Happy New Year

We had a very easy-going New Year's Eve last night, which was a welcome change after a very busy December. Take-out Chinese, a movie with Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and a toast at midnight, after which I fed the baby and we went to bed.

I got to catch up on my blog reading a bit last night, and thoroughly enjoyed reading some New Year's posts...Rachael's blog post really hit home about this being the end of a decade. It's crazy to think of how much my life has changed in 10 years. My list would look something like this...

In ten years, I've...
backpacked through Europe
traded my teaching career to become a mother
married an old soul
had three children
started a business
taken two children overseas (much harder than backpacking alone, I might add!)
become a homeowner
started sewing and knitting
lost three grandparents
met many new wonderful friends

I don't really make "resolutions" at the start of the year, but I do make goals - personal, creative, physical, spiritual and professional...and this year, most of them revolve around home. Taking a step back and really focusing on family - time together, saying no to any new commitments, and slowing down in general. I'm taking time off from my photography business to just be a MWAC (mom with a camera). Funny how that is an insult to many photographers, and yet I'm ready to embrace that so much right now. The Creative Mama blog addresses this in their post "commit to the camera."

I've loved doing creative challenges this year, and may continue to do a few, but my main challenge is going to be to take a photo a day. My husband thinks it's crazy and will create too much pressure, but I see it as the opposite - I'm hoping to take the pressure off to take "perfect" photos of my kids, and just capture the every day...the favorite toy that probably won't be around in a few years, or that tooth that just came in, or messy ice cream faces...with my "real" camera, or the point and shoot I carry in my diaper bag, or even an instamatic film camera.

Eric Booth has a great quote in his book, The Everyday Work of Art: "Our goal should be to perceive the extraordinary in the ordinary, and when we get good enough, to live vice-versa, in the ordinary extraordinary." So that's my goal this year - to take a photo a day, documenting the extraordinary in the ordinary. Shooting for me, capturing my family. I'm not planning on blogging a photo every day, but I'll include a few.