Playground Photo Binge

I took Hunter to the park this past weekend.  He wriggled out of the stroller the instead I popped the safety belt, and squirmed onto the ground where he froze for a moment like a bird dog on point.  You can see the ideas of what trouble can I get into first! running through his brain. 

First he decided to investigate all the climb-y things so plentifully scattered about.

 

 

After watching kids pop out of the bottom of the spiraly slide he crawled over, stuck his head up into it and hollered “Dadababa whowho wow?”  (Translation:  "Where do those kids come from???")

 

Then he sat and watched five kindergarteners pelt across the playground.

“They are so silly looking, Mom, wasting all that energy on nothing!”  (You should see yourself, dear.)

He sat in the sunshine and thought Baby Ninja thoughts.

 

After a while he got worn out and sat in peaceful enjoyment of the ebb and flow of playground chaos. He is so darn beautiful, isn’t he?

 

His chubby babyhands make my heart stop.

 

On the way home I saw this leaf and crouched down in the middle of the running path, one foot jammed behind the stroller wheel while I twisted into a human pretzel to capture the liquid color of it.

 

This, so far as I can tell, is the very first sunset I have clicked shutter on since moving back to Wisconsin.  In Florida, sunsets are an institution, and beach sunsets became my peaceful place.  In that glorious moment where the sky exploded into color, my heart would find content.  I thought it seemed fitting that this day at the playground, like a little bubble of stability in the whirlpool of our everyday life, ended with a sunset over a river which rivaled those over the ocean. 

Enter November!

It’s November!  I was excited to see the comments from Katherine and Kayla last time about their NaNo thoughts.  Kayla, how is it going for you????  Katherine, did you decide to do something this year?

For me, it’s only 3 days into my version of NaNo and I already bombed the first two.  :(  Both days I meant to write, had ideas to write, and even scribbled some sketchy wayward scraps onto paper, but Life interfered and nothing actually got done, other than teary diary writing at one AM this morning.  Big Gusty Sigh.

So I decided to revamp my NaNo goal this year.  Instead of writing every day, I will do something crafty or creative every day.  It might be scratching words on paper, or it might be a half-hour of twisting myself into a pretzel to photograph sunbeams through broken glass in the sidewalk crack.  Or it could be creating new clothes from the mountain of plus-size sweaters and shirts in my closet.  Or making Christmas gifts.  Or experimenting with papercrafting.  The only thing which doesn’t count is pinning on Instagram.  :D

And no, changing my goal is absolutely not cheating, because NaNo is about personal goals.  And while I want to wear the ink-spattered cloak of words again, to feel the buzz of characters and stories inside my brain, I also want to see jewels where others see broken glass, and I want to capture it on film so they can see the diamonds too.  And every other crafty thing.  I think NaNo for me this year is about taking hammer and chisel to the dingy brick wall which has held my creativity captive for the past two years.  That sounds melodramatic but in reality that is just how it feels.  I never realized how essential the act of creation was to the well-being of my soul until that part of me shriveled up in Florida.  And now that I’m out of that situation my soul is like a toddler just beginning to walk – it needs to create.  Now.  Now.  NOW!

Yes, I probably am certifiable. 

Anyway.  With my schedule of insanity writing and photography and crafting consistently make it to the cramped margins of my to-do list, which means they stay to-do and never get done.  And…that’s why I’m changing my goal to make them priorities instead of luxuries.  Unorthodox, but my creative soul is very excited.

Did I mention I love November?!