SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH

As a working mom I cherish all the moments I have with Tae. Am I exhausted when I get home? That's an understatement, but I have learned quickly (or maybe not so quickly) that he will only be in this stage for a short time. My tiredness is easily forgotten as soon as I walk in the door and he bolts over to me with a smile on his face. 

We play with him for awhile and have dinner, and before he goes to bed we give him a bath.  It is so fun to watch him play and enjoy the bath. When he was a little tiny thing he HATED baths, so this time is so much more enjoyable because of our other not so fun baths.  Every night when I take him out he cries, but stops as soon as I pass him his toothbrush.

I decided to use what I learned in my Leap Year task this week and try to capture some moments in the bath.  Not the best, but he moves and splashes so much it's rather hard.  I love his little focused face as he tried to stuff every single item between the bathtub and the wall.  He was so proud of himself when he did it.

I am so thankful to be this kid's mom.  He teaches me something daily and I praise God for his goodness.  I've learned it's the simple things that give me the pleasures in mommyhood. Bathtime is one of those small simple moments I adore.

WEEK 1 OF MY LEAP YEAR

Well, after 36 weeks of watching Jess become more passionate, knowledgable, and committed to pursuing his dreams I have finally jumped on the bandwagon.  It wasn't that I didn't want to, I just kept letting excuses get in the way.  I'm too tired, I want to spend time with Tae, what if I'm not good at what I choose to pursue, what do I want to focus on? Those are just a few of the excuses that ran through my head when I posted Jess' weekly post.

So what finally made me do it, you ask?  I value our marriage and with a new kid, busy jobs, my online courses, and just plain adulting it's easy to let distance happen between Jess and I grow. When we first started dating we did so many things, both new and old, together.  We challenged one another to be better people and helped walk along side the other as they did. We worked out together, cooked, ran a 1/2 marathon, traveled, and took on silly challenges together.  Somewhere in the past 4 years we don't do tasks or have a common thing to do together.  I think joining The Leap Year will give us a common ground to grow on, both individually and together.

Task: My task for the first week was to write a list of what I was interested in and narrow it down to one thing.  My list was not overly long, but it was a little all over the place.

• Blogging 
• Yoga 
• Basketball 
• Get in the best shape of my life 
• Grow in my spiritual walk 
• Photography 
• Calligraphy 
• Watercolor 
• Make up 
• Service projects 

I decided that a lot of the things on my list are things I can always improve on (spiritual walk, health) and weren't totally new (basketball and blogging). I wanted to start fresh and challenge myself to to something I've always been interested.  I chose photography.  

My first task was done, but I had some extra time so I found a few photographers (Paige Ewing in Atlanta and Shay Nelson in Texas) whose work I really liked. I spent lots of time perusing their sites and finally got the nerve up to email them asking for advice on how to get started.  I don't plan on opening up a business, but I just wanted some tips on where to start. Photography can be expensive, with the cameras, editing software, lighting, etc and I have a history of jumping into things and not following through so I wanted to get advice of where to start.  

Reflection:  I'm excited to start my journey.  I'll be honest, I'm a little intimidated.  I don't like to start something that I'm not good at, but I am pumped to have a creative outlet and hopefully get some great pictures of Tae.