10/22/2025
Today was a day... one of those you really don't want to repeat, and I'm just going to get personal for a minute alongside this sweet image of Cam and Danielle, their boys and sweet sweet Olly...
We can so easily see each other's families just like this photo, perfectly composed with smiles on everyone's faces, but that's just not the case. And it sure wasn't the case for us today. It started with a glass shattering in my hand without any reason for it to, and I just felt an attack starting on my family.
Right before that, my amazing "mother's helper" who comes on Wednesday messaged saying she was sick, so I was on my own on a day that I really needed help (trying to catch up on editing). I got my children to start their breakfast, and cleaned up the broken glass all over my bedroom floor. All while praying to God for protection and His guidance for what seemed to be the start of a rough day. I was not wrong.
I had not been able to finish all my tasks from yesterday, so my to do list was about three times as long as I was comfortable with, and I decided to utilize the MP3 recording that came with our homeschool curriculum for the first time ever. I felt like a failure, big time. It felt like my children were educating each other better than I could. Not a good feeling.
By 10.00 AM we're normally sitting down for tea, but there I was still waiting for the kettle to start boiling all the while multi-tasking a double batch of tomorrow evening's meal and starting to make dough for this evening's meal (that would be finished and assembled by Easton). Finally, at 10:37 AM, tea done, children listening to their third lesson of the Chemistry unit of Gather Round (our homeschool curriculum), I'm still working on finishing the meals, rushing to get it done by the time that the baby wakes up again, and also struggling to keep the toddler quiet. She's a tough one, so that was not a small feat.
Did it get better? Somewhat... Lunch was reasonably on time, the toddler fell down the stairs, right past the preschooler. There was a moment where the oldest was being dragged over the floor through our back door (Why? I still don't know, but she seemed to find it hilarious - me, not so much.)
I sent a video to my husband of myself breastfeeding the baby, all the while the other two little girls were both screaming on my bed (could you believe they weren't allowed to throw the diapers and inserts all over the floor???) and his response was, "Are you excited for nap time?" He couldn't actually think I was going to have time for a nap, right? I learned he meant the girl's nap time, which makes a lot more sense.
Fourty minutes of crying from the toddler and she did finally have her very necessary nap. I finished cooking the wraps, took my eldest to her orthodontist appointment, rushed my second to his job immediately after, and got home just in time to feed the baby.
And here I sit at my desk at the end of the day, with all of my editing still waiting for me (it'll be a late night) and I am grateful. Of course today was hard. But I leaned on God in all those hard moments, and I got through it. I get a little better at patience every single day. I do not have enough time to study God's Word on a day like today, but I sure pray. And that's the only reason I can do this. Even though it really feels like I can't.
Wife first (just like my husband is a husband first).
Mother second.
And then comes this beautiful calling that God has gifted me with: capturing beautiful families on their best days. Because while the hard is worth getting through, these photos soften those hard edges a little bit.
God is good.
