Ever since this article ran on The Define School blog, I’ve been struggling. Well, I was struggling before that…obviously…that’s why I wrote the article in the first place. But then, when my much loved 365 album arrived, I began to teeter on my resolution to stop taking so many pictures of my personal life. Over the past three months, I’ve taken considerably fewer pictures of our daily lives…even fewer iPhone snaps. Yes, I am happier to be able to have the freedom to live in the moment more, but I am still mourning the loss of images I didn’t ever take. I don’t think I’ve quite struck the right balance yet. I have a double standard, my friends. Especially in light of how I talked my sister in to letting me take a couple of maternity pictures for her in the hospital yesterday.

So, I took a picture today. I took it just because I wanted to remember this part of my girl’s life and for no other reason. I got her the “artistic” shirt as a gift because it’s SO HER and she’s been wearing it for days, lol. She sat down and painted a series of canvases all on her own. My husband and I watched her, so gracefully perched in the chair as she thoughtfully worked for hours. This particular canvas, she gifted to her oldest brother because he is sick right now. Drawing and painting the way she does is something that I always did myself as a girl and I longed for my boys to do the same, but they never were interested. But she just loves it. She has blue paint all over her hands and marker/paint is usually permanently embedded under her fingernails. There are flecks of paint on her new shirt as well as in her hair. I imagine (hope!) that this will simply be part of her for the rest of her life and that she will always wear the marks of an artist.