Volunteering with the Kids

This Saturday the kids and I partcipated in a meal packaging event called Stop Hunger Now. Their mission is to provide direct food relief in crisis areas and areas where chronic hunger and malnutrition exists. The meals packaged Saturday will be sent to Haiti.

I was thrilled to find a service project that the kids and I could do together. Kaleb got to scoop and pour rice into a funnel with three ladies who were rooting him on as he happily waited his turn to pour. Kaitlin was a runner, and brought bins full of the food bags over to the weighing & sealing area, and empty bins back to the food packaging stations. We did this for 2 hours and all really enjoyed it! I will definitely do this again. I would highly recommend this project to anyone who wants to get out and do something to help others. And it's wonderful that parents can bring their children so that everyone is involved.

It was also inspiring. In two hours, 15,000 meals were packaged! It shows what can be done when people come together and work to help others. It didn't even feel like work. Every time we reached 1,000 meals, a bell would ring, and everyone cheered. The atmosphere was uplifting and joyful.

At the beginning, there was a short educational presentation on hunger. After watching it, I think everyone felt excited and motivated to be there, doing something to help. We learned that that a large percentage of the food packages go to schools and orphanages where there are food shortages.

I would encourage everyone I know to get involved with this project, whether through donations or attending a meal packaging event. I definitely plan to do it again, and hopefully make this a tradition with the kids as well.

My Beach Photography

Photography is a hobby of mine, so living at the beach has been a fun opportunity for me to shoot something other than my kids. I'm learning more about landscape photography, but having such beautiful surroundings makes it pretty easy to capture beautiful shots. All of these were taken on Topsail Island, most very close to our house. My favorite one is the third one down from the top, taken from the deck of the beach house my parents rented last month.
I also love the one where you can see lots of footprints because those are Kaitlin & Kaleb's :-).

Photography Lessons from my 3-year old

If you know me, you know that I usually have my camera on me. I am always taking pictures of my kids, loved ones, the outdoors, you name it. Photography is a hobby/passion of mine, and living at the beach, I've been snapping away like a madwoman.

Recently, Kaleb and I took our dog, Amber on an evening walk in our backyard. We decided to head over to the beach, because, why not... it's the beach :-)! We ended up walking a while, and then sitting together, building a sandcastle, digging for "treasure" (a.k.a shells) and watching the sun set, while Amber rested in the sand beside us. We had so much fun! But I felt really disappointed that I hadn't thought to bring my camera. I so wanted to capture this moment. The lighting was perfect, the sun was setting, the waves were crashing, and Kaleb was smiling and laughing. I began to feel frustrated that I hadn't thought to grab my camera. I even said aloud, "Man I wish I had my camera!" Kaleb responded, "Oh, here you go Mom!" He proceeded to hand me big clump of sand. "It's my camera!" he said proudly. I smiled and took the "camera" and he threw his arm around me and said, "Say cheese Mom!" We smiled and posed together for the pretend camera, and after Kaleb's sound effect "click", he wanted to review the picture we had just taken. He held up the clump of sand, looked at it, and said "perfect!". And it was perfect. It taught me that sometimes I get so caught up in capturing the moment on film, that I don't fully enjoy the actual moment! From then on, I relaxed and forgot about how great it would be to photograph our outing on the beach, and actually enjoyed LIVING it.

What happens when Mommy goes to take a quick shower...

When I got out of the shower Kaleb proudly said, "Look Mom, I'm shaving!" He had a toothbrush and a cup of water all set up. Then he proudly declared, "I smell like Dad!"