facebook + like = coffee!

Hi all,

I just got around to creating a Facebook page for Sherah G Photography.

So here's the deal.

If you "like" the Sherah G Photography page (click here!)

between now and Tuesday, January 17th at midnight,

I'll enter you into a drawing for a

$20 gift card to Starbucks.

Woohoo!

(And, if you're not a coffee lover,

you can have one of their breakfast sandwiches.

Or, you can give the gift card back to me next Christmas.)

:)

And p.s.  

If you've already "liked" the page,

thank you!!

You're automatically entered!

******
UPDATE:

Thanks so much everyone for liking the FB page (...and Starbucks, of course!).
The winner of the gift card is...
Bob Landon!

Charlie + sink

I'm learning some of the reasons why people say being a mom is a lot of work.

Yes, yes. I'm well aware of the sleepless nights, the diaper changes, the discipline games, the eat-this-piece-of-broccoli-so-help-me standoffs. But it's the intentionality that's starting to get me. Sometimes, Charlie and I sit there and stare at each other. And I think, Wait. I'm the Mom. I'm supposed to come up with something educational/productive/entertaining for us both to do? At this very moment? 


Shoot.

Compounding the problem? The fact that, in my own house, I'm an anti-mess sort of person. Clean up after yourself -- or better yet, yeah... just don't do anything that requires cleaning up.

(Note the point of conflict between my lofty ideals and a one-year-old.)

So, I'm starting to learn how to get messy. Some parents can let their kids dump dirt on the floor and just clean it up later. Others do scrapbooking and cutting and gluing on the dining room table, with little scraps of pink construction-paper stars getting wedged between the floorboards or glued to the underside of the chairs. I applaud their bravery, and their creativity.

Me? I decided to start with water.

Doesn't this look idyllic? Charlie, happily playing away in the sink. Mommy, happily snapping pictures.

Actually:

Charlie had a cold. His nose was dripping all over the place.
Being the responsible mother I am... I was propping him up with my foot (so that he wouldn't fall off the chair) and taking pictures at the same time.
Then he started sucking on the hose nozzle thing. Do you have any idea how many germs are on a kitchen hose nozzle thing?
And then (of course) water was everywhere.
Down his pants.
Inside the cabinet.
On the floor.

But, Charlie was happily playing away in the sink.

I was just, more or less, stressfully taking pictures,
trying not to think about the water on the floor,
and giving myself a little pep-talk:
There! Good effort, newbie-mom. Good effort.

tab fest

Whenever Marty uses my computer, he's shocked at the number of tabs I have open in my internet browser. (Does anyone else out there do this? Maybe it's a girl thing? Or a SMART PERSON thing? Come on, give me some ammo to throw back at my chiding husband. He just thinks I'm nuts.)

With the rise of Pinterest, it's been easier to quell my tab fetish by just pinning the links. Problem is... sometimes I just like the layout of a website. Or the general feel of it. Maybe there's something I don't really want to pin -- just something I'd like to remember for later. Regardless, my endless tabs live on.

Here's a sampling of what's pulled up at the top of my browser today:

Ann Voskamp's blog (and specifically, this daily to-do list. Brilliant.)

B&H Photo... and this new lens (yay!)

Peanut-Butter Banana Nutella cupcakes (can you say "WOW"?!) from Casey Wiegand's blog.

Winter Sewing Projects from Martha Stewart. (Don't hate. I love Ms. Martha Stewart. She's ingenious. I'd make every single one of these things... if my sewing machine wasn't buried under a pile of books, and if I didn't have a one-year-old, and if my house was clean. etc. etc. etc.)

Happy pinning/linking/tabbing/doing-something-otherwise-useful-with-your-life-ing!

tonight

In the bleak midwinter,

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone.

Snow had fallen, snow on snow

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

long ago.

(Lines from Christina Rossetti's well-known carol.)

I haven't taken down my Christmas decorations yet. A quick look at my invisible "full schedule vs. low energy ratio" chart tells me that I'm pretty sure we'll have our tree up until March. Or maybe April. If I can get it down before Easter, we'll be doing good...

Hmm. Positives? 

*The ambient light is nice.

*I can pretend I did it on purpose, because I really love Christmas. (Which I do.)

*Charlie's delight over "TISMAS LIGHTS" will be extended for a few more weeks. (Or months.)

*When it finally gets around to really snowing in Chicagoland (!!), I can turn my calendar back to December, look out the window, and pretend like we really did get a big snowstorm on Christmas Eve.

Speaking of winter...

There's this little closet nook in the back of our house where I do some of my editing. (We're currently in transition-mode between PC and Mac. The PC's been banished to the closet. 'Nough said.) It's chilly back there, but tonight, I had a good amount of work to do. So -- how cliche is this? -- I made some hot chocolate, lit a pretty candle, wrapped myself in a blanket, and got some serious work done back there. 

A perfect, quiet, wintry work-night. Minus the token blanket of snow outside.

new year

Have you made lots of resolutions? Just a few? None at all?

One thing I'm focusing on this year is doing more writing. I've always loved writing (it was part of my major in college), but it's gotten pushed to the side in the last few years. This year, I'm blocking out time for it every day, even if it's only a few minutes. Some of it will appear here... and some of it won't. In the past, I've blogged about what I think my readers (all three of you *HIGHFIVE!*) might want to read. Too much about Charlie? CUT. Too much sappy stuff? CUT. Too much transparency? CUT. But, I'm learning that the most powerful writers write what they want to read. They write for themselves. (I should add that Christian writers write for an even bigger purpose -- they write for Jesus.) 

There's always the "transparency vs. too-much-honesty" line, and I'm working on defining that in my mind, and on the page. I'd much rather tell someone verbally about my struggles, or my dreams, or the best book I've ever read -- or heck, what I ate for breakfast this morning -- rather than have them read about it on my blog. But the truth is this: 

(1) I'm at home a lot, and often my personal contact with people is usually limited. 

(2) This blog has the potential to reach a world of readers whom I know nothing about (and may never know). 

(3) Writing, and photography, are creative outlets for me, in the midst of the sometimes hum-drum routine of life. They help me see beauty in the everyday. They spark my interest in life. They push this melancholy girl out of her comfort zone. I need that. 

(4) Regardless of whether anyone reads this blog, or comments on my posts, or thinks that it's valuable (or, on the contrary, a waste of valuable time)... it doesn't matter.

I came across this link on SimpleMom.net, about a nanny in the 1950's who spent her life photographing images of Chicago with a Rolleflex camera. The negatives were discovered in a box after her death in 2009, revealing a lifetime of beautiful work. The pictures are incredible. And she never received any credit for them.

But, you see, that's not the reason why she took them in the first place.

Happy 2012! Here's to better writing, better photography, better living... tasting and enjoying the fullness of life, all to the glory of God.