Lately it seems like everyone and their dog is starting up their own photography business. And really, that's great. In fact, I'm a little jealous. But it's great too, because it means that there are so many photographers to choose from to document our family.

But, as I was looking at some of the online galleries for a few photographers I admire, I got to thinking about the professional photographers I got to work with years and years ago. For instance, when I was in grade 9 or so, our youth group got a picture of all of us taken to give our youth pastor (Nelly) for Christmas or retirement or something. And one of the big Chilliwack photographers came and did the session. He was awesome. He paid attention to every single detail...even gathering leaves from around the park where we were shooting so he could strategically scatter them to make the picture better.

And that's my beef with a lot of these new photographers. They just don't have the same eye for detail. They don't watch to make sure their subject's hair isn't flying away all weird on one side. They'll have her lie on the grass, but they miss the big patch of ground where the local kids were playing ball and chewed up the lawn. You know what I mean.

And don't even get me started about the stay-at-home-moms who splurge for a fancy camera and suddenly think they're talented. I've gotten so many invites from women like this who want to take pictures of my kids. I look at their websites and think my kids take better pictures! (and if you fall into this category, but you read my blog, chances are I'm not talking about you. These are mere distant acquaintances who've friended me on Facebook purely to try and drum up business. No chance.)

And I guess you get what you pay for. These photographers are mostly cheap, so I guess I shouldn't expect Don Young quality in a portrait. But it would be nice.

Now that my garden is actually growing and we're even harvesting food from it (!) I'm already thinking about next year.

For instance, I always wondered why school sports teams sell horse manure. Why oh why would you want any? Did you know that it is one of the best fertilizers? All that nice manure mixed with all the organic matter that horses eat and the straw from their stalls? BEAUTIFUL stuff I'm telling you! I'm keeping an eye out for the sales to start.

And I was worried that my garden this year was far too big. And now that I've separated my beets and the leeks are looking like they need more room I'm eyeing up my mum's yard for more gardening room. Andrew's been ordered to build me several raised beds for more gardening.

And I've been looking at online seed catalogs.

Tonight we're eating new potatoes fresh from the garden with broccoli, peas and strawberries. All picked 20 minutes ago from OUR garden! wow. Next year I want the lettuce and radishes to be ours too. I want beans. And more varieties of squash. More strawberries. And my own raspberries and blue berries. Oh, and three broccoli plants were no where near enough. I only bought them to please Tink, but oh goodness fresh broccoli is delightful!

I've been given the opportunity to telecommute. We haven't hammered out all the details yet, but it sounds like my supers are going to try to make this work. Awesome! But it means I need a better work space so I can really focus on working (right now my computer is in the guest room and there's really no room for anything there.)

I think this means I'm going to convert our den (which luckily is empty right now) into my office. And, because I am me, this means I'm going to personalize the space. I work better in a pretty space, don't you?

Yay, something fun to research. Tonight I'll be doing lots of research online for good workspaces and pretty ones. All done on a shoestring. But it's amazing what a coat of paint will do!

And in other news, Pierce Brosnan is in town (mission) filming. Coincidentally (honest!) I'm heading that way tomorrow. You know I'm praying for a chance meeting!!

Why I love Pierce Brosnan....

A couple of weeks ago, Andrew and I were looking for something to watch and for some reason I decided to ask my sister if I could browse through their DVD collection...and found Mama Mia. A movie that had never held any appeal for me, but for some reason that night I decided to watch it.

And I remembered just how much I love Pierce Brosnan. The man is SO handsome. He's arrogant, but not too arrogant. He's smooth. Have you seen Laws of Attraction? I loved him in that too.

I had to read his bio online. Have you read it? He's Irish. So am I (on my mum's side). Raised by his grandparents, then shunted around after they died. So he has the tragic thing down. Then he was reunited with his mom and her new husband but in England so he was a bit of an outcast. I can relate to that. On a whim he joined the circus. Seriously! And then he married his first wife. Adopted her children. When she died of cancer, he was devastated and swore he'd never love again. Until he found his present wife. Who is gorgeous and intelligent and passionate and not a size 2. Which shouldn't matter except she's married to Pierce Brosnan so for some reason it does. And now I've decided I love her as much as I love him.

I think I might be in love with Pierce Brosnan. *sigh*

Being a mom has not felt easy these last few days. I'm sick, and the worst symptom right now is sheer exhaustion. It does not make me a patient or tolerant person.

Also, the weather has been less than perfect. It's rained a lot lately which means we're spending a lot of time in doors, or running errands.

My kids are bored. Understandably. They're not getting to run off their energy either. Which means they're not going to bed very well at night either.

This is not a good mix.

Right now Andrew has taken them for ice cream so I could have half an hour to myself in quiet. I spent the last few minutes on this website.

I've heard of Rachel before. One of the blogs I stalk is written by a friend of hers who mentions her quite frequently. I'd never visited her website before. This letter from Rachel stopped my pity party pretty darn effectively. For those of you who haven't heard of her, Rachel Barkey is a young wife and mother who happens to have been battling cancer for the past four years. This winter she found out that the cancer had returned and in incurable. I haven't listened to her video yet (I'm waiting for 55 minutes without children so I can!) but I've heard it's very inspiring.

So, isn't there supposed to be a recession on? Aren't people who work in trades (like the construction business) desperately looking for work? It must have skipped Langley. We're trying to get a fence put up on our property. First we called Surrey Cedar. They have great prices on their cedar play houses and they're local. We had two appointments for them to come and measure our place up for fencing and no one ever showed. They didn't even bother letting us know they weren't coming (which, if you know trades people, means I spent two days sitting around my house when I could have been doing things. GRRRR).

Now we're on to our second fence company. They did come and measure our place, but we haven't heard from them since.

And back in December, like two days after we moved in here, a Telus truck backed into our house. Telus was awesome about it. But it took almost 3 months for the insurance companies to decide who was going to fix our house. Then it took several weeks before they actually came and looked at our house. Now we're getting close to a month of waiting for the restoration company to let us know when they're going to start the repairs.

I wish I was handier. I'd just do all this myself :P

I have a confession to make: I have always been terrified of Jesus coming back. Because to me, that signals the beginning of the anti Christ's reign and no one has ever been able to tell me that me that I won't be here for that.

I have no idea why I'm this way. I don't think it's a denominational thing; I don't know of anyone else who thinks this way.

All I know is, every time I watch a war movie, every time I read a book on war, or End Times, every time I think of the military, that's exactly where my mind goes.

For those of you who weren't raised on End Time culture, you probably think I'm crazy (and maybe even a lot of you who do know about it too!) Yeah. Me too.

This irrational fear also translates into a sort of fear of war in general. Especially now that I'm a mother. I remember watching Children of Men. Through the whole movie I just kept thinking, "Why on earth did I have children? Why didn't I ever think about what it would be like to be a mother in the midst of war?"

So last night at my Book Club's inaugural meeting, while the other members were talking about how certain books make them alternately feel sad or incredibly blessed to have been born here and now, my mind was going in a completely different direction.

When I stop and think about it, my first emotion usually is sadness, or maybe grief. I don't understand how people can turn a blind eye to human suffering. But then as I think about it more, I realise I do. It's like the old analogy of the frog in the pot of water. Turn the heat up slowly and he won't even realise you're boiling him alive until it's too late. That must have been what it was like in Nazi Germany. And Sudan. And Afghanistan. Surely.

And I realise that we are unique in all of history. We are wealthy. Oh I know we worry from time to time about little things, but we have Employment Insurance, we have lines of credit. Very few of us actually have to choose which family member gets to eat today. If you're reading this, chances are you have a roof over your head and clothes to wear. Access to medicine and clean water.

Very few of us, unless we consider a career in the military or a gang, ever have to think about war. We don't have to plan safe routes to the grocery store or wonder if our children will be bombed on their way to and from school.

We are blessed beyond measure.

And when I read books about war I wonder how we dare assume that life will always be like this. Even if it's not the epic battle at the end of time, the odds are not good that Canada will always be at peace.

I'm reading a book right now, The Cellist of Sarajevo. In it, two of the characters are discussing their situation. Dragan says,

"All his life he has lived under the rule of the law. If you broke the law, the police would arrest you. There was order, and it was unquestioned. Then, in the blink of an eye, it all fell apart. Like many others, Dragan waited far longer for order to be restored than was logical. He tried to go about his life as though things were still normal, as though someone was in charge. The men on the hills were a minor inconvenience that would be resolved at any moment. Sanity would prevail. But then, one day, he could no longer fool himself. This wasn't a temporary situation, a momentary glitch in the system, and no one was going to fix it."

I guess as I've gotten older, my fears have refined themselves slightly. I know that while my religious fears of battles between the Anti Christ and believers are silly (why worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself. After all, there's enough to concern you with just today!) But I do feel as though every day that we get to live this life we've been given is a gift. An undeserved and precious gift that I wish every person on earth would get to share in.