A project for ME & A challenge for YOU!

Happy Thursday everyone!  Can I just take a moment to ask everyone for a collective deep breath?!  One… Two… Three… AHHHH!

Ok, now I feel MUCH better!

This morning has been quite the morning around here!  I’ll give you the brief run down instead of the long winded run down which you can read over on the Motherhood Journal community facebook page if you wish!

Let’s just say since I totally believe that Real is Better Than Perfect… I share my life!  This morning, we had some real life going on up in here!  We weren’t even up for 2 minutes in this house when the raw side of motherhood set in and the waterworks began to flow for me!  I need a sign this morning that reads… BEWARE, emotional and in need of GOOD coffee!

Linc will be 3 in less than a week (say WHAT?!)  and lately he’s been really vocal about his independence and likes and dislikes!  He’s also been asserting his strong willed personality!  That’s a nice way to put it!  Usually, Tuck and I can laugh about it, but this morning, well, my feelings were really hurt!  I feel like there are times when as mom’s we can take a lot and still smile and laugh it off but sometimes (SOMETIMES) there is just a point where the dumbest little thing or the smallest little thing just cuts like a knife and I feel like it’s fair that we can say WOAH… that one really hurt!  Now I will go cry in the corner (or the pantry).

And so I cried this morning when my THREENAGER saw me two seconds after walking downstairs and ran to his daddy and acted like I had the plague and wanted to be held because Mommy was NOT his best friend and he wanted nothing to do with me.  In fact, he wanted me to go back upstairs and hide myself away and pretend I didn’t exist!  He even started crying when he saw my face! (gut punch)

OUCH… friends!  Big, fat arrow to the heart!  After several days of time outs and american pyscho like tantrums and this really DUMB-ASS stage (excuse my language) of you’re my best friend, you AREN’T my best friend… my little mom heart just couldn’t handle this one more form of rejection so early in the morning when coffee wasn’t even beginning to brew!  So I lost my marbles and in my own mad-hatter like fashion… I cried!

I think my husband was seriously scared and perplexed!

I carried myself back up to my bedroom and wept into my pillow.  Yes.. I know I acted EXACTLY like my toddler!  And you know what… IT FELT GOOD!!!

Anyway.. we have since resolved our matter!  I have had some coffee (although the coffee we bought yesterday is gross so I’m still sad) but my toddler is happy and I am his best friend again as it will go for probably 18 more years… and I guess I should strengthen my little mom heart!

And probably put on my big girl mom panties!  Maybe even invest in some grannie panties (I do own some… as moms you know we all do)!  Don’t be shy!

But in light of this morning and mornings like this from here on out, I thought today was the perfect day to share a project I am doing for myself!

A project I want to share with you but also challenge you to take with me!  

It’s a LONG challenge… 365 days long!

Here’s the WHY of it though, and I’m giving that to you first before I give you the details!  The Why is important because we don’t get behind things for the product!  We decide to join in or follow or believe because of the WHY or heart of it.

So here’s Mine behind this project/challenge!

365 days of all:  As mom’s we are so busy taking care of our families that we often times get to witness the moments as they happen!  We watch them pass by as we are doing other tasks, important tasks that take care of all the family needs!  We watch our families play and hear them laugh and squeal and giggle AS we are making them dinner!  We see them sit quietly and reflectively AS we are cleaning or doing the laundry and we appreciate that moment from a far!  We are lucky enough to see these moments unfold and it’s an incredible blessing BUT what if we could actually step INSIDE those moments for one single second to capture one snapshot?!  What if we could hold on to one moment of the day that we could remember the entire year and save these every day moments… that were so incredibly special!  So special that we stopped what we were doing and placed ourselves IN the moment so that we could freeze it in time and say EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. MATTERED!  Say that not just the pretty ones with the big bows or the dapper straps… but the every single day moments mattered too?!

What do you think about that?!

This is my goal!  I have this amazing camera that I use to document lives of people!  It’s my tool and I use it to capture lives and special events and moments in motherhood that steal the heart and breath.  BUT the other day I stopped to think… what if I really embraced this real is better than perfect and took one picture of my family every single day.  What if I said these pictures don’t have to be epic, they don’t have to be memorable moments.. they just have to be one single moment out of our day for every single day out of the year!  Then at the end of the year I reflected on them and remembered?!  How amazing would that be?!  What would that look like for me as a mom and what would that say to my family?!

It would tell my family that they are number one.. they are important!  It would also say that no matter what… stepping in to a moment and being a part of the moving and shaking and living breathing moments of my family will always be more important than the daily “tasks”.  It would say that hey, the dishes can wait, the laundry can wait, social media on my phone can wait.. that they will always be there to finish but that Linc will never be this little again!  That these moments will never happen again!

It would also say… momma… YOU are important too and your role as the family historian is soo precious GO GET IN THERE!

So… I have started right away!   I realized, this is too important.  I realized it is also too simple!  Grab a camera (anything will do) and snap one shot.  5 seconds! 8 seconds if you are a bull riding fan!

So here are the details, will you join me!

• Take 1 photo a day of your family/ children/husband/dogs!  It doesn’t matter!  One snapshot a day to represent the day!
• Give it a title or a caption
• Create a folder so we can upload weekly for a blog on Thursday’s  with #365ofall also #brooketuckerphotography
• If you are an instagram lover like me  instagram thursday same hashtags #365ofall #brooketuckerphotography

That’s IT! Super simple!  I’m going to be doing this for an entire 365 days!

I’m also going to be doing some super fun things along with this… some features and some fun give aways as well!

I just feel like this is soo important! So here are my beginnings…   It’s a humble beginning and only 3 images since I just started!  But a start is the hardest part!

Will you start with me?!

 

 

DIZZY

MUSCLE MAN

 

BLISS