A while ago I got a text from a good friend of mine who I don't see often enough. She does watch my family grow through this blog though. Basically she said "I love seeing your kids, but I never get to see you." I went looking through pictures with a sneaky suspicion that I wouldn't find many, if any, pictures of myself. I was right.
I think since I got married I have been in very few pictures, and the ones that I am in, I hate, and have probably destroyed all copies. But how sad would that be if something happened to me and my kids had like 5 pictures to remember me by?
So I set out on a task--a very difficult task-- to take pictures of myself, doing normal everyday things that I do. No glamour shots, no poses, often no make-up. Its for my kids, but its also for me, to remember what my life was like with 5 little kids at home on daily basis. There's no editing, no slimming, no sugar-coating. I didn't make sure the house was clean before I took these shots, I just set up the camera so they would be real photographs.
I kinda love them.
This is my morning: I usually do three rounds of breakfast. Bryson and Brynn at 7:15, Stetson around 8, Hudson whenever he decides to get his sleepy can out of bed, usually between 9 and 10.
In typical boy fashion we must always have "guys" watching us eat our meals.
I change a lot of diapers. At 2 1/2 Stetson has absolutely no desire to potty train. He actually gets quite upset when I ask him to sit on the toilet and freaks out when I try. Guess we'll hold off a little longer on that:-(
I spend probably half of my day with a newborn on the couch nursing. Now that Jameson is older I can get off the couch more but for the first 6 months I have a semi-permanent seat on the couch with my baby
Hudson loves his baby brother so much. Wherever JJ is you'll find Hudson, no matter what he's doing. He loves to help me change him and dress him and just love on him.
Occasionally I'll move from the front couch to the back couch to help the kids with their homework while I'm nursing.
Notice the chaos that is my kitchen- Ironing board that has been out for a week, a box of apples on the counter that needs to be made into applesauce (but didn't and half of it rotted), an entire kitchen table covered in junk, groceries that didn't get put away, and always kids, everywhere:)
A rare moment when you can actually see part of the kitchen counter. The other half of my day when I'm not on my couch I'm usually in the kitchen. I'm always making food or some meal for someone. Someone is ALWAYS hungry....always.
Making dinner with a baby in my arms and two boys front and center, probably wrestling
Doing a billion loads of laundry. My life's three activities consist of nursing, cooking and laundry. Seriously though, I do sooooooooo much laundry.
Every once in a while I'm a good mom and sit down to read to this little guy. Its shockingly sad how little time I've spent reading to Sketty. We do get lots of one-on-one for being a fourth child, we just don't read as much as we should.
Sometimes I actually get to do something with myself. Its usually when the big kids are home from school, before Tanner gets home from work, that I think maybe I should try and look pretty for my husband before he gets home. Maybe he won't know that I was in my pajamas until 4 o'clock:)
These last pictures are actually my favorite. I actually love laying on the ground with a book and having my kids climb all over me. Its kinda like a cheap, full-body massage. I was laying down the other night with just Jameson crawling over me and he would go back and forth, diving over my back, laughing and then turning around and face-diving again. Its like those nature videos you see of a lioness and all her cubs. Occasionally I get my hair pulled out (okay, more than occasionally) or I get a knee in the face and then its not so fun. But for the most part I love being down on the floor with all my littles around me.
Notice the one on my back, thinking he's being sneaky with my phone.
I already said this project was hard but looking back through the pictures I realized it took me over a month just to get these few that I have. I had a hard time not trying to create a scene for each shot, just capturing the mundane things of life. I kept thinking "why do I need to take a picture of me in the kitchen?" Well, because thats kind of where I live! Maybe I'll try again in the near future but I'm glad my friend suggested this.
