sick missie.

ETA:  Stay tuned tomorrow (Jan. 15th) for the first installment of the Women and Business series!!

I was hoping to do a much more elaborate post of the self portrait work that I've been working on. However, the pictage ask and learn went longer than I planned and shortly after it was over my little Miss G woke up and was feeling her tummy rumbling again. In the past week and 1/2 or so she hasn't been feeling well.

Except the not feeling well is not consistent. Gracie hasn't felt sick for 10 days straight. Whatever she has just seems like it just keeps coming and going.  I can't figure out if she is really all of the way better.

Is my mom-sense totally off? 

She's thrown up a number of times and they don't seem to be linked to anything in particular.

We've spent a lot of time on the couch me holding her and her feeling miserable.

Then she'll seem like she's done with it.

She'll be back to herself, playing, laughing, reading, and going to school. This time she seemed like she was completely better. She hadn't thrown up since two nights ago. She went to school today. Had a great day. Said she felt great. And I was relived that everything looked like it was over.

Now...tonight something is back...not sure what.

We just spent a long time in the bathroom while she sat at the toliet waiting to throw up. Nothing except a lot of stomach gurgling and a lot of burping. Now she's sleeping on the couch next to me...and that took some coaxing. She didn't want to leave the bathroom for fear she may puke.

So...I'm not sure what they night ahead is going to be like. Or what is going on with Grace.

This is definitely a mom life...crouching by a toliet, holding someone's hair, and whispering sweet things in their ear.  Holding someone on the couch and hoping that your arms will somehow bring relief.

unsure. LIFE.

we're a little crazy. 

So...Millie and I were just being silly getting ready for this interview when we were at the Pictage Partnercon in Los Angeles back in September.  Little did we know that the tape was rolling and this is what they decided to keep...all of our silliness!  Hilarious.

HIRING. and anything else.

If you're in the market for hiring some help you need to come be part of Ask and Learn Wednesday tomorrow on the Pictage forum!  Millie and I are going to spill our secrets on hiring the perfect person to work for you, the perfect fit, the perfect studio manager or second shooter or associate photographer, or image editor...whatever you need.  ANd if you think you don't need this...guess again.  You'd be surprised at how this will benefit the vast majority of photographers.

If you're doing jobs that you aren't qualified to do or that you don't like or jobs that you wish you didn't have to do because you want to do something else in your business (ie accounting, editing, making spreadsheets, doing reports, marketing, and so many other things that we try to do that we're really not qualified to do...then you need to get on this Ask and Learn). 

**We'll talk about anything else you want to know as well...just log on and write us a question.  We'll be there for two hours to answer what you need to ask.**

Can't wait to see you on the forum tomorrow night (January 14th) from 7-9 eastern and 4-6pm west coast time!

What questions do you have that you want us to address in the Ask and Learn?  Tell me in the comments...

Listen to this podcast for a little snipet of what we discussed when we were out in Los Angeles.

learn. LIFE.

it's time.

I've been thinking about what to do for the contest of the year and decided that we are going to have a year long contest (no matter what don't give up this year...it's easy to get back to a simple plan, remember!).  We are also going to have some monthly contests.

Contest for this month:

This month's contest will go through the first week of February.  To kick off the year the winner will receive a pair of workout shoes valued at $70, a magazine subscription of your choice, you will also get the book that I'm talking about today.

To win:

you just need to be the person with the most comments/help/advice on Move it Monday posts.  Give us all of the wisdom you can muster.   We want to hear about a favorite recipe, a way to feed the midnight muchies something healthy, your favorite motiviational tool or quote, emotional tips, what you do when you're trying not to eat something you love, what you do to exercise, your mantras to keep you on the path, anything and everything you can think of that helps you out when you're trying to lose weight.  Tell us how you battle through those times of the month when it seems like you do nothing but sit around like a bloated whale because you're feeling full on pms.  What do you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  The person that posts the most ideas and is the most helpful will win the prize package (and some additional goodies).  SO get thinking and sharing in the comments section of Move Monday posts this month!!

Contest for this year:

The winner will receive a full day with me.  It can be a Day with Davina or it can be a full day of a photo session with me.  You get to choose.  It will also include other goodies that we will add onto the winner's package through out the year.  You will want to win this!

To win:

*Be the person that posts the most often on Move it Monday through out the entire year.

*Keep a journal and have at least 12 entries by the end of the year. (That's at least one per month...this is about getting some consistent habits.)

*Check in every week on Move it Monday comments.

*Get 20 minutes of exercise at least 4 days a week.

*Start eating off of smaller plates...or at least eat much smaller portions at every meal.

Now,  I know that you can't do this every single day of your life.  Take it a day at a time.  Do the best you can.  Don't give up.  The person that does the best at developing consistency will be the winner.  It's not really about being the one that loses the most weight (although I think that it will be a natural thing that will happen) it's about changing your approach to food and moving your body.

I just read another book..."I can make you thin"

 Paul says that you just need to do the four golden rules:

*Eat when you're hungry.

*Eat only what you want, never what you think you "should".

*Eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful.  (When you slow down you eat less naturally)

*Stop when you think you're full.

He discusses how our brains have made well worn paths from our thoughts and habits toward food.  In order to make new paths you need to change the way you're approaching food and exercise.  He has what he calls hypnosis moments that he has you do.  It seems to me that they are meditations coupled with acupuncture/pressure points.

I don't think that there is a magic formula to losing weight.  I do think that Paul has some good points.  Many of the golden rules that he suggests are ones that I'm already doing and seeing results with.  The other issues he addresses in his book are ones that I know I need to work on as well.

This book is included in this month's prize package.

So...share share share share.  Tell us in the comments what your hints and tips are for eating well, exercising, healthy food, and all of the rest.  Be the one with the most amount of helpful comments on Move it Monday posts and you'll be this month's winner!

good. LIFE.

the real thing.

I've got some new projects in the works this month.  One of them will be launching on Thursday and you won't want to miss it...especially if you're a mom with a business (hint:  I'm in cahoots with some other women).

The other project is me.  After seeing my friend, Kelly Moore, do an stunning self portrait session I decided that there just aren't enough pictures in the world of me for my kids.  There aren't pictures of the every day, mundane things that I do with them...the things that really mean something...the things that if they didn't happen or if I wasn't here they'd be missed the most.  A lot of it is just me being a mom, me just being around, me just being here.  Doing the same ol' ol'.

Really, though, life is made up of the just being there for someone...through the ins and the outs, the ups and the downs.  So I want my kids to see that I've been there in the little ways...that we've had fun together, that I've done the being there things.  I also just want them always be able to see me in case for some reason they don't.  I don't want to be just this faceless person on the other side of the camera that came out from behind it for the occassional shot.

So...this month is about self portraits of me doing what I do every day.  I won't always look pretty or cute or whatever.  But it will be me doing what I do to just to get through the day.

So tonight I made cookies for the kids and we read.  We actually finished The Giver tonight and I have to admit I got a little choked up.  We had big conversations about the ending and I loved sitting around talking about it.  I love that when we read my kids end up just all over the place around me...especially when we read on a Sunday after church.

Because we have a 40 minute drive to church these days the kids always bring the book we've been reading so that I can read it in the car.  When we get home from church I never do get out of my dress because we walk in the door and they are already saying, "Don't stop Mom!  Keep reading!  We have to know what's going to happen!"  So I sit on the couch and read and read.  The kids lay around me and eventually we finish and then we talk about it the rest of the night.

Tomorrow the kids will each probably come up to me at some point in the day and talk to me about Jonas and baby Gabe and do I really think that the book ended....(I won't say HOW it ended for those of you who are going to read it...and you totally should!).  But they will talk about it tomorrow...and I love the talking.  I love that they think and wonder about the characters in the books we read.  I love that they're concerned and that they want the people we've come to love to feel the things that they feel.

It's beautiful.  I loved sitting around the table eating cookies and just being together. 

So...here's me today...still in my Sunday dress...reading and making cookies...feeling like I just had a perfect episode of "Leave it to Beaver"- with- June- Cleaver- Sunday -afternoon.

perfect. LIFE.

perfect hour of the day.

Nights can be a chaotic, crazy time.  Hopefully, before dinner, the house was straightened up and we've had a pretty calm dinner discussing the best and the worst of the day.   Then it's time to get into pjs, brush teeth, have a scripture story, song, and prayer.  I love all of this time.  So much of the evening ends up being a time to get things done.  So by the time the time everyone is in their pjs and we've had our devotional time we're all feeling a little more calm.

About that time we start reading...and it feels...magical.

Right now we're reading "The Giver" by Lois Lowry.  If you've not read this book, it's amazing.  The thing about reading outloud to the kids when everyone is settled into their beds is the opportunity we get to talk about all kinds of things.  Books bring up topics that you may not think to talk about in normal every day life.  I also love that it gives us a chance to go into more depth about things we have talked about before.

This book is about a community that believes it's achieved the perfect society.  In order to arrive at this perfection they've had to make sure everything is the same, no differences, only 'sameness'.  What that means is completely surprising.

Every time the kids find out about something that is missing from this 'perfect' community they are shocked to find that such a simple joy or pain doesn't exist for them.  It has given us all a new appreciation for seemingly little, wonderful things around us...sunshine, red apples, beautiful fabric, snow, eyes, the wonder of being a teenager, family, and love.

All of my kids get nestled into their beds and I sit and read.  Occassionally all of their heads will pop up at the same time to say, "No way!" Other times, everyone will be very quiet, feeling every word that I read, holding on to every emotion that a character is feeling.  I love how invested they get into the characters.  Often they will come up to me in the middle of the day and wonder what is going to happen next and say that they can't wait to read again tonight to find out what is going to happen. There have been times when they will bring me the book in the middle of the day and say, "Please read right now.  We have to know what happens to Jonas..."

There are nights that we end up reading really late because every time I say, "And we'll stop there for tonight."  The kids all say in unison, "No!  One more chapter."

Other nights, we'll get to the end of reading and a couple of the kids will have dozed off taking the characters in the book with them as they drift into dreamland.

It's my favorite hour or so of the day.  Faces intent, perplexed, joyous, excited, worried...and then quiet...sweet quiet in the place between awakeness and sleeping.

Once the book is over, as most of you know who follow my blog, I get to lay in the peaceful dark and talk to each of my kids individually.  I listen to their day, their little secrets, their moments that they've saved out from the day until now to share...it's a peaceful, wonderful bliss.

And the perfect way to end any day.

sweet. LIFE.