What a great weekend. I got to celebrate my wonderful husbands birthday, enjoy amazing spring weather, work in our yard, hang out with mom-in-law, eat lots of yummy food, hang out with fun neighbors, take photos of one of the cutest little boys ever, enjoy worship with my church family,… and did I say celebrate my husbands birthday?
Here’s some pics from my shoot this weekend. Oh my goodness, could this little guy be any cuter?!?! I was so excited to get to take his pics. He is 3 yrs. old, and such a natural in front of the camera! I couldn’t believe how easy he was to take pictures of. He was such a sweet boy, I just wanted to take him home with me!
Leslie, it was such a joy to meet you and Lois! You guys were so much fun! Your little man is an amazing model!!
I’ve been through some dark times, days when I wondered if God had forgotten I existed or had simply decided to punish me for my many sins. I have faced depression and anxiety, rejection, loneliness, fear, hatred, being over-looked and discarded, and other negative emotions and experiences. I have also faced days when I thought the world was crashing in because I couldn’t meet a deadline or my laundry wasn’t done when I wanted to wear that special shirt. None of you have ever done that, right?
One day several years ago, I got frustrated over an assignment that couldn’t be completed without the input of colleagues who were not cooperating. After work I called a friend to complain. She listened to me for about 60 seconds and then told me to turn on the news. In stunned silence, I watched the end of a report on foster parents who had just been arrested for sexually abusing the children in their “Christian” home. When the report ended, my friend quietly told me that she was the social worker who had trained those foster parents and placed the children in their care. She was responsible for overseeing them. She had no idea of the abuse taking place. There were no signs. She was devastated. Can you imagine?
I’ll never forget her words to me: “This is a bad day.”
That situation taught me a lot about perspective.
During one of my darker days, I longingly remembered some good days I’d had. I had good friends and an active social life, a good job with relative calm, and there were no major problems shaking my world. But as I looked back I realized that I had not fully enjoyed nor appreciated those days. I had allowed worry over things like losing 20 pounds or not having enough money to get a facial to steal my joy.
That day I made a commitment to appreciate the good days. Using the perspective I had learned, I’d put aside temporary struggles and be thankful for the day I had been given. I would learn to declare good days GOOD. So these days I often stop in the middle of a day to evaluate how things are going. There is such joy in recognizing the good days when they come. I declare the day GOOD, thank God for it, and try to be fully present in each moment. Rather than missing the joy of that moment because I’m fretting over something I won’t remember in two weeks, I soak it in and use all five of my senses to enjoy it.
March, 2010 - In front of cabin at Carmel Retreat Center
Last week I spent the night at a spiritual retreat center. Alone in a little cabin on 225 acres in the country, I could be as loud or quiet as I wanted to be. The weather was perfect and I had nowhere else to be. It was just me and God, and He gave me a peaceful spirit. I explored creeks and woods, sat by a fire, read some good books, wrote in my journal, and prayed. I sat in the sun on my flagstone porch and listened to the sounds of nature all around me. I disciplined myself not to dwell on my problems, but to enjoy the moment. After leaving there, I got to hang out with many good friends in a relaxed, casual atmosphere full of celebration. I came home happy, tired, and satisfied.
It was A GOOD DAY.
How long has it been since you had a good day?
My "Hermitage" at the Carmel Center for Spirituality
This adorable family was the lucky winner of my facebook contest I had a while back. They had quite a drive to get here, so little A. wasn’t too excited to be taking pictures, but just take a look at that gorgeous face and you’ll see why it wasn’t hard to get some beautiful shots of him anyway!
It’s great when children read about subjects that really interest them. Their knowledge and vocabulary expand. Kids start to read eagerly when they see their parents reading eagerly. So sit down and enjoy doing that together!
Here’s an activity to try:
1) Plan a family time when you make independent reading important (when each person reads something they choose on their own).
A weekend evening may work well, or try it on a slow summer day, after a holiday meal, on a rainy day, or when someone’s recovering from the flu and you want to keep things a little quiet.
2) Invite family members to bring what they want to read to the same room and get comfortable.
They might bring a magazine, a comic book, a novel, a newspaper, a technical manual, a cookbook, an atlas, a non-fiction work, a book about animals, a hobby manual, or anything else appropriate. Turn off the TV or radio.
3) Let everyone know that you’ll be spending at least half-an-hour together in the room, with each person quietly reading what interests them. If you have a child who is too young to read, let them look at a picture book.
4) After the quiet reading time, invite each person to talk about what they read, saying whatever they want to say. And if someone gets stuck or doesn’t know what to say, you can ask:
What’s something that you learned?
What did you notice?
What was the best thing about what you read?
5) You may want to serve a snack after the reading time.
Family Reading Hour supports the English-Language Arts Content Standards related to reading comprehension, literary response, and delivery of oral communication.
Esther Jantzen, Ed.D, is a mother, an educator and the author of Plus It! How to Easily Turn Everyday Activities into Learning Adventures for Kids available at www.plusitbook.com and the Way to Go! Family Learning Journal available through www.jantzenbooks.com
Playsam, a Scandinavian design company based in Sweden, has a charming range of toy cars crafted from wood with great finesse. The designs challenge the existing products in this category.
They say, “The aim is to engage those individuals who welcome a visual challenge, demand superb quality and crave intellectual creativity — in short, lovers of executive Scandinavian design. And during over twenty years of business, doing exactly this by inspiring individuals all around the world with artistic aesthetics and ageless designs.”
About eight years ago, I was shooting portraits in Louisburg, KS and had a conversation with an older woman who told me that she had twin granddaughters who lived in Chicago, but flew into Kansas City to have their senior portraits done by a studio called Antisdels. She also told me how much they spent on senior portraits and as I recall, she said it was somewhere in the ballpark of a couple thousand dollars. I was in disbelief. I couldn’t believe someone would come that far for senior portraits and secondly that someone would pay that much for them. That was until I saw their work and have now come to realize who they are.
Antisdel’s Photography, located in Louisburg, KS, a suburb of Kansas City, is a portrait studio that specializes in children and senior portraits. They are also founders of Senior Portrait Artists, or SPA as they are more commonly known, an organization dedicated to art and business of senior portraits.
Antisdel’s photography to me is really what senior portraits and children / family portraits are supposed to be all about. They are bright, colorful, youthful, vibrant, fresh, new, contemporary, stylish, cutting edge, emotive and the list could certainly go on and on and on. If you haven’t heard of Antisdel’s, I highly suggest checking their work out and also checking out SPA. It will be well worth your time!
Playsam, a Scandinavian design company based in Sweden, has a charming range of toy cars crafted from wood with great finesse. The designs challenge the existing products in this category.
