Luck!... or is it??

Like every (almost every) other Mother I know, there are a lot of balls I'm juggling and doing the best I can to keep them all in the air right now, but there is one that I always find myself taking out of the rotation. Unfortunately that one ball is the one I do for myself. 

I know what some of you are thinking... uh oh... Sea Dog's stock is about to tank.... No need to call your broker yet Dad, it's not the drinking beer ball... I look at my beer intake more as a gift to my family... So lets see it more as a "Keep Sam Sane" ball...so, you're welcome!!

This often set aside 'ball' I'm rarely seen with out him, I could talk hours about him, my heart would break if every he were hurt, and with such complicated layers he always keeps me guessing, he completes me in a way I would feel nothing but lost in a world with out him....OK... maybe that's a little overdramatic.... but you get the point... I.love.Duncan.... WHOOO is Duncan you ask?... Duncan is my Camera... the Camera I  just named Duncan moments ago to add a layer of complete confusion to this posting.....(wait... did any of you think I was talking about Nate? Oh, you poor things!)     

Though I'm working away at unmasking those layers, I feel that I get to a point of where I am starting to grasp the relationship of the manual settings for them to play nice with each other, but have to throw it back into Auto so that I don't miss "the moments" I NEEEEEED to have captured before they are lost.

The only time I get to have quality Me/Duncan time is when the daily day's work is done and kids are in bed... Calvin likes to stay up late and Joey gets up early... unfortunately this causes days, even weeks to go by, before Duncan and I can be alone together again, but even then we spend most of the time refreshing myself on ground we have already covered.

BUT YESTERDAY an 'ah-ha' moment while vacuuming the floor came and I feel like I made some real strides in being able to set my camera manually to the appropriate settings in a reasonable amount of time!! (I'm not trying to brag, but I even got a complement on one of the photos from a....oh I don't know....TRUE lIFE PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER!!)

Now was this luck or did I actually have a legit, it's clicked 'ah-ha' moment.... time will tell and you all will be the victim of my temper tantrum when I discover once again I have no idea what I'm doing... (consider this your warning)...

But until then, I'm riding high on this cloud of self satisfaction and feel like it might be time to throw that ball back into the mix simple because the reward of accomplishment is worth the extra effort it will take to keep on juggling!

No I don't feel like these pictures are "professional quality" but the excitement of getting to this level of more then just a Point and Shoot is gratifying... prepare yourself for seeing my kids faces thrown in your face! Hopefully I will continue to not only grow, but reach a level of consistency.

For now... quietly talk amongst yourselves and feel free to enjoy the pictures of my beautiful children