Category: Happy

  • porter is graduating!

    porter is graduating!

    Porter is Graduating — We have a Senior!

    It is hard to believe in some ways that this little 4 lb 7 oz being that we brought home after 30 days in the University of Iowa Hospital NICU is almost ready to graduate from high school, and is well over 6 feet tall at this point.

    Porter is brilliant, and funny, and insightful, and wise beyond his years. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be Porter’s mother. Porter is Graduating!

    Porter plans to go to Georgia State University as a philosophy major. Though the religious studies department is a separate department at this point, religious studies was under the philosophy department in my time at GSU, so that philosophy department is sentimental to me. I took many philosophy classes in my time there as part of my religious major studies. I would never have dreamed that my child would consider my alma mater, much less the department of my major, in younger years.

    Porter will be a better philosopher than I was. He has the brain for it. I muddled through okay, but he will excel if he chooses to stick with philosophy permanently.

    Porter is Graduating — It is somehow fitting that the firstborn of a religious studies major and a philosophy and religion/ elementary education major should choose to major in philosophy. I am thrilled.

  • spring break and reining in

    spring break and reining in

    It’s been some time since I wrote, aiming to adjust that pattern.

    My website remains unchanged, but I’m shifting away from promoting myself solely as a wedding photographer.

    I am, at my core, a photographer, always with a camera nearby.

    I halted all forms of social media advertising in January and won’t be investing in more. I’ll focus on growing my client base naturally.

    There’s a Senior in the House!

    Life has been a whirlwind lately, particularly with a senior in the family! Porter has been accepted into four colleges, waitlisted for two, and after considering his options, he’s decided to attend Georgia State University, my alma mater. I’m incredibly proud of him regardless of his choice.

    Liam has applied to join the IB program at his high school, which is another achievement I’m proud of.

    Oliver’s teacher recently called to commend his excellent behavior throughout the year, aside from occasional chattiness, which is typical of Oliver. I’m proud of his academic achievements as well.

    We had an enjoyable Spring Break, visiting family in Kansas City. Although I didn’t take many photos other than with my phone, the boys had a blast indoor skydiving. Oliver is already eager to try it again, so we might visit the iFly in Atlanta soon.

    I’m striving to strike a balance between respecting the privacy of my older children and sharing family updates.

    Spring Break and Reining In

    Writing has become a struggle for me lately. This post may seem self-indulgent, as much of my writing tends to be.

    It’s not that my life has become less interesting; for some reason, I’ve grown more guarded as I’ve gotten older.

    February was challenging, but March was better, and now I’m gradually settling into a daily routine after a couple of turbulent years.

    Two Years of Depression

    I’ve been emerging from a dark period of depression over the past two years, gradually reclaiming fragments of myself.

    Two years ago, we spent the last of our proceeds from selling our previous home on repairs to our current one, including the chimney. I also tried my hand at a traveling daycare photography job, which was physically demanding and not a good fit for me. Despite the challenges, I enjoyed traveling solo during that time, visiting places like Idaho, Utah, Oregon, and Florida.

    My visit to Florida, particularly Tampa, likely contributed to my depression. It was only my second visit to Tampa, unrelated to seeing someone from my past.

    Spring Break and Reining In

    Despite the challenges, there’s been significant personal growth, and many positive changes have occurred. Our marriage is stronger, and my photography skills have improved. We’ve also found a church community we love.

    I continue to photograph weddings on a part-time basis and accept other sessions by request. While I experimented with newborn photography, I realized it’s not my forte.

    Oliver Turned Ten!

    The week leading up to Oliver’s birthday was particularly enjoyable. According to Jared, it was because I reclaimed some control over my life. I established a cleaning routine, and our home remained tidy all week. Additionally, I had the opportunity to take photos at my friend Johnny’s studio; one of the pictures in this post is from that visit. Johnny played a significant role in my photography journey, and his business, Rough Cut Designs, produces exceptional work.

    I’m feeling a strong urge to streamline various aspects of my life, including my photography. Although I’ve found a camera setup I love, I struggle with the temptation to downsize. The need for two cameras for weddings prevents me from selling any gear.

    However, I’m uncertain about expanding our garage into a photography studio. My desire for it has waned, but my love for wedding photography remains strong. I am still in love with poring over Haley and Larry’s wedding photos!

    I yearn for opportunities to photograph flowers in our yard or to purchase flowers specifically for photography. I crave routine and simply holding my camera at times.

    Oliver’s tenth birthday weekend was enjoyable but challenging due to the abundance of junk food. Despite sending some food home with his friends after the party, there were leftovers. Fortunately, the boys consumed most of the cookies during our Kansas City trip, leaving none to bring back home. Spring break and the process of reining in various aspects of my life continue to be a journey.

  • i love ynab!

    i love ynab!

    I love YNAB! You Need a Budget is the budgeting software Jared and I have been using since early 2013.

    YNAB uses a zero-based budget which means you budget every dollar you have. You can set up custom categories, and track all of your financial accounts. The software is made to link to your accounts, though I do not have it set up this way because I like to put in every transaction manually, like an old-school check register.

    Our categories are pretty basic and haven’t changed much over the years, since we started. There is a Giving section, subdivided into Charitable Giving (my favorites are Atlanta Habitat and the Atlanta Ronald McDonald House) and Offerings for church. Next is a section for credit card payments, subdivided by each card. Credit cards are debt, but there is a separate Debt section subdivided into our Car Payment and Mortgage.

    Next is Savings, subdivided into Emergency Savings, Home Maintenance, Auto Maintenance, Vacation, and Boy Allowance. After that is Monthly Bills, which includes Electric and Gas, Water and Trash, Insurance, Phone, Internet, Entertainment (which includes all our streaming services), and Web Hosting.

    Then comes Every Day Expenses, which includes Groceries, Restaurants, Gas for the car, Medical, Clothing, Personal Grooming (Haircuts), Pet Care, Date Night, School Expenses, and Surprises. Interest on the credit cards gets lumped into Surprises.

    Next is a section for Business Expenses— Jared’s work expenses,and my photography business expenses.

    Finally, comes Annual Expenses. This includes Gifts, Safe Deposit Box Fee, Car Registration, Christmas, Taxes (this mostly refers to my estimated taxes), memberships (this includes the recreation center when our membership is current, along with Amazon Prime), and Family Photos.

    As you put in transactions and categorize them, YNAB automatically adjusts category amounts accordingly.

    You can set target amounts, both by total amount and by the monthly amount needed, which is supposed to help those who want to forecast. Sometimes I cheat and forecast a month or two anyway, though, based on anticipated income and any goals we may have.

    Anyway, this is our budgeting software and how I have it set up! I love YNAB!

    You can read more about why I write about what I write about here, especially when I write about my budgeting strategies.

  • decorating with what we already have

    decorating with what we already have

    Decorating with What We Already Have — Yesterday, I got a wild hair and decided it was time to re-arrange our living room.

    Oliver has been complaining about the fact that we have to turn our smaller couch around any time we want him to be able to sit there to watch TV; our TV is mounted above our fireplace.

    We have a fairly large living room that featured two couches; a leather couch and a smaller green fabric two-seater couch. Most of the time, in case we have company, we have had the green couch facing the coffee table and the other couch. That meant that the couch needed to be turned around when we had movie nights and more people would be watching the TV.

    A little over a year ago, gracious friends gave me a settee for the studio. It will still be used for studio purposes. But in between shoots, the settee is going to live in our living room now. I moved it in, moved the leather couch and our coffee table way back into the previously unused space, and turned the green sofa around. I put the cream settee and the green sofa back to back. We will use the cream settee and the side chairsfor visiting with people. The green couch will be used by the kids or anyone when we are all watching TV together.

    I am thrilled with the outcome. I added the sitting pillow from the peacock chair from the studio, as well as the “You Are My Sunshine” pillow that Jared gave me for Christmas to the cream settee. Our whole living room looks bigger and more inviting.

    I had to be sure there was adequate walking room both between the cream settee and the leather couch for walking. Our primary entry into the house is the double doors right beside the leather couch. We really do not have a back side to our home. We have two driveways and the front door has steps. So, we mostly invite guests to come in the back double doors off our back driveway, by the garage where we park. We use the front door mostly for taking the dogs outside, or for guests that just want to come to the front door.

    Decorating with What We Already Have

    It feels like a new living room, and not a dime was spent on re-decorating. This is my favorite way of re-decorating because our belongings we have are more than adequate for our needs and to be honest- for most of my wants.

    I did discover the limits of our luxury vinyl plank flooring that we installed when we moved in two years ago. There are small, slight scratches below the coffee table and below where the leather couch used to sit. They don’t bother me; actually, the pattern of the flooring makes any scratches look like they belong and blend really well. So, it adds a sort of lived-in character to the flooring. I stand by my earlier statements on social media that this flooring was far and away the best decision we could have made as an upgrade when we purchased this house in late 2021.

    All of the pieces in our living room are either hand-me downs, or sentimental, aside from the leather couch. Our friend Johnny Jackson made the coffee table, our friends the Boyd’s gave us the piano, my parents gave us the green chair and sofa. My parents also gave us the cream chair after my aunt gave it to her, after my Nannie gave it to my aunt. (We pass furniture around in my family a lot, so things rarely actually leave the family.)

    The cream chair’s upholstery has seen better days thanks to our cats, but that chair is well over 100 years old at this point. It originally belonged to my grandmother’s aunt, who was born in 1870. It is still as sturdy as the old days, having been reupholstered at least once. It is one of my favorite chairs in the house. It is so much higher quality than anything you can walk into a store and buy these days.

    Thankfully, keeping scratching posts around the living room really does quite a lot to re-focus the cats’ energy on not tearing up the furniture. We didn’t discover that fact early on, but they’ve been in place over a year now and it’s really saving our furniture.

    That’s all I have for today.

    Love,
    Caroline