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the letter

June 15, 2009

I know the truth about how God loves me and all, but it still continues to amaze me when stuff like this happens. You know my tendency to take myself too seriously? And worry? And get overwhelmed and broody? What? You don’t know that about me? Well. I was doing all that really well the other day. So I pulled out my camera while the kids were playing outside and began to look for the gifts. Because the day was feeling increasingly gift-less. And then the mail came.

the letter

Who in the world writes real letters anymore? It spoke to the very thing that had me spinning. And it set my dizzy day right again. So thank you, new friend. For thinking of me, for being excited with me, and for taking the time to say so. Her words were a gift to me that day. A small thing to her, but life-giving for me.

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If you have a gift to share or a moment to celebrate, please do so by linking up below. Remember to link back here so your peeps know what it’s all about. And use the permalink to your unwrapped post or your link will be deleted. I have missed Tuesdays Unwrapped around here and look forward to your stories and snapshots.

Filed Under Tuesdays Unwrapped 29 Comments

monday you can fall apart

June 15, 2009

I am coming off a weekend of total over commitment on my part. I’m trying to keep this Monday from being a fall-apart Monday since I’ve done enough of that over the past few days. To counteract the crazy, I give you the epitome of relaxation, calm and innocence:

babyhands

The Dimpled Baby Hands. I do not normally associate calm and relaxation with babies because I’VE HAD THREE OF THEM, but this one is not mine (A) and was sleeping (B) so that makes it relaxing and calm to look at. And you know how I feel about dimpled baby hands.

tuesdaysunwrapped1

Considering my crazy state as of late, I couldn’t be happier to announce that after nearly a month of Mister Linky not working for me, Tuesdays Unwrapped will officially be back up this week. As in, tomorrow. Finding the gifts in the midst of the messy, the lovely and the unexpected seems to come much easier when I have someone to share it with. I look forward to celebrating the little things with you.

giveaway day

Also, The Nester is hosting a Giveaway Day today where she will be offering a different giveaway nearly every hour. You heard that right. I can hear the flapping and chirping of all those crazy birds from here. I can’t win anything because I’m the sister and that just wouldn’t be right. Right? All the more chance for you. Fly on over to her place and enter, enter, enter! As of now, there have already been four terribly wonderful giveaways and I’m not at all huffy about the fact that I’m related. Maybe I could enter under a fake name?

Filed Under a mess, blog business 11 Comments

things to chat about

June 12, 2009

siblings

This photo is one of my favorites from a shoot I did this week. Their sweet mommy gave me permission to post them on the blog and I’m so glad she did. That baby is only five weeks old so it was kind of a challenge for me to get some good shots of all three of them together. But it was a challenge I was happy to take on. These three were a delight.

Because I’ve been editing photos all week, that is what is on the brain. So I’m sending a few photography links your way:

How to Shoot in Direct Sunlight @ Digital Photography School.

You Capture. Nature. @ I Should Be Folding Laundry.

And not technically a photography post, but definitely involving pictures: Baby Lumps @ Velveteen Mind. A great read. Speaking of babies, let’s peek at one more photo, shall we? What a doll.

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Filed Under a photographer 16 Comments

june, meet june.

June 10, 2009

The summer is in full swing round these parts and I feel like Busy has been chasing me around with a whip. I’ve got a little bit of hazy and a touch of crazy but not much lazy in my summer so far. A lot of the chaos is in my head. And on my list. And on the laundry room floor. But it’s summer so I want to talk about June. Not that June, this June.

june

You read Bye, Bye Pie, right?  You should. She’s the first one listed under funnies in my blogroll. Well now she has been nominated for a Funniest Blog award and seeing as how she is the funniest blogger, I think she oughtta win. And eventhough she says that drawing attention to the funny makes her not funny, I beg to differ. Her un-funny is 100 times more funny than normal people’s really funny. And? It is JUNE, after all. So vote for June in June.

Besides the fact that she is laugh-out-loud funny, she deserves to win in my book based entirely on her willingness to let my girls manhandle her cat, as seen below.

henry

Lucky me that I have June in my town. Lucky you that you can take 10 seconds (once per day per email address!) to make her the funniest blogger around. Of course, she already is the funniest. But now the world will know.

Filed Under a friend 11 Comments

receive and respond

June 8, 2009

kite-girl1

Shiloh Baptist Church sat right in the middle of an Indiana cornfield. At least, that’s how I remember it. There was a song we used to sing there in that little church with the worn red carpet. It was called Trust and Obey. The refrain said “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

While the song brings back sweet memories, it was never one of my favorites. Not that I disagreed with the message, more that I wasn’t sure exactly how to do that when I was younger. Trust is hard to pin down and obey is just a plain yuck word. It felt very outside – in. Not that I am advocating disobedience. I have three children. I am a fan of obedience, letmejusttellyou. Still, the mental pictures that rise to the surface when I think of that word are sort of harsh and robotic.

When The Man asked me to help him fix our broken attic door last night, I did so for two reasons. One – I love him. Two? I’m kind of the one who broke it. (Yes, our 45 year old pull down attic door is stuck. Open.) But mainly, I love him. And I responded to his request because of that.

Respond? That is an inside – out word. Something happened on the inside, and now it is showing on the outside.

I’ve been thinking so much about this lately. Trust and obey? Sure. But I rather like receive and respond. Trust: receive security, worth, and acceptance from the only One who can fully give it. Obey: respond to the love that has been lavished. Not to earn it, but because you already have it.

Filed Under a writer 30 Comments

a different kind of heavy

June 5, 2009

The weight of motherhood is nearly always noticeable on my shoulders. It can be heavy or light, depending on how I choose to carry the load.

I searched the house for lovey at bedtime, mumbling under my breath how I wished she would just leave the lovey on her bed in the mornings and then we wouldn’t have this problem at night grumble-sigh-huff-puff. Heavy load.  It was very attractive, my muttering and stomping around the house at half-past bedtime. In a lucky combination of one-part mommy intuition and two-parts desperation, I decided to peek inside this Dora backpack.

backpack

In that moment, my motherhood weight shifted to a different kind of heavy. The frantic searching under sofa cushions and in toy baskets came to a halt and the frustrated hurry seeped out of me in one long sigh. Because in that bag was more than just a Barbie laptop and a most valuable posession. In that bag was proof that she is watching me. A fuzzy image left over from the morning came to mind, of me packing my laptop into my bag and heading off to do some work.

She wants to be like me and that is a different kind of heavy load, one filled with purpose and importance. One that I cannot bear alone. I’m thankful I don’t have to.

Filed Under a mother 45 Comments

tuesday bullies

June 2, 2009

Small gifts and daily graces are more difficult to appreciate lately. Because of Tuesdays Unwrapped, I am noticing them, but noticing is not the same as celebrating. Hustle and bustle can be bullies with a capital B. I’ve allowed myself to be pushed around by them a bit lately. Still, there are moments.

summer-fun1

Moments where I choose to say yes to the sprinkler even though it means dinner will be late. Here’s to keeping this Tuesday from becoming a reckless and used day.

***

All of blogland has had difficulty with Mister Linky lately because he has become so popular. As much as I love my custom design, it has presented problems with the recent Linky changes and I am currently unable to host one. He has been gracious to work with me to try to make it work again. And by ‘he’ I mean Mister Linky. Yes, we are BFFs.

When I am able to have links again, I will give you ample notice so we can again enjoy unwrapping our Tuesday moments together. Feel free to link up in the comments section to your Tuesday Unwrapped post. Or tell me: what are your biggest Tuesday bullies?

Filed Under Tuesdays Unwrapped 30 Comments
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