On Combining Hobbies and Motherhood...

What is your hobby? What do you spend a large portion of your week doing or thinking about, aside from taking care of your kiddos? Is it watching old movies? Photography? Bible study? Song writing? Crafting? Sewing? Blogging? Landscaping? Facebooking? Whatever it is, your kids know it's important to you. They see you sitting at the computer or drooling at Home Depot as you walk through the rose bushes. They notice that you always seem to stop off at Hobby Lobby but rarely get anything. Naturally, we all have things we love, or things we loved before we had kids but simply just don't have time for anymore. It doesn't mean we've lost our passion for the hobbies we've held dear, it just means that some of us have put them on hold for a while until our little ones are self-sustaining enough, napping long enough, or old enough to spend a day at school. I'll bet, however, that if you're really passionate about something you find time for it now and then, even in 10 or 15 minute spurts before the kids wake up in the morning, or while they're at the table with a couple of Go-gurt tubes. "I'll clean up whatever mess they make," you convince yourself, "because it's worth it to me to fit in just a few moments of me-time."

Let me suggest that there is a way to combine your children with your hobby. Maybe you can't take them sky-diving or shark-hunting, if those are your passions, but you can include them in little ways. My hobby is photography. I am still an amateur, but I love (LOVE) it. I read everything I can get my hands on, I try fifteten angles for every shot, I get terribly under and over exposed pictures because I love to experiment with the aperture and ISO functions on my camera. I'm slowly but surely improving... SLOWLY, but surely. I bought an external hard drive in April of 2009. In three years, I have created 722 folders with over 24,000 files (namely, picture and video files with a small handful of documents). Crazy, right? 24,000! But I just love documenting life. One day I'll go through and delete the bad pics- blurry, grainy and what-not. For now, I will just keep taking pictures of the things I love, stealing away a few minutes during the day to edit them. My kids know how much I love taking pictures. They know not to touch my camera, and they know that if I get the camera out I'm more than likely going to point it at them. They're fine with this.

Today I decided to combine motherhood and photography- not taking pictures OF my kids, but taking pictures FOR them. I've read a few "How to photograph newborns" articles lately, since they've been on my Facebook Timeline. My daughter is absolutely in love with the idea of motherhood, telling me often that she wants to be a stay-at-home mom just like me when she grows up (*awwww!*). Her "daughter" (my grand-daughter) is Baby Granna. She was a gift to Courtney at Christmas, just before she turned two. Baby G goes all over town with us, across state lines, to church (although she usually naps in the car while we worship) and more. I mentioned to Courtney that we could take newborn pics of her baby doll, and she was SUPER excited! So we had a spontaneous little newborn photo shoot. It was so fun:) Courtney and I had a great time. She chose the outfits, several poses, and blankets. She was just like a real mom- "I want her to look like an angel! Let's make angel wings for her!" She even pulled out a toy camera and started taking pictures of her own:

She had a blast, and we had a great bonding experience... while my 1 yr old son took off his diaper and climbed into the bathroom sink. (A word of advice, if you're crazy about your hobby, like I am, stay alert and make sure all kids are accounted for at all times, haha!)

So what's your hobby, and how can you share it with your kiddo? Can she help you write a silly song? Could he be your assistant in the kitchen? Could you sew a quilt with his favorite sports teams on it? Perhaps she can help you plan your next shark-hunting trip by pointing out the kinds of sharks she would like you to find, or by helping you choose your new goggles? Here are the results of our little photo shoot. Maybe I'll print them and put together a little photo album for Mother's Day? I know, this may seem creepy to some- taking pictures of a doll, but it meant the world to my little girl. What a wonderful memory. I encourage you to think outside of the box now, and make some great memories of your own! :)


I used free (FREE!!) Photoshop actions from thecoffeeshopblog.com and MCP Actions. Click on their names to get your free actions and presets. They are a-mazing time savers, and work with old editions of Photoshop as well as new, including Lightroom!