Yearly Archives: 2015

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

The real 365 project Brooke Tucker

MUSCLE MAN

The real 365 project Brooke Tucker

 

BLISS

  • July 2, 2015 - 1:45 pm

    Angie - Love this challenge!ReplyCancel

brooke-tucker-photography-photo.jpg

On my drive back from Lexington, Va this past week, I took that 4 hours to really reflect on my heart!  There has been a lot of things on my heart lately and it has been GOOD friends… soo many good things!

There’s something about driving and the silence and rhythm of the drive that allows you to search your heart and really get to the depths of it that brings clarity.  That drive… it allows you to finally pull at those heart strings and hear the song of the soul!

And as I was driving on Friday the sun kept coming and going through the rain.  It was the perfect melody to the words on my heart;  allowing some parts to be a bit dark with a heavy percussion and then uplifting with a grace and ease as the sun would shine and rise out of the trees providing light and air and a breath!

I’ve been singing a lot (and loudly) about this realness:  Real is better than perfect!  I’ve asked for people to join in and let down their guard and let go of this need to show up with a sense of who we feel our community and “our people” want and need us to be!  I’ve asked that we shed our desire to BE for them and show up instead wearing our hearts and our vulnerabilities for all to see.  I’ve especially called on us as mom’s to do this!

I’ve called for this because in my heart, I truly believe that THIS is the only way that we can truly connect with one another!  If we can be REAL with one another then we can learn to love and appreciate each other for who we really are, our stories and where we come from and the potential for who we can be!

As mother’s especially in this time right now, there are so many opportunities for us to judge ourselves or feel that very heavy weight of pressure!  We don’t need other’s to do it for us, we can do it all by ourselves!  I know… because I am guilty of this myself!  It’s like that heavy rain that poured down with such a heavy drum beat on my car… it comes so quick and so fast that it can be absolutely blinding at times and it can be scary if you are left all alone to drive it by yourself.

It we join together in this beautiful community and let go of this facade of perfection and decide to come to the table together, we can make a difference!  If we, together, meet with one another and embrace our real lives and our real vulnerabilities;  if we can share our stories…  that my friends is like the sun shining through and shedding light down for all of us!

THIS is the kind of light I want to be.. this is the kind of REAL I want to be!

I want to be the kind of real that shares who I am and where I come from.  I want to share my heart:  all of it, not just the some of it that I think people want to hear or “is acceptable” and I want to share it any time someone needs it!

My story isn’t a perfect one.  My story isn’t the kind of raw story that is so impactful it will bring a house down into tears and move mountains.  My story is just mine!  I embrace it and maybe it will help one person who is like me out there but if I hide it away, we will never know.

Every day I feel blessed to be a mother and there is nothing more in this world that I have ever wanted in my life, but there are times that I lose my patience and times that I need to put myself in time out (and times that this non-drinker might jokingly wish for some vodka)  THIS is just how parenting goes and it’s nice to know I”m not alone!!!  It’s nice to know that we all have “those days” where we feel like what has happened!

Those are the days I want to have a community of support that we can tap into so we can lean on, laugh with, run to or at least just take a slow long deep breath with!  A community that says… YES my friend… I have been there too!  Let me send a little love your way so you know, it’s OK.

THIS is the light I want to be… I want to take my story and this light I have and this love I have and I want to shine it out to as many people as I can and as far as I can!  I want to encourage as many other people to do the same!

Will you be brave enough to say I am not perfect and as much as I adore this life and being a mom.. it IS hard but yes, it IS the most amazing role I have ever been gifted to have?!  But it’s not perfect?!

Will you?!  Will you join me at this table and this community and share your stories and shine your light?!

 

 

 

  • July 1, 2015 - 1:44 pm

    Kat Arandela - I will join you all day and everyday, through the good, the bad and the really ugly. I will be there to hold your hand, to laugh uncontrollably, and to cry hysterically. I will. XoxoxoReplyCancel

    • July 1, 2015 - 1:49 pm

      brooketuckerphoto@gmail.com - you are amazing Kat!!!!ReplyCancel

  • July 22, 2015 - 3:39 am

    The Sea of Inspiration » Elizabeth Friske Photography Blog - […] got be really thinking about friend Brooke.  This is the concept Brooke is so passionate about.  Real is Better Than Perfect.  This is a concept that is big.  Exciting and eye opening! Follow Brooke and get a fresh […]ReplyCancel

A couple of weeks ago, I had the absolute honor of visiting and photographing a brand new baby girl with her family at home in their house in Pungo, Virginia Beach.  This family is so very near and dear to my heart and I was over the moon when Amber called and announced that they welcomed their third little girl into their family!

 

Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker

Absolutely nothing warms my heart more than being able to photograph a family in their own home where they are the most comfortable and where they can be there most real selves!

Our time together was spent with lots of laughter and giggles.  It was filled with Disney dances to familiar songs, tales of pool splashes that would be happening later on in the afternoon and a few stories from some new books that I hadn’t heard yet!  There were some sweet open mouth snores from our sweet newest little babe as she slept some of the morning away and wasn’t phased by the typical morning coming and goings of her sisters!  Sisters who love her so dearly!

The best part about photographing at home is that you truly are able to capture motherhood for all that it is and all that it holds!  Motherhood is an amazing combination of beauty and breathtaking chaos!  It’s laughter and love and recognizing that even in the midst of tears and laughter and the “I’m all done” that there are some singular quiet moments that truly steal your heart!  As mother’s we see that those quiet moments happen all the time and it’s in those moments that we see the true magic of motherhood and we are beyond blessed!

Here are some of Amber’s moments!  She is one incredible mother with three incredible girls!

Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker

Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker Hampton Roads Lifestyle Photographer Brooke Tucker

 

 

  • June 30, 2015 - 12:20 pm

    Marcy pearl - Great pictures (as always). You do such an amazing job with pictures. Of course, I’m a little biased with this family, Adam is one of Vince’s best friends. But you truly do wonderful things with your camera.ReplyCancel

    • June 30, 2015 - 4:25 pm

      brooketuckerphoto@gmail.com - Thank so incredibly much for such an amazing compliment! They are such an amazing family and I was truly very blessed to be able to just spend the morning with them capturing such sweet moments!!!ReplyCancel