52 Week Photo Project: Week 3

Wow, I've actually updated the blog THREE weeks in a row! Must be a personal record! I'm having fun with this photo challenge. It's made me more aware of the everyday things my kids do that I want to remember. I've found it easy to grab the camera and snap off a few pictures; the hard part is finding time to upload them to the blog.

So this week--more playtime outside. Here they're looking down at me from the top of their fort; they were happy because they had just polished off some corn bread muffins.





I'm in love with the sepia tones...

Lovin' on Quincy.

Swinging-- Ryan was very careful to hold on this time. Last week he was swinging and decided, with unfortunate timing, to let go of the swing with one hand right after Daddy had given him a wickedly high push. He somehow came sailing off the back of the swing, twisted in the air so that he fell flat on his stomach. When I was asking him about it later, he told me that when he let go of the swing, he "went splat on da gwass." Needless to say, I think he learned his lesson.

I love watching Rachael swing. She gets this blissfully happy smile on her face-- even when she's outside all by herself. I can't help but smile when I see how much joy she takes in something so simple. It's times like these when I most want to protect her-- not just from danger, but from heartbreak, loss, and all the other difficult things that people experience as they get older but from which we shelter our kids as much as possible when they are young. Does that make sense? It's when I see my kids, enjoying life and without a care in the world, that I wish I could somehow get them through this life, bearing all their burdens for them and taking all the pain and heartache they will ever experience upon myself, in their place. I don't want them to hurt. But ah, that's the mother's quandry, isn't it? We can't take their pain; in fact, we know that sometimes, difficult circumstances are used to grow us, to draw us closer to our Heavenly Father, to teach us reliance on Him. It's through trials, temptation, and suffering that we see His faithfulness, provision, grace, comfort... So instead of taking our kids' pain, we'll pray them through it. We'll hold them through it. We'll love them through it.

I didn't mean for this to turn so deep, but that was the direction my thoughts decided to take. Next week's photos will be extraordinary (and I don't mean the skill level of the photo; I mean, the content will be something out of the ordinary)... next week's photos will undoubtedly show my kids magically happy, blissfully happy... I mean, how can they be otherwise, when they will be at the "Happiest Place on Earth"? Are my expectations too high? Quite possibly. Stay tuned...