cousins | Newfound Lake Photographer

This group of five boys was born over the course of about two years. We tried a yearly picture, but this group lets loose when they get together, and it became a group wrestling match at times. This year, we planned ahead. We brought gum and gathered early in the morning. Grandma is especially happy with the results!

Mother's Day | May Blog Circle | Lakes Region Photographer

A recent ritual I have adopted post-dinner, tubs, books, brush, and bed is listening to a TEDTalk while cleaning up the kitchen.  The sun is beginning to set (my kids go to bed early), the house murmurs with little bodies settling in for the night, and a comforting heat emanates from the wood stove.  I put on a TEDTalk and load the dishwasher.  It is a serene and introspective time.  No matter the TEDTalk speaker (Elizabeth Gilbert, Caroline Casey, Matthieu Ricard), my mind usually gravitates to one of three topics: parenting, teaching, and photography, all relational-based subjects that often interconnect for me. 

And I have been drawn to Brené Brown’s TEDTalks this spring.  She is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work.  Her topics of study include vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame.  Brené speaks to the role of connection in our lives, how for true connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen, to be truly seen.  We have to be authentic.  We have to be honest.  We have to be vulnerable.  We need courage to be imperfect in a world demanding perfection.  In fact, she cites the original definition of courage as “to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart.” I love that.  Shame, Brené  says, is what prevents us from living a wholehearted life.  Shame stifles connections; shame reduces us to feeling unworthy. Shame pressures women to do it all and do it all perfectly.  By embracing vulnerability, by allowing ourselves to be imperfect, we create a space for true connection, joy, belonging, and creativity. 

 For me, mothering is that space where authenticity and vulnerability are both a prerequisite and serendipitous outcome.  In the depths of the “witching hour,” when my daughter is lying prone, face down on the wood floor because I gave her milk instead of water (she is now officially 2) while my sons teeter on the edge of a physical altercation debating the actual lyrics to the song, “I’m Blue”- really, is it “Dah bah dee dah bah die” or ”Bah dah dee bah dah die??”- that is the moment when you are there, in motherhood, exhausted possibly, tested, tried, and stretched. And vulnerable.  There is no perfection in motherhood; it is really about letting go, making mistakes, and learning.  Allowing yourself to be truly seen by your own children.  They demand authenticity and will call you out on it daily if it is not there.   They are good like that.

Or in the midst of tub time, when all three are dribbling around in their own corners of the somewhat begrimed tub, seeing if a Lego will sink or swim, they unite in song-usually “Twinkle, Twinkle” or “Hello to Avery, so glad to see you…” – sharing the soapy space and song, together yet apart. It’s then when I rest my head and I listen to squeaky voices serenade each other.  And I take delight in the simple things. This is really what it is all about...serenading siblings with feet pajamas waiting patiently outside the tub to warm their bodies.  I listen to Brené’s advice to “honor what is ordinary about our lives because that is what is truly extraordinary,” especially when it comes to mothering.   

For this round of the blog circle celebrating Mother's Day, I used Instagram, for what better what to honor the ordinary than through the snapshots that chronicle our daily story. 

Please head on over to Rebecca Cote's blog to see how she makes meaning of Mothers' Day!

Poetry Month 2012 | New Hamphire Institute of Art

Spring in the Classroom

Elbows on dry books, we dreamed
Past Miss Willow Bangs, and lessons, and windows,
To catch all day glimpses and guesses of the greening woodlot,
Its secrets and increases,
Its hidden nests and kind.
And what warmed in us was no book-learning,
But the old mud blood murmuring,
Loosening like petals from bone sleep.
So spring surrounded the classroom, and we suffered to be kept indoors,
Droned through lessons, carved when we could with jackknives
Our pulsing initials into the desks, and grew
Angry to be held so, without pity and beyond reason,
By Miss Willow Bangs, her eyes two stones behind glass,
Her legs thick, her heart
In love with pencils and arithmetic.
So it went — one gorgeous day lost after another
While we sat like captives and breathed the chalky air
And the leaves thickened and birds called
From the edge of the world — till it grew easy to hate,
To plot mutiny, even murder. Oh, we had her in chains,
We had her hanged and cold, in our longing to be gone!
And then one day, Miss Willow Bangs, we saw you
As we ran wild in our three o’clock escape
Past the abandoned swings; you were leaning
All furry and blooming against the old brick wall
In the Art Teacher’s arms.

~Mary Oliver

April Blog Circle | Earth Day 2012

Welcome to the fourth round of our New Hampshire based blog circle!

We join together to celebrate Earth Day...

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. -- Native American Proverb

Simplifying has become my family's motto over the past five years. From the major simplifying (home and car choices, composting, overall food choices) to some slight shifts in our behaviors (starting a garden, turning off the lights, getting outside more, cloth diapering), we have attempted to really ease up on it all. While we still have quite a ways to go, especially when it comes to (dreamy) aspirations of zero waste, we consider ourselves works-in-progress.

Here are some of our favs when it comes to simplicity:

We use Goodbyns for our kids' lunches. Sturdy, easy to clean, and compact, these have cut back on the amount of dish-washing I do at night as well.

We also have a few snackTaxis that have lasted over a year.

We got a compost bin about four years ago and immediately noticed our trash output being cut almost in half. While we have yet to compost at our new house due to some local bear activity, we are hoping to figure out a way to get this going again.

One of our biggest moves was trading in our gas guzzler for a diesel Jetta wagon. It gets 45mpg and fits THREE car seats! We go 500 miles on $50! This car has significantly altered our gas consumption and wallets.

Please head on over to Meg Simone's blog of Meg Simone Wedding Films out of Intervale, NH to see how she made meaning of our Earth Day theme!

p.s. before you go, please share some of your simplifying ideas with me in the comment section!

Sant Bani School visit | NH school photographer

I negotiated the muddy back roads of Sanbornton yesterday to update the Sant Bani School facebook page. Just wanted to share a few of the writing workshop.

making whoopie [pies] | March Blog Circle

Our blog circle for March involves sharing a favorite recipe. I love meandering through all the blog posts from my local photography friends and seeing what they come up with each month. Be sure to click on the link at the end of this post and share some love with these gals!

I am an ice cream girl to the core. I worked at TCBY in my hometown during summers in high school and at Lovin' Spoonful (a Brighton, MA ice cream joint) in college. I developed that infamous lower arm muscle bulge scooping Mint Patty and Moosetracks. Living in central New Hampshire does not help my addiction because I live nine miles from Ben and Jerry's and fifteen miles from Dairy Queen. So....my sweet tooth has recently branched out...to whoopie pies. A bit more time intensive, the whoopie pie can be chilled, making the icing resemble the insides of a Frozen Twinkie. This recipe for peanut butter cup whoopie pies was adapted from simplysifted.com. Let's get started...

Preheat oven to 375°

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 cup of cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda.


In another bowl, beat the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the egg and vanilla and mix on medium speed until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the sugar/butter in three additions. Start and end with the flour. Mix just until combined.



Using a small cookie scoop, drop batter onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave 2 inches between each whoopie pie. Bake for 13 minutes or until the tops of the pies spring back when you push them.




Let pies cool on the sheet for 3 to 4 minutes after removing them from the oven and then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.




Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
from Sky High Triple Layer Cakes

5 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 stick of butter at room temperature
2 1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioner’s sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the peanut butter and mix until thoroughly combined.

Be sure to have a reliable taste-tester for this part:


Assemble the pies

Flip all the cakes so the flat sides are up. Using the same cookie scoop you used to scoop the cakes, place one scoop of filling on top of a cake. Take a second cake and place is on top of the filling. Gently press on the top cake to so the filling sticks to both sides. After you’ve assembled all of the cakes, individually wrap them in plastic wrap.



Head on over to Erika Follansbee Photography to see what she cooked up for her blog post!

project 52:7 | Meredith, NH photographer

We attempted a serious look here, but I was wearing my Where's Waldo shirt and that was cracking us up.


My 2012 Project 52

Tilton Winter Farmers' Market | Tilton, NH photographer

I am usually not drawn to crowds, but after passing the Tilton Winter Farmers' Market a few Saturdays in a row, I decided I needed to see this shindig that requires four police officers to manage its traffic. Indeed, the market opens at 10am, and its parking lot is overflowing at 9:55. I made my way in to find over 40 vendors offering goat cheese, chili, eggs, greens, candles, wine, tea, and seafood. There were woodworks, pastries, and books. There was live music; there was face painting. It was an indoor carnival of the best kind! Friends were chatting over a pistachio ice cream (at 10am!), moms were taste-testing the s'mores fudge, and kids were sniffing the vanilla soaps. The market had the feel of a neighborhood block party where connectedness pervaded even the smallest of interactions. Oh, I was feeling it...

Project 52:6 | Bristol, NH family photographer

Checking out the happenings in the backyard on a winter afternoon.

My 2012 Project 52

love is...| February Blog Circle

Our blog circle for February is centered around the theme of love. Our group of New Hampshire-based photographers participating in the blog circle has now grown to nine, so please follow the blog links at this end of the post to find out how my cohorts are conceptualizing the theme this month. We would love your comments and feedback!

Love is...making homemade valentines. This is a first for me. I am not a DIYer by any means and will usually get in over my head quickly when I pick up a glue gun.

My five year-old and I started with a neglected bag of crayons.

We slowly and painfully (think wax jammed into your thumbnail)disrobed about 150 of them before figuring out that a knife would cut our time by a ton.

I chopped them up while splaying crayon shards in hard-to-reach crevices of the kitchen.

He loaded our mini-muffin pan to the hills, and we cooked them at 230 degrees for ten minutes.

Out came the glue gun and some Sharpies...

My son was a trooper, staying by my side through this lengthy project. It was truly a labor of love!

Head on over to Authentic Eye Photography to see some lovin' from Thea Dodds!