looking for inspiration

I'm in a rut. Or I'm just tired. Or both? I haven't been taking many pictures lately and when I do they aren't very good. They're tired too. So this coming month I'm going to try to do something about that. For each of February's twenty-nine days I will take at least one photo. I will post it here along with twenty-nine words or less explaining it (or not explaining anything at all. They might have nothing to do with the photo. They might be some interesting words I read that day or some words my two year old put together which are usually more interesting than anything I come up with anyway. Perhaps I will let the photo speak for itself...) It's pretty simple really, no hard rules, no judgements, no official project name- just me and my camera trying to work our way back out into the sunshine.

the january lull

It's been kind of quiet around here. Sorry about that. I'm still here. I'll be around soon -promise.

and then it snowed

just as we were packing up to go

Kansas gave us a tiny little parting gift

for which we said thanks through chattering teeth

note to self

Hey, self. You've had a long and much needed break here in Kansas, but it's time to go home. All day you've been collecting toys and clothes that are scattered around the house, wondering how on earth you're going to stuff it all back into the car (good luck with that.) You've been grocery list making and school day planning. I know you're missing the routine of home (and most certainly your husband), but I also know that part of you-me wants this vacation to keep on going. It's that part that wants only to enjoy life's destinations not the every day journey through middle places. But your sister wrote some encouraging words today about that hum-drum middle place. You should read them again. Yes, now.

There, you feel that? Like a fresh breeze of truth clearing away the brain fog. The holidays are fading in the rear view mirror and even new year's resolutions have already lost their sparkle, but this life lived in-between needn't be hum-drum. It may not always be possible for you to enjoy what seems to be an endless cycle of wake, live, sleep, repeat, and there will always be days when you struggle to see the point, but there is a point. Along the road there is astounding beauty, and significance, and truth, and moments of mountain-top clarity, there is! You know it too. It's why you're always picking up that camera. So just don't forget it when you get home, ok? Ok.

This life is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal, but it is the right road. At present everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed. ~Martin Luther

some family portraits

We took advantage of our dry and warm-ish Christmas Day to snap some family portraits in my parent's backyard. We even got one of us thanks to Lisa putting up with my grouchiness over not being behind the camera or in total control (for some reason everyone had a good laugh over the sight of me setting up a picture with Lisa standing in my place and becoming irritated when they wouldn't act like a family...)

But as much as I enjoy a pretty posed portrait, it is always, always the randomly captured snapshots of genuine happiness that I love the most...

five for her fifth

January 5th, 2007 was the day we first met this one face-to-face, and oh what a face

she is our dreamer who lives in tulle and butterfly wings and a tangle of wild hair

the one who will draw for hours -pages and pages of princesses, dragons, and puppies

the one who takes her own little world to the park in a pink basket

she is our kenna and she is turning five today

and we love her ever so much.
{happy birthday, my sweet kenna-bear!}

happy and new

welcome 2012
(it's a leap year, you know!)