Jordy’s Turn

Jordy finally got a chance to get her winter photos taken during our recent family photo shoot. As usual, Tracy had her cracking up while I tried to snap as fast as I could. It was only 2 degrees out so I couldn’t take as much time as I wanted to. I love it when her eyes disappear when she’s laughing. So cute. I purposefully chose NOT to show the best of these kid pics on my blog because the good prints were going to be Christmas gifts. Well, now they are going to be LATE Christmas gifts because I am running out of time to get anything done!

I Smell Like Wisdom

#Reverb10 Prompt: Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

I thought long and hard about this prompt. For like, a whole ten minutes I pondered and pontificated about my own wisdom. You know what I came up with?

Nada.

No big, life altering, drastic decisions to wax eloquent about this year. Just the usual daily decisions that get the job done. This morning I woke up, went through the ritual of getting kids and hubby off to work, drank some coffee, did some chores and finally decided to take a shower.

Always a wise decision.

I am Different

#Reverb10ing about being different today.

I’m so glad I’m past the point in my life were being different was a bad thing and I’m to the point now where I embrace my different-ness. Like the fact that I wish I were a ninja, and that I like to read sci-fi/fantasy books and mushy romance novels. I like to eat frosting out of the container with a spoon and I wish I could take a bath in fruit snacks. Yeah, I said it.

But I’ve decided to dedicate this post about being different - to my thumbs.

I have crazy thumbs.

My thumbs are like bobble heads. They are little round balls stuck on the end of toothpick appendages. People laugh at them. I laugh at them. They are cumbersome and a little annoying because they are too wide for Lee Press-On Nails. I can’t text without adding a gazillion extra letters. I could never fit them into the holes of safety scissors as a child. Gloves are an issue. So are rings.

But nobody, and I mean NOBODY can rock a back massage like I can. Need to use the elevator? I can push buttons like nobody’s business.

I inherited by thumblies from my Grandma Stewart. She called them Cherokee thumbs. We talked about our thumbs nearly every time we saw each other. Over the years I’ve met two other people with thumbs like mine and the actress, Megan Fox (Transformers) also has them.


Megan Fox and her thumbs


While researching Megan’s thumbs, I discovered something fascinating in wikipedia (which is the undisputed authority on everything factual...) They are actually called “clubbed thumbs."

“A clubbed thumb is a term used to describe the genetic clubbing of one or both thumbs. It is characterized by a particularly short thumb that is round in section and bulbous at the end. The thumb nail is very wide and short.

Clubbed thumbs were historically thought of as a sign of royalty. This rare condition was much more common in royal European blood-lines than in the general population and was used as a factor in determining the pureness of the blood.”

As the unofficial family historian, I have verified that our family, is in fact, descended from a European royal line as well as the Knights of Bath.

Now I have absolute, physical PROOF. So, like, thumbs up.


My thumb

Christmas Program

Last night my munchkins performed in their annual Christmas program at church. As usual, Jake was concentrating so hard it didn’t look like he had any fun, and Jordan was having so much fun, she completely forgot to concentrate. Special thanks to my girl, Tracy for assigning my kids to stand next to each other.

Letting Go and Making Stuff

I missed yesterday’s #reverb10 post which was about letting go. I guess I let go of it.

Today is about the last thing I made. Today I made people happy by delivering photos. Today I made myself happy by eating Taco Bell. Today I made my kids and my husband lunches for school and work. Today I made a mess in my living room with 11 boxes of shirts. The last THING I made was a giant batch of oriental salad and the last thing I created was my Fall topiary. Which is awesome. But now it’s in a box until next Fall which is not awesome. Because I like to stare at it and reflect on my own awesomeness.

God of Wonders

Today's #reverb10 prompt is about WONDER. How did I cultivate a sense of wonder in my life this year?

Okay, honestly? I don't think I'm capable of cultivating wonder. I'm barely capable of cultivating a shower in the morning. Fortunately for me, I don't have to cultivate wonder in order to have it in my life. It's just there. My kids cause it. The scenery where I live causes it. My relationship with my husband causes it. I wonder constantly at all the blessing in my life. This time of year I'm struck especially dumb with wonder with all the magic of Christmas around me. Not only the lights, glitter, decor and gifts, but the amazing wonder that God would love me so much that he would send his only son to this world to save ME. Little old me? I am humbled by that. It is a wondrous thing, that depth of love.

"God of Wonders beyond our galaxy, you are holy, holy."

A Moment

My #reverb10 prompt for today is all about a moment. Specifically a moment that made me feel alive this year.

As a photographer, it is my duty to find and capture the moments that happen whenever I'm spending an hour or so with my clients. I keep one eye to my camera and try to stay attuned to the people I'm with, waiting for those little moments, those special interactions between families, new parents, or young siblings. Clients tell me all the time that my ability (and Tracy's) to freeze a special moment in time is what makes our photographs so special and what makes people invite us to come spend time photographing them.

So why is it, if I'm so in tune to moments, that I had such a difficult time pin pointing that one single moment that stood out head and shoulders above the rest in my own life this past year? I think it was because I was aiming too high. I was trying to think of some fireworks event that blew me away and there really wasn't one this year. I didn't give birth, get married, climb Mt. Everest, or sky dive this year.

What I did have though, was a whole year full of little moments that didn't necessarily blow me away, but instead, quietly took my breath away. Listening to Jake read, hearing Jordan sing to Jesus in her bed at night, watching Joshy color so diligently and perfectly, observing my husband playing with his kids and snuggling my babies on the couch when they finally stop running around like crazy headless chickens. All these moments are a blessing to me and they humble me.

And a good, loving mother would have picked one of those moments to write about.

But I didn't because this, THIS was the moment (event) that made me feel ALIVE this year!



The Arctic Thunder Air Show.

My first air show experience. It smelled like hot asphalt, exhaust, popcorn and sweaty people. It sounded like Armageddon. I could not take my eyes off of any of it and I didn't want it to ever end. Even still, whenever I see the F22 fighter jets out doing exercises over Elmendorf AFB, I stop what I'm doing and just watch and listen. On those rare occasions when I venture on base (usually for a photo shoot) and I drive past the F22 hangar, my adrenaline spikes and I have to make a conscious effort not to bounce in my seat.

GAH! I'm getting pumped up just writing about it! WOOOOOT!!

Writing

Day 2 of #Reverb10 is about writing. Specifically, what gets in the way of my writing and can I eliminate it?

I'll tell you what gets in the way, THREE KIDS. And since I obviously can't (or won't) eliminate them, I guess my writing time is just going to have to suffer. Reading also gets in the way but I prefer reading to writing so I'm not going to eliminate that either. Housework, errands, chores, I wish I could eliminate them all, really, but then my husband would give me that look.

I'm writing a book. I have two pages written and I've been working on it for several months. It's not life that gets in the way of my writing, it's myself. I don't know how to write a book. The story, characters, settings, plot, conflict, etc..., they are all in my head, highly developed, but I can't seem to write them down. Someone might see it. Ah, the irony.

One Word

This year I'm participating in #Reverb10 which is a blogworld daily December blog challenge. Today my assignment is to choose one word to describe the past year.

My word is VICTORY!

I chose this word because 2010 was the culmination of so much unfinished business in my life and my family's lives. The most notable being my husband finishing up five years of night school and achieving his college degree. The most frivolous being meeting my year long goal of reading 50 books this year. I doubled that achievement because I'm just that awesome. Not really. I failed to accomplish some important household duties due to my reading marathons, namely vacuuming. My mother in law saved the day on that one though. She bought me a Roomba! Now I really have no excuse.

Another victory for the year is my Photography business just EXPLODING. After seven years of dabbling, taking photos for friends, learning all I could about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, light quality, then combining it all with capturing the moments I see every day, teaming up with my super wonderful friend Tracy and then making the decision to start the BUSINESS of photography, we could only hope for the best. Evidently, the world was ready and waiting for us because we haven't had a chance to breath since January. We are currently booked out months in advance. WHAT?

These 3 photos by the fantabulous Tracy Skipworth

Another victory: My Jordy's kindergarten experience (so far). Of all my kids, she was the one that worried me the most when it came to school. Her free spirited, overly sensitive attitude and general lack of exerting effort seemed to be foreshadowing a repeated kindergarten experience. I could not have been more wrong. That child is THRIVING in school. She gets straight A pluses in every subject and she enjoys being there. Her teacher just commented to me yesterday on how well Jordy is doing in school. My joy runneth over. I completely underestimated this child.

Official School Picture - DISCLAIMER: I only buy my kid's school pics in kindergarten because I can take my own. This is a good example of why I do that. Jordy's hair is actually not the color of urine in real life.

One of the most rewarding victories of the year was FINALLY, finally, finally getting Joshy completely potty trained. The battle was epic, the victory that much sweeter.

Celebrating eleven (and a half now) years of marriage is a victory too!

There were more personal victories as well. Challenges and frustrations and worries that I'd battled for a while, now resolved or close to it.

Of course I take zero credit for any of our victories. The Lord has blessed us tremendously and continually.

"Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?" EXODUS 15:11

I think VICTORY is a very good description of 2010