Tim says I have to get to bed by 11 pm tonight.

We read a lot of marriage books during our courtship and first years of marriage. During the submission chapters, I dutifully took notes, vowing to cheerfully submit to my husband. I have a wonderful mother and mother-in-law who model beautiful Christian marriages of mutual love and respect. My grandmother was a staunch advocate of marriage and believed submission was easy when your spouse was laying down his life for you as Christ did for the church.

No one ever warned me submission would involve bedtimes.

That’s going from preaching to meddling to this night owl.

Okay, perhaps Tim didn’t really say I have to go to bed by 11 pm. In fact, all he really did was make a suggestion. And, to be completely truthful (because I’m all about being honest on the blog here), it’s only because I was an emotional wreck today and am very over-tired and he’s looking out for my best interest.

Hmmm. That sounds an awful lot like loving as Christ loved the church.

Unfortunately that means I don’t have a parenting tip for the day. I could have spent some time this evening writing, but I decided to read to the children instead. If I ignore my children but compose a brilliant parenting tip, what have I accomplished?

Presents for the “Giving Tree,” a project blessing needy children in the community.

So, instead of cozying up to my wireless keyboard and sharing words of wisdom, I was snuggled on Big Blue with three children, reading Christmas books, opening birthday presents and reviewing piano lesson work.

Consider that your tip for the day - relish the sweet moments with your children. Hug them, read Christmas books, play a game, bake cookies. Smile. Close your mouth and wait just a few extra seconds before speaking words of correction and discipline.

Kathy
It’s three minutes to 11 pm - I still have to publish this post, throw together a lunch for Tim, turn off all the lights in the house, run a quick load of laundry, put the last of the dishes away and start the dishwasher. Maybe I’ll make 11:30 pm. That’s pretty close.

Yep, that’s me, always one to heed good advice.
Sigh.
Project 365 - Day 344

One of the joys of watching your children grow and mature through the years is delighting in their emerging gifts and skills. As a amateur photographer and obsessive blogger, I am thrilled when my children share in my hobbies.

How else would I enjoy such photographic treasures as these?

Joshua helped me get the Christmas lights up today.

Name this talented photographer .. creative self-portrait!!

Oh yes, and this little gem of a picture:

I’m awfully glad they caught that on film. Nothing like looking through the eyes of a six year old boy at the world around you.

Or at least the driveway. Modern art, I guess.

And then there’s this one:

Oh wait, no one in my family took that picture. I borrowed a WONDERFUL camera from a friend and this is one of her shots.

And this one:

What a gorgeous picture!

Of course, these family shots are much more interesting:

Look at Daniel perform stunning feats of athletic prowess! I thought that could only be done through Photoshop.

Notice David crying in the background of the second picture. An injury occurred and we caught it on film! This is good stuff. It’s right up there with hubcaps and shadows.

I also ended up with 20 pictures of the boys taking apart David’s old bike.

Twenty!!

And you all wonder how I manage to take so many photos in one year.

I overheard my apprentice photographer say, “David, you and Daniel go sit by Joshua while he works so I can take a picture of all three of you. It’ll be perfect - all of the boys together.”

It brought a tear to my eye. They’ve already learned to stage pictures for the blog. Next time she’ll surely suggest the models run put on matching sweatshirts. One step at a time. Some wisdom is attained only through experience.

So hand your kids your digital cameras (thank goodness for DIGITAL!!!) and see what kind of photographic mysteries and beauty they uncover.

Kathy
Projet 365 - Day 342

Well, almost.

Sarah tries out her new Gel Paint.

Project 365 is coming to an end. Wednesday is Day 339. It’s been a long year of many pictures. No wonder I’m having trouble writing our family Christmas newsletter, I’ve already said everything on the blog.

I never thought I could really take a picture every day for an entire year. I guess I should have been more worried about taking only a SINGLE photo each day. Maybe the second edition of Project 365 should be: Take a meaningful picture every day. Hmmm.

What do you think?

• Another round of Project 365 - don’t make it specific, just capture one image each day
• Scrap the whole thing. Enough is enough, how many pictures of cute kids do we really need?
• Change the whole focus - give each day a theme.
• Less rambling/babbling on the blog, more pictures.

Other thoughts…

Kathy

We recently had a photo shoot, about which Kathy wrote: Why Models Never Smile. It was quite the family outing, right up there with cutting a Christmas Tree or going to the Pumpkin Patch, but with none of the fun.

Actually, the photographer was pretty funny, working hard to get us all to smile or laugh, bossing us around in fine style, and keeping a running count of the number of times Joshua rolled his eyes. She tried to steal my Diet Coke, though, which was not quite so amusing — photographers need to know where not to cross the line.

Today the disk with the pictures arrived in the mail. Kathy saw the mailman coming (and even tried to wait for him) but had to go out, and so the disk was left for me to discover. “It’s a good thing Tim isn’t tempted by that sort of thing,” she consoled herself. “He’ll have no trouble waiting until I come home, so we can look at the pictures together.”

I called Kathy as I ripped open the envelope and slapped the picture disk into the CD tray — I was redirected to voicemail, since she apparently screens her calls. “Hey, Sweetie, just wanted you to know that the photo disk arrived today — I’m just loading the images onto your computer … ”

As I tell my boys, wife-taunting is a major perk of being married.

I received a call back almost before I had finished leaving the message. “What?” shrieked my bride, as I hurriedly adjusted the volume controls on my phone. “You had better just walk away if you want to see another sunrise, or whatever they call it when the sun comes up in the, er, ‘morning’.” (My beloved doesn’t really believe that there are two 7 o’clock hours in each day.) As threats go, it wasn’t particularly articulate, but chillingly effective, nonetheless. I backed slowly away from her computer, leaving the mouse pointer poised suggestively over the ‘OK’ button on the Image Loader wizard window.

I guess I’ll just have to wait until she gets home. Unless I were to pop the disk out and load them on a different computer, and then put it back …

Nah, she’ll ask me point-blank if I looked at ‘em, and then I’d dig myself even deeper. I’d better just wait …

What if I only looked at one picture, would that count? I could then ‘honestly’ say, “No, dear, I didn’t look at the pictures!”

Oh, I can’t stand it. I’ll just have to post a picture, so you can all enjoy. Here it is (scroll down):

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Keep scrolling …

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There. I shared the whole disk with you. Nobody can say I’m stingy.

Tim
Project 365, Day 334

They’re exhausted. It’s hard work being beautiful. Really, do you ever see professional models smiling? I think the more money they’re paid, the less they smile. Being haughty and angry is terribly chic these days.

I wonder if they have servants (or mothers) to pick up their clothes after a photo shoot.

I also wonder where Sarah put the other shoe.

Do fashion models wash their own dirty clothes? Maybe that’s why they’re always grimacing in those magazine ads. Too much laundry and too little time between the parties.

At least David’s clothes ended up in a laundry basket.

A good stylist is critical to the success of a celebrity.

Of course, until any of these kids actually BECOME celebrities, they are stuck with Mom as hair dresser, stylist, make-up artist, and assistant.

David and Daniel are some of my best customers. Okay, they don’t pay and they fuss a good part of the time, but then they don’t have a choice on how their hair is cut so I figure it all comes out even in the end.

Thank you for all your support and advice regarding our family portraits. It’s faithful readers like yourself that keep me blogging day after day. Well, that and the coffee. Okay, it’s pretty much the coffee.

I’ll be sure to share a picture or two (or 30 or 100) from our amazing photo shoot when I get the cd. The photographer was wonderful! I even managed to impress her with talk of the blog and the staggering number of pictures we’ve taken so far this year.

Although, now that I think about it, she might not have been ‘impressed.’ Hmmmm. That’s all right, Sarah was there to defend the blog.

Kathy
Project 365 - Days 331 & 332 (and counting)