And so it begins...

Last night I discovered Pinterest. For those of you who don't know what this is you must check it out. But not yet, finish reading this blog post first because as soon as you sign on to pinterest.com you will lose about 2 plus hours of your life to this highly addictive, highly inspiring website. I got lost in the recipes, the ideas for home decor, photography, ideas for childrens activities, style, and books. Oh, and did I mention the pictures of cute baby animals ranging from a mother giraffe kissing a baby giraffe to a penguin with blue shoes on. I kept running across one idea after another that I have to try. Add this to the list of other hobbies I want to take up like knitting, photography, blogging and card making and I was a bit overwhelmed. It is so easy to find things that you want to do but the actual act of doing is much harder. I have to admit that more than once I've come up with a plan to take up a new hobby and days after getting started it gets pushed to the wayside. So this is where I've come to put it all together. Each week for the next 52 weeks I am going to incorporate an idea from Pinterest into my life. It may be a new fun recipe, it might be a new photography idea or a new mantra to live by. I'm excited to see where this all brings me 52 weeks from now. While I decide on my first project here is my story.

Almost five months ago I lost my mom to pancreatic cancer. Her sickness and death just over two weeks after being diagnosed came as an incredible blow to our tight-knit family. More than once over the previous months I had told myself how blessed I was in my life. I was finally pregnant with our first child after two years of trying. My husband was enjoying his job, I was going to get to be a stay at home mom to our son Oliver, we were living in a town that we loved despite being eight hours away from our hometowns and family. So when my mom called me on my husband's 33rd birthday and told me that they found a spot on her pancreas and lesions on her liver the rug was pulled out from under me. I still struggle to find the reason why she was taken from us but I do find blessings in the fact that instead of suffering for months or years she only had to suffer for a few weeks. The last three weeks of her life my sisters and I were able to be with her the entire time. Right up until her last moments on a fresh crisp morning in March, after days of having non-stop visitors we had our time alone with her to tell her it was ok to go. And so she passed.
A month and a half later our son Oliver came into this world. Perfect in every way. We had waited so long for him and he was finally here. A new chapter in our life was beginning.

Oliver is just over three months old now. We've made it through the newborn stage. We really didn't have many sleepless nights...quite a few with little sleep but we've always managed to piece a few hours of sleep together. Every day I am in awe at this little creature that we have. He laughed for the first time this past week. On our way to the cemetary to bury my husband's grandfather. Of all the times to hear those first sweet sounds and that was when they came. In retrospect they couldn't have come at a better time. I was missing my mom immensely that day, it was the first time I'd been to a funeral and burial since hers, it had come way too soon. There is nothing like the laughter of your child to make you stop for a moment and just be. I once again took a moment to count my blessings, at the top of the list was this tiny wonderful little sound coming from a tiny wonderful human.

So where do I begin with this new journey? With that very tiny wonderful human of course! I recently received a new camera for my 30th birthday. With that camera I am going to capture some new shots of him from a different vantage point than I have taken before. It's inspired by this: http://pinterest.com/pin/95289348/ Stay tuned for results!!