October 2009 Picture

Eric's Aunt Arlene found this somewhere and posted it on her blog.

"Many scrapbookers knew Aleida Franklin. She was a wonderful wife and mother and a brilliant artist. I didn't know Aleida personally, but she taught me something I will never forget.She emailed me last year to tell me she loved my blog and to ask if I liked my short hair-cut. This lead to a series of emails which eventually led me to remark that I really loved how often she posted pictures of herself with her children on her blog. And she replied to me, "Have you ever seen a photograph of your own mother and thought to yourself how fat she looked? Or how she wasn't wearing make-up? Or wasn't dressed in a glamorous outfit?" Of course my answer was no. She then responded with saying that she made it a goal to take a picture of herself with her children at least once every month. And that to use excuses about how we look, as women, is ridiculous, since our children will never care what we looked like, but only that we had physical evidence of the bond between mother and child. Aleida tragically and unexpectedly passed away in an auto accident in September of 2008, leaving 2 small children and a grieving husband. After she passed I thought of how those children must feel to have those precious photographs. I have made it my personal goal to follow her wise suggestion and I try to take photos of myself with my children....double chins, make-up free, bed-head and all. I invite Mothers everywhere to take Aleida's Challenge. To photograph yourself with your children each and every month."

It got me thinking about pictures I have of me and the kids. There aren't many. I tend to be the family photographer. But I do have these kinds of thoughts when I take pictures of my kids or our family: someday in the future both of our kids will look at these pictures and their memories will be enhanced. They won't really remember these days, but hopefully they will love looking at the pictures. And in some cases, seeing the pictures may actually become the memory of the event.

I asked Eric to take a picture of us a couple of days ago, but then they got uploaded to who-knows-where on our computer. This weekend we took our annual trip to Mountain View Orchards and the Fruit Loop in the Hood River. Eric took a really nice picture of me with the kids while we were there. It will be my October picture.