Picture Time

Okay... What does it say about you when you can take great pictures of someone else's kids but you just can't seem to get any good ones out of your own?? That was rhetorical, please don't answer that because I'm not sure I want to know!!!

So I decided that today the day was sufficiently pretty, the day was not too cold, we didn't have anywhere else we had to be, so it must be a good day for pictures, right? So off we go to the choruses of "Awwww Mom!" "I wanted to build a fire!" "Do we have to??" "Can't we do it tomorrow?" "Can I just wear what I've got on?" (that one was about the last straw for me as the child in question was artfully decorated with peanut butter and bird seed from the pine cone feeders they had been making... and he asks can he just wear what he's got on! Arrrrgggghhhhh!!!) So I give them all the "Mommy Face" (yeah, I hear ya laughing... you've got one too!) and we get fluffed and puffed and head out to the field. I was certain that, with my new found skill at photography, I would be able to snap, snap, snap, and have the perfect Christmas card photo of my three lovely children. This was the first attempt...

Now, God love him, my wild man just cannot behave... So we're off for another attempt.

This time we're looking better, but still just a little silly...

Are we eeevvver going to get a good picture???

Well, suffice it to say, each of my children were well on their way to the wooden spoon award when they finally decided to act like civilized children.... And then my camera messed up. I feel like Charlie Brown when he goes to kick that football that Lucy's been holding for the past 40 years... Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!!! I got blurry shots, I got dark shots, I got enough red-eye shots that I was beginning to wonder was my camera picking up on the little devil I know is in each one of my children!!! I changed settings and took pictures, I changed my position and took pictures, I tried to change the lighting but that wasn't working out for me.... And then, finally, (after I fell over backwards while squatting down trying to get a good shot)...

And my kids got so tickled at Mom's goofiness....

We got the shot

we'd been looking for...

Isn't it precious when you look back on photos of your children and you realize that it really didn't matter that there were grass stains on their jeans.

It wasn't important that that shirt didn't really fit very well.

It won't even be remembered that the shoes that were worn were his play shoes instead of his good ones... nobody will even notice.

What's important is the love we have for our children... the love they have for us... the looks on their precious faces as you remember them in this one particular moment in time, how sweet they are, how aggravating they were at that age, how they made you laugh, and how they will never be that age ever again.

And you stop for a moment and you thank God above for the blessing of your children. And you pray that as they are such a blessing to you, God will give you strength, courage, wisdom, knowledge, kindness, steadfastness, and great heaping measures of grace so that you may also be a blessing to them.

"And her children arise up and call her blessed;..." Proverbs 31:28

My goal in life is that some day my children shall "arise up and call (me) blessed".... without me having to withold food until they do.

Have a blessed night and sweet sleep my friends... ;-)

L