{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

I am joining in again even though I posted pictures yesterday too.

{pretty}I love the altar at our parish decked out for Easter. The music, the flowers, the little ones in their finest clothes, the incense, it all seems so joyful I just want to shout "He is Risen!"

{happy}
It makes me happy to bring a little of that joy home to share with my family.

{funny}
Leave it to Joseph to come up with all kinds of new uses for his Easter basket.

{real}
Because of the rain, Grandma's famous Easter Egg Hunt had to be brought indoors. 400+ eggs filled with candy hidden throughout our little home. Also, reality set in when I noticed in almost every Easter picture of sweet Gabe he is wearing just his onesie. He fell asleep and then made a mess of himself at dinner before I got a single picture of him in his tie. Oh well! It just means he has to wear it again, preferably on a sunny day so I can get a good shot :)

For more contentment visit:

Easter Photo Parade

My kids before bloody noses and Easter candy spoiled their Sunday best. Thanks for the duds, Grandma.

Almost a great family shot, if only Juju would have turned around. Eight people, one fraction of a second. It just seems impossible to capture.

Joseph is loving his new cars and carrier. Never have I seen anyone with such a fascination for wheels. I worry about him at sixteen :)

Here she flashes that sweet smile so elusive earlier. She loved her yellow dress, and a highlight of my Easter was hearing her squeal with delight as her egg came out of the dye a vibrant shade of her favorite color. She liked that magic trick a lot. She did not, however, get the concept that if she banged the egg on the table it would break.

My sweet Sophia, ever the princess.

My Bear, flashing her prettiest smile.

When did these girls grow so big? Banana wore shoes that made her mom envious. They were so cute, and too grown up. She's still supposed to be my little girl...

If it was hard to capture our little family of eight, trying to get 13 cousins to stop for a picture after being ramped up on Easter candy and wound up from Grandma's Easter Egg Hunt was impossible. 42 pictures and this is as good as it gets.

Our bunny cake, absent last year because I was too busy, made his return this year. Aunt Missy sure enjoyed it!

I much prefer carrot cake.

Still My Favorite Easter Picture

Seriously, nothing says Easter like a scary, baby-snatching bunny. How much do you think poor Gabe's therapy sessions will cost us?

This Isn't What I Signed Up For

Do you ever have those moments? Those moments where you think to yourself this is not what I thought life was going to be like? I always knew I would be a stay at home mom. Yes, there was a brief time in college I aspired to be a great chemist, researcher, then a great humanitarian, then perhaps a botanist. Really, though, I knew those were only grand schemes in my mind, and that I had been called to raise a family. Still, in many moments of chaos, diapers, mud, and messiness, I've wondered about this calling.

I also can distinctly remember a time, early in my homeschooling years when I came huffing through our back door, slamming it rather heavily, all the while letting poor dh know there was a reason I NEVER considered elementary school teaching as a career. Still, I knew I was called to homeschool as well.

This morning I had another of those moments. It is important to remember this all happened while I was making my morning cup of coffee, and had not yet had a chance to drink said coffee. I had all the kids happily (after 10 minutes over bickering about who got the last of the sugary Easter cereal) eating breakfast. It was finally almost quiet. I poured the water into the coffee press, went to set the timer, then I heard a thud, a pretty loud thud. I wondered what had fallen, what mess there was to clean up. Then the girls tell me it came from the back door.

It turns out a poor little bird flew into our back sliding doors, then promptly fell on the back doormat. It heaved a few heavy breaths-- and died. DIED! Right there on the door mat. All six of my kids watching the poor thing...

After the shock wore off I realized the dog was going to have to go out. I also realized the dog, who had watched the bird, was already curious about the ball of feathers on the doorstep. It then hit me that I was going to have to dispose of the bird.

In my bathrobe, ugly shoes, unkempt hair, (when did I get so old?) I went outside. I found the snow shovel, walked around the house, past the school kids walking, waved to a neighbor praying she would not come to say hello, and made my way to the back door. By this time most of the kids had abandoned the cereal that had earlier seemed such a treasure, and now had their noses pressed to the back door.

As I attempted to get the poor creature onto my snow shovel (a task that should have been easier), I hear chanting from my girls indoors... "Be a man, Mom! Be a man!!" That, my friends, is certainly not my calling. Disposing of dead birds, or any dead creature, before coffee, or ever, is also not my calling.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

I had been planning this post all week, then this morning, when I saw Leila's post, I felt we must've had very similar weeks, although she has better pictures to show for it.

{pretty}

No Lenten picture post would be complete without a daffodil. In this house we refer to them by the old-fashioned name Lent lilies. Little bits of sunshine in our Lent.


This prettiness was too much for me too. This little girl has the sweetest smile.



{happy}

My rhododendron are in full bloom for Easter. I was worried they would blossom too early, and then when the Spring storms hit earlier this week, I worried all their blooms would be blown off the bush and scattered through the yard.


Having this picture makes me happy. It gets the action of my little scooter-- he refused to crawl. He is almost always walking now, so I am so happy to have captured this moment of his baby days.


{funny}

I had to get this shot of our one lone purple phlox in a sea of pink. Don't you feel like that sometimes? I have lately. I feel like that one, single, little flower that somehow is different. This picture reminds me of the beauty in being a little different.


How is it such little ones pick up so fast on their parent's mannerisms. Here little Gabe is clearly telling a story in much the same fashion his mother would. The hand adds such emphasis :)


{real}

This is a sink full of dirty lunch dishes. It seems washing dishes by hand was God's plan for our Holy Week (like Leila, I'm doing my best not to complain). Thankfully, the repairman came late yesterday, so we have a working dishwasher in time for company this weekend.


Isn't it amazing how a camera can take that mess, blur it, and make it almost pretty? If only we could learn to have eyes like that. To blur the troubles and focus on the half full glass.


For more pictures see:

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Joining with Like Mother, Like Daughter on their new picture thoughts couldn't have come at a more appropriate time for me. My new camera loves this idea :)

{Pretty}

Spring has finally arrived (on some days). Sunday, while children happily played in the backyard, I snapped this picture of Easter flowers from years past lovingly planted by dh. They remind me Easter is fast approaching! I only wish I could capture the fragrance.


{Happy}

This little boy likes nothing more than to sit in that swing and be pushed over and over again. It makes me smile to see such a sweet boy content and laughing.



{Funny}

What do you think she sees?


{Real}

Despite how much he enjoyed the swing, Gabe has had a tough go of things since his round of shots late last week. He might be getting a few new teeth too. All of this has led to some serious bouts of fussiness the last few days.

Mom's New Toy

Please forgive me if for a few weeks my blog turns into a picture book. After months of hemming and hawing, a new camera arrived in the mail for me courtesy of dh. For the next few weeks, the amateur (and by amateur I mean a complete novice pretending to know what she is doing as she wields her new fancy-shmancy shiny new camera with knobs and buttons she knows absolutely nothing about) photographer in me will be in full force, driving those around me crazy as I snap another shot. If I am going to drive my family nuts as I try every new feature on my camera, it seems only fitting you, my blog friends, should have to be subjected to the results...

I love Gabe's big hugs. Here he has a special one for Daddy who deserves such squeezes for buying Mom such a nice camera, for doing all the research to pick said camera, and for mopping the kitchen floor.

This picture just makes me smile. My frilly, girly, sweet Bophie in favorite pink twirly skirt (now ripped from playing outside) in her muddy boots. Somehow it encapsulates that little girl's personality.

Here two little monkeys are hanging out watching Mom snap more and more pictures.

Some of them had their fill of pictures, others hammed it up and couldn't get enough of them :)