Little things matter...

A great life is the sum total of all the worthwhile things you've been doing one by one. —RICHARD BACH


There is so much to do. So much to get done. My head is usually spinning in a million directions. But, a while ago, I promised myself I would try to focus on making sure that in small ways, each of my importants always knows how I feel about them.

So, every few days, I've been slipping a little note in his lunchbox. Today when he came home from school, he told me he had a GREAT day. When I asked why, he said, it was because I left him a surprise note that told him he was special and I loved him and I wished he could fathom how much. He said that note went right into his treasure box.

It does matter. It does. :)

Cloudy

with a Chance of Meatballs.

Hence the umbrella. :)
What a great kid's movie. A really good story that was a perfect blend of imagination, silliness, adventure, relationships and the 3D was awesome.

Jump

It costs $10 to get into the play area of the pumpkin patch

and an extra $2 to jump on the huge orange 'pumpkin pillow'

but if you just take one look at their faces

and see the joy that is written all over it

you would know, it was worth EVERY PENNY!

Masterpieces

I am constantly amazed at how I continue to learn how little I really see or how my expectation or life experiences have shaped what I see and how I judge accordingly.

Aside from foggy mornings or evenings, I can honestly say, I have never SEEN light like this. And the old me would have thought photos shot in light like this were a failure. After all, isn't a great photo one in which everyone is in focus, wearing happy faces with rich, vibrant colors? What about the lens flare and the haze in these shots? Isn't it a mistake?

Well, if it is, then it is a happy, beautiful accident. This is exquisite light. The kind of light that has surrounded me all along but I have not seen, really seen, for all of my life. The softness, the haze. The way it captures my 10 year old, who I was just whining about growing up too fast, and instantly transforms his features in such a sweet softness that I can readily see the remnants of my sweet baby. The creamy skin. The pensive look. The gentle eyes. Those lips.

It's magical to me that at my age, I can continue to see things in a fresh, surprising way. I love the fact that God continues to open my eyes to new things to see and new ways to see them. This world and each one of us in it - masterpieces. His masterpieces.

The joy of window gels and more limbs....

Caleb absolutely adores window gels. ADORES them. So does Carah. Or maybe she just adores them because everytime Caleb is picking out a few for himself, he makes sure to buy some for her too. (It is one of those rare times that he thinks of someone other than himself - so it says alot!)

Good cheap fun these window gels. He spends hours putting them on and taking them off and moving to the next window to begin the process again. It is only when he has ripped them to shreds and it is impossible to figure out any longer what those window gels were meant to be, that he loses interest.


When I was editing this photo, I noticed the LIMBS on this guy too. He looks like he is all arms and legs just like Nathan. Must be something in the water! Sigh!

I just adore the near reflection that you can see of Caleb in these shots and the light, well, it's just magical.

All limbs

AKA - someone is growing up fast

I am taking a photography class on light (which is frying my brain - which is not hard to do) but our first assignment was to completely "blow out" the background and show just light and shadow and texture in our subject. All shot in manual. Huhhhh?!

Well the only cooperative model I currently have around this house is Nathan. He sits and he tries to be so patient while I fuss with him and fuss with my camera and fuss with him some more. (I love that about Nathan.)

This first shot was close to what I was supposed to capture but not quite. But this photo is special to me because when I look at it, all I see (behind big old mamma tears) is LIMBS....lots and lots of pre-adolescent boy limbs....those kind of limbs that undoubtedly mean that a young man is working his way out one long leg at a time. And my heart instantly zooms back to the Overland Park NICU 10 years ago - that teeny baby who looked like Rocky (all beat up and bruised) and fought like Rocky. It makes me gasp and I marvel at the miracle that has grown so big and so strong.

Photos have a way of being a reality check for me.

And because he is the cool kid he is, he sat some more and we were able to get this one which got a thumbs up from my teacher. Thank you Nathan for being so patient. Limbs and all. :)

Don't be fooled

THIS...

IS NOT A SWEET INNOCENT LITTLE BOY ENJOYING A RIDE ON A SWING.
IT IS NOT...

What you are really looking at is the family dictator lecturing me on the proper way to swing two boys at the park at the same time while satisfactorily keeping both of their swings at the right speed and height, at all times.
After all, "Daddy can do it".
Hhmmmph.

AND
just when I've decided I've had ENOUGH of this dictator's reign and pull out Momma Kick A, he pulls out this face....
Hhmmmph.

Perhaps the one in our house with the least amount of control is really ME.....
One certainly wonders... :)

Hello, Fall

If it smells like Fall
And it looks like Fall....

I guess it means that
IT IS FALL!
Even if the temps are in the high 80s. :) sigh..
We took a bike ride Downtown today and I was shocked by amount of trees that were turning and the leaves on the ground. How did this happen?
Not that it's all bad, I LOVE Fall but wow, it's September already.....

We had a good time at the park although Nathan really wasn't feeling too well. He was happy that he was FINALLY able to feed those darned ducks. We've been after them all summer. You can tell they are a bit afraid...makes me wonder who's made them that way. They really were only willing to get just close enough to grab a cracker and then move quickly away.


I just love this shot. This kid has great eyes. I am working really hard to learn to get good shots no matter the lighting. Which means shooting in full manual. Which means a HUGE learning curve for me. Which means my pea sized brain is ready to combust. This was bright mid-day sun. No shadows on his face, no dark eye sockets and nice skin tone. Got lucky :)


Doesn't this look like Nathan trying to impale himself on the spinning thing....Caleb made both of us want to do this very thing just a few times this weekend :) Sigh....that kid......

Just so you know...

"YOU'RE OFF THE LIST!"

That's what he says all the time. Mostly to Daddy and Budgy and friends at school. Luckily for me, I don't hear it often.

I get it, though. Caleb needs power. Caleb needs to be in control. It's a Carter trait that extends back at least three generations... (are you kidding? I'm not taking any ownership of the need for control, tee hee) But, when you are the littlest person in the house and there is so much out of your control, you'll take back a small slice of it, any way you can get it.

For Caleb, preservation of control manifests itself in the form of THE LIST.

We've come to understand that it's some mysterious mental LIST that includes all the names of the people he either approves of or who haven't ticked him off in the last 20 minutes. How do we know? Because anytime you deny him a snack or tell him it's bedtime or insist that he needs to find his "lost" shoes himself or we don't turn on his TV show as quickly as he demands, he squishes up his face and with furrowed brows and a loud voice, declares, "That's it! You're off the LIST!"

Now what really happens when you're off the list? Who knows. None of us have experienced any harmful side effects. And quite frankly, it might be a reprieve from all his demands to be OFF THE LIST. But as this momma's luck would have it, I spend most of my time ON the LIST and the demands continue on..... :)

Well Caleb...we love you anyways...whether or not, at the moment, we are ON or OFF, the list. :)

ETA: tonight I had to give Caleb a haircut. He hates them! Seriously, hates them. So tonight for the first time in a long time... I'm OFF THE LIST. :(

9 pics on 09/09/09

Just saying that makes me feeling lucky...09.09.09 :)

1. We went to the Brookfield Zoo on Saturday. The Dinosaur's Alive exhibit is leaving soon and instead of waiting too long, missing it and then whining about it, we decided to go. This is quite an accomplishment in our books. :)

2. & 3. The exhibit wasn't much but these signs just cracked me up. I need that last sign for my house for sure...boys are stinky :)



4. The Primate House was a big hit for us. Perhaps you might notice a family resemblance?

5. The boys - "Mom! He HIT me! He's looking at me! Stop touching me!"

6. Me - "Oh good lord, how did I get into this!?"

7. And of course, Daddy - "If only I had my comfy brown chair, this'd be PERFECT!" :)


8. & 9. September is a big month for birthdays in our family. On Monday, I decided to be daring and took the boys to Color Me Mine to make a little something special for a special someone. These kinds of trips can either be disasterous or fantastic fun....thankfully, the boys left their alter-ego gorilla brothers at the zoo and this one was fantastic fun :)



I hope you have a happy 09/09/09. Make it memorable. :)

Today

This is what I choose to focus on.

The joy. The smiles. The gift of our children. All of them. Beautiful buttery light and the last days of summer.

Lessons learned from the butterflies

One of the mornings while we were in St Louis, Sissy (our night owl) was having a difficult time waking up. I decided we needed to give her some quiet and was trying to figure out what to do with the boys so she could sleep. I remembered seeing a sign for a Butterfly House not far from where we were, so we decided to check it out.

Of course the boys fell in love with these.....

and these

and even these

YYYYUUUUUCKKKKK!
We finally got past these nasty bug cases and entered the butterfly room through two sets of sealed doors which they use to make sure none of the butterflies get out. Inside the second set of doors we found this

It was absolutely magical. Green plants everywhere. Gorgeous sunlight bathing everything in beautiful light and thousands of butterflies flitting around.

As I walked around soaking in the beauty and the magic of the butterflies, I found myself learning and reflecting on a few lessons too.
1.SHOOT FAST

It's hard to believe but there is actually something more difficult in this world to photograph than my crazy children. Butterflies. No sooner would I have my camera pointed at a beautiful specimen than it would dart away. They have a shorter attention span than Caleb. Yikes!

2.EMBRACE TODAY. LIFE IS SHORT

Inside the first set of sealed doors, there was a young girl working. She was there, not only to make sure the butterflies stayed inside, but to give us a bit of info of the things we would see and what we should and shouldn't do. She explained that we should do our best to avoid touching any of the butterflies. She went on to say that the life span of the butterflies in this house was an average of 2 weeks - yes, just 2 weeks. God created these insanely gorgeous, beautiful creatures to live a measly 2 weeks. She said that any contact with human skin would actually shorten their already miniscule life span.

My first feeling was sadness and pity for those butterflies. Two weeks is just not much time but as I watched the butterflies, they didn't seem to mind. They flitted from plant to plant and chased one another and seemed to be totally oblivious to their pending mortality.

They reminded me that I really don't know how long I'll be here either. It could be years but it could also be less than 2 weeks. I need to embrace today and enjoy what was right in front of me. I need to play more games of chase and soak in the sunlight and the joy and the beauty around me.

3. DON'T JUDGE A BUTTERFLY BY IT'S OUTSIDE WINGS

I saw these incredibly gorgeous, brilliant turquoise blue butterflies flying around. I kept telling Zach to keep an eye on them and help me find one who'd landed so I could take a picture of it. All through the house, I kept looking but couldn't seem to find any of those blue butterflies sitting still. Finally, one caught my eye as he landed on a leaf. Ah ha.... we figured it out.

The butterflies in this picture ARE the butterflies I was chasing. AMAZING BUT TRUE. Their seemingly boring brown outside wings hid all that magical blue inside.

How often do I judge a person by what I see on the outside? Not just their appearance but even their actions. How many of us hide our beauty to protect ourselves? How many people have a heart of gold but are reacting out of diappointment, frustration, anger or pain? Given the climate of our world today where all those negative emotions are as common as air, I need to remember that unless I really pay attention and look deeply inside, I might completely miss that person's real beauty. Their heart. Their soul. I might judge and dismiss someone who is absolutely worth a second look. I might miss the opportunity to help heal some of their hurt just by simply offering kindness and compassion.

Don't judge a butterfly by it's outside wings....

We left the butterfly house having a fantastic, surprising adventure. It is amazing that such a fragile thing as a butterfly could serve to teach such incredibly, powerful life lessons. Guess God knows what He's doing afterall.