My life in points

• My birthday celebrations were all wonderful, I have wonderful friends and family.
• Naomi graduated from kindergarten, I know it's silly, but very sweet.
• The experiment of having flowers on the balcony is so far a success.
• The kids are completely psyched about summer vacation. We went to the pool for the first time this year and much merriment was had.
• I'm in the last week before I hang my pics and I'm still deciding what's going up. I'll be spending a lot of time with the printer I think.
• Taking pictures, taking pictures, taking pictures.....the sun and warmth are melting and inspiring me.
• On the hottest day of the week, I decided to bake 7 dozen cookies. Dumb.
• My house is such a mess I've stopped inviting people over until I find a shovel and a dumpster.
• I introduced my kids to the idea of bonfires and now Ben wants to go every night.
• I'm here in this moment and I'm happy.

It's that time again....

I woke up this morning with no kids, but a lovely heart card that Benny made and hid in his room as a surprise. You never know how much those things really mean until you are a parent.

So, what have I learned during the year? I've learned that some people and things cannot be replaced, but sometimes fond memories are better than bitter regrets. I've learned that I am the kind of person who cannot just jump back up and move along without pause, and I've learned that everyone deserves good things in this life, including me.

I discovered that I am not as strong as I wanted to be, last year wasn't easy. But I learned a lot about myself and the people around me and I am making peace with the changes and letting the things that hurt me go in order to embrace the things that I love.

And what will I do this year? I will try to be a good friend, a good mom, and a good person. I will follow my heart and try to have more confidence in what I do and to seek approval only from myself. I will leave myself open to discover and find joy, even if it means finding pain too, and I will continue to find out what is meaningful to me.

Let's see what happens, what I can do..... :-)

Process

I'm trying to narrow down the photos to a shortlist, and suddenly realise that I'm bored with almost everything I've done. I want dynamic, I want life and movement and faces, and details, I want images that will draw me in. I also have a new idea every hour for a theme or a style I want to do. I think that this will require more walking about with my camera at very early hours of the morning. The fact that I look forward to this is a step in the right direction I think :-)