Precious Time

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I'm still in my hometown of St. Louis and will be here until March 13. One month apart from my brand new husband, who is home sweet home in Seattle. But also one whole glorious joyful much needed month with my beloved kids, sweet grandson and good friends. It's hard to be away so long, but I am starting to settle in, thanks to the genoristy of my daughter and future son-in-law opening their home to me. I even have my own bedroom & bath downstairs in their new house. How lucky & loved am I?! Usually when I am here, by the time I get home, I am exhausted -mentally, physically & emotionally- (for me, at least!) from so much rushing & running around and social interaction in overdrive mode But after the initial whirlwind of worry & stress that caused my early/unplanned arrival (my sons injury & hospitalization), things are now settling into a somewhat relaxing routine of sleeping late (i blame the 2 hour time zone change!), sweet, slow moving mornings and then hours of playing trucks & cars & pretend & blocks with my grandson, thrift shopping with my daughter, late nights of DVD movie watching or reading, home cooked meals, and glorious grateful relief of having everyone I love the most within either easy reach or sight (my husband and mom notwithstanding, of course!) I needed this, badly. I need to see, touch, hear my "babies". A mothers heart is never calm, unless those who make it beat are close at hand. Although I have spent the past few days fighting some icky sickiness, I am greatly enjoying the rather lazy, slow paced, rythym of living in a 2 and a half year olds world.  There is no cable, tv, or internet (except when I go to Starbucks, like now!) in this world, (but plenty of "Yo Gabba Gabba"!) so my main mode of entertainment is Ryatt, who, obviously, is much more interesting, funny, and adorable than any tv show, movie or web page I could ever hope to see!

Today I wanted to ctach up with 2 online activities I participate in, first being Wishcasting Wednesday
from Jamie Ridler. Her prompt for this week is:

"HOW DO YOU WISH TO SPEND YOUR TIME?"

This is so ironic, because with no internect at my daughters house, I have not been able to keep up with much of anything in my online world (opr the outside world at large, for that matter!) so until I just now went onto Jamie's webpage, I had no idea what this weeks prompt even was... but I think that I already made my answer to this prompt clear in the first paragraph of todays post that I just wrote above! How I am spending my time here in my hometown, with my family (and soon, with friends), is exactly how I wish to be spending my time, for now.

I am also sharing my photo for this weeks 52 Photos Project prompt which is:

"WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO PICK UP YOUR CAMERA?

What have you been photographing/creating?"

My sweet grandson Ryatt, laughing at something goofy his Gooma just said!
Feb. 21, 2012, age 29 months

Obviously, there are endless things that inspire me to pick up my camera (as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of photos I have taken over the years!) but right now, this week, THIS is what is inspiring me the most. This happy, funny, silly, sweet, senstitive, creative, adorable, joyful, precious little person. I have always called him the man of a thousand faces. I only wish that I could capture them all! I rarely shoot photographs of people, they are just not my thing because I don't feel that I am very good at capturing a persons essence. But his animated expressions just beg to be caught...and savored, as he changes and grows so  quickly & so much every few months that I get to be with him.

Hope everyone has a lovely, love-filled weekend! I get to spend mine with Ryatt, while his mama & dada got out of town to celebrate my daughters 27th birthday. Yep, I know what I am talking about when I said that they change and grow so quickly & so much...

~xo~
Happy Me-Laurie Z!