Labor of Love: Living in the trenches of motherhood, my daily story.

Laid out before you is a glimpse of my life as a "stay at home mom". I have a 3.5 yr old and an 8 mo old and I'm worn out. Stressed. We don't get invited to a lot of friend activities this summer bc I can't go to the pool. So I've been really struggling lately. By 11AM, we are all ready to pull our hair out.

I photograph my kids all the time. I enjoy documenting their childhood. I also have a project where my goal is to photograph my husband, being the amazing dad he is, at least once a week. I have so many pictures in each of these categories. It's awesome. But as my days go on I start to feel invisible. Perhaps this is something most mothers feel. From (way too) early in the morning until (way too) late at night we are giving of ourselves, over and over and over again. From nursing my baby (literally giving him the nutrients in my body), to fighting through diaper changes, making food for the 3 year old but never for myself, trying to gulp down my drink before someone steals it or knocks it down, reading the same book 100 times and countless battles to do simple tasks...all...day...long we give and give. It's no wonder by 11AM I need some down time. I'm not complaining, I know it seems that way, and yeah sometimes I do complain. It's hard, guys. It's really awesome too, but it's mostly just really hard. It's also super easy to get sucked in to "the trenches" of motherhood.

Doing this daily story was like therapy to me. Having my camera on hand to document the "struggles" or "sacrifices" made every single minute of my day made those things somehow less hard. It has been very interesting and enlightening seeing my day through my eyes but through photos. And I have discovered something... this life is beautiful. I don't need to spend my days looking DOWN into the trenches, NO! Finally I am able to turn my face upward, to glance at the *gift* that is called "motherhood". It's messy, it's hard, and damnit I make a lot of mistakes.

But there is love.

And LOVE is what matters.

So here it is. A day in the life, documenting not just for my kids but for me.