Project 365, Day 5

One of the top reasons that I love being an educator: that long Christmas break.

One of the top reasons that I hate being an educator: coming back from that long Christmas break.

Yes, it was back to reality today.

I miss vacation.

Project 365, Day 4

This is our new (to us)/old (made in the 1940's or 50's) piano. It actually got played today for the first time in a couple of weeks. The boys realized that they have lessons coming up in three days and haven't practiced all vacation long. Oops!

Project 365, Day 3

We are starting to take down the tree and pack up the Christmas decorations. This is our pair of singing snowmen that we got from Hallmark this year - it's our fourth year of collecting these things, and you should hear it when my boys get all four going at the same time!

Project 365, Day 2

This is how exciting our little vacation is this week. I spent almost the entire day helping Griffin put together this Lego set. :)

But we got it done, and he is a happy little boy. And I am a happy Mom to have had the time off to play with him.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a happy, fun and safe New Year's Eve. The Marriner clan has never been much for going out and partying, so we just stayed home, stayed warm and watched the big ball drop on TV.

I try to avoid making resolutions each year, mostly because I believe that when you think of it in those terms, like "I must do this because it was my RESOLUTION!!" then you are setting yourself up for failure. So instead, each year I try to just think of a few small goals for myself. I usually don't share them with anyone, mostly because they would probably bore you, but there is one that I have decided to make public, mostly because you will be seeing my progress here. I've decided that I really want to make an effort to take more pictures that are just for me. The second half of last year I was so incredibly swamped with portrait work that I totally neglected taking pictures of the world around me - my kids, my flowers, the beauty of nature. So in order to motivate me to take a little time each day for myself, I have joined "Project 365." The goal of this project is to take at least one picture a day of something in your life that day. It doesn't matter what it is. Some people try to do a yearly theme, where they only shoot one type of subject, but for me, it's just going to be about getting out there and taking the pictures.

To kick off the year, I have this picture of Griffin, taken this afternoon. He got this guitar as a Christmas gift from my mother and her boyfriend Mike. They weren't able to come up to visit for Christmas last week (they live in PA), but are here today and tomorrow. We had a "second Christmas" today as we exchanged our gifts. Mike plays guitar, and when we visited my Mom for Thanksgiving Griffin was very interested in having Mike teach him to play. Griffin is our little budding musician, so of course he now is the proud owner of his own guitar. And not just some kid's play guitar - a real one! I love this picture because it looks like it could be on an album cover. Maybe someday it will be! :)