From the loveliest of blogs: http://www.birdsofashmae.com

"The other night I told Carl that I was turning into someone who just wants to watch an episode of the Colbert Report and be in bed by 9:30 every night, and this proclamation was not without a heavy note of despair.  "What's so wrong with that?" he said.  To which I responded in my head, "nothing." but in a way, a lot of things.  I, along with every other mother of young kids, or person responsible for things other than your dreams, worry that I am watching all the grand ideas I thought I would do, slip away.  And not necessarily in the way that they are slipping through my fingers and there's nothing for me to do about it, but some in the way that I am simply waving them on with the explanation that now is not the time.  Sometimes it seems like they dance away in bright colors and turn to ask me, "are you sure you don't want to join?" and then I look at Remy, and I say to them "no thank you, I'm working on something else."  This is a both a refining and sanctifying process."

"But there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom." David Foster Wallace

Posing Ideas {Mom and daughter}

"I didn't always know what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be." -Diane Von Furstenberg

http://miloissweet.blogspot.com

www.etsy.com/shop/trafalgarssquare

"Do the best you can through these years, but whatever else you do, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones. Mothers, we acknowledge and esteem your faith in every footstep. Please know that it is worth it then, now, and forever."

-Jeffrey R. Holland

Posing Ideas {Mom + Baby}

 http://www.ontobaby.com/2011/09/christine-berry-baby-lennon/

Image from Your Homebased Mom

Jo: "How did you learn to keep still?" Marmee’s answer: "I am not patient by nature...I must try to practice all the virtues I would have my little girls possess." Little Women

The Apron by Jennifer Fulwiler

... “So,” I explained, “Here’s the invention: It’s a piece of fabric that goes over whatever you’re already wearing, for when you’re doing messy work. Then, when it’s time to leave the house, you can take off this fabric covering, and your clothes underneath will still look great!”

I waited for my husband to jump out of his chair and pronounce me a genius. Instead, he said: “Umm, are you talking about an apron?”

Oh. Yeah.

It’s amazing that in the span of one generation, a clothing item that was once a staple of married women’s wardrobes could become almost entirely obsolete. Though our grandmothers used aprons regularly, women my age didn’t see much of them in our own childhoods, and rarely use them ourselves. The common thinking about why the apron fell out of favor, even with stay-at-home moms who might have a use for one, was that it came to be associated with unpopular concepts like traditional gender roles and stifled housewives during the cultural upheaval of the 1960s and ‘70s.

That’s certainly true, but I think the reason for the apron’s decline goes even deeper than that.

One of the cornerstone beliefs of the modern secular world is that the meaning of life is to maximize your personal pleasure and comfort; therefore, people are encouraged to minimize phases of life that might involve hard work or service of others. This probably impacts women with young children more than anyone. They receive the message loud and clear that their situation, with all the mess and physically demanding work that goes with it, is the very antithesis of a good life. No way to thrive here, the thinking goes...

This is why I’d like to see the apron make a comeback. It is the essential accessory for a life of service. Donning an apron is a simple act that sends a surprisingly powerful message, especially if you’re a mother. It’s a symbolic gesture that indicates that you’re seeking to thrive now, here in the midst of the toil that comes with nurturing new souls; that you see the work of serving others not as a temporary phase, but as a key aspect of a well lived life. Taking the time to fasten the strings of an apron around your waist sends a message (to yourself, as much as to anyone else) that it’s worth the effort to protect your clothes so that you can look nice at the end of the day—that self-care has not been shoved to the backburner just because you have children."

The Queen

Image by Cori Dantini

A writer's (Michelle L. from Segullah) response to thinking about leaving church early when her kids lean over and say "If you leave, I'm going too."

"Even the most novice chess player recognizes the most powerful piece in the game– not the king, nor the bishops, the leaping knights or the eager pawns– but the elegant, versatile queen. She moves powerfully across the board influencing the moves of every other piece.

My sister recently suggested Satan is working extra hard to discourage me because I am the queen of my household. Not the ‘dripping diamonds, bring me a cake’ sort of ruler, but the ‘my actions shape everyone else’ kind....

My little chess mavens taught me the best way to defeat the queen is to distract her; create all kinds of chaos around her, then take her down. Our world could scarcely contain more distractions for women– beauty secrets, social networks, PTA, Pinterest– we are expected to hide our wrinkles, watch our weight, serve the community, maintain a career (at least a little something on the side), all while nurturing children, making dinner and cultivating a happy marriage.

For me, staying on my game means making choices, eliminating too much busyness and shutting out the voices of discouragement. I’m determined to ignore those minions whispering cruelties in my ear. I’m brushing them off, stomping on their little tails and sweeping them out my back door. I need to live boldly, happily and guide my children along with me. No influence?! Look at these people I’m sending out into the world– honest, smart, good and kind.

No one can take me down; I’m the queen."

Acts 17:4

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.” ~Rajneesh

Educated Women

Quote from Styleberry

You are my

Free printable here.

Motherhood and Seasons

Photography Projects

What is Motherhood? *Styleberry*

A day in the life *Lora Swinson*...

 What I want my kids to know *Styleberry*...

12 pictures on the 12th of every month *My Words*

ABC Book * http://juliepaisleyphotography.blogspot.com

"but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. this is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. there is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. and I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."

anna quindlen

Metaphor for Motherhood

"It all begins so very simply; bend, stretch– pliè, relevè. Repeat. A million times. Point and flex. Focus on your spot. Find your center of balance. A million times. Simple motions, repeated endlessly. These exercises become building blocks, tools of divine refinement. Repeated and mixed in infinite combinations, built into ever more complicated moves. Repeat. There will be moments of monotony, even futility. But the true dancer pushes on. Pliè, relevè: through sweat and tears, bloody toes, and aching muscles. All under the deep scrutiny of the mirror; always watching, absorbing, analyzing and reflecting her every move. To truly find success requires support, passion, consistency, courage….and even faith. Then somewhere in the midst of all this, at points impossible to perfectly identify, muscles are sculpted. Postures are formed. And physical grace, rhythmic and musical, is infused. It bonds with the soul and emanates so effortlessly from the body that it becomes an appendage. Beauty is simply part of who and what she is." by Jennie Wilde

Mother and Daughter

"A deficit has begun between mother and daughter. I resent it, deny it, treat it in gum and frozen yogurt, hand hold it and peppermint foot massage it when she allows. My mother heart wants to set everything, like a tea set, right. (I fear she is skeptical of me, loving, yes, but some part of her feels forever removed, withdrawn from my heart.) I don't want to hear that I can't straighten her white hair flower on the way to church. I am still young in mothering, I want to live in Eden awhile longer." From Terresa Wellborn

"I sometimes wake in the early morning and listen to the soft breathing of my children and think to myself, this is one thing I will never regret and I carry the quiet with me all day long.

- Story People

There is time still
for sitting in cafes
in Paris
sipping wine.

Time still
for going to meet
the guru.

There is time still.

Now I am caring for eternity.
Carrying bodies soft with sleep to beds
of flowered quilts and pillows.
Answering cries deep out of nighttime fears.
Buckling shoes.
Opening doors.
Pretending.

My soul is now dwelling in the house of tomorrow.

Tomorrow there will be time
for long leisurely conversations,
for poems to write,
time still.

So I surrender now
to them and this,
knowing it is they
who will teach me
how to do it all.
--Peggy O'Mara