Returning...

So, as many of you may have known or guessed, I spent my computer hiatus on a small island off the coast of Portland, Maine with the hubs and the kids. I was leary of coming right out and saying I was "leaving my house for such and such amount of time" because of the crazy world in which we live...but I was absolutely busting at the seems to tell you how very very excited I was! We had an absolutely amazing time and I have a ton {and I mean a TON} of pictures and stories and memories to share with you...but reality has hit me hard and it's taking me a couple of extra days to recover and mourn the end of our days on the island. 

We spent six full days on Peaks Island and so much...I mean SO much...happened and changed and manifested in wonderful ways. I thought I would take today to bang out another one of my 30 List for an overview-type recap of my week. And then, once I get through the 1000 plus pictures I took on my trip, I will share more details and specifics with you!

So, without furthur ado...

30 Things I Did Last Week on My Computer Hiatus

1. Drove 914 miles to Maine and back.
2. Spent an entire week living in a cottage on an island
3. Watched NO television
4. Read The Lovely Bones
5. Met Kristin
6. Met Corinne
7. Met Kathleen
8. Walked in the Atlantic Ocean
9. Walked around Portland, ME
10. Spent a full nine days with my husband
11. Found sea glass
12. Collected a massive amount of sea shells
13. Took over 1000 photos
14. Ate Maine lobster
15. Ate authentic New England Clam Chowder in New England
16. Walked...a lot...everywhere...which felt sooooo good
17. Went out to dinner...a lot...which was soooooo nice
18. Watched my baby girl experience the ocean for the first time...and love it!
19. Watched my big girls search, explore, play on, and love the island beach
20. Took in breathtakingly gorgeous views daily
21. Slept with the windows open with a cool island breeze sweeping across the bed
22. Wrote daily in a journal
23. Spent honest to goodness QUALITY time with my husband and our children
24. Sent out postcards from an actual location other than my home
25. Put our van on a ferry and took it to an island where it stayed for a whole week
26. Drove very, very minimally...other than the 914 mile round trip, of course!
27. Fell in love with my husband all over again
28. Enjoyed my non-tv-obsessed/happy/enjoying life for the little things kids
29. Fell in love with Maine
30. Felt very sad about leaving our little slice of paradise :(

I will move past my temporary bluish state...in fact, I am starting to come around and getting excited for some changes that will be occurring around here soon and the obligatory accompanying celebrations that will be necessary!

I want to thank you all for being so kind and supportive of my sweet husband last Sunday! He was so nervous about his post and all of your very kind comments were very encouraging. I think he has even agreed to come back next month!

So, now, I feel like I've missed so much and I just know that it will be impossible to catch up on everything...so please share with me what's been happening in your life! You can even leave a link or two if you'd like if there's been very exciting things! I want to get caught up and here about all the latest! And I promise to be around to visit you again soon!

In the Nick of Time {Maternity Photo Shoot}...

Last week, I had the privilege of  photographing this beautiful woman and her gorgeous growing family! At 38 and a half weeks, we were finally able to meet up one evening for an amazing photo shoot!

The sun was gorgeous and golden. The weather was perfect. And Megan, well she is just absolutely beautiful inside and out!

And her son is just about the sweetest boy I've ever met. He was so affectionate with his mama and so excited about the upcoming arrival of his baby sister!

She also has a wonderful husband...you know, the tall dark and handsome type!

Together they make such a beautiful and happy family! Within about a half an hour, we had more great shots than I could count. In fact, picking just a few to show in this post was rather difficult.

Their happiness, love, and excitement for this next chapter in their lives was almost palpable and came through in each and every image!

Megan was up for absolutely anything! I give her so much credit...being that pregnant is not easy and looking beautiful at the same time is downright miraculous! Yet, she most definitely pulled it off!

The whole family was so easy going and so much fun to photograph!

It also just happened to be Megan's birthday!

Goodness, isn't shes just stunning! Oh, and did I mention that she ended up going into labor two days later??? Want a peek at the baby girl???....

More of "Sweet Baby A" to come at a later date...she ended up being just as photogenic as the rest of her family and it's going to take me a while to get through all of her great shots, too!

Thank you, Megan and family, for allowing me to be a part of this experience with you!

Reflecting...

I've spent a good deal of the past couple of weeks thinking about my intentions and goals for 2010. I've thought in generals and specifics about the ways in which I was going to make myself a better person, improve my quality of living be better for my family, and so on. And I'm getting really excited for the new year and for the freshness and renewal that it brings.

However, like a brick wall, it hit me today that all of my plotting, planning, & goal making gave absolutely no credit to the accomplishments of the past year. And, as excited as I was about my intentions, they were starting to feel more like self criticisms. Yes, I had a big 'ole list of things that I was currently not actively focusing on within my life that I would like to. However, I also needed to make a list of the things about 2009 that I feel really good about.

1. I gave birth to my third beautiful daughter {goodness, can you even remember life without Maya? She feels like such an essential and natural part of our lives.} I'm proud that it was an all natural, drug free birth! {I'm including that because I feel very proud...not because I'm judging any other form of giving birth}. It had been a goal for me last year. It wasn't something I knew I could do at the time, but it was something I wanted very badly for myself and for Maya.



2. I set course on a personal creative journey. Last year at this time I was really just beginning to explore my creativity. I spent the winter months of 2009 throwing myself into a plethora of creative projects in an effort to a) become more creative, b) learn what my creative strengths were, and c) figure out where I wanted to put the bulk of my creative energy.



3. I fell in LOVE with photography! I am so incredibly grateful for the gift of photography in my life. It has taught me mounds about finding beauty in unlikely places, living in the moment, and holding on to these incredible years with my young children. And though I still have so much to learn, I have come such a long way in one year's time and I have learned soooo much. This year, I got my first SLR camera and have started learning how to shoot manually!



4. This year, I put my first born on a bus, all by herself, and sent her to Kindergarten. It was {and still is some days} one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. It taught me a lot about letting go and trusting God. I've learned some important things about myself and my thoughts and feelings on ideas that I had previously considered as truth. This single event encouraged me to look deeply at my life and evaluate it's authenticity. I continue to learn and grow from this experience even today, mid-way through the school year.



5. I've learned how to use my photo-editing program semi-proficiently. I've taken my photo editing {including the use of textures and overlays} to a personal new level. I've improved my skills tremendously {especially in the area of black and white conversions} and have opened the door to further learning and skill building. ***I realize that if you are not a photography nerd like myself, that whole paragraph is pretty much gibberish***



6. I have met some wonderful friends and established some really nice connections online. Before this year, I had imagined that meeting people online was best left for lonely singletons and pedophiles. Okay, maybe I was not that cynical but I did not ever see myself truly becoming friends with someone I had never met. I am so grateful for the community here in blogsville and over at Flickr for introducing me to some truly amazing women with whom I share common interests. After living 29 years feeling like a total outsider, it's been so nice meeting like minded individuals with whom I feel at home.



7. I potty-trained yet another of my children. I abhor the task and find it nearly impossible. But, for the second time in my life, I taught a completely resistant child to use the facilities {yay for me and yay for a hu-normous bag of M&M's!!!}
   
8. I accepted and embraced breastfeeding in public places. What once I would have felt completely self conscious about has become pretty much a non-issue. Because, quite frankly, when it comes to keeping your baby fed and happy, you'll do what you have to do. I have breastfed in restaurants, amusements parks, churches, dance recitals, the Baltimore Aquarium, the movie theater, and Longwood Gardens. In fact, on those same lines...
9. I have solely breastfed Maya. I knew I wanted to breastfeed {I had done both with Rayne and had bottle fed Layla} but I never really put any expectations on it with regards to how long I would breastfeed or if I would supplement with formula or not. But I really just went with the flow and let what happened naturally happen. And now here we are, Maya is almost ten months, having been fed only breast milk, and having had a total of 6 bottles in her entire life. {please, again, I'm not judging the choices of others...obviously I've done both and do not view one as better than the other} I am so happy with the very special relationship that Maya and I share as a result.
10. I have made decisions regarding my life that have put the well being of my family {and the well being of myself} a head of other things. I have chosen some things over others, said no, cut back...all in the name of being the right for us. I have fully and completely embraced my role in this family and I love what I do.
    

Now I'm feeling really good about 2009 and I'm ready to enter 2010 with new goals and intentions to continue on my path to my best self. If you are still struggling with your reflections/intentions for the year within your family, I read this great article that can help you to evaluate where you've been and where you'd like to go.

I'll see you tomorrow with my list of goals and intentions!

My Favorite Gifts...

Our Christmases just keep getting more full and more magical every year. And although Santa no longer leaves me gifts under the tree, I got everything I could ever have wished for this Christmas.

Moments to glimpse what a beautiful little girl my Rayne is becoming. With her great big open heart and her quick and witty mind, she is by far one of my most favorite people in the world.

Getting to do some big kid things with Layla that she was too little for last Christmas. It's amazing to know how much she has grown and matured over this past year. She has given up her role as the baby in the house so gracefully and {although it's not always easy} she's really getting to be a big girl in her thoughts, words, & deeds.

Watching baby Maya experience the magic of Christmas for the very first time was so much fun. Every light, every ornament, every dancing reindeer brought her endless joy. I love when they're babies and it's all so pure and amazing...a girl can start believing again herself!




The satisfaction of really feeling like Santa did a great job this year and seeing that my girls also value quality over quantity.

Quiet pockets of time in our days off together to enjoy conversation and snuggles with my husband.

And, of course, the heartwarming feeling that comes with knowing that no new fancy toy holds a candle to a little cuddle with her mama!

How did I get so lucky and so blessed?

Well, I suppose it's time to accept that Christmas is over {as well as my self-imposed post-Christmas incubation/hibernation period...seriously friends, I would stayed holed-up in my little house with my little family forever...I'm a total hermit}. Anyway, Brent is back to work today and real life is calling to me in the way of cranky tired children, full baskets of laundry {both clean and dirty}, and a little split lip/bloody mess accident this morning. I think in lieu of all this it's okay {totally necessary} to start the process of acceptance that the holiday is over and it's time to move on.

I really hope that you all had a great Christmas and that you're slowly but surely getting back on your feet. btw...I just read this great post on "coming off Christmas" which kind-of helped a bit this morning! Enjoy your day!

Recipe for the Perfect Holiday Evening...

*Four travel mugs of hot cocoa cooled to the perfect sipping temperature

*One or more cameras carried by one or more snap happy family members

*One snugly friend with which to sing Christmas songs

*Lots of pretty Christmas lights and decorations to ooh and aah over

I had really been feeling like this great season was passing me by. And I felt like I was too busy being stressed about little things to enjoy the big things. So this weekend has been all about taking it easy and enjoying the season. We've been hanging out at home, watching holiday movies, doing some crafting, a little bit of wrapping, reading, etc. We have all needed this down time together so very much. Granted, I will be a little extra busy this coming week. But when the well needs filled, you might as well fill it to the top!

Check out these pictures from after our night of lights!

I hope that you are all having a great and restorative weekend! xo