{really.good.stuff}

i am a wife first, a mom second, and a photographer third. to the everyday client, or  a top of their field business pro, this would seem like a bad thing to admit. luckily, all of my clients are extraordinary, and they get it. reality is….well, it just is. and lately, maybe i have been missing that. my career is certainly important, but most days i wake up every day to the pitter patter of tiny feet against my hardwood floors, and i am nothing more than your run of the mill, traditional, stay at home mom and wife.

i have done a lot of “jobs” in my search for the divine epiphany of life long fulfillment and satisfaction when it comes to a career. i worked as a bagger at supermarket (who hasn’t right?), i have worked in a convenient store/pizza place/ place to get beer at 11:00am on the way home from clamming the flats, i have landscaped and tended plants, i have raked blueberries and trimmed trees, i have telemarketted for a once fortune 500 company (i was shockingly good at this), i have been a jeweler, i have been an internet support technician, i have sold cell phone plans…i have sold just about everything but houses actually,  and when my husband became a computer technician for a small town, i found myself, for the very first time since i was 15 years old, without an actual “job”….and i became a stay at home mom.

now…as you might imagine, being a mom is riveting, edge of your seat excitement on a moment to moment basis. right. actually…not so much. excuse my honesty for a moment, but the every day monotony of housework and child conversation can swallow you until you find yourself, one fine day, talking to the postman in 3 year old jargon when asking for a stamp to mail  your electric bill. (luckily, my postman understands baby talk, but you get the point).  i get up every day, not as a photographer, but as a mom. and its not glamorous, and my house isn’t always clean like i wish it was, and some days, i don’t wash the floor on my hands and knees (okay, i never do this….but in case my grandma was listening from heaven…i had to say that i DO), and sometimes giving the kids a bath can only be compared to running a marathon when you haven’t carb loaded, and you stayed up too late the day before.

but the truth is…the every day…is good. it’s REALLLLY good. ridiculously delicious even. and when the pitter patter of little feet run by my bedroom door WAY too early in the morning (helloooo, when do kids start sleeping in???), i should be nothing but thankful and full of…well, pure, uninhibitted joy. because i have it all…great little girls, a super sweet hubby, amazing friends near and far, a somewhat (cough) clean house, and i have the ‘every day’ life…the clothes hanging on the line outside, the cookouts, the flu seasons, the car pool to school, the pick up the dry cleaning, the drama free and relaxing nights at home…a completely thrilling every day life….

and a dishwasher. i also have that.

Daily Mantra: “joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are….” {marianne williamson}