You Capture – Mornings
By · CommentsWell, hi there, friends! How are you? Did you have fun taking out your camera first thing in the morn? I did. The typical shots I would have ignored because of no coffee and eye boogers, well, I went after them and I’m pretty pleased that I did!
This is what my morning looks like now that school is back in session. I’m always up with Elijah because he thinks sleeping is dumb, Anna’s alarm clock goes off and she stumbles into my room and cuddles with me, Noah is one minute behind and I said “hi Mom” as he itches his bottom. He snuggles onto my other side and we lay there and chat about good and bad dreams and what day it is and well, now we marvel at Eli. I then get up and brush my teeth, put my contacts in and I come back and see this. It’s the best part of my day. {I think it’s their’s, too.}
This is my morning workstation on most days. See my painted chairs? I’m trying all sorts of new colors, it’s really fun.
(hey uh, forgive the blowouts, thanks.)
Yesterday morning at dark o’ clock, I was about to nurse Eli on my bed, I lifted my shades to a sky beginning to lighten. After twenty minutes, the sun peaked through and landed on my shoulders. It was really peaceful, almost heavenly. I laid Eli down in his crib and went downstairs to take a picture.
And make coffee.
*sigh* Mornings can be so magnificent.
Now, it’s your turn to share, but first, just a few important details:
1. Anyone can join in on the challenge at anytime.
2. Please make sure the photos you use were taken for the challenge, meaning do not search your archives for an appropriate photo. The goal of You Capture is to get you out taking photos each week!
3. Use YOUR photos.
4. When linking up, only link to your You Capture blog post, not your main blog URL. (incorrect links will be deleted.)
5. You MUST link back to You Capture in your post.
6. I encourage you to visit other participants and leave comments. This is a great way to meet new friends!
{more You Capture info can be found here.}
Signs.
Get creative! Don’t be afraid to post process! Choose a different angle! Turn off your flash!
Happy Capturing, friends!
One of those
By · CommentsEli has two teeth coming in. He’s so miserable, it makes my heart sad but it’s also exhausting for me because he’s so miserable. I’m not trying to say I have it worse than him it’s just that, wow, I am so tired.
Yesterday, Anna lost a tooth, she was so happy. She was eating an apple outside and came running in “my tooth fell out!” She’s seven and has only lost 3 teeth. She is now tied with Noah.
Last week, while school clothes shopping with Noah, he picked things out based on their price. He’d look at the signs above the racks and he’d say “I want the one where you save $2.99.” It’s like I gave birth to my husband.
Brian has two weeks off from graduate school which is nice because during the kids’ school year we’ve decided he should take an additional class which means he’ll be gone from 5am – 10 pm for two days during the week. On those days, when I crawl into bed at ten o’ clock, I lay there replaying all that occurred during the day, Exhausted. Depleted. Sometimes there is just no down time when you’re a Mom.
And when I do allow myself to have downtime, I don’t watch TV (ever), I don’t take a nap (but I totally should) and I don’t talk on the phone…I blog. While eating lunch. While working.
My down time is now over. I accept it.
Five months old
By · CommentsI look back on this past year of my life and it feels so vivid and dreamy, you know, like one of those realistic dreams you wake up from and it sticks with you all day long. That’s how my life feels.
Friday night, I was casually browsing the interwebs, which I rarely give myself time to do anymore and I came across support sites for babies lost, it sent me barreling down that dark place, remembering what it felt like to lose James and Jake. Reading stories about deliveries and holding still babies.
Part of me wanted to hole myself up in a closet and be totally left alone. But the other part of me, the stronger part of me, maybe, encouraged me to go to bed and count my blessings, one. two. three.
four + five.
Each one uniquely mine.
I laid in bed and thought about Anna’s hilarious laugh and her ability to act like a teenager when she’s just a seven year old.
I smiled at the thought of Noah holding my hand at church and whispering to me “this is really nice time at church with my family.”
I pictured myself kissing Eli’s chubby cheeks and looking deep into his eyes, wondering what he has seen.
and I dreamed of two angel babies, watching over the family that loves them so much.
I drifted off to sleep. Happy. Healthy. Thankful.
I woke up to a lego trophy for “best Mom.” And a baby boy with a tiny tooth set to emerge any day now and an monstrous mess of papers, laundry, food, crumbs, with my name on it.
But happy. healthy. thankful.
Nothing else matters.
Elijah turned five months old yesterday.
TWF
By · CommentsIt’s one of those moments that stick in your brain forever. The kind that makes you laugh every single time you think of it. The one that you share with people, over and over and over.
The one that you can’t imagine your life without and had you not been paying attention or willing to grab onto it – you would have totally forgotten about it and your life would seem emptier and you’d never know why.
I was at a Spanish Honors camp, I was about 16 and for whatever reason, I was wearing a Violet Femmes t-shirt. It was one of those with “old-time” photos, where the three guys were dressed up and it looked all vintage. I was wearing this – why anyone didn’t stop me, I don’t know, either way … if someone had stopped me, well, my life would be different. And not in a good way.
This skinny, long haired beauty approached me at a welcome picnic, she looked at my shirt and said “is that your family?”
Dear God. Three men on my shirt, two of them dressed as women, the words VIOLENT FEMMES etched across the top and this girl thinks they’re my family?
“um, no, they’re the Violent Femmes.” Her name was Jennifer (but we call her Jennifer Helen, got that?) and that began an amazing relationship that continues to this day. We are both 33 years old, we’ve been together through everything; engagements, marriage, careers, job loss, births, cancer…death.
If you and I were sitting in a room together, drinking coffee and eating a dessert, I’d tell you ALL about my Soul Sister except that’s not the point of this post.
The point of this post is to share with you how I’ve watched this person, this person with the biggest dreams, the biggest heart, the biggest smile, so full of life, how I watched a dream of hers hatch from her heart and soul and watched it evolve and turn into REALITY.
She’s a workaholic. She’s a loveaholic. She’s a funaholic and she’s an amazing Mom to three kids, a wife to an awesome (and totally handsome) guy, she’s full of life and wants to do it all. Over the years I have watched her struggle with time and how to manage all of the different facets of her life.
Then one day an idea popped into her head as to what she needed to do to create this path of peace and inspiration, as a wife, Mom, friend, daughter, career-woman, sister, aunt. She created it and now she’s expanding it to share with women everywhere because we, as women take on too much. We, as women, want to do it all except we can’t and so this idea, like a butterfly flying off a branch, gracefully took off from her mind and landed in Chicago.
Triple W was created. For Jennifer Helen. For me. For you. For her, over there.
I’m telling you this as YOUR friend. If you can make it Chicago on September 10 and 11th, you need to attend this conference. Last year, I was at the “beta” launch of TWF, it was small and I walked out to completely inspired to LIVE as a working Mom, a wife, a Mom. I left with tools to help me live my best life.
And that was just the “beta” version of TWF.
So, now, TWF is just two weeks away and I feel like it’s my job to tell you about it because I know you struggle with the very same things – trying to accomplish it all and when you can’t, you feel you have failed. IT’S TIME TO TAKE CARE OF YOU. This is what Triple W is all about.
I’m sure there are 15 reason why you feel you can’t attend, I even gave myself the same reasons; money, sitter; travel. But after sitting with my husband and discussing this, we agreed that this purchase would probably be the purchase of a lifetime. And not just for me but for everyone that surrounds me.
So, I am going.
and I am so proud of her.
and I hope you go, too.
Friday Morning Coffee
By · CommentsI’m drinking coffee out of my favorite red cup. I think it’s really strong, so I’m drinking it slowly.
This morning I took a picture of all 3 kids that I am certain I will hold onto forever and ever. It’s the type of picture that they’ll look at when they’re twenty and be like “why did you paint your walls that color? That quilt is CRAZY!” You know how you see old photos and everything is out of date?
I just put Eli down for a nap. I still can’t identify what his cries are, which is sad considering he’ll be five months old this weekend. (how did that happen?) Just now I figured he would be hungry, so I shoved my breasts into his mouth and he cried and screamed (which, unfortunately, is totally typical these days), so, like a fool, I tried the other, he FINALLY took it, then started crying again. I sat him up on my shoulder and he fell asleep.
He was tired. Not hungry. Which makes sense considering he sleeps less at night these days than he did when he was two weeks old. I wish I was joking. Case in point: I AM TIRED. and well, he’s tired, too.
Anna and Noah started school on Wednesday. It’s been a welcomed change for all of us. They are so happy to be back and I am enjoying getting some time to work on a few things everyday.
Yesterday, I launched my new and improved Beth Fletcher Photography website. I have been working on this project since early July and am SO HAPPY to have it completed. I hope you’ll head over and take a look. (tell me what you think!) This business is so important to me. I’ve been taking it very seriously and hope to make it grow. I’m really putting myself out there, which is leaving me feeling all insecure and uncertain but I feel in my heart that this is something I am supposed to be doing. Brian feels it with me and is supporting me 100%.
I’m excited.
I’m scared.
I’m hopeful.
and I created a Facebook page here, I hope you’ll “like” it, I would appreciate it SO MUCH!
Other random thoughts for today:
-Triple W is only 2 weeks away in Chicago. I’ll be there. I NEED this in my life. I think every single Mom out there needs this in their lives.
-I think my breastfeeding journey may be coming to an end…but we are still hanging in there, if only by a thread.
As always, thank you for reading. You bless me everyday.
Happy Friday, friends.
