Wagging ponytail
Her white socks on the hard floor
Sprinkled with wood chips
A mother’s haiku meditation on clues left by her nonverbal child. 💛
Need
We climbed back in the car recently after a family outing outside, and I was completely ebullient. Deeply exhaled joy over the saturated colors of mid fall and crisp air and wide open space to breathe and move and see and feel. Nothing incredible. Just beauty. Just my people. Just… space. Being. Peace. AIR.
“It’s like MEDICINE to you.” Dan expressed emphatically. “I don’t think you know how good it’s going to be for you until you get back.”
“It IS,” I acknowledged, camera around my neck for the first time in a month, pondering on the fading light of golden hour and how very much I need to see it. Need to notice. Need to unplug. Need to create. Need to catalog the beauty, the light, the shadows. Not just mentally but physically. Artistically. Habitually.
“It really is.”
Frolic
Do you just need to go pick wildflowers, frolic, and feel joy? Same. But sometimes I forget? And that’s why God made people like Lydie. 🌻🥰
Happy Mother's Day 2023!
I was walking Lydia through the children’s hospital once when I saw another mom accompanying her child to an appointment wearing a shirt that said, “Mom AF”. I felt that in my bones 😆
Today at church a woman was catching other women in the back of the room and showing them a gif of Wonder Woman on her phone. WW was throwing punches with lightning coming out of her bracelets and the woman was saying “This is YOU!” She caught me, rocked my hand, and told me, “You are a MOM.” And since I had just wrestled Lydia for an hour exhausting every toy in my bag (and every non-toy, too), I felt that as well.
I don’t know what this day holds for you, but if you’ve ever loved a kid and have some stories to tell from that wild ride, I submit that those two messages/badges of honor above are meant for you, with love, too.
Happy Mother’s Day 💛
The Hair
“Rapunzel & the Super Scary Sensory Monster”
That would be our children’s book. Maybe I’ll write it one day ::sigh:: This girl who LOVES to have her hair down and cries when I braid it or pull it back, but who HATES to have it combed or dried.
Our latest post-bath time routine involves terrified full-body bear hugs (legs and all) while I blow-dry her hair and constantly reassure her, “Mama’s got you.” These sessions simultaneously break and melt my heart (almost literally as it’s really hot with all that hair, hot air, hugging & wrestling going on 😅). But they mean a lot to me and reaffirm in a new and different way the sacred space I hold. I am her safe space. …Oh that’s a heavy place to hold. But we keep holding it. We keep hanging on to each other, sometimes like we’re hanging on for our lives, sometimes just breathing each other in. I’ll do my best to keep you safe, you’ll do your best to keep me grounded and laughing. This is the sometimes dance, sometimes full-body terrified bear hug. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you;” on and on we go.
2017 Favorites
2017. So full of good and hard, but mostly people I love, and you can’t ask for more than that. Happy New Year ☀️💛 #2017favorites
Getting Out
Today I would have liked to stay inside, curled up with a book in my bed. But you didn’t need that. You needed out. You needed to run and yell and be free. So we went to the park. As I watched you play and the sun sparkle on the ice, I was cold, yes, but also a little more alive and free, myself.
Gift of Sunshine
One of the best and most humbling parts of parenting is recognizing and learning from your children’s gifts. In spite of a rough beginning in life, this little boy was born with sunshine in his soul. He is an eternal optimist. Daily he reminds me to look on the bright side, often by sharing with me one of his many “isms.” Here are a couple of my favorites: “So that’s great!” As in, “We’re having eggs for breakfast (or some other desperately normal occurrence), so that’s great!” Or “I’m wearing my blue shirt today! So that’s great!” Another one is, “But that’s ok.” As in, “My art project broke, but that’s ok! We can fix it!” Or one that always cracks me up, “I️ hurt my *insert body part*, but that’s ok! No blood!” How I️ love this boy and how God must have known I️ would need his perpetual grins, teases, and happiness to keep this mama going. ❤️
Backyard Mallows
One time we tried roasting s'mores in the backyard. Except it was super windy and we had to shelter the fire with the kiddie pool, and ash was blowing everywhere and the mallows tasted not the good kind of smokey so the kids wouldn't even eat them (minus the one kid who eats everything). But it makes for a ridiculous memory. 😜
Pre-Graduation Thoughts
I took a lot of official-looking graduation pictures for this guy, but before I share any of those, I want to share this one. Because this is my guy. Tomorrow there will be pomp and circumstance and fancy pictures, but what I'll be celebrating is eight years of dreams come true. Eight years ago, we had no degrees and lots of lofty goals. We knew it would be hard, but didn't know what that meant. Two kids, eight moves, four states. Grueling academic programs, extra certifications, interviews and resumes and more interviews. Late nights, early mornings. Lousy living arrangements and years away from any family. Working two jobs and going to school full time. Hard WORK. And prayer--so much prayer. Prayer with tears and miracles and grace and more good friends and amazing experiences and growth than we could have imagined. There has been so much change but this guy and God have been my constants through it all. Tomorrow I will probably bawl my eyes out because I am so dang proud of this man. And so very grateful for the ride.
The Kitchen Table
I took out my camera today, like I do many days, but didn't realize how these images would hit me. It happens like that. I remember when we left Colorado and I took a picture of my oldest playing on our wood floors---the floors where my babies learned to walk. That image hit me, too. And here we are, two years later, getting ready to move, and it happened, again. Just an ordinary moment... How many times have we sat at this table and practiced our ABCs or learned how to add? The meals. The crafts. The homework assignments and church lessons. This table will hit storage for awhile when we move, and we'll likely never enter these walls again once we close the door that last time. But we LIVED here. Can the next occupants ever know how much life is wrapped up in these walls? How many ordinary moments mingled with milestones? Who we were and who we became here? Do places remember us when we leave, a bit of our hearts and histories forever beating in their air? This is the table where my babies outgrew booster seats and sippy cups. Where they learned their ABCs. Where a significant chapter of our life--spread out across the country in chronicles--happened. I will miss it.
Welcome!
When I was in college I had a dorky list of “Things that Make Annie Happy” posted above my bed. Silly things like chapstick and mascara and chocolate on graham crackers. These little things (and some serious things, too) are what kept me going through the papers and finals and awkward dating experiences that make up college life. Paying attention to the little things has proven illuminating in my life and years beyond university classrooms, as well. I believe there are times in our lives when we see better than other times. During those times we notice and find joy and purpose in the mundane details. Or perhaps we take time to step back and gain a new or broader perspective. Always we look back on these moments of clarity for purpose and hope. I cherish the moments when I see clearly, and continually work at training my inner eye to notice the details that make life special.
It’s just these details of life, joy, love, and gratitude that I seek to soak into my soul and distill with my camera. I look for them in my own daily life, and I look for them in my photography sessions. These moments, smiles, and sparkles of daily magic are what make us human. And there’s really nothing more beautiful or important to capture than that.
This website features photography from both my personal and client work. Maybe you’ve come to book a session, maybe you're checking in on our latest, or maybe you’re just stopping by for some quiet inspiration. Whatever brings you here, I hope that you stay awhile, look around, and find a thing or two that makes you smile.