one of the joys of a mac is photobooth and when you add unattended children to it, you get GEMS like the above.  love them.

(and... due to the resolution available through photobooth i think my kids look like muppets, which just adds to the fun)

it's been a loooooooooong time since we played a little giveaway game here at the ole bloggity blog, so it's high time we have a grand one.  jolie found my blog a few years ago and i was immediately won over by her candid artistry and personality.  she is true, in every sense. and she's an amazingly dedicated artist, painting EVERY day, much to YOUR benefit.  recently she did 100 daily paintings, selling them for one dollar per day. and right now she's doing a summer sunshine series, painting en plein air 5 times a week, AMAZING this girl is.

her own bio: 

Creating something everyday. It's how I stay sane and how I connect with my Creator.

Also, I can wax nostalgic for hours, so without my paintings, I’d just be a person who spends too much time and money on toys from eBay.

I try to live and paint like this.

starting tomorrow she will be doing a *name your own price* deal if you sign up for her newsletter. (i love getting her daily paints in my inbox, serves as daily inspiration for me!)

and right here, we'll be giving away one of her prints, worth $35 a pop.  to play, leave a comment about what is inspiring you today (and make sure you put your email address in the proper field) by friday, july 30 at 11:59 MST. also, if you facebook or twitter this giveaway, let me know and i'll enter your name twice.  come now, tell me what is inspiring you right NOW.

i love when i find surprises on my camera.  john took these shots and as i reviewed them this morning huge tears burst right out without warning.  the realization: my children are people, albeit tiny, they are their own people with huge futures unfolding before them. and they are growing up faster than i realize.

these moments RIGHT NOW are their childhood.  and while i have my own thoughts and needs and frustrations, it's my job to cultivate  THESE moments for them.  good things to store in their memory banks that they can call on when life weathers against them. the joy that they feel feeds me as well and it deserves to be captured so that they can call on and remember these moments with their siblings.

whenever we go out i still get asked if they're all mine and how close in age they are... but it's now followed by, "good for you!  you can tell how much they love one another."  i am one lucky mama.

lately john and i have been discussing love languages again.  we both took the test and we were both pretty surprised to find what has changed over the years.  the first time we took the test (about 6 years ago) words of affirmation was my number one. when john saw that he laughed and said, "that's the stupidest thing i've ever seen!"  which of course made me dissolve into tears. haha.   now, the tables have turned.  it's now his highest rated love language followed so closely by touch. 

when i went into this whole marriage thing nearly a decade ago i thought we had it all figured out. love was easy. love swirled alll around us. love was tangible in every act.  then entered a parade of moves, children, years, trials, blessings... and we sit in a very different place.  love is an act.  love is a movement, beyond ourselves sometimes.  it's something thought out and moved towards.  and yet, from my memory, i love my husband more fully now then i did when we married. his love for me has better taught me to love myself.  the love we have for our children unites us as i see his smile, his order, his eyes smiling back at me through them.  it's not in grandiouse sonnets or in dozens of flowers, it's now shown in folded laundry, dinner steaming from the oven, midnight grocery runs, holding hands under the table, emails of simple adoration, stolen dates, time snuggled on the couch... now love is truly tangible in every act.

looking at my test results now: words of affirmation and acts of service match perfectly, just two points below that time and touch weigh in equally... way below that, gifts.  when john saw how close all four of them are for me he commented, "When you think about it, all of yours, except the “gifts” are pretty close. Which could mean that you’re happy with whatever you get (except gifts)??"

i responded, "i am happy with gifts too.  i'm just a big fan of love, in general. ;-D i love to be worshipped and adored which in turn, makes me want to worship and adore others."

his response made me cry, "I guess “worship” says it all—heart, might, mind, and strength."

i do think i feel deeply, probably more than most people, probably more than is necessary or required or even considered normal.  but it's through this that i live and love to my greatest potential, with my whole heart:might:mind:strength.

i know my boy.  i know that new situations make him a little crazy.  but just give a few minutes and this:

turns into this:

to see more of our days (and the other kids too)