The holiday season is, for photographers, one of the busiest times of the year.  At the moment, my calendar is booked pretty solid and we're having to turn people away and put people on waiting lists.  It's challenging because I want everyone to be happy and get everyone taken care of but there are limits.  I am bad about limits.  I have a hard time saying no.  I always think that I can just push a little harder and work a little more and it will all be okay.  Sometimes I think this personality feature is a great thing and sometimes, well, not so good...

As it always happens, when things are stressful and time is tight, something else happens to just make it all the more tight and stressful.  This week that came in the form of a sick child.  I have been at home with Sayer for 2 days this week and have had to cancel a bunch of appointments and move things around.  I start to get all uptight thinking, I don't have enough time as it is and now I have less!  That is how it begins but as the day goes on and I've gotten to spend all this one-on-one time with one of my favorite people on the planet the stress starts to dissipate.  It's the little things for me that wipe the stress slate clean.  Monday we drew superheroes.  I sat back and watched him work with little legs dangling, his alien socks on, his intent concentrated stare and his very methodical choice of markers and colors.  It hits me like a ton of bricks that one day his feet will touch the floor and, unless he likes weird socks like I do, he will likely not be wearing alien socks.  Today we made a special trip to the video store to buy Wall-E.  We snuggled up on the couch and watched it together.  I love the movie by the way and think everyone should see it.  It is a beautiful film about love and connection so it was perfect for us today.  Anyway, there are a few parts that are so sweet that I literally feel myself tearing up.  It was at one of those parts that my sweet boy leans back, touches my hair and says "this part almost makes me want to cry".   In that moment, I want to pull him out of kindergarten, close my business and just freeze time.  It's then that the sick day becomes this incredible little gift- wrapped up in alien socks and topped off with shaggy brown hair.

It reminds me that it is about about balance and that balance is very hard to find.

and that I do what I do because I love it.  It's about finding little moments and freezing them.  My job is to help parents remember it and celebrate it because it goes by so fast that it just isn't fair.

That family is one of the best things going...

And that, certainly for me, what makes me good at what I do is my family.  So, in the blur of the busy season, I have to remember what I am doing.  I need to be in the moment.  Many thanks to my sick little Sayer for reminding me of that today.