our newly purchased eggs, bread and milk. Everyone moans even louder then…

But why? Winter is a reminder. A little whisper in our ear telling us to sit still for awhile & just do nothing. Enjoy each others company & bust out the Monopoly. The art of being still seems lost to most of us these days. Why not reclaim it?  Make some potato leek soup & chill. Summer will be here soon enough & then we will all be moaning about the heat.

One way to enjoy a snow day is to steal your sisters ipod touch & play endless rounds of Rat on the Run with your dad. Henry gives it 2 thumbs up!

Yesterday was a big deal around here. My littlest girl, my last baby, turned 5.

I don’t throw big birthday parties 4 times a year for 4 children. It’s neither in the budget nor in line with me holding on to my last bits of sanity. Around here you get a big party for milestone birthdays like your fifth. You can have whatever theme  you want, invite all of your friends & family & whoop it up a little as you leave babyhood behind.

This party was extra celebratory. Anyone who knows my Grace knows that me letting her live to 5 is reason enough to celebrate! HA!  She is a force of nature my girl. She posesses boundless energy, a will of steel, and the vocabulary and thoughts of a much older child. She has been through a lot in her short little life and I thought that her day should be extra special. It was. She was up most of the night before, restless with excitememt & ooohhhing & ahhhhing over the cake hubby and I were making for her. She was thrilled over the decorations I had strung up and kept saying to me, “It’s to much! I don’t deserve all this!”  But you do Grace, you deserved that effort and much much more.

When Grace was 2 I posted a long post about our journey together & how difficult it had been. Some people thought I had been to honest and that maybe I shouldn’t have shared so much but I did and I ended my post with this. It was true then & even more true today so it is worth repeating.

 I have always felt that our children come to us to teach us things. To heal our own childhoods. To help us grow up. Grace has taught me more than I could have imagined & I will be forever grateful to her for that.  More than any other, she has taught me about being grateful, about unconditional love, about patience, honesty, & about being humble.
Happy Birthday to my girl. My Grace. My teacher.

Sometime during the fall I stopped blogging because my blog broke.

How a blog breaks it beyond my comprehension but apparently there was a virus in my files somewhere & so nothing was working as it should. 2 helpful & smartie panted gals I know did a reinstall for me but for now, they cannot import my old posts. It leaves me feeling a little sad at the thought of losing 3 years of writing but also wondering if maybe a clean slate is not just the thing I needed.

2009 was one of the strangest years ever. Ironic and oppositional on every level. Both the happiest & the saddest. The most exhilarating & the most exhausting. I learned a lot & yet was left with more questions than ever. Yes indeed, a fresh start & some clarity are just what the doctor ordered!

The thing I realized most when my blog was busted is that I actually missed writing. I missed sharing photos & thoughts & words. So in 2010, I plan to get back at it. I have some cool new places to shoot this year, some plans to travel for work & of course, my 4 kiddos who I don’t photograph nearly enough. Lots to share & hopefully one or two people still left reading to share it with! Plus, it will be much easier to keep my resoultion to blog than it will be to keep my resolution to lose weight. We all want to feel like winners, right?

I shall leave you with  photo that reminds us all that no matter how hard you fall to the ground, look up at the sky & smile.