Spring in Chicago
One of my favorite things about living in Chicago is being so close to Lake Michigan. We love to see Spring appear before our eyes...the leaves on the trees returning, the flowers blooming, and the boats appearing in the harbor. The kids love to sit and watch the boat races, and all of the activitiy on the lake now that Chicagoans have come out of hibernation.
The kids favorite spot for sightseeing on the lake
CATEGORIES: Kids and family
Mother’s Day
You never need a special occasion to tell someone you love them, but I think we should take every opportunity to shower mothers with love and attention. Motherhood has been the most incredible experience of my life, and my children are the first thing I think of in the morning and the last thing I think about at night...my love for them, hopes for their future, and also my fears about guiding them through life. Becoming a mother has made me appreciate my own mom so much more --- and I already appreciated her.
I want to take this opportunity to thank my Mom for her unwavering support, love, warmth and her incredible ability to find the best in people, and to find happiness in the small things. Whenever I face a parenting dilema, I always ask myself, "what would mom do." She is the calm in the middle of the storm for everyone in her life. My kids are so lucky to have such an incredible, vibrant grandmother. I hope that I can be to my kids what she is to me.
Wishing you all a very happy Mother's Day!!
My beautiful mom in the 70's
CATEGORIES: Kids and family
Moms, get back into the picture!
As soon as I had kids, I started taking pictures, and stopped getting into the shot. WIth the exeption of a few photos that my husband took of me with my newborns, I can rarely be found in a photo. I don't particularly want to see myself in photos, and my top priority is documenting my kids' lives (the photo above is about as close as I normally get to being in a picture!) . Our lives as mothers are mostly unseen, and unless we do something about it, we will edit ourselves out of our kids visual history. Allison Tate's article, The Mom Stays in the Picture in The Huffington Post brought me to tears, and beautifully illustrated this phenomenon.
Allison says, "I'm everywhere in their young lives, and yet I have very few pictures of me with them. Someday I won't be here -- and I don't know if that someday is tomorrow or thirty or forty or fifty years from now -- but I want them to have pictures of me. I want them to see the way I looked at them, see how much I loved them. I am not perfect to look at and I am not perfect to love, but I am perfectly their mother."
CATEGORIES: Kids and family
