January first, Jonny was ready to put his resolution for the new year in action. He wants us to go places together more often, mainly hikes, and preferably everyone, but the reality is that it will probably only be our younger five children much of the time. There are three years or more between Larkspur, the oldest of our younger five, and our older three boys. And our older boys don’t always get excited about the same things the younger kids do.
We decided to go to nearby Caledon State Park, and Jonny insisted that all the kids go. Not everyone was happy about that. To be honest, I wasn’t really in the mood to go myself. We’d already been to Mass as a family, and I felt like I’d already reached my daily limit of outings-ha!
Caledon is one of our favorite places to go. It’s pretty easy going even for the younger kids, though there are enough trails that you can walk for miles. There’s a spot where the trail forks called “the triangle” where we traditionally take a group photo of all the kids each time we go. This time, I wasn’t planning to ask, but Jonny insisted. So I begged them to try not to look angry as I started snapping photos. The challenge is that the younger kids mimic the older ones, but they did okay. Some of my kids never smile for photos and I accept that. In the midst of this scene a park ranger pulled up and asked if we wanted him to take a photo of all of us. I knew better than to hesitate, because those opportunities don’t frequently come about. Now I have a photo of my whole family on the first day of 2019. My goal is to be more present for them this year, and this photo is a good reminder. My birthday, just a couple of days before, fell on the Feast of the Holy Family, and that felt special and meant to be. And you know, when I first saw the photo of all of us, my initial thought was I would keep that one to myself. I’m disheveled and looking lumpy in all the wrong places (not pregnant, I promise), but that is me most of the time, and I need to learn to be okay with that. Because what really matters is that Beatrix reached over to hold my hand, and my boys did their best to look at least pleasant. This is my imperfect self, and my imperfect family, and I love them.
My prayer this morning is for our collective resolutions and hopes for this new year. May we all pursue them with gentleness and grace.
p.s. Silas found a message in a bottle on the beach at Caledon! Sadly, removing the cork damaged it, and we haven’t been able to read what’s inside. I did see the word, “love.”
You are a beautiful family! Do not ever hesitate to include photos of yourself, Jonny or the children. Life is not always a “Black Tie” affair and your daily life photos are truly works of art. Thank you for sharing all that you do with us; your posts are a breath of fresh air. Best Wishes for the New Year!
It’s a beautiful picture! God bless you all!
A lot of love in that photo & you are just beautiful. Happy New Year!
Ginny, I have always been so encouraged by your posts. You are just real. Love your family photo. My oldest is 14 now, and I know that things are changing around here in our family dynamic. It’s bittersweet for sure.
As a mom who is also trying to get comfortable with how I look in pictures, I just wanted to say that one of the first things I noticed was the lovely expression on your face! (And your husband’s hand gently on your arm, your middle daughter’s obvious love for you, how your older daughter has her hands on the baby’s shoulders) I love this kind of casual family photo, because so much shines through in all the small gestures!
My dear Ginny,
I have been your secret friend for many years. Yours is the one blog I permit myself to open right away when a notification shows up on my inbox. Thank you for the beauty and honesty of your photos and text!
I am touched by your family picture and I wish I could share with you mine which came about by both similar and different dynamics. My 5 children are all own their own (ages 21 – 31) with 2 married. On New Year’s day, my husband and I with the youngest (en-route to the train station) made the 2 hr trip from home to the town where both of our married children live to see a property our oldest daughter and husband are considering.
I was totally surprised that our two sons showed up also. The one lives in that town with his family but the other was supposed to be on a plane headed for Denver, I thought. So here were 4 of my children in one place at the same time. The thought of a picture didn’t even occur to me until a magical moment arrived where the group of us – Mom, Dad and 4 out of 5 children, were all tramping up a windswept meadow of a hill – just us and the realtor. The other various persons and in laws were occupied elsewhere. Suddenly, I realized this unique opportunity. I handed the realtor my phone and everybody fell in line without any ado (a rarity). The moment was captured (if a not quite centered)!
The next day, I printed it out as well as a photo of our middle daughter who opts not to be part of whole family events such as Christmas (this is very painful for me) and framed the picture with a little cut out of the missing child added in the corner. This is a treasure to me but not one that I can really share very widely because it could look like I’m excluding in laws and baby grandson whom I love dearly also. Still, these are my very own actual babies and I just like the simplicity of that sometimes even though they are grown or maybe especially because they are grown.
I am so happy for you that you got your family picture and that someone is holding your hand!
“Your children are not your children… And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.” (Gibran) Mentally, I suppose this is true but there’s a corner of my heart where I may never fully come to terms with that truth.
God bless you, Ginny! I pray all the best for you and your family!
Love,
Ruthie Showalter, Waynesboro, Pa
Ahh…teenagers will be teenagers, right? But really your family (including you!) is lovely and I am inspired by your photos and all of the effort you put in to keep your family strong and together. You give so much of yourself! Wishing all the best for you and yours in 2019!
You look fine!!! What a treasure to have a family photo.
We only have two children in their 20’s and still waiting to have a family photo. lol
Enjoy and Happy New Year!! Janie
Beautiful photos! Last year we made a resolution to camp once a month, and although it was probably every other month, it made for many shared family memories — including those that weren’t funny at the time, but we laugh about them now.
I think you look lovely, warm, and wonderful. Not “lumpy” in the slightest. What a treasure that picture is.
some other mum once said to me:
we should learn to live with im-perfection
that is so true but yet so difficult ha !
happy new year over there !
Happy New Year! You don’t look the least bit lumpy. Your boys and Larkspur are so tall! I have decided that boys (at least mine) are just incapable of smiling for pictures. Looks like a wonderful day that everyone must have enjoyed, even if secretly 🙂
I love Johnny’s resolution. What is it with teen boys not wanting to smile? Ugh! Drives me to tears. They know it would make me happy but they would rather share the dagger eyes. I did not notice anything lumpy about you! You are beautiful!
This post and beautiful photos are all so refreshing. I love them all! Blessings to your entire family in this new year!
Ginny, your honesty and self-acceptance is so refreshing and a reflection of your faith. It speaks volumes. Plus, lovely to see all your tribe!
Lovely photo and a very lovely family!! I hope you get to go out with everyone more often than you think you will.
It’s amazing how what we think as imperfect looks beautiful to other people. I think we’re able to see each other as God sees us, but for our own selves all we can see is our faults under a microscope. Your family is beautiful. Thanks for making us all feel a little more normal with the anecdotes on your children’s behavior on the hike. We all seem to forget how normal all families are and imagine everyone else is having a perfect stress-free life. Thank you for blogging the way you do.
Wow, Ashley! I love that thought-that we see each other through God’s eyes, not our own!
Ginny your family is beautiful. Beatrix and Mabel look so much alike. They resemble you.
God Bless
Marion,Marilyn and Joan
Thank you, Ladies!
You’re beautiful and so is your entire family. Great picture of you all together. I can’t get my kids to smile in pictures either, and I only have 2. Wishing you a wonderful 2019! I love to read your posts.
Thank you! It’s so hard to convince them to smile, isn’t it?
Oh Keats’ determination NOT to laugh made me laugh! He won the staring competition! And ten years from now, he’ll have a good laugh about it himself, I am sure :). You’ve got a beautiful family there Ginny, and that includes mom!!
wait a minute… your tallest boy is now Keats… which means he sure won the growing competition huh?
He sure did! He’s 6’3″!
thank you for sharing those photos and the storie of them. i love it and it’s just so similar to our wanting to hike as a family…
very nice photos and it is what it is -perfect-
Loving our imperfect self is such a hard mom thing… and somewhere after baby 4 / 5.. I think the lumps are permanent if not in reality they are most certainly are in our mom heads…. But we will be thankful one day to have a photo and it will also then be perfect no matter what. I think my resolution is to be in more photos. no matter what
great pictures but love your family shot
What beautiful resolutions that encourage me so– to be together, present with one another, and be outside together more. Yes. I remember when I first found your blog loving your series on the Remarkable Trees of Virginia. 🙂 Would love to do something similar with my children in our area maybe. I noticed Beatrice holding your hand and i love the imperfect beautiful family you share with us! May it be a blessed year.
It is funny how Mamas end up being the family historians so often that she is absent from most photos. I have resolved to be in them more, too, imperfect as I am. Once my children were born, I realized they were so cute that nobody was paying attention to me anyway (and I mean that in a good way. I am more than fine with that and not trying to be self-deprecating.) My father once complained that “no one will ever know I was here” as he was so rarely in photographs. I don’t want to feel that way. Here’s wishing 2019 is kind to us all!
Imperfect? Yes, aren’t we all. But truly beautiful in that imperfectness!
May your 2019 be blessed!
Is it me or is Larkspur getting taller? I totally hear you needing to accept ourselves. I don’t photograph well at all! but am thankful for those I have of myself with my children when they were wee ones.
One more thing~ I want Mabel’s shoes! Maybe when she outgrows them – heehee. I would so wear those.
Ginny, I love that picture of all of you. No one is as critical of the way you look as you are :). All I saw was a picture of a happy family, grouchy teens (haha) and content parents. It’s lovely!
And yes, going out into nature more is my resolution every year… this year is no different. Your post is a good reminder!
Have a great 2019!
You have a beautiful family!
Definitely more walks in the woods for Hubby and me! Right now, it’s too cold, so we’ll drive into the foothills and enjoy snowy vistas, crack open the windows so that we can breathe fresh air, then home again for a bowl of soup and another football game.
I think you look beautiful and the photo is lovely. God bless you all this year.
We have a five year gap between kids 2 and 3 but the wonderful thing is that once they are all adults the ages no longer matter. Our five are all friends and get along great and have so much fun just being together on holidays and such. And all the cousins just love each other even though there is a 10 year age span right now. Christmas pictures show the 10 year old grandson playing with the 1 yr old grandson and having a great time.
My family refused to take a family Christmas photo this year. With the girls, it’s mostly vanity because they say every photo looks awful (maybe they’re worried I’ll post them on FB). The boys don’t like the bother. It is stressful. My father took a family photo every year for our Christmas cards (this was in the 60s and 70s). Tears and threats were often involved. He always looked pretty grumpy in the photos by the time we got a decent one. I’m glad he went to the trouble though. Here’s to family togetherness, whether it be willing or not!
I can’t believe how mature your older boys look! It must be because we don’t see many photos of them these days, so we haven’t seen their transition phases.
A family photo on the first day of the year – how wonderful! I’m a mom of a large family as well with a large age span (11 of them almost 23 to 2 1/2 and expecting in May!) so I understand what it is to work with attitudes. Its a challenge, but it does help to not take it personal and keep a positive attitude and pray. God knows and He helps us through it all. Keep up the family outings, the memories will be priceless, and I’m going to try to make that happen here as well 🙂 Blessings for a happy new year!
We have the same “problem” in our family. The age difference between our youngest and the next oldest is 7 years and I found that the older three were just being stick-in-the-muds about doing stuff that the youngest would ( or should) enjoy. I struggled with this for a few years and as a result we didn’t do nearly as much as we had done with the older 3. I finally decided I wasn’t going to let the older ones attitudes affect me any longer. So now I plan things for our youngest and tell the older ones they are welcome to join in or not. Usually they do. Good luck…parenting is a tough job but I know that we wouldn’t trade it for anything <3.
Beatrix is your mini-me. Sorry, everything is about how much your kids look like you and Jonny lately, huh? I don’t know why it is just jumping out at me. xoxo
It is good to read about other families’ not-so-perfect outings and attempts to photograph them. My two siblings and I were each five years apart—too far apart to be interested in the same things at the same time. It’s hard sometimes not to wonder what was “wrong” with us then that at least one of us looks unhappy in nearly every photo we have and to wonder what is still wrong today when holidays or special events aren’t picture perfect. But, we aren’t meant to be perfect —yet. I keep reminding myself.
That’s such a lovely resolution! This post definitely makes me want to get out on more hikes and nature walks this year 🙂 I love that photo of all of you—I can’t remember the last time we managed a picture of my mum with all my siblings.
Love the photos. That is neat about the bottle with the message. I understand about photos. One day the boys will be glad there is a family photo even if right now they would rather be other places. 🙂 I’ve been digging out old “seasonal” photos of our family and putting some on the fridge and it has been fun to hear them all excited — asking if the picture was them or another sibling. (My kids are soon to be 20, 18, 17 and 13). Oh sharing just because I know you have Hashimotos and some of your readers do as well. After being gluten free for 4 years and hitting a roadblock this past summer/fall & gaining about 10 lbs back for no reason- I have decided for the month of January to really focus on healing leaky gut – cutting out foods that are known for inflammation, etc. It’s only been about a week and already my gut is shrinking, I’m not in as much pain and I’ve lost about 4 lbs. Wow, it really is amazing that foods can cause so much inflammation. But the more I’ve read – the more I see that when you have autoimmune conditions – you can have flare-ups from time to time and just need to step back and take it easy on your system for 2-4 weeks or maybe more & not get discouraged. So, I’m encouraged and looking forward to feeling better and hopefully, Lord willing, having more energy each day. Happy New Year Ginny and family!
Nancy I would love to know what foods you cut out. I feel like I am in the same place as you right now.
You guys all look lovely. Really! You do! I can’t believe how tall the big boys are now! And really, having a mom who is IN pictures, and is COMFORTABLE being in pictures, is so important. My mom really isn’t, and so she’s not in a lot of photos with us. It’s sad.
Happy New Year Ginny! Which trail do you take at Caledon to get to the beach? We walked on a trail last year that just led to an overlook.
It sounds like you took the left fork at the triangle. If you take the right, that takes you down to the beach. 🙂
I just love all the real photos of your family! One of the first things I noticed was that Beatrix was holding your hand. 💛 One of our goals is to do more hiking this year, too. At least one of us is always feeling like doing something other than hiking, but we’re always glad we did when we’re finished! Happy New Year!
Yes, the important thing is how your daughter reached for you hand, and that your whole family is together. This is a precious picture. We have 5 boys, all grown, and it is not often we are all together. I agree with you that have to take these moments and cherish them when they come.
How amazing! I do agree with your husband, spending time as a family is one of the things God gave us time for! Reading this post made me cry, in a wonderful, yet humbling, way. I think this is one resolution we all need to work on!
Many Blessings this New Year!
My family consists of two teen boys and three little ones. It is a challenge to do things all together sometimes, but I know it is worth it. Your family is beautiful and so are you!!!
Wow!!! Perfect New Year to have all your family together AND a photo too. I’ve saved it as I really felt I wanted to hold you all as a family in my heart and pray for you 🙂 I was so blessed to have my three children (one lives in Australia) and all the grandchildren together last year. Family is so special! xx
Your family is gorgeous. <3 Happy New Year!!!