My Monday Mind Dump...

 Hey y'all! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and made the most of your time with family and friends. A LOT has gone on since my last Monday Mind Dump, so here we go!

1. My youngest brother was chosen to be starting QB in the county all-star football game. It was one of the most painful games I ever sat through. He got sacked....a lot and it was STINKIN' COLD. But we love him, so we were all there.

2. Kidd-O had his first kiss and his first black eye in one week. Both monumental moments in a guys life!

3. The month of November brought me 31 photoshoots! Disney is paid for! Booya!

4. We made Thanksgiving cards for family and things got a little messy and I love messy...

4. We celebrated Thanksgiving in South Carolina and it couldn't have been more beautiful!

5. When I asked my youngest sister what she wanted from Santa this year she told me that she has asked for a cupcake maker every year and he has never given her one, so this year she needs to find a Santa with a curly beard because the ones with straight beards are fake.

6. That same sister got homesick for her dog when we went away for Thanksgiving last week, so she proceeded to pack her bags and wait by the car...while we were eating our Thanksgiving dinner.

7 .  Never in a million years would I have thought that I would go out on Black Friday, and I'm pretty sure Hell froze over when my husband agreed to go too...what won't we do for our Kidd-O!? He causes us do some crazy things!

8. And after braving Toys R Us and Target we bought a couple of things, but we will just be returning them since we found better deals on Craigslist...further confirming the fact that I don't ever want to go Black Friday shopping again!

9. One of my favorite things in the WHOLE world is Christmas and one of my favorite things about Christmas is getting Christmas cards and it's finally that time of year! I CAN'T WAIT to go to the mailbox everyday to see whose card is in the box! I especially love photo cards because I love to see how that family has changed and grown from the year before! If I'm not on your list already or you want to be on mine, shoot me an email (ashleylee510@gmail.com) and we can make it happen!!!

The Great Balancing Act...

On the heels of last weeks post, I am thankful for time....but I need more of it! I have hundreds of pictures to edit, and I still have hundreds of pictures to take this week. I really wanted to have my Christmas decorations up already, but that has been put off because of, well, lack of that precious time. I'm trying to find a balance between things I have to do (cleaning, laundry, editing, prep for thanksgiving...) and things I want to do (get a haircut, go to playgroup, taking Kidd-O to ride the train at the mall, visit my mema who is here, take my sister to paint pottery, PUT UP MY CHRISTMAS STUFF....and so on). But isn't that the story of all of our lives?

I've seen people post their daily schedules on Facebook and rattle off their "things-to-do" giving us a minute-by-minute play-by-play of their oh-so-busy day and my question is always--If you're so busy, then how do you have time for Facebook? The truth is, we find it. Someway, somehow, we find time for the things we want to find time for. You know how much something means to you by the time you invest in it. Put a lot in, get a lot out. Put little in, get little out. The same is true with relationships. You put little time into your friends/kids/grand kids and you will get little out. If you put a lot of time into your spiritual life, you will bear some awesome fruit. We have to figure out how to balance all the things in our life and make sure relationships/things have their proper place. The great balancing act.

I am learning that when people are great at something and seem to have all of their crap together, there are areas in their life that have gone to pot. You can't be the best at one thing without dropping the ball in another. It would be perfection if we could and guess what? We're not perfect. While I'm learning to be a better photographer, other things are taking a hit. I want to be a great wife and mom, but I find that when I'm trying to edit 1,000 pictures (no exaggeration) or write a great post for you, my real priorities fall be the wayside. That is why I try to only open my computer when Kidd-O is asleep and this post was originally written on some notebook paper while I was visiting the ladies room....several times....over several days.  It's all about balance, and I'm still trying to figure out how to make the scale even-Steven .

 This time of year is so incredibly hectic for everyone! And if you're anything like me, you want to squeeze every ounce of goodness out of the holiday's while trying to maintain your obligations. I have so many things I want to do with Kidd-O over the next month, and honestly, I don't know how it will all get done, but I will try. Which is why I closed my computer, with hundreds of pictures to still go through, and we went to ride the train at the mall and visit Santa for the first time this season. I will just stay up extra late tonight to finish up my work. It's all about balance.

Thankfulness....

Thankfulness seems to be the theme this month. November practically requires people to be thankful. Everyone-myself included- is posting their daily dose of "thanks"on facebook and while it's still early in the month and everyone is still going through the "biggies" (health, family, job, saving grace...) I got to thinking about what I'm truly thankful for. While I'm extremely thankful for all of the "biggies" in my life too, I've really tried to think about what I am most thankful for this year.

 Time. I'm thankful for time. Time to make memories and time to reflect on memories already made.  This time of year is always begging for family and special moments with them. While I'm kind of a sucker in general for small things that make a huge impact, like playing in the rain, jumping on beds, or just taking a daily walk to our "bumblebee bush", something about this time of year just screams "bring-it-on"!

I'm thankful for the short time period in life that is called childhood. It's gone in a blink of an eye but the memories stand the test of time and only become sweeter with age. I get made fun of for doing things that Kidd-O will never remember, but I will remember. That is why we have a family dance party every night before bed. That is why I stop whatever I'm doing to read "The Foot Book" for the 1 millionth time that day. That is why I wanted his 1st Birthday to be perfect. That is why I will bake Christmas cookies while listening to Bing croon about a "White Christmas". And I'm guessing that is why my parents worked so dang hard to make my childhood so magical. And it was. Magical.

 I know I will remember having tea party's with my MeMa, and those Summer nights she took me out on the porch to listen to the rain. I will remember that my dad tucked me and my sister into bed every night to say our prayers and to tell us stories from his childhood. I will remember how he dresses up as Santa Claus every year and every year we know it's him, but still wait with anticipation for him to come through that door just the same. I will remember my mom's treats she made for my class and I will remember our family dinners that she made sure happened. And those trips to Disney? Well, those trips are why Kidd-O will have been 3 times before the age of 2. Praise the Lord for parents and for parents that make childhood oh-so-sweet.

Carpe that Diem, baby. You only have one life, and your kid only has one childhood. What will they remember about their time with you? What will your grandkids remember about you? Believe me, the gym can wait. That show can wait. That book can wait. Their childhood can't because when it is gone, it is gone. And the sad thing is, we aren't promised tomorrow. We have today. What will you do today?

 Yes, I'm thankful for the time I have now.

My Monday Mind Dump...On Tuesday!

 1. It's Nov. 1st. Do you know what that means? It means I will be playing Christmas music 24/7 until Christmas, whether I get sick of it or not. It also means that some awesome food eating is about to happen, which is exactly why I joined a gym!

2. It also means that I will be putting up my Christmas tree this week...if not this week, then the next. If I'm going through the trouble of putting it all up, I'm gonna enjoy it! No, I'm not forgetting about Thanksgiving. I'm still extremely thankful, but I'm also extremely excited about Christmas, and extremely broke, so I can't decorate for both.

3. Photo-flashback....isn't he getting so flippin' big?! Boo...

4. Lesson learned: Do not carve a pumpkin too early....

5. We had our Annual Reformation Celebration at church this past weekend, and I'm glad we stayed longer than we should have, because Kidd-O won the costume contest!

6. Speaking of Contests. Did you know that my mother lived for costume contests? Yep, every year she would make the costumes a little more grand than the year before and we went to every contest at every square, mall, Kmart, and Toys-R-Us in the tri-state area.... And these are just a FEW of MY costumes-- I didn't even get into what my siblings wore.

A Pizza Pie

Banana Split

Submarine sandwich

A birthday Party

Italian Dinner

7. My mom obviously retired once kids 6,7 and 8 came along. Hence, the costume choices this year:

8. My youngest sister had several costume changes before we actually hit the pavement:

She was a spider, but that wasn't quite "girly" enough...

 ...So then we tried for Rosie the Riveter, but didn't have a red bandana....

 But then, we found one, and all was well!

She could have also been a human Jack-O-Lantern because this child has one jacked up grill!

9. Kidd-O enjoyed walking around with the kids from house-to-house, and he got one lollipop. He loved it. And I gotta say, he was one stinkin' cute owl.

10. One more photo-flashback! UGH! My baby is getting so big....Now I'm gonna go cry into my pillow and beg Mr. Clean for another kidlet.