It’s so quiet right now. I can HEAR the thick quiet! It’s a new addition to my life and I have to say, I’m liking it.
I have begun the loooong process of revamping my business:) I figure, by the time everything is done, Max will be over a year old and I can take on more clients, so what better time to start the ball rolling? I’m excited. My friends are priceless and creative and have given me great input. If you are a creative friend of mine, and I haven’t called you yet, be ready!
Some recent, random photos:
This is Walker Sherman. He and his wife, Amanda, have a music lesson business here in town. They are both so fun and loving. They are very busy and God is blessing them left and right! Walker also plays music at local venues and is the worship pastor at Mosaic Church.
And this is Lori. She is- dear. She is unfiltered. She is pregnant with her 5th baby (4th boy). She can shake her rump and bake a cake. We had a date the other night. Rain killed our plans for a full maternity session, so I snapped a few of her on her porch- for good measure.
And really…. can I blog without posting a photo of my ‘chub of love’?! No. No, I can not.
He loves necklaces. His legs start kicking and his eyes get wide. He waits for his hands to respond to his brain telling him to grab the necklace and eat the necklace. No necklace is safe. He’s rocking on his hands and knees. The nice immobile days will be gone very soon. Then it’s a gear shift into my favorite baby stage- ‘I wanna get down on the grocery store floor’ combined with ‘finger swiping random grossness out of his mouth’. Have a great week! xoxo, AmyQ
My spirited little red:) When she lets her hair down, it’s something to behold. She loves to dance. I love to watch her. She flings and flails over every square inch of space she has, moving with not a thought, but completely feeling what she is hearing. Isn’t dancing fun? When you let go of thought and just move and feel? Oh man, I love it- in my kitchen:) But I will dance more and whenever I feel like it. I will chair dance my butt off in public if I see fit. We are all going to the Deluna Fest in October. We are paying for the weekend pass to only see ONE band. Our family favorite: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. That album has more air time in our house than any other music ever made. It’s true. If you haven’t heard it, get it. It is completely different and will grow on you, even if you hate it the first time. They are AMAZING live. AMAZING. AMAZING. AMAZING. Have a great week friends! xoxoxo, AmyQ
What is spirit? What is life? What is God’s role in your time here? Can spirit be broken? Is there any deeper level that you strive to live from? Deeper than that? Is there such thing as coincidence? Aren’t there as many answers to these questions as there are people on the planet? Is your journey your own or are you living someone else’s, thinking it’s your own? Why do some ‘live’, talking and dreaming of the end- only to never have LIVED and enjoyed their time here? How many different ways can life be lived and enjoyed? If the greatest thing we can do is love God and our neighbor, why do we struggle to love others? Is it difficult to LOVE yourself and celebrate your uniqueness? Are we embarrassed of the things that make us unique to the point of following the crowd? Is judgement really that powerful over us? Really? Do you think of doing child-like things, but don’t? Isn’t the love children give the sweetest, most unconditional thing? Why are we concerned about thickening their skin so they can ‘make it’ in the world? Did Jesus have thick skin? Why are ’social skills’ so important and what does that phrase REALLY imply? Are we raising our children to change the world, by being lights of unconditional love? Isn’t love the most powerful catalyst for change? Don’t our children feel our fears? Do they hear and feel our judgements of others- of ourselves? Do they grow being judged, by us, by peers, by authority? Did you? Don’t those judgements sometimes make them hide things about themselves that are unique only to them? Do those ‘things’ usually resurface? Did yours? Why do we spend most our time conversing about the details of our ‘lives’ that are unimportant to the bigger picture of what we were called to do? What if we lived every hour, minute, and second, instead of living in the past or tomorrow or 2 hours from now? What if we turned the TV off? What if we turned the cell and the computer off? What if we didn’t wring our hands over our kids fitting in? Fitting in? What if we celebrated and loved their uniqueness from birth? Would they even care about following? Why is it so hard to be open, even when you realize that closure was only a defensive technique we used to get through childhood and adolescence? Are you afraid of what others want from you? What if they want love from you? Aren’t we connected to an infinite source of love? Do you have it to give or is that love only for certain people? Just like judgement is only for certain people? Just like gossip is okay with certain people? Just like the facades we wear are for certain people?
Do you feel the life in a wild bird, the same as you feel it in a caged bird?
I don’t know. It’s Friday night. This is how I party. I eat pie from Jim -n- Nick’s and zing on sugar. Zing. Headache? Me too. You’re welcome. xoxo, AmyQ
It’s amazing how fast they grow. Every day it’s a change I’m not ready for, but at the same time, it’s wonderful to see the many aspects of who he is, coming out more and more.
He’s cutting teeth, so his “once upon a time” *dreamy* sleep schedule, has now changed to waking up 4 and 5 times a night. I’m pretty sure I was begging someone to kill me at some point last night. It wasn’t even this hard when he was newborn! The funny thing is ( and I use the term funny loosely) that he doesn’t just wake up, eat, change diaper and doze back off, he wants to play and blow raspberries. If he was in HIS bed, it wouldn’t be an issue, but he sleeps with us, and his idea of play is kicking us and pulling hair. I’ll adjust him back in sleeping position and he wiggles down and turns sideways, then proceeds to kick one of us while trying to pull hair on the other one. Good times. I will appreciate those teeth once they make their appearance and things calm back down a bit.
So this weekend will consist of moving baby to his bed- which currently gets no use- in our room.
But if he’s anything like our others, he will coo and smile and weasel his way back in our bed and he’ll be there until he’s 2 or 7. And to be honest, it’s usually me who pulls them in bed with me. Even with the older ones- I love sleeping with my babies sometimes. It’s just so cozy to fall asleep together. Now there have been times when we’ve had 3 in bed with us at once- not fun. Sweaty, cramped, sudden kicks in the mouth to wake you from REM sleep- no thank you. We’d talked about putting all our beds in one room once- that idea never panned out. Then we thought about putting all the kids’ beds in one room. I thought it’d be cool to have one room with only beds and decorated for sleeping. Calming colors, no other furniture in the room, fluffy pillows and cozy blankets….. it’s still something I think is cool, but haven’t done yet. They all end up sleeping in the same room every night anyway, in sleeping bags or all piled in bed together.
On what should be a totally different blog post, take a look at this:
This is shameful. But I don’t shame, so it’s- ummmm- in need of cleaning. This is what my camera sensor looks like before I spend forever and a day taking all the black dust spots out. I’ve only circled about 70% of the spots that are actually on there. Only macro shots show it mostly, thank God. I must find time to send it off to be cleaned! I did attempt it once myself- with an infant nasal aspirator. I don’t suggest that. The end. xoxoAmyQ
After I finished shooting with them, I was sitting on my front porch, thinking about how much I adore this family. If you’ve ever seen the movie, “Cars”, the part where Mater and Lighting McQueen are hanging out and Mater is ragging Lighting about being in love with the blue girl car (what’s her name?), and Mater keeps saying, “You lub ‘er. You lub ‘er. You lub ‘er.” Remember that part? Yep. That’s how I feel about these guys. I lub ‘em. I lub ‘em. I lub ‘em. I am blessed to know them, to spend time with them and be witness to the love and life running so rampant through their veins! Hopefully Eric can make it next time and little baby brother will be available for squeezing and kissing. Counting the days….
xoxo, AmyQ
by Amy
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