This is my little place where I share how I use mindless-creative activities to relax my mind + easily melt my busy mama stress away which always leaves me feeling more calm + energized. When I doodle paint + snap pictures, without rules, only for fun, I ALWAYS feel like I just walked out of the day spa; refreshed + rejuvenated. I'm a mama to my two kiddos, a wife to my (coastie) husband and a University of Florida graduate (GO GATORS!). I LOVE my kids, my family, doodle painting, lifestyle + food photography, great tasting food, groovy music, fun outdoor festivals + anything that lights me up from within with happy-joy feelings!
Life before mamahood was hectic, but at least I got plenty of ME time to do all the things I loved in life. I love being a mom, but now ME time is SUPER HARD to come by. It's SO easy for me to get lost in doing for others, so I've found that creating little bits of time to paint, color + photograph is the best way for me to easily de-stress + stay focused on the positivity that my mama life brings. If it wasn't for mindless-creative activities, I'd still be wishing I had enough money to visit the spa every day just so I take a break + come back to my busy mama life feeling more calm, relaxed and truly BEing the happy mama I wanna be for my family. Learn more about me here.
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Since baby boy was born last August,I’ve been craving some doodle painting time.
And, I’m talkin’, just ME, a quiet house, a blank canvas and my paints. Well, that time never opens up until 9:00 pm and by that time I’m SO tired that I end up choosing sleep over what my inner guide has been calling out for me to do painting.
So, the other day, during baby boy’s nap time, I thought I’d try to do a painting activity with C.
I knew that in the past, this activity was just for her, because I always spent the entire time making sure the paint didn’t get on the floor and that she didn’t run away from me with her hands covered in red paint while thinking the rest of the house would be more of a great canvas for her to paint on, which NEVER left me feeling calm and relaxed. ;)
So this time, since she’s almost 4, I figured I’d just play with the colors and just paint the canvas…no actual drawing of sorts, while she had her painting fun.
Figured I’d just play with it more more once the kiddos were in bed for the night…tired and all.
Well, to my surprise, C did awesome!!
And, I was able to connect with WHY my inner voice was telling me SO loud and clear to paint.
I immediately felt more calm and then, before I knew it, I found myself questioning WHY I decided NOT to focus more on it here on my blog.
I’ve been through SO many passion-direction changes since baby boy entered our lives, and, especially since I’m currently taking Liv Lane’s, How to Build a Blog You Truly Love, for the third time.
I took her course again because I really needed the motivation to start sharing more of my photography on a consistent basis and, not to mention, her course is the best I’ve ever taken on blogging and her content is just incredibly useful and inspiring.
Liv is pure magic and honestly, I had no idea that I was going to be switching things up again. (FYI – I switched things up the first time I took her course, too!)
It’s her section on passion and purpose behind blogging that always pulls me in the most and helps me dig deeper to connecting more to my inner most passion and intentions. She always gets my intuition stirring!
So after reading all of Liv’s content on passion and purpose,I began to shift some more.
I wasn’t sure what the shift meant for me, but, I did know that photography is a huge passion of mine, but when I truly sat down and began to take action on pursuing more portrait photography, I’d always seem to question it.
Portrait photography never seemed 100% right and my heart always felt like it was being pulled toward something else, but I never could place it.
So I took a break from blogging and trying to “figure out” the right direction for me.
It was during this break when I finally let go of the thoughts of not wanting to deal with all the “mess” that comes with painting with toddlers and dove in.
When I began to paint with C the magic happened (and, honestly, when it always does!)
Every single time I finally allow myself to take a break from my fast-paced-mama-world…ya know, the cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, the toddler whining and meltdowns, the mommy and me classes…my inner guide comes out to play and ALWAYS helps to lead me in the right directions.
It was during this time that all I could think in my head was “calm…calm…calm…calm…and yes, this IS so calming and why in the heck would I not do this activity daily and better yet, why in the heck would I stop sharing this powerful message of giving all left-brain activity a much needed break with some mindless, right-brain activity with others.”
You see, I live a very left-brain life.
Meaning, my thoughts are very focused on all the responsibilities that consume my days. My thoughts have a field day replaying the same thing over and over again in my head…especially how there’s not enough time in the day for ME and how badly I just wanna a break and I just wish I could have all the money in the world so I could visit the spa every day so I can feel more refreshed, more rejuvenated and mainly, more like ME, so I can deal with my mama days much, MUCH better!
Every day I’m racing around taking care of my familyand then when a little bit of time opens up I end up getting online to read facebook, look at instagram (which actually can be very right brain because it’s mainly just looking at visuals), check my email, read blogs and occasionally read the news, because, really, it’s so much easier to sneak away with my phone for a minute than it is to pull out my paints and have a peaceful and quiet painting sesh while my kids play for 30 minutes without needing one thing from me.
And, I will say, when I spend all my free time on all the social networks, I’m very rarely left feeling good, naturally nourished and uplifted in a way that I’d like to be.
After we were finished playing with color on our blank canvases I felt my inner thoughts shifting.
Because I had already began to share this message before baby boy was born, and then stopped and decided to change my direction to only focusing on photography, I began to see how not sharing the message of doodling and doodle painting was a big no-no.
Then I realized the true meaning to WHY I wanted to share that message in the first place.
There’s SO much more to just doodling and doodle painting…it’s the inner, positive shifts that happen to you when you do activities like these.
For the first five minutes, your left-brain thoughts will tell you all the reasons why you don’t paint and that you suck at it and that you’ve never been able to draw and that whatever you’ve done already looks horrible.
But then, after the five minutes have passed, all the stressful thoughts, all the weight that you feel is on your shoulders because you have SO much to do in your very filled mama day that doesn’t require you to put your feet up and feel relaxed, is lifted.
And before you know it, you can’t remember what you were stressed about and you literally feel like you just left a day at the spa where you received the most nourishing massage and mani/pedi feeling calm, happy and ALIVE!!!
I’m NOT even kidding!! This is how I feel every.single.time I paint!! Every time I give my left-brain some down time and let my right-brain come out on stage I feel this way, because I’m beginning to create balance between my left and right brain thoughts.
But then, life goes on…and especially when your left-brain is still dominating your thoughts.
Like for me…the next day, C asked to paint again.
My left-brain thoughts told her, “Not right now, I have to get laundry done.”
Her response, “Pleasssssssssssse, Mommy!! I wanna paint!! I’m SO excited to paint again!! Pleasssssssssssssse!!!”
I thought, but didn’t say it to her out loud, “I SO don’t wanna paint right now! I really don’t wanna deal with the mess she might make. Let me just get this laundry done while baby boy is napping.”
But then I remember how much fun we had together and how it’s a special bonding time for us so I took the plunge and left the laundry for later and began to take our painting materials out.
Not even 5 minutes in, I felt myself moved to happy-tears.
While I was painting my doodle flower, C was narrating what she was painting out loud.
She said she was painting flowers. (I never gave her directions on how to paint and she choose her colors)
I stopped and looked over at her and I just felt like crying happy-buckets. Something that’s never happened to me before…usually only with photography.
Those flowers she painted didn’t look like any flowers we all know to look like.
But to her, those were flowers. And that’s all that mattered!
And this, my friends, is what we all lose once we grow older.
As we grow out of toddler-hood, we become more unsure of ourselves…we say we can’t draw or color or paint because we aren’t creative or artists, which then ripples into other areas of our lives and then causes more and more stress in our lives.
We lose our imagination and most importantly, we lose taking action on all the things we love in life because we’re afraid of what others may think of us or because we don’t believe we’re capable of succeeding at such a thing.
We get in our own way (hello left-brain!) and end up never moving toward the true things we want in life.
Have you ever seen a toddler NOT take action on getting something they want? They have meltdowns and cry like hell because they’re SO mad they can’t get what they want and they’ll try and try and try to get it as many times as they can.
When I looked at my daughter, describing her beautiful, green flowers with absolute confidence, it was in that moment that I knew I could never, EVER let her disconnect with this, because I sure did.
The more I doodle paint, the more calm I feel.
The more calm I feel, the more quiet my left-brain, I suck, thoughts become.
The more quiet those thoughts become the more connected I become to myself.
And the more connected I feel to myself, the more confident I become to take actions toward filling my life up with only things that I’m truly passionate about and truly love.
I become more connected to the true meaning of life…that life is good and that using my imagination, getting my hands dirty with paint, taking pictures only for fun, leaving laundry for another time to spend quality time with my kids and letting go of the rules sometimes creates more balance and truly fills me with more wholesome, uplifting thoughts and energy, which helps me to be the happy mama I wanna BE and model to my kids.
When’s the last time you painted yourself, or painted stripes on your legs and called yourself a tiger or even put your fingers in paint and spread them all over a blank sheet of paper?
If you’re anything like me, probably years.
You don’t have to do activities like that, but, come on, you know that sounds FUN!!, but it’s activities like picking up a camera and taking 20 selfies of yourselves (if you have a toddler, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about….ever find your phone and your child’s pictures is there in rows, but each pictures has a different, fun face?) or the moments you love to savor that surround you on a daily basis, dancing to music in the middle of the day, smelling food that was just put in front of you on your favorite colored plate, coloring just for the fun of it or mixing the batter for the cookies you’re baking…because it’s activities like these that EASILY pull you out of your left-brain to-do list thoughts and bring you back into the present moment.
They lift your worries and make you feel happyand most of all, they bring more inner calm to your life.
If I hadn’t let the laundry go and painted flowers with my daughter, I wouldn’t have been 100% present to savor the most important time in my daughter’s life right now…using her 3-year-old imagination!
And, for me, I’m way more passionate about NOT missing a thing while my kids are young and blossoming into their most awesome selves more than anything else in my life right now.
And the only way I know I won’t miss these moments is to give myself a daily, mindless-creative activity break.
So here I am…changing again…well, not really changing, just bringing doodling and doodle painting back to my blog and sure, you may say coloring and painting is something you can’t do, and yes, I was the same way, but what I know for sure, it’s these activities that are extremely powerful in calming your thoughts and pulling you into the present moment than anything else.
And it’s this message that I’m VERY passionate about!!!
Yes, I’ve been one hot passionate mess, but, every time I keep taking action toward my new passionate awareness and shifts, the more connected and clear I get on how wanna service the world.
And doodling (right-brain activity!) is definitely a part of that message!!
My doodling is back baby!! Woohoo!!
And, that is, they will be here with my photographs and recipes, too! Doodles…you complete me!OH YEAH!!!
So I’m letting my inner toddler out and I don’t care what anyone thinks about all my changing!! WOOOOOO!! That feels GOOD!!
Until next time…
Life IS creatively awesome…SAVOR it up!
If you enjoyed this post and you’d like to stay updated with how I savor life with my camera, then please sign up for my F.R.E.E. {SMILE} eNewsletter. When you do, you’ll not only receive weekly messages that’ll make YOU smile, FEEL uplifted and inspired, but you’ll also stay informed of new blog posts, products, services, ecourses and more.
Tressie-Awesome post Renee – we should all let our inner toddlers out to play!
Alice Risemberg ~ Reiki Pulse-Renee, doodling and creative play are spectacularly important. Thank you for this reminder. I was losing touch with my inner kid big-time.
That I’m SO very grateful that these two littles of mine chose ME as their mom.
That the LOVE I have for my kids only comes with FEELING…not words. When you truly LOVE something, you FEEL it with warm, happy tingles from head to toe which leaves you feeling uplifted, energized, alive and SMILING.
That through all the ups and downs of being a mom, especially with all the very limited ME TIME, that at the end of the day, there’s SO much more to life than crying and whining. Like spiders on the patio making their webs, slugs on the driveway that are walking to their homes, mushrooms sprouting in the grass, the heart that represents Valentine’s Day on the billboard on the Interstate, picking out your snack with your favorite TV character on it and that rocking on the rocking chair and just being held is the best feeling in the world.
That SHOWING my kids LOVE is SO much more important than focusing on the fear of not parenting right. Wanna read a parenting book? Nah!! Don’t need it like I thought I did.
That making decisions based on what the heart truly desires is SO much better than making decisions based on worrisome and fearful thoughts, because it helps you stay connected to everything you LOVE and lets you yell out, “I LOVE PURPLE ICE CREAM!!!” in the middle of the store without a care in the world who hears you.
That sitting around the house and doing absolutely nothing is truly the best because it’s these days when every princess dress you own is worn, butterflies and hearts are painted on your face, walks out in nature where squirrels and birds are seen and the warmth of the sun is felt, baby rolls, crawls and talks are beginning to happen and the love between a big sister, baby brother and their mommy and daddy blossoms and grows more than ever. Which, in the end, is so much better than being busy-busy-busy and driving to store to store with a hungry baby and a fussy toddler who needs a nap ASAP!
That being present with each other, truly listening to what one has to say, watching what one is doing and having fun and playful conversations is so much more important than connecting with social media on an IPhone. When eyes are focused on the phone in hand, dance parties, building castles with blocks and scribbling with your favorite colored crayons on paper are missed out on, which ALWAYS makes your inner child super upset because it SO badly wants to come out and play. Adults can be BIG kids, too, ya know! Life is SO much better that way!
That it’s SO healthy to let meltdowns out…to release them…cry them out…stomp feet…hit a pillow rather than keepingthem in and letting them manifest in our minds and bodies for hours and hours on end and then snapping at anyone who comes and tries to have a conversation with you. Uh, who wants to live like that???
That tickling brings out the best laughter and giggles which IS the best prescription any doctor could write up. And the sound of laughter and giggles…a sound that can loop all day, every day…don’tcha’ think?
That imagination is so positively powerful and we should NEVER disconnect from it because it brings so much joy and fun to every day life. The FEELING that comes with wearing a super hero outfit or telling everyone your name is Tarzan is pretty freakin’ awesome and a sure way to bring more laughter into life. Oh yeah! I think so!
And that living in the present moment is the number one way to truly experience life in all its beauty. Because, isn’t that the way life is meant to be lived anyway? Kinda hard to do when its lived in the tape that plays over and over in our heads every day and night, right?
My kids have made me a better person. They’ve helped me connect more to myself than I ever thought was possible and they’ve shown me exactly what my true purpose and passions are in life, something I wasn’t too sure of before my mama life.
They’ve helped me to STOP and SAVOR all the sweet details that life surrounds me with on a daily basis, especially when my days can be easily focused on stress and overwhelm and have me labeled as the “multi-tasking” queen.
C and L, you’ve both helped me to reconnect with the true joys of life and how important it is to allow myself to slow down and savor every colorful second of it. If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be running around like a very serious faced chicken with its head cut off (well, I still do this) and would have never truly allowed myself to become more aware of just how important it is to stop, smile, laugh, savor, enjoy and love life, just as it is, right here, right now, in this very present moment.
On this Mother’s Day, I’ll be remembering all these reminders, and, most of all, I’ll be remembering to live my life, like both of my kids do, truly SEEing and SAVORing life as it happens right in front of me every single day.
That’s the best mother’s day gift I could ever receive. This year and all the mother’s days to come!
Here’s to all the beautiful mothers…including my grandmother, whom I miss dearly and who’s always with me in my heart and soul, and my mother, who if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here right now, and who both have inspired me to be the mother that I am today. And to my husband…if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be a mother right now and I thank him SO much for that!! ;)
Happy Mother’s Day! ((love hugs))
Until next time..
Life IS what you love…SAVOR it up!
If you enjoyed this post and you’d like to stay updated with how I savor life with my camera, then please sign up for my F.R.E.E. {SMILE} eNewsletter. When you do, you’ll not only receive weekly messages that’ll make YOU smile, FEEL uplifted and inspired, but you’ll also stay informed of new blog posts, products, services, ecourses and more.
** Today’s post is part of Liv Lane’s blogging course, How to Build a Blog You Truly Love. It’s a 6-week course and this week we were asked to write a brave post…a post that challenges us to step out of our comfort zone and share something brave! To see all the participants brave posts, click here! Enjoy! **
Whenever I’m asked, “What do you love, Renee? What lights you up? What are you most passionate about?” I answer with kids…family…music…and then…my mind goes blank.
I think to myself, “Why is the question SO hard to answer!!” when I know deep down there are so many more things I could answer with but my mind just can’t seem to go there.
It’s like my heart knows there’s more love in me, but my mind just won’t let me go there.
So I continue to struggle with the answers to these questions, which always makes me sad and unhappy.
When I listen to my daughter, she has no problem saying out loud what she loves. She pretty much spends 95% of her day focused on what she loves.
The more I realized this…the more I saw it other kids. And the more I remembered why I loved being around kids so much while I was teaching in the classroom as an elementary school teacher.
Kids are so very connected to themselves. They know EXACTLY what they love and they do anything they can to make sure they’re living their life doing all things they LOVE!
When they can’t do what they love or have what they love, they go into full meltdown mode.
Then they get older and things begin to change. They begin to learn all the external rules and ways of the world.
How to behave…how to read…how to write…how to multiply…how to take a test…how to graduate…how to eat only certain foods…how to exercise…how to dress…how to study, graduate, get a job, marry and start a family and buy a house.
More outside messages fill their minds, which, then, when they get to be my age, in their 30s, they’re super disconnected with themselves and can’t even remember all the things they loved about life when they were little. Well, this is what happened to me anyway.
Yes, we need rules, but it’s when they consume the majority of our life and we lose touch with what our heart truly loves about life is when things get ugly.
For me, things began to change when I was in 8th grade and I began to focus more on how to eat healthy foods.
Any new health food information that came out in the media, on Oprah, on the Internet, in health and fitness magazines and in nutrition books…I was on it!
My main reason…I didn’t want to get fat. Then the more I read and learned about food…the more I didn’t want to be unhealthy.
I wanted to be thin and live a long and healthy life…so I filled my head with all the new information that came out on foods that were GOOD for me and then I made sure to ONLY consume those good foods and stay as far away as possible from the bad ones.
I went from skim milk to soy milk to almond milk to rice milk to coconut milk and to now, where I’m staying…whole milk.
I did the margarine, I can’t believe it’s not butter, Pam spray, smart balance, to where I’m at right now and staying with… real butter!
I ate so many colorful fruits and veggies because you can’t get any more GOOD than that.
I followed the non-fat, no sugar, no cholesterol phase.
Then decided that when I ate out I’d only eat vegetarian foods…even though I never fully decided I was vegetarian.
I did the green smoothies, coconut water, raw foods, raw chocolate, natural sugars, brown rice, quinoa and any other healthy, wholesome grain too.
I’ve pretty much lived my entire life focused on the rules of healthy food living (and if I was still doing this, I’d so be on the gluten-free/paleo craze, too!).
During college, I decided to major in Journalism because my mom always told me I was going to be writer growing up, so I thought hey, she’s right, I can write, so why not major in it, since I still wasn’t really even sure what I wanted to major in and I needed to pick a major so I could graduate.
After graduating, I had some interviews in the Journalism world and hated it.
I visited my friends elementary classroom that she taught and I thought, hey, I love kids, I’ll be a teacher and I can teach them to write, too (which still to this day, I can say I did enjoy teaching writing to my 2nd graders).
After two years in the public elementary school system, I knew the politics and I don’t mix. Loved the kids, but not the rules of the education system.
Since I was still pretty engrossed in nutrition, I ended up finding the Institute for Integrative Nutrition while trying to figure out how to get out of the teaching profession.
I applied and traveled to NYC for a year in 2007 and received my Holistic Health Coaching certification in 2008.
I was ready to teach others how to eat wholesome foods, have more energy and live a better life.
Little did I know what was about to happen next.
I became pregnant with my daughter in late 2008 and to this day, I always say, she’s the reason why I now think with my heart and not my mind.
She IS the reason that I now know how to live my life by how I FEEL, rather than how I think. Because, when I look back on my journey, I chose everything in my life by what my mind thought…not my heart.
Making heart based decisions is a learning process and I still struggle with letting my heart guide me in everything I choose to do in my life.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I connected with my camera in the most profound way….with my heart.
Taking pictures of things that I loved…like the beautiful blue spring sky and the new light green blossoming trees, my heart was filled with joy.
Because of this, I was motivated from deep within my core to learn how to take better photos and to keep filling myself up with everything photography because I knew it was a deep inner passion of mine that I finally connected with on a much deeper level than I could ever imagine.
Just like how I felt when my met my hubs in college…I was motivated from deep within to make sure to keep him in my life.
When my daughter was born and I held her teeny-tiny cuteness for the first time, my insides were filled with the most profound love her than I had ever felt before.
A love that is hard to explain in words.
The more I spent with my daughter the more I picked up camera.
I didn’t want to miss out on any of her amazing developments and when I had my camera in hand, it brought me outta of the worries in my head (like, not thinking I’m parenting the right way so I fill my head with how to parent books) and brought me into the present moment to just BE with her.
My husband…my daughter…my camera…our military lifestyle…changed me.
I became so much more aware of how I let all the externals of the world guide my life for so long that I didn’t know how to trust intuition anymore, or if at all.
I was choosing to spend the majority of my life focused on how to eat right and exercise to lose weight. Which, in the end was leaving me to feel depressed, worried and fearful because I wasn’t losing weight like I wished and I didn’t want to consume anything that was going to create toxins in my body.
I was choosing to let the rule of go to school, pick a major, graduate, get a job, get married, buy a house and start a family run my life. Which, in the end, made me feel like crap…like I was messed up because I couldn’t get it together like everyone else. I mean, come on, by your 30s you should have a set and secure job, especially when you have 2 college degrees, right?
But see, here’s the way I see it...which, before I explain, has taken me a LONG time to get to this place, because I’ve felt so down on myself for quite some time about this… is that I’ve been put on this path so I could reconnect to who I am really am so I could only pursue things that truly align with what I love.
The more I focused on the outside of myself, the more I lost connection to what I truly love and the more I let fear guide my life.
I lost connection to the FEELING of what it’s like to truly love life.
But, now, when I pick up my camera to capture all those things that bring me joy, make me smile, light me up, make me feel alive, fill my insides with warm, happy tingles, I become more and more connected to all things in life that I love.
My camera helps me to get my head out of my external-rules, external-to-dos, and helps me focus on what truly matters to me in my life.
It helps me to FOCUS on LOVE!
Like here…
My husband setting up scenes in the house with our daughter’s toys before she wakes up, to my husband and daughter dancing to the music during our lunch down in the city and everyone piled on top of him on the floor. LOVE!!
To the food I love to eat…from a ME TIME morning breakfast to some amazing breakfast granola and beef rice bowl that tasted SO delicious in my mouth to a night on the town with my husband for date night – all of these are foods that I truly LOVE. If I don’t LOVE them, I don’t eat them!
To a yummy hurricane that my husband I shared and a music festival out in the beautiful sunshine that also consisted of dancing in the street of New Orleans. LOVE!!
To sunsets…no matter where I am, my backyard, in the car driving or at the beach…I LOVE them, to going on a walk with my kiddos in the stroller and my daughter waving at my shadow to the way the sun shines beautiful light on the tree’s showing which illuminates different shades of green on its leaves. LOVE!!!
To the place setting of our Christmas Eve meal, our GO GATOR alumni colors shining brightly on the New Orleans superdome for a football game we went to…to my daughter falling in love with school buses and the outside atmosphere of a restaurant we ate it. LOVE!!!
To when I chase my daughter and catch her because it’s her favorite thing in the world for us to do together right now. LOVE!!!!
To these quotes I saw in the bathroom at the funeral home where the service for my 90-year-old grandfather was held, which helped me to focus more on the love my grandparents shared with others and with me instead of so much on their death and not seeing them again. LOVE!!!
And lastly, being able to watch my two kiddos love for each other grow more and more each day and how grateful I am that I was able to give them sibling love…something I’ve always wished for myself. LOVE!!!
It’s these moments that I love.
Moments I would have missed if I was continuing to let external rules guide my life instead the ‘what I love’ rules.
I want more than anything to live life like my daughter…like all kids…spending 95% of my day focused on love.
I want my inner-kid to come out and play again so she can help show me all the things that fill my heart up with love.
And because of that, I’ve decided to blog more about how I’m using my camera to help me slow down, connect within so I can focus on all the love life has to offer.
I’m allowing myself to let go of the food rules and I’m eating what my true inner heart wants. If I don’t love what I’m eating, I don’t eat it. I only eat what tastes delicious to ME! Not what a book or any outside source says…ME! And, I mean, it has to melt in mouth with delicious flavor or I pass it up. That’s my love food rule!
This isn’t easy. It’s a constant mind/heart battle. My heart will say, yes,I want the bagel and cream cheese but my mind always butt’s in and says, oh, you should have peanut butter on that bagel instead of the cream cheese so it won’t spike your blood sugar levels as quickly because of the protein in the peanut butter.
I’m letting go of the how I should be living my career life rules, too. I’m allowing myself to be guided by my inner most passions now and I’m starting to making decisions based on those feelings. Again, super hard to do when I just want to run back to my teaching job because it’s secure, even though it’s not a job that aligns with my inner most heart values.
Mostly, I’m just trying to let go of any rule that pulls me away from who I truly am and what I love.
If I don’t love it…I don’t want it in my life.
If I’m not filled with happy tingles or moved to joyful tears or not filled with happy chills, then it’s not the right path.
Because life is good and there’s SO much to love about it!
I’m also choosing to focus on love with my camera because as a mother, I want to be a model to my children on how to stay connected to their intuition and make decisions only based on what their true, inner most desires and passions tell them.
I want them to always stay connected to their inner love FEELING when it comes to eating food and living life.
Because it’s this guide…this love guide…that we’re all born with and that we all need to stay connected to…because in the end…love is always right, so why not spend 95% of our days focused on it!
So, I’m taking a stand and sharing it here with you that I’m finally letting love rule my life, and with my camera in hand, of course!
Until next time..
Life IS what you love…SAVOR it up!
If you enjoyed this post and you’d like to stay updated with how I savor life with my camera, then please sign up for my F.R.E.E. {SMILE} eNewsletter. When you do, you’ll not only receive weekly messages that’ll make YOU smile, FEEL uplifted and inspired, but you’ll also stay informed of new blog posts, products, services, ecourses and more.
Your photo collages are marvelous. Each one tells a fantastic story in itself.
Warmly,
Alice
Lanie-Beautiful post! Beautiful photography! Follow your heart girl, this was fantastic!
Sarah {Left Brain Buddha}-Great post Renee ~ I love all the pictures. And you are so right about children ~ they are such perfect teachers of mindfulness and doing what makes us happy. Never thought I would learn so much from my 3 and 6 year old! ~Sarah
Tressie Davis-Renee, you speak to me. My camera is also an extension of my heart – so hard to explain but it completes me. Also, my husband sets up scenes for my kids too, so cute
Mo at Mocadeaux-Your images tell a beautiful story. I love that your banner is a slideshow, highlighting many of your lovely photos! Good for you for living a life focused on love!
Renée -thanks, Mo! you words made me smile!!
Renée -oh my gosh, tressie!! so cool. photography is just amazing and how cool that your hubs does the same thing. melts your heart, right?? love it!!
Renée -thanks, sarah!! yes…these children…they sure are the best teachers anyone could ever ask for!! love!!
Renée -thanks, lanie!!! i’m on my way!!
Renée -thanks, alice!! lemme know if you want some recipes!! i’m SO happy to share!!
Stacy-This is super fun…and very enlightening…keep doing life your way and snapping those photos everywhere you turn!
Courtney-Loved reading this! And your photos are amazing!
Diana -Wonderful post, filled with exuberance and passion for life. I love your photo collages too!
Rachelle Hawken-So beautiful!! I feel like we would be great friends in real life..I can relate to your yearning to connect to heart-based decisions. I am stuck at crossroads after having finished 2 university degrees and now wanting to take a totally different path. How did you like the IIN course? I am considering it too. x
Susan Michael Barrett-Yum to every bite here, Renee! I want to be in your family. When I read that you want to live like your daughter, 95% of the day focused on love, I clicked “like” lickety split. Here’s to many happy returns, visits : ).
Last week, while lil’ bro was napping, I pulled out my DSLR and asked C if she wanted to take some pictures.
She happily agreed. Score!!
I was thrilled because I SO need the practice. It was a super overcast day, so we went into her room and sat on the floor by the window and I asked her what kind of pictures we should take.
As you can see, she gave me some super duper poses. All her idea!
These types of pictures are great, but I prefer to just sit back and watch her in action and snap what I see. But, this time, since we were doing this together, and I decided to focus more on spending quality time with her while practicing with my indoor settings on camera at the same time, I was totally fine with these.
Before I knew it, things began to change. She started to turn away from the camera and do her own thing. YES!
Like here…
she began to look at the boo-boo on her thumb. And, at this time in her life, when she has a boo-boo it’s a BIG deal.
She sat till for a few minutes (I think she was thinking back to how that boo-boo happened to her and how it felt). Another YES!! because it’s these faces that I just love to capture.
The details of her little hands and her sweet, sweet three-year-old ‘thinking’ face.
But, the coolest part of these is that this represents my daughter right now. She’s SO into painting her face. She saw a little girl getting a spider painted on her face at the local festival here in town and once it was her turn to paint her face she asked for the very same spider.
And then a few days later, we ended up purchasing our own set of face paints for her.
Since then, everyday she asks me to paint a spider on her face, which has now turned into a butterfly and cat faces and hearts and so much more. :)
But then, THE BEST thing happened.
More of her three-year-old stage began to unfold.
My daughter can’t keep one outfit on all day (I’m sure all you moms of toddlers know what I’m talking about!). And, when it comes to dresses that look like a princess, she’s definitely got them on.
She changes dresses at least 3 times a day. I’m SO thankful that she can do this all by herself now. Helps this mama out BIG TIME!!
But it’s this dress that always wins the show.
It’s a dress we bought at Target around Easter time. We went to find it for her because she remembered it for weeks and she wanted the BLUE one!
Well, when we got to the store, there was only ONE blue dress left and it was a size 5T. C wears 18 months to 2T dresses. So we stood there and looked at the dresses for quite some time trying to get her to understand that a 5T wouldn’t fit her. Not happenin’!
So we tried to show her how BIG the 5T would be by putting it on her, but to our surprise it actually FIT her! Yes, it’s super long and not so tight around her chest area…but it’s perfect for her to play in and she’ll grow into it. So we bought it and now there’s NEVER a day that her blue dress isn’t on her.
She’s also SUPER into changing her shoes 3 times a day, too. But for this moment, it was her flip-flops that won. I couldn’t believe that she actually didn’t change them out during our camera time together, but I think it’s because she was really into her book, where you’ll see below.
What I love about this picture here is how I captured her little cuteness getting up onto her big girl bed. She does it every time on her own because if I even try to help she yells, “I CAN DO IT!!!” at me.
This is something I ALWAYS wanna remember, because it’s this moment that won’t last long. Before I know it, she’ll be taller and bigger and older and won’t be letting me in her room. ;)
Once she got settled on her bed, the three-year-old magic happened. She began to get into her own little imaginative, three-year-old world….
and began to read her book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
The way she uses her little index finger to ‘pretend’ read the book (she makes up her own story as she goes along)…so stinkin’ cute!!
And this moment…this is my favorite…the way she uses her little hands and pretends to eat the yummy food shown to her on the pages.
She did this over and over and over and over again. Heart. Melting. I couldn’t listen and watch her do this all day.
I mean, seriously…those little fingers looking as if she’s really grabbing the food…ah, mama love!!! And totally reminds me of my favorite part of the movie Hook when the lost boys are using their imagination to see all the colorful food on the table.
And then she says to me, “Here mommy! You want some?” Awww…she always loves including me in her imagination and I always loving riding the imagination ride with her. She’s SO bringing this fun way of child-like living back into my life. THE BEST!!
Heart explosion!!
And then she finished the book…
and looked at me and my camera and yelled, “I WANNA SEE!!”
It’s these moments that I LOVE to capture. HERstory right now. Messy hair. Boo-Boo’s. Painted Face. Princess Dress. Flip-Flops. Books where she reads with her own words. Sharing imaginary food. And SO much more!
It’s been awhile since I’ve done this because my hands have been filled with adjusting to having two kiddos. So I couldn’t be happier finally connecting with my daughter in this way… a way that helps me capture what she’s completely into in this chapter of her life…her chapter that I like to call chapter 3!
I want her to be able to look back and remember these little moments in her room.
I want her to remember how she used her imagination each and every day and how princess dresses and shoes were her favorite things to change into three times a day each and every day.
Because, like I said, this story of hers is changing everyday as she blossoms into her life journey.
So tell me…
wanna take more pictures like this of your kiddos or something you LOVE that’s happening in your life right now?
Here’s HOW (and what I DO, too!!)!!
Even though I used my DSLR camera for this, you can use ANY camera to catch these little moments of your children. It’s not about the fancy camera…it’s about capturing the moment that fills you up with joy and you want to always remember.
Just check out my instagram feed…all pics used with my iPhone.
All you have to do is forget your to-do list for a little while and just sit (on their level – I spend most of my time on the floor!) with your child/children. Play with them with your camera in hand.
Get them involved.Ask them what kinds of pictures they’d like to take or if they have a favorite toy they’d like to take a picture with. Let them take a picture with your camera. If they don’t how, show them.
And, the biggest tip of all…and it’s the hardest one…don’t tell them to smile or to say cheese. Don’t even tell them to look at the camera. When they look toward you SNAP! When they look away SNAP! Tell their story through your pictures…even if it’s their backside (these pictures tell great stories…like the one I took of C climbing up onto her big girl bed).
Just let their natural REAL self unfold and savor it through your lens.
Smiles and poses are great, but true authentic, candid pictures of your child just BEing themselves are even better!! Because a few minutes later, your child will start to do their own thing, which lets you snap and savor the moments of their life RIGHT NOW.
What’s your child LOVING right now, in this very moment? Snap it, because, like I said, before you know it, what he or she loves right now will be changing into something else in the near future. So why not capture the princess dress stage, the boo-boo stage, the movie you watched over and over and OVER again stage…any stage that brings your child joy RIGHT NOW is their story.
And that camera of yours (even if you think you take shitty pictures, which I promise you don’t!! what YOU take is what YOU see which will always be beautiful!! no camera rules is artsy food for the soul!) is the most perfect way to slow down and snap and savor the moments that you SEE for many…many… years to come. :)
Until next time..
Life IS what you love…SAVOR it!
If you enjoyed this post and you’d like to stay updated with how I savor life with my camera, then please sign up for my F.R.E.E. {SMILE} eNewsletter. When you do, you’ll not only receive weekly messages that’ll make YOU smile, FEEL uplifted and inspired, but you’ll also stay informed of new blog posts, products, services, ecourses and more.
This week, last year, we took C to her first trip to Disney World.
We were still a family of three (with lil’ bro snug as a bug in my belly!). Here we are before the character breakfast at the Polynesian Resort. So fun!!
Disney world and 2-year-olds is priceless.
I grew up in Florida, so Disney was a place I went to with my family and friends a lot. So when I brought C, I was filled with happy tears the entire time (and I would have been this way even if I wasn’t pregnant!) because there’s nothing better than watching the love of Disney through your child’s eyes.
Amazing!!
The other amazing thing about Disney is the food. OMGOSH!! Seriously…it’s the best!
I was fortunate to have parents who took me to many, many restaurants (Disney and non-Disney) while I was growing up.
We weren’t the buffet kinda family.
We were the family that, during the day on our vacation, would stop at the restaurant we were to eat at that night to check out the menu and then go back to our hotel room early to relax, shower and put on our best dressed outfit for the evening.
I’m grateful my parents brought me up this way because I know this is part of the reason why I love food so much and also why I love taking time to slow down and relax while on vacation.
Well, this time, while at Disney AND being pregnant, I was CRAVING food when we got back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge (I mean, what pregnant woman has cravings…and food cravings to be exact, right!?!?) after being out and about in the morning.
So we ordered room service. Aww yeah!! A pregnant mama’s dream!!
I LOVE sandwiches. And, I’m talkin’ sandwiches with a-maz-ing bread and lots of yummy goodness filled in between.
So when I saw the turkey, bacon + avocado sandwich listed on the menu, I immediately yelled out to my hubs that this is the one I want!
And, boy,did I pick right!It was DELISH!! ( I owe this to lil’ bro because he was the one who was ordering all the food I ate while pregnant with him for 9 months…I pretty much had NO say!)
It was SO good that the hubs and I have been trying to recreate it since we got back last year. Um, yes, I did say the hubs and I because he had some of it too and liked it as well.
Mine definitely tastes YUMMY!! But, I’m pretty sure the one at the Animal Kingdom Lodge is way better…I mean, really, who can top Disney!?
I can’t remember the EXACT recipe I had there, so I switched things up a bit with mine.
I smashed up the avocado with some olive oil and fresh lime juice. I’m pretty sure the lodge just had avocado slices on theirs.
Cooked up the bacon slices and cut up tomato, cucumber, red onion and grabbed a handful of dark leafy spring greens.
I used sourdough bread from the local grocery store bakery, which, I have no idea what bread was used at Disney, but it was GOOD!
And then added some mustard and mayo.
SO FREAKIN’ GOOD and SO FREAKIN’ EASY!
The crispness of the bacon and the bread, the creaminess of the avocado and the freshness of the veggies and turkey…divine!!
So, if you’re looking to spice up your sandwich menu, then this one just might do it!
And, remember, you can switch it up to your liking, too. That’s what I love about sandwiches!! They’re great to make any way you’d like!
Oh, and yeah, I’m totally BEGGING my hubs to take us to Disney again this year!! I just LOVE it there!!!
So, tell me…
Ever been on vacation or out at a restaurant and ate something that you absolutely LOVED and then recreated it at home?
Turkey, Bacon + Avocado-Lime Sandwich
Ingredients
2 slices, bread (I used sourdough)
2 slices turkey breast, deli or freshly carved
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon mustard
1 slice, bacon (cooked up before making sandwich)
1/2 avocado
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon lime juice
4 slices, red onion
2 slices, tomato
2 slices, cucumber
1 hand full, dark leafy greens of choice
Directions
1. Cook bacon to your liking. I like mine soft and chewy, so about 5 minutes on each side. My hubs like it’s hard and crunchy, so cook a few minutes longer…6 to 8 minutes on each side.
2. While bacon is cooking place 1/2 avocado, olive oil and fresh lime juice in a bowl and mash up…it can be chunky or smooth, depends on how you like it.
3. Place bacon on paper towel to cool off.
4. Slice tomato, cucumber and red onion.
5. Toast bread. Again, you can go lightly toasted (like I do!) or have it darkly toasted, like my hubs!
6. Place mayo and mustard on each slice.
7. On bottom slice, add avocado-lime mixture. Then add turkey, dark leafy greens, tomato, cucumber, red onion and bacon. Place slice of sourdough on top.
8. Place on your favorite serving dish.
9. Turn off all distractions, sit down by yourself or with your kids, family and/or friends, take a few deep breaths, say how much gratitude and LOVE you have for your food, your family, your life and DIG IN, slowly and savor the deliciousness!
Variations: Use your favorite bread, your favorite greens, your favorite vegetables. Add your favorite cheese. The sky is the limit!
Until next time..
Life IS what you love…SAVOR it!
If you enjoyed this post and you’d like to stay updated with how I savor life with my camera, then please sign up for my F.R.E.E. {SMILE} eNewsletter. When you do, you’ll not only receive weekly messages that’ll make YOU smile, FEEL uplifted and inspired, but you’ll also stay informed of new blog posts, products, services, ecourses and more.
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, but it’s activities like picking up a camera and taking 20 selfies of yourselves (if you have a toddler, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about….ever find your phone and your child’s pictures is there in rows, but each pictures has a different, fun face?) or the moments you love to savor that surround you on a daily basis, dancing to music in the middle of the day, smelling food that was just put in front of you on your favorite colored plate, coloring just for the fun of it or mixing the batter for the cookies you’re baking…because it’s activities like these that EASILY pull you out of your left-brain to-do list thoughts and bring you back into the present moment.
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Tressie - Awesome post Renee – we should all let our inner toddlers out to play!
Alice Risemberg ~ Reiki Pulse - Renee, doodling and creative play are spectacularly important. Thank you for this reminder. I was losing touch with my inner kid big-time.
Love the photos on this one. Oh to be 3 again.
Warmly,
Alice