quad cities portrait photographer

March 6, 2017March 6, 2017

Share Six | Restore

As I do every month, I agonized over what route I wanted to go with my interpretation of the theme over at Share Six. After looking the word up in the dictionary, I chose to go with this particular definition of the word. It seems to hit home for us and what we are going through as a family.

Restore

v. to bring back to a state of health, soundness, or vigor

Those who know us personally know that our son was diagnosed with Lyme disease over the summer. It’s been an overwhelming couple of years trying to get to the bottom of the medical issues we’ve been dealing with. It’s great to have an answer now, but choosing a plan of action has proven to be pretty difficult. As with any treatment for an illness, everyone responds differently. The bottom line is though, we want to restore health and happiness to our family. I’ve decided to photograph some of the ways we’ve been trying to do this.

Rest/relaxation is one of things we’ve been trying to prioritize. Thankfully we homeschool, so we have tried to adjust our schedule so that we can get as much sleep and rest as possible. Hanging out in the hammock is one of our favorite ways to relax.

Another thing we love and that boosts our spirits is being out in nature. We took a trip to my childhood vacation spot. It is a little resort nestled in the Northwoods. There are no phones and no TVs…just nature and relaxation. Once it got dark we’d go out to the dock to view the stars and the Milky Way and listen to the call of the loon. Trying to not get bit by mosquitoes added a whole other element to the evenings, but made for great laughter and memories….definitely healing for the soul.

Most of our days at the little resort were spent jumping in the lake. You can’t get a whole lot more invigorating than that. The sound of our kids’ and their cousins’ laughter echoing over the lake and through the woods was music to our ears.

Back home, we still love to get outside as much as possible. It definitely has a healing/restoring effect. Hikes and walks along the river are a relaxing way to end our day.

Through all of the stress this illness (and the illnesses the rest of our weakened immune systems have endured) has brought our family, we have tried to cling tighter to God’s promises. Through Him there is restoration of body and soul. Even though our bodies have been failing us (we’ve been sick with one thing or another since the middle of December), our souls are finding healing in God’s word.

Our biggest change we have made in order to restore health and happiness to our family is our diet. We’ve never been very unhealthy, but we were eating things we did not realize our bodies were having a hard time breaking down. (We have some genetic mutations.) We are now dairy, gluten, msg, dyes, GMO, corn, wheat, soy, rice and refined sugar free. I won’t lie, we occasionally cheat at special occasions, but otherwise our normal daily diet is free of the things listed above. Our son is on quite a few supplements for the Lyme disease as well. We have also taken great strides to eliminate as many toxins from our everyday environment by switching to all natural products and using glass containers instead of plastic. It hasn’t been an easy task, but we’re hoping it will pay off in the long run and help us restore our son’s health as well as our own.

I hope you enjoyed my interpretation on this theme. If you want to learn more about Lyme disease click here. To learn about how it can present itself in children click here. Unfortunately it is often misdiagnosed as other diseases and disorders, so the more people know about it, the better chance people have of being properly diagnosed.

Head over to Claire’s blog to see her take! Continue through the circle and show our contributors your support by leaving a comment. Don’t forget to post your own images on the theme and tag them #sharesix and #sharesix_restore !!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

January 6, 2017January 6, 2017

Share Six | Music

It’s hard to believe it is 2017 already!! Happy New year!!

I chose this month’s theme of music. Music has been near and dear to my heart since I was little. It has been woven into the tapestry of my memories….from sitting in the pew as a little girl listening to my aunt sing harmony, to the weekly piano lessons my grandparents’ gifted me with, to the evenings spent listening to classical cds with my dad, to my very first job as an organist at my church at 15 years old. Music courses through my veins. It was my first love. I remember years ago, my sister’s friend getting annoyed with me because she said I was always humming. What can I say…there is always a song in my heart. My grandpa always told me to never stop playing the piano. He said, “You’ll make money playing the piano some day.” I vividly remember him repeating those words when I visited him at the nursing home and played some music for him on the piano. Well I don’t ever plan to stop and I AM making money playing the piano and organ. Music just brings me such comfort and joy.

Your voice is an instrument you can take with you anywhere. My family knows that well, as I love to live in a musical, singing about my daily activities while I’m doing them. My daughter is following in my footsteps with a love of singing. Over the summer she auditioned to sing the national anthem at our local baseball team’s game. She was chosen, so we picked up this pitch pipe for her to help calm her nerves. I just love how shiny and pretty it is.

Brass instruments are simply beautiful to look at, especially the french horn.

This is my grandfather’s tambourine. He played the drums in a jazz band. He was a big proponent of me getting into music. He and my grandma insisted I take piano lessons, and they paid for them. I am forever grateful for their influence and generosity.

As I mentioned back during our black and white theme, I LOVE the insides of pianos. They are simply gorgeous. Not to mention, they are my favorite instrument. I could sit and play the piano for hours. Here is a picture of some of the hammers.
Here is my daughter playing The Entertainer. I asked her to dress up to do her piano practice so I could get some shots of her. I have basically the same shot of her from a few years ago. It’s sad to see how much she has grown up. My how time flies!!

Here’s another one from a different angle and some more creative lighting.

Thank you so much for stopping by and seeing my take on this month’s theme. I had a hard time narrowing down my images to just six. As I said, I just love music.

Head on over to Sharleen’s blog and see her beautiful images!! Then continue through the circle to see the rest of the contributors’ takes!!

September 28, 2016September 28, 2016

Aspiring to Something Greater | Superman Session

My family is the light of my life and my boy definitely does a great job of lighting it up. From a young age, he has shown much wisdom and also much humor. He delights in making people laugh and making them happy. He is incredibly chivalrous, and is sensitive and sweet. He is super courageous and full of energy. He dreams big and has always loved dressing up and being a hero. I know that God has BIG plans for this boy. Being a mother isn’t easy, and I have made so many mistakes. I just pray that in spite of my mistakes, God will use this boy for His glory.

So back in 2013, I decided to take advantage of my son’s love of dressing up and go do a fun photoshoot with him. We headed down to downtown Moline and I just told him to do whatever he wanted within reason. Here is what we got.