In honor of my last post, where I said that it’s time for me to CREATE again, I was going to post my savoring life photos of my kiddos in their Halloween costumes from this year...2021.

That’s one thing I love about Halloween and having kiddos, it gets me to blow the dust off of my DSLR and take (non-iphone!) pictures again.

I truly love that I still have the motivation to do this because I love capturing these moments of them, especially on Halloween when they’re having a ball being all dressed up one night of the year for trick-or-treats.

Well, when I went to edit their pics (from this 2021 year!), I realized I never edited their pics from last year (I blame you pandemic! Grr!).

At least I took them, though!! Ha!

OH MY GOSH! Because it’s SO easy to just let my DSLR sit in my closet and use my iphone instead.

I AM SOUL THANKFUL I got motivated to go grab my BIG girl camera!! Going through them made me smile SO big and brought me SO much JOY!

I love my iphone, but nothing compares to DSLR pictures!

And that’s WHY I’m SO thankful I’m getting myself back to CREATING again!

And because of that, I knew I still needed to share them, since, technically, I haven’t really posted since May of 2020, so this means, (not counting my last post), that I’m basically just picking back up right where I left off.

Woohooo!! I’m SO glad, because these are definitely worth the share, and a share I hope they love to look back on as they grow and older and look back and see what they’re mama did (creatively!) when they were younger.

That’s my hope and intention, anyway! :)

So, yes, even though 2020 was not a year to remember, it did bring some good.

My kiddos were still able to enjoy Halloween that year, even though, right after, C’s friend, that we walked around the neighborhood with that night, tested positive for covid a few days a later and then C had to be tested and quarantined (which luckily, she was negative, but she did end up having strep throat for the 2nd time that fall) because she was in close contact with her.

That was the start to all the crazy quarantine school year of 2020-2021 and without hardly any break days because the school board took most of the days away because of all the six months of school they missed because of the beginning of quarantine in March 2020.

Ahh, what a year!! What a last two years!!

We’re all in this together, right! Oh gosh!

So with that, here are my kiddos, a Zombie Prom Queen and a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Witch, to remind me how far we’ve come and how grateful I am that JOY still shines through moments that don’t feel joyful at all (I’m talking to you pandemic!! Grrrrrr!!!).

And, thank goodness they still want LOTS of pictures taken of them! Well, for the most part! Ha! :)

At first they don’t really seem into it.

But then they slowly….s l o w l y…they start coming around! Yes!

I bought Luca those broom sticks on Amazon and there were four in a pack and he LOVED them!! He was running all around the house with them, daily (and nightly!).

I knew once I started snapping, he’d start getting into it because of that broom, and luckily, he did! HOORAY!

Which then, got sister to start joining in the fun, too! Woohoooo!!

Oh yeah, got them both loving it now! Wooohooo!!

Thank goodness, because I know these moments are starting to slow down and deep down, that makes me heart sad, even though I absolutely LOVE watching them grow up, too!

But soon, as you’ll see in my upcoming post from this Halloween, C has started to get out of this “act wild and silly for the camera” stage…seventh grade does that to ya! :)

Now, just my girl, whom, thank goodness, is still into this photo-snapping fun!!

And she still loves ghosty!! Woohoo!!!

Or, shall I say, my “actress.”

She hopes to be an actress one day and I know that will be. She was born acting and singing, so I know, one day she will be doing one or both. It broke my heart that the pandemic put a stand-still on these two things she loves.

But, I know, nothing will ever stop her from doing what her heart is set out to do!

Right, C! Don’t ever stop going after what your heart calls out to you to do! Your heart is ALWAYS right!

And my boy! He’s always ready to FLY!!

I know, since C is three years ahead of him, I have a few more years of capturing his silliness and JOY through my lens.

Ghosty is his favorite, too!!

Sure hope he’s with us for a long time…but ya know how blow-ups go! This is our second one, since we’ve had the kids. Ha! :)

And then, once they were done having their picture taken, they headed right over to D, because this year, he made a candy chute because of the pandemic.

He used PVC pipe, put orange lights all around it and then used our shop vac to push the candy through to the other side where the kids caught the candy in their bag or basket.

The kids LOVED it!!

It was a lot of work, but it was PERFECT and SO fun during a time that was pretty stressful and scary with being in close contact with others.

It was a BIG hit in our neighborhood and kids were even asking for it this year when they came to the house.

But, gosh, when I look back on that year, I was SO stressed.

I didn’t know if we should all be wearing masks or not outside and I was just so stressed with making the right decision to keep my kids inside or letting them go out and have their annual trick-or-treat fun all while keeping them safe and distanced.

It’s been hard trying to make these kinds of decisions for my kids because of pandemic, and even though C was quarantined right after this, and I was kicking myself for not having them wear masks outside while running around the neighborhood, in the end, we made it through a hard year and it helped us bond more and become even stronger with dealing with the stress that comes with life.

It still sucks so much that our world has been turned upside down, but still, to this day, once all this craziness finally settles (it’s taking it’s time, but I know it will!), I know the world IS going to be in a much better place!

There is SO much being exposed right now that NEEDS change…it makes me think that the world is in a detox right now.

But, right now, I AM ready for all of this to CALM and to stay CALM!

My mama-mind was already stressed-out before this, so yeah, this mama NEEDS a breather from all of this.

I’m hoping for sooner, rather than later!

I’m sure you can relate! :)

What I’ve learned from savoring (and writing about!) this life moment through the lens…

When I really look at these pictures and this moment in time, I see that this was a time, that in these pictures you can’t see, that was very, VERY, stressful.

Life looks pretty joyous and perfect, right? Nope!

From the worries of wearing our masks and if we should even be out trick-or-treating in our very packed neighborhood that night, to once it all ended and the kids were asleep in their beds and I was scrolling my phone reading about what we should have done while out in neighborhood that I didn’t do…bring hand sanitizer and give it to the kids after every house, it should have only been me and the kids…no friends or other parents, grandparents and siblings and we should have worn our masks!!

I was flipping out that night because I was so upset with myself for not researching enough before we went and I got scared that I may have exposed all of us to the virus.

And then, wouldn’t you know, three days later, we got a call from the school telling us of the the first positive coronavirus case at C’s school, which ended up being C’s friend that we went trick-or-treating with and who was also in my house making cupcakes with earlier that day, which stressed me out even WAY MORE out and then I was even WAY MORE upset with myself for not just going around the neighborhood just us (which deep down I really wanted to do, but deep down, I also wanted my kids to have fun with their friends!) and for letting my guard down and allowing her friend in the house to have some Halloween baking fun. UGH!!!

Ever since March 2020, it has been SO hard trying to keep things as normal as I can for my kids, while also trying to keep them socially distanced from their friends in the neighborhood and not take them to crowded areas around town, like the trampoline park or birthday parties, that they constantly ask to go to. :(

So when I look at these pictures, I see that, even though I was SO stressed that night and the weeks after (especially while waiting those 3 long days to get C’s covid test back, which was negative and which I was SO relieved and grateful for!) while C was in quarantine and all the other quarantines both kids were in that entire school year (and my husband, too!), I’m glad I kept this night as normal as I could for them.

And even though it’s been a very, VERY, stressful time and I’ve had to say “no” to my kids SO many times because of the virus, I’m thankful that at times, life was able to stay somewhat normal for them from time to time.

Not everything was taken away and that makes my heart happy and even some things became even better thanks to creativity (like a candy chute their Dad made and all the birthday car parades they got to see and be in and experience!).

And even though, at first, we weren’t planning to give out candy to the kids like we usually do, but then my husband came up with a way to make it work in a socially distanced way (that our kids and the neighborhood kids loved and that I don’t think they’ll ever forget!!) that the kids could still get candy from our house.

It’s these moments that make me go, yes, life has been absolutely crazy with stress since March of 2020, but man, there’s SO many times I get way more stressed about everything than I need to and life sure does have a way of working out even in the worst of times.

And holy wow, there has been SO much creativity that has blossomed because of our world being turned upside down and it’s been SO amazing to witness.

And, most of all, YES, there have even have been times that actually seemed a bit normal, like dressing up for Halloween and being silly in front of the house with all our Halloween decorations we put out every year so mom can take our pictures, like she does every year!

My heart is SO happy that I didn’t let my mind get in the way of me grabbing my DSLR, like I do every single Halloween year.

If I had just snapped a iPhone pic, that would’ve had me changing things up….and Halloween 2020…life was already SO changed up!

I AM SOUL GRATEFUL my heart told me to go grab my DSLR and doing something like I normally do during a not-normal year!

Because if anyone needed some normalcy, it was my kids!

And if anyone needed to get out of her head and BE in the JOYous moment, it was me!!! Thank you DSLR!!! You ALWAYS, ALWAYS do that for me!!

They’ve taken the brunt of all of this with their schools being flipped upside down and not getting to do all the fun activities that usually get to do and not being able to be with their friends and family like they usually get to do (like C missing her 6th grade dance and her not seeing her 4th and 5th grade friends the entire year because they were split up from covid, socially-distanced schedule).

SO thank you spirit, God, angels, Universe for making sure I grabbed my DSLR like I NORMALLY do to capture some normal during a not-so-normal year!!

And, what I love the most, my kids show me in these pictures, that even though the world, their world, has been turned upside down, they didn’t let it stop them from BEing in their JOY and dressing up and just LOVING all that Halloween FUN that fills their hearts UP with!!

Even when, inside their mom’s mind, she was STRESSING THE F out because all she wants to do is protect them and keep them safe!!!

They didn’t let the fear of everything going on stop them…they weren’t even thinking about it!

And, I’m glad, that even though I was thinking about the fear (constantly!) that night, that I did let them go out to have some Halloween fun.

But, I told myself that week after going through everything, that fro now and even next year, 2021, if the world is still very much flipped upside down like this, we will be wearing our masks and I will be bringing hand sanitizer and we will only go as a family.

Because, yes, we can still BE in our JOY, we just have to make sure we’re taking all the precautions we need to make in order to help keep us as safe as we can and to help keep every one around us safe, too!

And, just because our time in life right now has never been normal with wearing masks and staying social distanced, it doesn’t mean all of our normalcy needs to not happen!

Which I know we started to learn as the year went on.

And yes, a pandemic is VERY stressful, especially as a parent, but it will be OK, and new NORMAL ways will emerge to keep life afloat!

And like Oprah says, what I know for sure, is that I’m pretty sure this pandemic has taught me that from now on, I will be able to handle anything stressful that comes my way.

Because I’m pretty sure a pandemic is definitely at the top of the stress list now!

And JOY will ALWAYS be their shining and showing itself through the stress.

I just need to slow down and get out of my (stressed-out!) head so I can stop and SEE it!

So, YES!!!, thank you DSLR!! You helped me do just that when I was taking these photos (and even after when I was editing them last week and when I was writing about them just now!).

You kept me focused on some normalcy during a not-so-normal time (and you helped me to SEE that life IS good when it’s normal and even when it’s NOT normal..especially as I was sitting here writing and reflecting on all pictures I took with you…and maybe that I don’t need to stress out so much about things.)

That IS the powerful beauty of CREATIVITY!!!!!

THANK YOU!!

I AM SOUL GRATEFUL!!!!!

Until next time…

See something that makes you stop and smile. Grab your camera!! It'll slow you down, pull you into the present moment even more and have you SAVORing your JOY feeling even more!! And most of all, it'll connect you to your soul so you can SEE and HEAR the things that you may have passed by (like your kids dressed up for Halloween!). The camera...it's powerful...especially when it comes to FEELING JOY and BEing more PRESENT! :)

That's WHY I take pictures!! The camera is one of my favorite creative tools that easily pulls me out of my frazzled + overwhelmed mama head so I can fully SAVOR (the feeling of) everything that makes me stop, smile and lights me UP with LOVE (something that's hard for me to do when my mind is running 100 miles ahead or behind the present moment)