photography lessons

• George, the first words out of your mouth this morning were about the Stanley Cup sitting in our living room.  You're still full of awe and disbelief that Katie won it and it's here in our house.
• Lila, mornings are hard for you, and perhaps that's part of the reason you don't like school.  If only it started at noon.  You did, however, pull yourself together and put on a killer outfit and head out the door with only a few tears.  
• Lila, your class grew a couple tubs full of daffodils.  They're beautiful, and you kids are so proud of them because you helped plant them in the fall.
• Lila, I came to school early as I normally do.  You were doing your journal work.  I have kept Jane and Katie's kindergarten journals because they are the cutest things that have ever existed.  I love seeing the growth and progress through the year.  
• We played after school until the storm clouds blew in along with a cold wind and the threat of rain.  George, on our way to the van you spotted a huge muddy puddle.  You can't resist.
• Lila, I found some drawing tutorials online and printed them for you.  You did the rose tutorial today.  You rocked it!  You're so artistic.  I was very impressed, especially with the usage of two shades of yellow in the petals.  I also love that you added the thorns because they weren't included in the tutorial.
• Katie, we had our first photography lesson tonight.  I've decided to start you off with shooting in manual right away.  I want you to learn how to learn the camera to it's fullest potential, so I'm not going to let you use any sort of automatic settings.  You caught on very quickly, and you said all the terms were very familiar to you.  I think you're going to pick it up very fast.  
• I read this article today.  It got me thinking about how I have represented our lives online.  Have I been honest?  Have I been authentic?  Have I presented our family in a light that is accurate?  I went back and read through a bunch of my posts.  I do tend to focus on the positive, but I feel like I also don't shy away from the hard stuff.  I'm very aware of the need to protect the privacy of you, Jane and Katie, so I don't go into details of the hard stuff in your life.  We certainly do have struggles.  The last three months have been so hard for our family.  We've done the best we know how, and we're just praying we're doing what's right...or at least not completely screwing things up.