“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, for 2020”
Emet: There he is!
Jade: Light and laughter.
Roux: Asked for some “over underwear, like Superman”.
I imagine there will be quite a few portraits captured in the car since that is where we spend most of our time. I am blessed with happy kids who are all presently healthy and sleeping which is probably what I should be doing but here I am.
PS: Happy Birthday, Mister Baker. We celebrate you today, with love.
“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, for 2020”
Jade: Best big sister.
Roux: On the verge of six.
Emet managed to escape the lens this week, sadly, as we were like ships in the night. Sharing space but only briefly, each moving in a different direction. I’ve come to learn that’s how it is, as I remember it being exactly that way when I was his age. Honestly, it is hard for me to fathom that I actually have a son who will celebrate his seventeenth birthday this summer. He is sill my Emet, my golden firstborn baby who made me a mama and continues to teach me more about myself than often I am prepared to learn. I am so darn proud of that kid of mine, even if I don’t have all the photos to show it.
Otherwise, it was a good and busy week. The littlest one and I made a renegade road trip to Las Vegas, just the two of us. Up and on the road before the sun, it was such a pleasant drive. I am utterly smitten with the Mojave Desert (my companion, too!) and I just can’t help myself. Super looking forward to a four-day-work-week, which are the very best kind, in my humble opinion.
“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, for 2020”
Emet: Homework hand.
Jade: Watercolor hand.
Roux: Daydream hand.
Without even meaning to, I captured each of their hands this week. I wonder if any other themes will accidentally pop up over the course of this project? I am having fun trying to quickly pull out my phone to catch them in action. I’ll be honest, it is harder than it seems!
I’m at work writing something that is more than just another silly blog post. It is a true tale, and it gives me chills every single time I think about it. Trying to put it all into words is proving to be a challenge, and I really want to do justice to this particular story.
But this here is definitely just another silly blog post.
My brain hurts from all the research into plugins and hosting and other such technical internet things that don’t really make much sense to me, but are a huge part of having any kind of website.
With the launch of my Handmade of the Month Club, it became really clear really quickly that the shopping experience needed to be streamlined and much more functional. As charming as I thought it was to engaged with potential customers via email, more than one person said that I should fix it immediately because nobody has time for a conversation via email. I get it.
Patience is appreciated while a bit of tinkering goes on behind the scenes as this space grows to include a proper online storefront.
Like a swift kick in the pants is how the first week back to school after break feels.
I had the best intentions to check every single thing off my to-do list this week but was more than blindsided by the inevitable whirlwind that is created by this kind of transition. The older I get, the more I realize that it isn’t that I detest change completely, it’s that I’m just a little slow to adjust. But now that the week is behind me, I am happy to report that – most importantly – I survived, and also, I think I’ll find my rhythm in no time.
Not too long ago, it would have been so easy for me to get down on myself for all of the things I did not do this week that I had planned to. I’d be discouraged by the fact that I missed (and ate!) things I said that I wouldn’t, discouragement which would have most likely lead to endeavors being abandoned altogether.
Luckily, I’ve learned that executing a to-do list flawlessly is never the goal. I often get more accomplished during the weeks when my list is left incomplete because I find that I am fueled by productivity. I tend to get more done when I have more going on to begin with which might not make a lot of sense but that is just the kind of mystery I am.
Instead, I focus on the progress I make as opposed to the perfection of my efforts. As a lifelong perfectionist, it has taken me quite a while to understand the incredible value of this simple mind shift.
There’s a full moon in the sky tonight, the first of a new decade. I’ll be gathering all that lunar light and wisdom and pouring it into the candles which are my first Handmade of the Month product. I’m thrilled about this project of mine. If you haven’t yet, be sure to enter the giveaway on this post.
I never really realize how much I have on my plate until school starts back up again and, whoosh, just like that, my time is no longer my own and nearly all of my weekdays are spoken for.
Yesterday was kind of a significant day for me, in that I actually put something I made up for sale. So today, I’m here to remind you that if you haven’t yet visited the Handmade of the Month Club page, you should! And, in case you missed it, there’s a giveaway happening on yesterday’s post – check it.
As for me, I’ve got three of my favorite classes to teach today and then some much needed quality time with one of my oldest and dearests. Hi, Ashley!
And in entirely unrelated news: I am two nights into sleeping on a brand new mattress and it is a whole new world, friends.
“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, for 2020”
Emet: Duolingo concentration.
Jade: Putting her new, short hair up before a long rehearsal.
Roux: Always posing for the camera, my heart.
Back when I was not yet a mother of three, I made my first attempt at participating in The 52 Project, a practice in documenting growing children over the course of a year through a weekly portrait series. I love this idea so, so much, yet I’ve never actually been able to complete the task.
A brand new decade seems to me quite like the perfect opportunity to make my way through this project, at long last. My parameters are loose, and I’m less interested in capturing the perfect image than I am of capturing any image at all.
Because, let me tell you. Children grow faster than you’d ever believe and I’ve never met a single person who wished they’d taken fewer photos of their kids, especially while they were young. Even though mine aren’t nearly as small as they once were, they’re all still living under my roof with plenty of growing left to document.
So, here’s to a year of taking the time to capture the little moments with my little people.
Well, wouldn’t you know. All that talk of feeling crummy from the inside out yesterday was really just me coming down with silly old cold. And right on cue, too. (Yes, I am still blaming the Christmas Cookies. Turns out, if you eat too many, you do make yourself sick!)
It’s a full court press over here – broths, juices, tonics, anything to get me well enough to greet my students with a smile (or at least a functioning nasal passage) come Monday morning. And not a spec of sugar in sight.
There’s only two sleeps until we’re back to school, and the first full week of the new decade is upon us. I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a little something exciting which will launch on Monday, so this body of mine better climb out from under the weather pronto. I’ve got plans!
How many holiday treats is too many holiday treats?
It’s a trick question, obviously, because the answer depends on many things including which holiday and what kind of treat.
Personally, I have yet to meet a Christmas Cookie I didn’t like and don’t even get me started on the gelt or the latkes because I will eat all of them and then I will eat stuffing for dessert.
That is the kind of Winter Break I’ve had and it’s been glorious and delicious. One weekend, I baked six dozen cookies and they were all consumed within 24 hours and not a single one of us left the house during that time. Perfect.
The only problem is that, as much as I enjoy all this celebratory indulgence, I inevitably start to feel crummy from the inside out. And trust me, that is not at all how I want to be feeling, ever. But the cycle is so hard to break because just one more cookie!
Today I did the right thing and stocked my fridge choc-a-bloc full of fresh produce and lean proteins. I made three quarts of homemade broth, and prepped three other dishes that I’ll cook tomorrow in anticipation of a busy week around the corner. And I dutifully ate the last of the seasonal sugar. Sigh.
An important thing for me to mention is that my motivation to shift my diet away from foods that are high in starch and sugar content has everything to do with the way I feel internally. Last Spring, after completing Whole30 for the first time, I felt better than I had in years. Plain and simple.
So, all of this to say, it’s on.