Normal Day

“normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. let me hold you while i may, for it may not always be so. 
― mary jean irion

We got our family pictures taken a couple weeks ago for the first time ever. I had always figured there were plenty of pictures being taken by me, so there was no need to pay someone to take some of all of us together. While reminiscing through old blog posts a few weeks ago, I realized that the number of pictures of me with my family were slim to none. Closer on the side of none. I felt like, if something terrible happened tomorrow and my life ended, my kids would grow up and ask Joe, "what did Mother look like?". So, I decided we needed family pictures. 

The idea of family pictures is simple. We want something to be able to look at years down the road to remember what life was like then. Cohen was 4, Elliot was almost 3, Joe still had hair, etc. But, I never realized how much pressure there is when you are paying someone to take pictures of your family once every four years. Picking out what everyone is going to wear, praying the kids cooperate, hoping you have a good hair day (Joe), and you're always so hyper-aware of everything when someone is taking pictures of you (what do I do with my hands? am I holding my arms right? is this a good angle? are my kids picking their noses again?). 

When my friend Amber brought the pictures by and I looked through them, I was so glad we did it. Even though I don't like looking at myself in pictures, I was in the pictures with my family. And we would love them forever.  

As I was posting them to the blog, I came across these pictures I had taken of the kids a few days ago. They were in their wrinkled, regular clothes. They were dirty. Elliot had some boogers on her face. They were being silly. Their hair was messy. But I loved them because THIS IS WHAT OUR REAL LIFE IS. And I can look back at these and remember that. We don't wear nice sweaters and button-up shirts. We live in a small house that we're always wishing was a little bit bigger, and a little bit nicer. If you stopped by, most of the time you would find my kids playing in the backyard half-dressed. But that's what our normal is. And we're happy. We're really, really happy.