favorite of the month: September

I find it funny that as a wedding photographer, I often choose landscape pictures as my favorite of the month. My reasoning is that it would be unfair to post a work picture because then I would be choosing one client over another and that's not nice.

So here you have a fall-ish shot of some corn, with the beautiful September skies we were blessed with this month. It was taken at A Maze In Corn a few weekends ago. We went with friends of ours and I was very disappointed to have to take the "family-friendly" way out. (Meaning, we didn't finish.) But I'm sure if we'd stayed much longer, we'd have regretted it - the kids would see to that. However we finished, it was a good time. The kids were troopers, they loved the petting zoo, the weather was perfect and that's all good in my books.

Favorite Day

A while back my sister asked me a question that almost made me laugh out loud:

"What was your favorite day this summer?"

Here was my thought process:

"Favorite day? How am I supposed to pick a favorite day? I can't remember what happened last week, nevermind last month...wait a minute...last week. That was a good day, wasn't it?"

So here are the elements that made up my favorite day of the summer (or, at least, from one summer week).

• we were out at the lake
• the weather was warm and sunny; the first after a few cloudy and cool days
• the boys got to do all their favorite things - gator rides, playing in the water, fishing, running around outside, berry picking
• we had ice cream with wild blueberries for dessert (I LOVE wild blueberries)
• we went cruising in the boat before bed time (the boys' bedtime)
• I got to play with my camera at night and managed to include my hubby who actually enjoyed himself
• oh, and I was wearing my favorite summer dress (because, as you know, everything is nicer in a summer dress)

Can you pick a favorite day?

Previews

I know.
I've been absent. (I've missed you, too.)
I won't bore you with excuses - we'll just skip right to the show. And maybe in a little while I'll have more to show you.

letting go

Things have been a little crazy around here lately. We sent our oldest son to school last week. His very first day of school - pretty big milestone.

When he was a baby, I thought school was too far away to even think about and then, as a preschooler, I thought "school can't come fast enough!" (in a pull-my-hair-out-losing-my-mind sort of way) But these last few months I've been thinking about how much I'll miss having him around.
So I was prepared for missing him. I wasn't prepared for the "letting go". When I dropped him off that day and walked away from him, I found myself getting all choked up. I wasn't going to be there to make sure he was okay. I was leaving him all alone.

I knew that came with parenthood - letting go - I guess I just wasn't expecting it to be so impacting. And now I'm wondering - does it get easier every time? When he goes to summer camp, or gets his drivers' licence or goes to university or when he gets married or moves away, will it be easier than that first day of kindergarten? Or will I still feel like I am letting him go? Maybe that will be a good thing...

Sigh....

Today was the day.

I was going to have to clean the bathrooms. It has to be my least favorite job. Seriously.

But it needed to be done. So, dressed in my favorite summer dress (because everything is nicer in a summer dress), I gathered my courage and - decided to take some pictures of the cookies I'd just baked - they looked so good! (I can't pass up a photo op!)

So, after the pictures were taken, I gathered my courage and my resolve and went to the bathroom - where I noticed my cleaning supplies were totally disorganized. And, as a matter of fact, so was my bathroom closet.

So, after the cleaning supplies and the closet were somewhat tidied, I focused my courage and resolve and began to clean.

It becomes pretty anti-climatic here: the bathrooms were cleaned.

I wish I could say they were cleaned so well that every surface sparkled and there was a glow about the whole room; that I was crowned queen of the loo and there was an angelic "ahh" after I'd finished and surveyed my throne.

But there was nothing like that. In fact, before I'd officially finished cleaning, someone came and used the bathroom.

And so it goes.

At least I have my cookies.