Onto a new chapter

The last 6 months have been pretty trying for me. I was debating about whether or not to be so candid, but we can grow from one another’s experiences right? I haven’t posted anything in months deliberately. I’ve been in hiding. Not wanting anyone to know what is going on with me, mostly because I’ve been feeling truly awful and two because I just didn’t want people to know. Basically I just let my body crash. I overrun myself to the point where my adrenal glands literally crashed. For weeks I couldn’t walk around without holding onto walls I was so dizzy. Losing weight, couldn’t digest my food. Terrified I was going to pass out while working. I’ve had lots of tests and visits with multiple doctors, but where I found the best help was at a natural doctor. She’s been my lifesaver. I’m now finally onto recovery and feel energized again! All of that to say, I’m finally ready to share some of my life, which mostly means photographs.

I’ve learned a lot about myself and about what is important. We often as adults get into ruts or seasons where we are living in a “stressed out” zone or let our worries go on to long. I’m truly here to say, don’t hold onto those things. It really can ruin you. Our bodies can withstand a lot but there is a tipping point.

Just in case you are one of those people who are also anxious by nature, I urge you to take some deep breaths. Often. Belly breathe. Forget about people around you for a minute and stick your stomach out as far as you can!

I’m excited about what this next season has for me and my family because it is a healthier season. I’m very conscious about what goes into our bodies and how I deal with day to day stress. I may share more later but for now, it’s off of my chest. I’m onto a new chapter.

You can also check out my business blog here. I’ve started posting some personal things there as well.

We would love to hear from you, send us an e-mail 🙂

– Emma

Summering

It’s that time again. Catch up on months of no blogging. Life has a different pace these days, no longer are we chasing a baby but we have two little KIDS! One of which starts school in just over a month. I can hardly believe it. I’m not going to get into all of the updates because there would be too many but life has been good and we are enjoying our chasing after the kids, the light, the colour. Here are some of my favourite photos from warmer months.

A visit to POP

This post may seem a little contradictory to my last, seeing as I legit made reference to not spending too much time on your hair. Here it is though, Owen’s first real visit to the stylist! Benjamin Deacon over at POP Hair Gallery has been my go-to for hair for the last four years and he’s pretty much awesome. So, I couldn’t think of taking Owen anywhere else. He was pensively silent as he absorbed the sights and sounds. To any onlookers you’d think he was miserable but the moment we got outside afterwards he was telling me how fun it was and how handsome he looks!

Here it is, Owen’s after shot. A little too Sears of a photo for my taste but it was the best photo I could get where his eyes were in the camera. There’s a real Owen photo right after to compensate. Great job Ben! Thank you!

I will simplify

The last couple of weeks despite the chaos of regular life as a parent, my mind and heart are being stretched. I’m constantly thinking. Even though I had become used to being too tired to think. It all comes down to bettering. Bettering myself so I can be better to the world around me. I’ve always thought of myself as a simple person who likes less and who desires to live simply. And although that is more or less true, I’ve also realized that I have a envious heart and sometimes say I love simple in order to find peace with having less. Tim often reminds me that we need to check ourselves when we criticize others for their pride in material goods because it is a reflection of the pride in our own hearts. I have one amazing husband!

God is dealing with who I am at the very core. I really do want to be someone who lives life simply. I want to live happily with the minimal. I want to teach my children to be happy with who they are even if they had no worldly possessions. But that means I have to learn the lesson first. What parts of my life are luxury and expendable? I have to be careful how I word this because I don’t want to single out other people. Everyone is on their own journey and some will live a wealthier life than others and that’s ok. I’m not talking about wealth really, I’m talking about what parts of us end up being dictated by the material. When I wake up and get dressed in the morning (or the afternoon sometimes), I am a woman so I like to look nice. My grandmother used to say, “keep your man’s eyes at home”, so I do try and look put together. But what part of me wants to be beautiful for my husband or for myself and then what part of me wants to fit into society? I apologize if this is a ramble of a blog post. I may wrongfully be using today’s post as a diary to myself but I thought there were probably some people out there who may also be encouraged or need to hear some of this.

What do I teach Elle if I need to put on makeup everyday? What do I teach Owen if I complain about what I have to wear on any given morning? I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And although I will be clean, brush my hair and do my best to look nice. I won’t spend time crying over how many clothes I have. I won’t spent countless hours on my hair. I won’t spend time complaining about who I am. God made me good. He said so.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them… God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:27, 31. NASB)

With simplifying myself, I will simplify my schedule. A lot of that means spending less time online. I realize that is a paradox when I am online as I write this. But it’s not about removing things, it’s balance. Right now, I am organizing my own thoughts in my own time when my beautiful babes are playing with their grandparents. Yesterday I made a point to ignore my work and give my day 100% to my children. This is a challenge for me as a business owner when I can see the to-do list piling up in my head. So I would check my phone, respond to texts then turn the sound ON and take it out of my pocket and put it on a table somewhere. If someone needed me I would here it, but otherwise my phone could wait. Pastor Mark talked about it on Sunday morning and it confirmed a lot of what I’d already been processing. I really appreciated the sermon on generosity (If you have some time you should listen to the podcast. It’s not up yet but when it is, check out July 21st.) I did also know that today would be my photography work and personal reflection day so I knew my computer could wait. I thoroughly enjoyed my kids. We went for a long walk around the Walkerville area then when Elle went down for her nap Owen and I played. We caught the rain with our tongues.  I want to show Owen pleasure in the simple things.

And lastly we as a family want to live simply in our activities. This one comes quite naturally to both Tim and I. We are naturally artistic, reflective and natural loving people. Photography is my personal, as well as professional outlet. I feel so honoured to be able to see things differently than the way many other people do. My mom tells a story of me being a little girl looking up into the sky and showing her, “Look, isn’t it beautiful?” and she still says to this day that she couldn’t see what I did. I believe a bit part of my talent in photography is a gift from God to show people how beautiful the world around them is and more importantly, how beautiful they are.

How beautiful is this menacing weed growing at the front of our house? I didn’t pull it out before out of pure laziness but look how lovely it is! Although it will have to come out soon before the fall has it attaching little burrs to our clothes.

Tim’s outlet as you know has been running. Just a little plug for him, he just started a blog of his very own. Running the Flatlands. He is an inspiration to me.

Well, my rambling has come to an end for today. I would love to hear from you about ways you simplify your life – emmaldavidson@hotmail.com

 

 

 

My journey with co-sleeping a toddler nursling

I think it’s pretty safe to say that I won’t be able catch up on the one photo a day for the last three months that I’ve missed. Although I have been keeping up with taking photos daily, life has just been to exciting to catch up on posting. Between two new babies in the family, wedding and family photo season and my every day chaos with the two little ones it’s just long gone.

I almost feel at the moment like my head is spinning. Life is going toofast for me to take it all in. There are multiple blog posts and personal brainstorms that I could write about and I just can’t put a finger on where to start. So I think I’ll start all the way out on left field and talk about my inward going ons instead of the more obvious.

From the moment you get pregnant with your first child you are bombarded with questions – questions from parenting books, magazines, friends and well meaning family members. “Is your baby sleeping through the night yet?” “What sleep method are you using?” “Are you going to formula feed or breastfeed?” “Will you get an epidural or go natural?”

Then as people get a taste of your parenting “style“; if you can call it a style at the beginning of the game, the questions become more in depth. Questions I hear quite frequently, are:

• You are co-sleeping? or, Are you still co-sleeping?
• Oh, I’m sorry she’s not sleeping through the night yet. Have you tried “insert method here“?
• When are you going to wean her?

When I had my first born son I was reading everything I could get my hands on to discover the ideal parenting strategy. I googled everything and asked every seasoned mom about all their years of parenting knowledge. As a new mom it’s easy to get lost in the ideal that all babies are the same and that they will all eventually bend over to the perfect sleep, feeding or other strategy. In my heart of hearts I have always been the same kind of parent, but as time has gone on it has turned not only from something I believe in on the inside, but into something I practice.

When Owen was born, he slept next to me in the hospital bed from that very first night. I wasn’t about to let go of him. We co-slept blissfully and I exclusively nursed him. But as I fell more deeply into the exhaustion of parenting I worried that I must be doing something wrong because I can’t always be this tired and I can’t always be questioning my decisions. So at four months I gave him a little cereal to help him sleep on the urgings of other well meaning parents. Then at six months I let him cry it out so that we could sleep at night, because that was the right thing to do. Even though my heart kept telling me it couldn’t be. Then at twelve months I partially weaned him from breast milk and at fifteen months I completely weaned him off of his morning and night feedings. So at fifteen months Owen fit into the North American perfect toddler mould. I felt so free! I was no longer inconvenienced by his night time cries and his signing for mommy’s milk. But I couldn’t help but feel like I had done him a dis-service.

Before I go on… if you are a mom that does any of these things please don’t feel that I am taking a stab at anyone else’s parenting style. I am simply telling my own journey. I won’t pretend that I have got it figured out for the masses. This is what I think is right for me and my family.

I’m finally writing about all of this because I can truly say that I am at peace with my decisions instead of worrying about what everyone else thinks.

My journey as a mom of a second baby has been much more stretching because I’m finally allowing myself to be stretched. Allowing myself to be me. I’m used to being tired, it won’t last forever. I let my baby girl pacify on me because I believe it God designed my breasts to comfort my baby and I now know that it’s normal and healthy to constantly question.

Here I am, the mom of a three year old and an almost fifteen month old… Our baby girl still sleeps with me. This time I’m not letting her cry it out. It just doesn’t work for me and us so we’re winging it. I haven’t weaned her, and it works. Elle is happy, I am happy and this is our journey. Call it attachment parenting, call it hippie, or whatever else. But I think it’s much more simple than that. No flowers, long braids or VW vans with sing alongs. Just a mom with a cup of coffee, a messy house and a couple of milk machines. This adventure seems so much more natural and true to myself. Will I nurse Elle until she’s three? I don’t know. I’m not there yet. Right now we’re going one day at a time. I love waking up to my nursling in our own bed who smiles up at me and says milk.

This is our journey.

119/365 Elle’s 1st Birthday Session

Don’t know where you’re reading this from, but here in Southwestern Ontario Spring has been taking it’s time this year! It has been so cold and the warm days have been few and far between. I was determined to get Elle in one of the adorable dresses that my talented Mum made which meant delaying her 1st birthday photo session. I’m terrible for planning my own children’s photos. I generally just ramble through their closets to find a couple of cute outfits, then grab them and head out the door. This day with Elle was no different, especially since it was one of the nicest days we’ve had this far and I was determined not to allow the sunshine to be wasted. I was strategic in waiting for magic hour though. That small window of time when the sun is starting to fall but not yet close enough to be sunset. This is how you get that beautiful soft backlit glow. Here are some from Elle’s session.

117-118/365

Family Sessions by Emma at Karitas Photography

Family Sessions by Emma at Karitas Photography

For more of my photos at Karitas Photography visit the Karitas website or our Facebook page.

116/365 Somewhere over the rainbow

 

Elle’s first birthday celebration was a success. Small intimate family dinner but Elle seemed to have a great time. Just wanted to show off her AMAZING birthday cake by Candice Meier from Stages! She did a brilliant job. Check out her website for information www.stagesbycandice.com 

115/365 Ben & Michelle’s Maternity Sneak Peek

Tim’s brother Ben and his lovely wife Michelle are expecting their first child, a baby girl! We are so excited to meet our first niece and I obviously love being able to photograph the stages in their family. So much love.

 

114/365 Beauty in the unlikely

Sometimes you just have to do a little searching for something beautiful. This beautiful deadness is one of last years blooms and that pretty green in the background is our garden hose.