Category: Family

My youngest was born…River Hazel McDonald.  It doesn’t seem that long ago.  I can remember that day quite vividly.  Luckily it was a Sunday.  Early in the morning, my water broke and I knew things were happening…so I woke up Christopher and said we should wake up the kids and call my mom.  Then we called my mother-in-law, who lives in Maryland.  Once my mother arrived, we chatted and she told us to get going to the hospital.  But I wanted to stay and talk some more.  I figured the less time at the hospital, the better.  Then I decided I needed to make a fresh cup of coffee, so that when my mother-in-law arrived there would be fresh coffee.  About a half hour later, my mother said we had to go right then or we’d give her a heart attack…so off we went.  Well, thank goodness we did leave then because on our way to the hospital..things started to speed up and I almost thought we wouldn’t make it!  Without going into all the details….twenty minutes later…..little River was born!

One of the blogs I frequently read is ashleyann photograph.  I love all her bright photos and inspirational images.  Today, her post was all about leaving proof by taking photos with your kids.  I found it inspirational.  This is quoted directly from her site:

Here is a brief summary from the flickr group dedicated to this…it is well worth your time to read it. The below is written by Emilie Ahren:

“Many scrapbookers knew Aleida Franklin. She was a wonderful wife and mother and a brilliant artist. I didn’t know Aleida personally, but she taught me something I will never forget.

She emailed me last year to tell me she loved my blog and to ask if I liked my short hair-cut. This lead to a series of emails which eventually led me to remark that I really loved how often she posted pictures of herself with her children on her blog. And she replied to me, “Have you ever seen a photograph of your own mother and thought to yourself how fat she looked? Or how she wasn’t wearing make-up? Or wasn’t dressed in a glamorous outfit?” Of course my answer was no.

She then responded with saying that she made it a goal to take a picture of herself with her children at least once every month. And that to use excuses about how we look, as women, is ridiculous, since our children will never care what we looked like, but only that we had physical evidence of the bond between mother and child.

Aleida tragically and unexpectedly passed away in an auto accident in September of 2008, leaving 2 small children and a grieving husband. After she passed I thought of how those children must feel to have those precious photographs. I have made it my personal goal to follow her wise suggestion and I try to take photos of myself with my children….double chins, make-up free, bed-head and all.

I invite Mothers everywhere to take Aleida’s Challenge. To photograph yourself with your children each and every month. And to post them here so that we can see Aleida’s legacy unfolding.”

So, here are my photos from today………