Back to life...

Back to reality
Back to the here and now, yeah.


That song by Soul II Soul was one of my favorites in college. It has nothing to do with this post, but it does sum up how I've felt this week.


I'm not even totally sure what happened to me. I looked at the calendar yesterday and realized the first 18 days of March are gone! HOW did that happen?! I've been busy with some extra responsibilities. I've been consumed with decisions about school for next year. The kids have been finishing up some classes at the park district. And we've basically just been so happy about the warmer weather that we've been trying to get outside as much as possible.


I knew I was way behind on my photo blog, but I couldn't believe I had not updated it one time the entire month. I will admit, I had decided to quit with the daily photos. I missed several days, which made me feel like a failure, and I really didn't want to do it if I couldn't keep my resolution to take a photo every day.


But then, a nice friend e-mailed to ask me if I was still alive. I guess the encouragement of just one person who noticed I was MIA was enough to make me realize I really do enjoy taking the daily photos and I shouldn't give up just because I missed a few days.


So, I updated all but a few of the first 18 days of March. I'm not sure what to think about the daily photo project. On the days when we really do something fun, I often forget my camera. So, most of the photos are just quiet little moments I have captured around the house. I guess that's OK. Maybe it's a better snapshot of our lives than the skating lessons and the gymnastics class and the family fun night at JumpZone that I missed.


If you are interested in what's been going on around here, check it out. The baby has been entertaining us. I've been making crafty stuff for a women's event. We've been reading some good books and playing outside.

And who knows. Maybe I'll get back to some real blogging here soon.

In front of the tree

For the past five weeks, I've taken a photo of my four kids in front of the same tree in front of our house.

I don't try to make them pose or wear matching outfits. In fact, I don't even try to clean up what is behind them in the photo. I just want it to be a reflection of our lives and a way to see how things change over the course of a year.

Today's photo was funny.

Our "post-blizzard" photo included one child in the tree, a snow tunnel underneath it and a few random snow boarders in the background! Let's see... Is that tree getting shorter? Are the kids getting taller? Or is the ground rising?

Check out how we've changed the past five weeks!

4 of 52

3 of 52

2 of 52

1 of 52

One month down...

I know it seems silly to write about anything OTHER than the winter storm that is about to paralyze America, but I decided to take this moment during the calm to distract you with other topics. Actually, I was driving home last night from a meeting during the prelude to Snowmageddon, and I decided I better stop mocking the weather reports. When the weather people say a blizzard is coming, I think they are serious.

But while we wait, here's some other news.

Despite my very indecisive start, I'm quite happy that I have completed the first month of my New Year's resolution!

I have taken a photo and blogged about it every day so far of 2011. (Click here to check it out.) It's not meant to be one of those projects to capture a single gorgeous image for 365 days straight, although I totally admire the many people who are doing that. Instead, I'm just trying to remember one moment from each day of the year.

Here are a few of my observations about my endeavor:

1. When I think of our days as a whole, I often think we lead a fairly boring life. However, when I look back at each moment, I feel immensely blessed.

2. It can be a challenge to find something to photograph. We often do the same things every day or every week. (Do I really want to take a photo of my daughter's gymnastics class EVERY Wednesday?) It forces me to look for one little thing that I would want to remember from each day.

3. It's not a completely accurate account of our lives. Of course, I don't take pictures of the kids arguing or someone lying on the couch with a fever and runny nose. Many days, the "highlight" of the day isn't something I want to photograph either because it involves other people. I don't want to make people worry they will "end up on the blog" or cause other people to feel left out if we got together with friends.

4. I'm still trying to decide if it was a good idea to post the photos on a totally separate blog. I like the fact that I'm not overwhelming my regular readers with every little detail of our lives. And yet, I feel like I'm omitting some fun stuff from this blog because I posted it over there. I'm still working through that one.

5. I'm glad that I decided to take my own challenge. I'm not putting a ton of pressure on myself, but it's always in the back of my mind that I need to "find my photo of the day."

So, today, I wanted to invite you to check out what we've been up to in January. (You can see the looooong list of links for January on the right-hand side of my other blog.) I don't expect people to want to read about us in this much detail on a daily basis. But feel free to become a follower or subscribe, if you are interested.

Let me know what you think! And tell me how things are going with you. Have you been sticking to your new year's goals so far this year?

What's going on

It's been frigid here the past week, but we've been fighting the desire to hibernate with lots of activity!

Here's what we've been up to. We've been:

• Practicing our jump-roping skills.
• Playing basketball and doing gymnastics.
• Enjoying some new music.
• Starting new classes at co-op.

How about you? What are you doing to beat the winter blues? Oh... and P.S. It's Day No. 6, and still no sugar in my drinks!

What we've been doing

I have several blog posts bouncing around in my head right now. I have noticed that the more I have to say, the more difficult it is for me to find the words to say it.

So, in the meantime, if you haven't been clicking on my daily photos over there on the right, here is a sampling of what we've been up to lately.

We've been:

• On a baby playdate,
• Eating chocolate, and
• Building an ice-skating rink!

One a week

I had an idea. As part of my goal to take one photo a day in 2011, I thought it would be fun to take one photo each week of my four children standing in front of the same tree.

I'm not going to try to make them smile or wear matching outfits or look perfect. I just thought it would be cool to see how they change throughout the year and how the tree changes. Of course, on weeks that we aren't home, we will get to take the photo somewhere other than in front of that tree, which will be cool, too.

Here is photo No. 1 of 52.

If you want to see all of my daily photos, click here.