Go to battle, my friends.

May 13, 2013 — 1 Comment

Many of you may have seen this last week on Lisa-Jo’s site or yesterday at (in)courage. I just got around to watching it late last night and, oh, was the timing perfect.

I needed to be reminded. I always need to be reminded.

This video moved me so much – as a woman, as a daughter, as a mother – that I couldn’t not share it here to be sure you’ve been reminded, too.

Mother, aunt, friend, teacher, neighbor, mentor. Whatever your role in the battle for young hearts, soldier on. 

{Reading this in your email? Click here to see the video.}

You are, in fact, a shelter from the storm.

You are a Cape of Good Hope.

You are a warrior who will do battle for your children’s hearts, souls, attention, innocence, education and memories.

Go to battle, my friends. This is your time.

- Lisa-Jo Baker

 

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I put a poem on the Internet {and other news}

May 10, 2013 — 7 Comments

It’s true.

I ditched my original story idea for today’s Deeper Family post and ended up writing a poem instead. This may never happen again, so if you want to read it go here.

Also, for all you E fans in the house (which should be all of you, am I right?), here is the photo that inspired the poem.

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Further inspiration for the poem: many recent realizations that I’m in control of a lot less than I think. Ouch.

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Did you sign up for the online photography class I’m taking next week? I can’t wait to feel even somewhat equipped to edit raw photos, especially seeing as how my current favorite method (close your ears, real photographers) involves iPhone apps.

The class is only $20 if you use the discount code LIFEEDIT and you can work at your own pace over a span of 12 days. Enroll here. We’ll pass notes and drive the teacher crazy. It’ll be great.

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Analog Weekend was another success. I always feel like I’m missing an appendage for the first hour after I put the phone away, but that quickly subsides and freedom takes over. I still take occasional photos, call my mom and send a text or two, but most of the time I’m handsfree to enjoy life with my people.

Last weekend’s highlights:

A dance party with a studio full of strobe lights and loud music and kids under six. Oh, and these guys.

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I MEAN. Can you even handle the sweatbands? They wore them the whole time, dancing and spending most of the party doing superhero poses in front of a mirrored wall.

And E dressed as Axel Rose without even knowing it, which is always a nice bonus.

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And did I mention my husband did the worm?

Yes, I have the video. No, I won’t post it. I prefer to stay married, thankyouverymuch.

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E was featured on the “All About Me” board in her classroom this week, which we remembered at 8:30pm on Sunday night as I tucked her into bed. (#bestmom)

So I grabbed the yellow questionnaire and she got to work, right there in her PJs. After she answered the questions we gathered a basket of very important items to show her class what it’s like to be E:

1. Monkey, her favorite stuffed animal

2. The plastic family photo album/teether I made when she was a baby that she still keeps in her room

3. A book of Shel Silverstein poems

4. A picture of our dogs and one of her BFF Peyton

5. A My Little Pony

After she went to sleep I texted her papa (who was at a movie) a photo of the last two questions on the form with the caption, “I call this a win.”

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{Click here to read my post at A Deeper Family: You Are Not My Work of Art.}

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Confessions of an Amateur Photographer {+ an exclusive invitation}

May 8, 2013 — 11 Comments

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Lately I’ve been putting down the iPhone and picking up the DSLR.

I remember the day my husband surprised me with it. It was my 29th birthday. Our first baby was six weeks old and I was on maternity leave from my full-time job. Some dear friends were visiting from out of town. I was overjoyed at all of the above. The camera was unexpected, a true treasure for my new-mama heart.

I developed my philosophy of photography early on: if you take a million photos, a few are bound to turn out awesome. And that’s what I did. I immediately took to staging photo shoots with our newborn daughter as my impossibly adorable subject. I must have 10,000 photos of her first year. (Don’t ask me if they are in an album. I am terrible at follow-through.)

It was a blast. I immediately fell in love – with the camera and the girl. Looking back, I think one influenced the other. Something about photography soothes my soul, sets the days and weeks and years in slow motion, if only for a moment. I feel about photos the way I feel about words; when situated just so, they have a way of capturing the essence of a thing, the magic of a moment that might otherwise go unnoticed. Words and images, they fill my heart to the brim.

I am not a professional photographer nor do I want to be. I will spend my life in words. But I do want to turn pro at capturing these hidden moments. I want a giant digital cabinet piled full of beautiful memories, even if our nest is empty before they see the light of day or the inside of an honest to goodness album. I want to be a better amateur photographer.

And so last week, for the very first time, I shot with my DSLR on manual. It’s silly, I know, but in five whole years I never got around to actually learning how to use this fancy pants camera.

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I am not a professional photographer nor do I want to be. But I have friends who are and they are incredible. They inspire me with their gifts, with the unique way they see the world.

Next week, my amazingly talented friend Jason Ward is teaching an online photography course for folks enthusiastic amateurs like me. He’ll be covering topics like shooting photos in RAW format that professionals use, editing to correct common frustrations like color and lighting, and – my personal achilles heel – organizing and storing digital media.

I am excited to participate and take my photo obsession to the next level. I am also excited to learn a photo editing process that is slightly more advanced than my current method, which basically involves sliding iPhoto’s edit bars back and forth until it looks pretty.

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Want to join me? Because he is an all-around nice guy (and because he’s married to my best friend, the equally amazing Alexis who designed the artwork for this site), Jason is offering you a $5 off discount, making the class $20. As little Brother J learned to say yesterday (thanks to Neighbor Duane), “Hollaaaaa.”

Go here to enroll and use the promo code LIFEEDIT.

All you need for the class is camera that will shoot in RAW (which I didn’t know mine did until I checked the settings) and either Adobe Lightroom or Bridge. (Don’t have either of those? Neither did I. You can download a free trial of Adobe Photoshop here and use it for this class.)

The class is self-paced class and runs from Monday, May 13, until Friday, May 24. You’ll watch the two lectures and do the homework when it is convenient for you, and Jason will be available online for a specific hour each week to field your questions in person via Google chat. Easy, right? I’m pretty excited.

Check out more class details here and peruse Jason’s beautiful work here.

Let me know in the comments if you plan to participate! We get to provide feedback on each other’s work as a class. It’ll be fun! Like we’re college roomies, only with fewer Ramen noodles and really bad dating decisions.

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PS: I genuinely admire Jason and believe wholeheartedly in his work and talent, and that is why I mention his class here today. The opinions above are my own and not a product of coercion involving chocolate, wine or other delicious accoutrements. Not that I would be refuse those things because let’s be real, people. OK. Carry on.

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A tiny seed grows a mighty change.

May 3, 2013 — 8 Comments

A week or more ago the kids were on the porch with Papa, eating apples around the porch swing. I came out the screen door to find E carefully tending to a small collection of apple seeds, everyone rejoicing when another seed was picked out of an apple core or spit into a dirty little hand.

“Let’s plant them, Mama!”

Skeptical, I retrieved three yellow plastic pots from E’s play kitchen and the leftover potting soil from the basement. She divided up the seeds – four for each of her brothers and herself – and they got right to work. They didn’t even argue over who got the largest pots.

They’ve tended their seeds well, each day checking for progress and filling animal-shaped watering cans to water the yellow pots. They have not for a moment doubted that something would grow; they have just tended and trusted.

Yesterday morning we woke to this.

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The girls and I recently wrote a She Reads Truth plan for the book of Hosea. Today’s reading was one of my favorites, in the same way a runner might have a favorite stretch – it hurts, but it’s a good and necessary pain.

This morning I feel the gentle, steady voice of the Holy Spirit showing me a specific sin, one that makes my mama-heart mourn. I stood at the front door and watched my boys walk out in pajamas and pacifiers to check on their apple seeds, and I prayed that God would forgive me for wanting to be somewhere else. I prayed the He would grow in me the desire to be right where I am – here with my children.

I love my children. Oh, I love them so dearly. They are my heart. But my idol of Control is large and looming and it discolors the beauty of this blessed everyday, makes the air in and around this old house so thick I can hardly breathe.

Raising little children is unpredictable, it turns the notion of perfection on its head. It is a force constantly prying open my clinched fists. When I lose control of a situation, I panic. And here in this world of mothering small children, I lose control of many, many situations.

Sometimes it feels like too much. Sometimes I wish for a different day-to-day, one where I don’t feel like a leaf in a whirlwind, where I am not constantly aware of how much I don’t know. One where I can breathe.

But then a sweet “I luhzshoo, Mama” wakes me up like a splash of cold water and I know how desperately I want to be here. 

It is a small moment in a long week, but it is a seed. So I hold it out to the One who made me and I ask Him to plant it deep in my heart.

In that moment this morning – the pajamas and pacifiers and seed-watching – I asked God to forgive me for wanting to be elsewhere. I asked that He would give me the desire to be right here with these three precious souls, right here where He has created me to be. 

The days can be so long and my heart so tired. But He has given me this seed and He will make it grow. My job is just to tend and trust.

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Showing My Real

April 30, 2013 — Leave a comment

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Happy Tuesday, peoples.

I hope this post finds you with a smile on your face and chocolate in your hand. I haven’t had any in three days and I’m pretty sure I’m developing a twitch.

Speaking of too much information, I’m over at the lovely Courtney Bowden’s place today to take part in her fantastic idea of a series called Show Your Real. Courtney says, “Show Your Real is a bi-weekly series of guest posts centered around the concept of authenticity. The goal is to encourage each other to expose the reality of our lives- good and bad- and to foster a sense of community that goes beyond the often suface-cy interactions of social media.” And all God’s people said, YES PLEASE.

Hop on over to read about our real here in the House of Many Williamses and check out some of the other Show Your Real posts while you’re at it. Like this one from the inimitable Jami Nato.

Okay, then. Back to your chocolate.

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{The brothers say hi, by the way. This is L, before his new military-esque hair cut. And that thing on my head used to be a t-shirt. #desperatetimes #desperatemeasures}

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