Weekly Photo Challenge: LOVE

In our home, love means being so comfortable with each other you can fall asleep in one big snuggly heap.

Weekly Photo Challenge: GREEN

Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry

 

Alex’s bowl-and-plate kitchen floor art.

Weekly Photo Challenge: WRONG

Wrong, but still so right! 

One of my favs, this is Alex in the laundry chute at age four.  When I look at this photo I see a kid with a quirky sense of humor & amazing comic timing who knows the most fun moments of life often come from surprises.  He knew boys do not belong in laundry chutes and that he was not a sock or shirt or laundry basket.  He knew his antics would amuse his little sister who was watching.  And of course, he knew I wouldn’t be able to resist such a good photo opportunity. 

See the handsome grin?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And while you’re visiting us…

Please vote for Autism Home Rescue  
at “Top Mommy Blogs”

by clicking the banner to the right of the picture 

Thank you!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Weekly Photo Challenge: PURPLE

This vine at my mother’s house had white flowers before she got sick.  Then the flowers died and she thought they wouldn’t come back.  But somewhere in the midst of her chemo treatment, the flowers returned with a beautiful purple hue.  They gave us all hope. 

I keep this photo in an album entitled “Things To Be Happy About” to remind me that anything is possible.

Weekly Photo Challenge: INSIDE

When I think of the word “inside” I often think about what it means to “go inside oneself” and where that is exactly.  This week’s photo challenge seems fitting because for the last several days  I’ve been inside my head pondering the many changes that have happened in my family recently and wondering what lies ahead for us.

When I snapped this picture two years ago, I simply asked Hannie to show me her best “yoga pose.”  We had finished our first family yoga class, but even before she had been officially introduced to yoga or learned the name of a single pose, she seemed to innately understand that yoga involves mindfulness, closing one’s eyes and going “inside.”  Indeed, the reason I felt a push to take her to class was because there was so much chaos going on in our family life then, I was reaching out for any way I could help her begin to learn how to connect to her “inside” place.  Little did I know that inside her 5 year old mind, she was already making those connections.

When I showed this same picture to one of Alex’s teachers at his specialized school for kids with autism, she also fell in love with it.  She printed a beautiful color copy and drew lines underneath for Alex to write a story about it.  He wrote:

“Hannah is my little sister, she is great. 

She is sitting down for yoga map.”

He wrote “map” for “mat,” not fully understanding why people use yoga mats or need anything special to help them sit like that.  But I think he also kinda “got” something else about the picture– that his little sister was tapping into a resource, something inside, that was helping her.  Thinking about it that way, maybe sitting for “yoga map” is fitting– because a map is supposed to help us get where we’re going, isn’t it?

The picture, with Alex’s neatly printed summary, is framed in Hannah’s room.  I hope that as she looks at it over the years, she’ll be reminded of all that is inside her that she can access any time to help with whatever is happening in her life on the outside.  And also that she will remember her brother (and the people who love her) recognize how special she is, whether she is interacting with the world, or going inside to find her own strength.

Finding this photo and writing this post has actually helped me feel more compassionate toward myself today.  I tend to be self-critical when I retreat inside and hide in my turtle shell.  But maybe this week, going inside has just been my mind’s way to connect with my map and move to where I need to be.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Movement

My kids are fast, so I take multiple shots.

I try to frame it so there’s motion from one side of the picture.

I try to catch “off balance” postures (like Hannie here).

I sometimes use water …

or objects that imply motion (the slide).

Weekly Photo Challenge: CREATE

My 7 year old daughter Hannah created this amazing piece of puddle art: