The Life in my Years

I've always done a big Christmas card letter mailout thing. In the 90's, it was something of infamy. I've tapered its production off a bit, trending with the current penchant to abandon paper for any other type of media available, electronic preferred. My early letters were simple word documents, tucked inside of the Hallmark card chosen for the season after careful deliberation. There was one year where I lucked out and found the cutest card set, that offered matching stationary and envelopes, so that they coordinated perfectly with the card. It was like they were made just for me, as the house window on the front looked like one of my windows.

As the boys came along, I added the obligatory insert of the photograph. For the longest, I added a photo only of the boys. Wardrobes were planned, days were blocked out, family alerted - all systems go for THE CHRISTMAS CARD PHOTO SHOOT. I will confess I may have been a little too serious about it all. My guys were always fairly good-natured about it. I am consistent enough that they can predict my behavior. Time will certainly tell if my boys need therapy. 

I love my arsenal of cards and photos sent from years past. I can recall so many of them in my mind clearly. And for those that have slipped through the aging crevices of my gray matter, I have only to glance at the card or the photo and the memory rushes back to me. Good times. A good life.

At one point during the annual Christmas card exchange extravaganza, I received a letter in kind from a college buddy who I knew was taunting me with his barb about family cards with missing parents. I took his point at its merit and decided henceforth that we would send a family photo. I am not certain off the top of my head which year we first began our family photo, but I remember clearly the taking of the 2006 photo.

We had been in our north Texas home only about a year, and I knew our wooden staircase would be the perfect backdrop for the photo. Sunday afternoons are the go-to photo session timeframe. Hubby works every Saturday during the Christmas season and I've never been one of those gals that took the family photo outside of the season. The photo has to be current to feel right to me. And I need a little winter daylight.

In 2006, the boys were in 5th and 6th grade and Steve and I were in the early, kind stages of the 40's. Of course, finding decent clothes for the boys at this age that they were willing to wear and be photographed in - and that I approved of - was the biggest challenge. Once we had established a detente on what they would wear, Steve and I worked our wardrobes around them. Harry was a last minute addition to the photo. He ran up into the photo and I scooped him into my arms. I loved my little Yorkie and it seemed only fitting he be included.

About 10 snaps and I knew I had a keeper among the jpegs. When I sent the family photo out with the cards, I ended up doing a filter, so that the tone of the card was close to sepia, but the wash of the jeans was a lovely blue. I loved that we were all in our jeans and barefoot. That was how we lived at home - comfy shirts, comfy jeans and comfy toes. I love the bright smiles of the young pre-teen boys - their sweet spirits shining out, unencumbered.

This photo from December 2006 sits on my desk and I see it every day. It's one of my favorites. I loved it so much that on the beginning of the last full calendar year that we would be a family of four, I re-created it. I did the much ballyhooed scrapbooking project that year called Project Life - snapshot a day - and I wanted a photo of the four of us for the launch of my year long photography essay.

I grabbed us on a day that we were a) all home and b) wearing complementary clothes. Heaven forbid I have wardrobe requirements of my busy teenagers. It was just a simple blessing for my heart to capture us all at the beginning of that year that I knew was momentous for us all...that year that was going to go too fast for my beating heart.

I love these two photos side by side - one taken at the end of our first full year together in this home, and one taken at the beginning of our last full year together in this home. Classic juxtaposition. I love thinking of the boys, through all of our north Texas years, going up and down those stairs countless times in a day. I love envisioning them at their different heights and growth stages. I can see them in my mind's eye, growing up and up and up, rising in height just as certain as the wood planks themselves do.

I love knowing they are home - by their bounding of the stairs...or even sometimes sneaking on the stairs, as if the stairs will absorb their weight and won't reveal their passage. From where I lay in my bed, I can see the foot of the stairs. Many a time have I lain there in the AM and PM, watching for their descent or ascent.

I know that I cherish the noise of them being in the house. I know when the stairs are quiet that I am home alone. I walked up the stairs yesterday. Over eight years of traffic on them has them scuffed at the edges. I can polish them, but the paths of these boys are marked on them and I would not undo that for the world.

As I searched for elements for my page, I happened upon the little sentiment that seemed perfect for my page:

It is not the number of years in your life that count, it is the life in your years.

These boys, and our life all together, have been some of the sweetest life in my years. Sunday afternoons all together, in comfy jeans and chilling at home, is absolutely my kind of happy. 

My Kind of Happy ~ Family Photos ~ December 2012

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation http://scrapbookgeneration.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=213

Paper: October Afternoon

Fonts: Honey Script, Chaparral Pro

At The Foot of the Bridge

Both of our boys are their own unique person. While they have many similarities, they also have many distinct differences. And while we live in a school environment that clearly points to college in a pragmatic and homogenous fashion, both of the boys have approached the fork in the road quite differently.

We sat back and watched as Philip began his junior year and we were full of ideas and wonder as he processed his thoughts and sought clear direction - from everyone but his parents. :-) By the spring of his junior year, he was ready to officially begin the college hunt. God providentially set up for us a visit to Bryan College in Dayton, TN, along with some dear friends of ours who also had a junior that was beginning the college hunt.

It was a tender time for our hearts. It was a true gift that we were able to shadow our friends on our first legitimate college preview visit. They, having a son already in college and ahead of our sons on the curve, have always been so faithful to share ideas and thoughts and information with us over the span of more than a decade. For me to be able to begin this hard mom journey in the presence of my dear heart friend was just truly an amazing gift. 

We flew into Knoxville and then the following morning, a band of eight of us took off in two cars to Dayton. We traversed the campus and the emotion of the event was ever at the back of my throat. Being in a posse with seven others was ever so helpful as - in the company of 6 males - you could be easily diverted by a silliness, a joke, a witty comment, or just the sheer exercise of keeping up with everyone.

After our whirlwind Friday/Saturday trip to not only Bryan College, but also to Covenant College on Lookout Mountain in Georgia, we landed at the foot of the old bridge in Chattanooga. Having consumed Urban Stack burgers, Darling Donuts and all of the information and statistics from the two college campus visits, we were ready for a little fun.

The guys had a football with them and began an immediate passing game. The two of us girls sat and watched and laughed and were amazed at the young men cavorting in front of us, where boys in super hero capes had once stood. Just as dusk settled in, we paused for a moment in our family clusters and took turns photographing our families for each other.

The old metal bridge and lights in the background offer up a message to my heart - as we stood at the bridge of our son's life, of him beginning his journey into adulthood, we gathered close, hugged tight and knew in our hearts that the Light would be the only way we would bear the crossing of the bridge. 

Life of late has been a whirlwind. We are halfway into the kid at college scene now, with one child there and one child at home. Our oldest is in the middle of pledging at college. I have not had Face Time with him in four weeks. Our youngest is in the middle of waiting on scholarship information for college and reveling in his senior year, his job, his church work, his friends. 

When I went to title this layout, I did not have to search long or hard for an apt and fitting title. At this time in our life, any time that the four of us are together it is time that is so very treasured.

So Very Treasured ~ Family Trip, Chattanooga ~ April 2012

Paper: Pebbles

Fonts: Honey Script, Chaparral Pro