{Brooklyn} An update on my life, my girl, & on being busy

This poor blog has been seriously neglected. I miss it. I miss sharing my life with you. I miss sharing every client session. I miss sharing how much Brooklyn is growing & changing before my very eyes. But something had to give in the midst of a ton of responsibility and changes. So I stopped blogging so much to take a little breathing room. I'm learning how to prioritize and how to live with less than perfection. I don't like it. I don't like not being able to do everything I want to and do it well. Motherhood has changed that for me. It's been such a difficult road and I often feel that I'm failing. I know I'm probably the hardest on myself but I also know I'm a work in progress. I'm always working towards something better. So now it's summer and I have a bit more breathing room and an opportunity to do things a bit different.

My whole life I've been "busy". My senior year in high school I was taking AP classes, I was the senior class president, cheer captain, student store manager, DECA president, an employee at a nursery co-op, and a very social butterfly. I only share this (not to toot my own horn), but to share that I thrive on involvement and connection with others. This theme has continued into most of my adult & professional life. In addition to teaching, I've coached and advised both gymnastics & cheer. I've co-led the freshmen orientation program LINK Crew. I've been a technology trainer to teachers. I've tutored students that are home schooled due to medical reasons. I started this photography business in the midst of all that. And now I am tired. and confused. and overwhelmed. I stumbled upon this article and it could not have put my life into more perspective! Read it! You may not be like me...but there is something for us all to take away from it. It's good stuff. Promise. I have so overused that word "busy" to an embarrassing fault. If I'm true to myself, this is not the life I hoped for myself.

And on that note, I want to share a little update of my peanut. She is such a big girl. She seems so old to me in these photos below. She schools me regularly. I was asking her what her favorite mammal was (they were learning about them at school). Her reply was a whale. I questioned which one..."a gray whale, an orca, a killer whale, etc...."? To which she quickly replied in her most annoyed tone...."Mooooooooom, an orca IS a killer whale!" Uhhhhh....yeah, right, I knew that. Today I asked her to throw away her sandwich bag. She replied "Mom, we don't throw these away...we reuse them". Yep, she is right again! I have to thank her amazing montessori for doing such a great job about teaching these little people so much more than their ABC's & 123's. Her teachers are amazing and I'm so happy she is learning so many wonderful things when we leave her. On another occasion Brookie told me that we don't litter because the earth is our home. She is such a sponge and whatever she hears, it sticks! So this is my little gal with her buddy Samira. They went to Art Camp together last week and I can't wait to share it next.