Dear Jake,
Thanks for taking care of the kids while I'm at my blogging conference. You're an awesome Pop. They'll love you forever for all the things you do with them now, even if it's hitting them with snowballs. Maybe especially for that.
Love,
Rebecca
Click on over to my complete Flickr photostream to see the other six pictures from Week 5.
I promised to do better this week and get my Project 365 post up on Friday. That was before my computer went away for the later part of the week and most of the weekend. So, next time.
Here's my pick from Week 4 of my project. There's nothing special about how I filled the frame, but the subject matter connects to my identity, so I like it anyway. I rode a big yellow bus like these twice a day every school day from the first day of sixth grade until the last day of twelfth grade. There's even a picture somewhere of me in cut-off jeanshorts getting on the bus for the very last time. I wasn't one of the kids who painted a parking space in the student lot. I didn't even drive in high school. Heck, I didn't drive in college. I was 24 and married before I had my license. It seems pretty unimportant now, but back then, it seemed like a Big Deal. I got plenty of weird looks, questions, and laughs. I guess I was scared to drive. I still don't really blame myself, because driving can be nervewracking.
To see the rest of my pictures from Week 4 and some from Week 5 of 2010, view my Flickr photostream.
As soon as he had the words to express his preference, Henry named yellow as his favorite color. Then, it was green. Now, he's chosen orange.
As soon as I brought these small seedless clementine oranges from Spain into the kitchen, I knew I'd have to take their picture. The color was irresistible.
Click on over to my complete Flickr photostream to see the other photos from Week 3 of my Project 365.
Already, I'm off schedule. I promised a favorite photo from the previous week's Project 365 set each Friday, and here it is Saturday. I'll do better next week. You can see the other six photos from this week on my Flickr photostream.
I took this photo of Henry at lunchtime on Thursday. The image of an American boy eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the comfort of his comfortable home after a morning at a preschool gymnastics class and before an afternoon playing in a room dedicated to his toys stands in stark contrast with the pictures and reports that have reached us this week from Haiti after a major earthquake that centered around the capital of Port-au-Prince collapsed buildings and killed thousands of people.
It's my nature to be slow to digest news and to decide how to respond to it. It wasn't until I had found some quiet moments on Friday morning to read two stories in our local newspaper about Haiti and the disaster that I felt my heart open to the news and the need. In particular, it was one paragraph of the article, "Nashvillians who love Haiti answer call for aid," by Tennessean writer Nicole Young that got me there. She quotes Gloria Green with Brent Gambrell Ministries: "With this disaster, people are learning that there are people who live on a dollar a day. There are moms who make mud cakes, bake them, and feed them to their kids just to feed their bellies."
Mud cakes. Reading that was the tipping point for me.
I've been helped this week to understand the enormous need for disaster relief, but I'm also beginning to learn about the difficulties that the people of Haiti faced before the earthquake. It didn't take Tuesday's disaster to create poverty and health problems in the Caribbean island country that is the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.
If you're like me and you've been meaning to but haven't yet made a contribution to disaster relief in Haiti, I encourage you to take some time today, tomorrow, or next week to choose an established organization that is working in the effort to help, and to give what you feel you can. There's the American Red Cross, Oxfam, and numerous other aid organizations responding to the disaster in Haiti.
May there come a day when every child on Earth is as well fed and healthy as my children are.
Edited to add that we made a contribution to the American Red Cross.
Have you heard of Project 365? I hadn't until recently. The idea is to take a photo a day for a year, and those who've done it say it's a powerful process with a magical product. You'll notice the little things. You'll become a better photographer. You'll treasure your complete photo album.
I was inspired by the Flickr photostream of Pauline at Classy Chaos, and encouraged by my friend Lisa at Life is in the details to do my own Project 365 in 2010. (Did you know it's pronounced twenty-ten? It may take me the whole year to get used to that.)
Until now, I've been posting a small collection of photos at the middle and end of each month. Now, I'll be posting one photo each Friday that's a favorite from the previous week's photos. I may eventually add a widget for my Flickr photostream to Toothwhale, but for now, I'll provide the link and hope you'll click over and take a look at the other six photos from the week.
Find my complete Project 365 photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/toothwhale/.
