Life Songs
“Heart of Gold”
by Neil Young.

Welcome to a little blog post series that we like to call Life Songs. I am thrilled to be a part of this life stories project with eleven other talented photographers! In this series, we will be documenting our lives with a different theme song each month. The images in the posts will be taken from a less traditional approach, showcasing “real life” in our own ways. This month’s inspiration is ” Heart of Gold” by Neil Young. It might be worth finding it and having a listen as you browse our blog circle. See the link to the next photographer in the circle at the end of this post.

I had to pull this song up on you-tube, and I immediately recognized it and realized what a great song it is (even though my husband was cracking up at me rocking out to Neil Young on my iPad when he got home – not quite what he was expecting to see). My photos this month were actually taken a few months back. I tried to get out with my kids and shoot something inspiring, but it was hard to get a shot off with a three year old that wouldn’t let go of my hand on our 1.5 hour hike. We did, however, have a fantastic time looking for giraffes that she swore we would find if we just kept going a little bit further. We never found any giraffes – go figure! We did see a bunch of squirrels, three different types of woodpeckers, a nuthatch, and a couple of dogs. The golden retriever was the highlight of her outing, and she insisted his name was Shadow, and that we should follow it on the trail. I didn’t want to look like a creepy stalker, so needless to say we didn’t follow the dog or it’s owner for too long.

So, I was thinking about what to incorporate for the song this month. After some thought I decided that this song was talking about my heart of gold. Seriously, I think anyone who has kids must have a heart of gold. For all the times I hear the fighting over toys, the “you’re not my best friend” because of something I didn’t let someone have or do, all the times I hear “no!”, the times they stomp to their room and slam the door, they still make my heart swell every time I think of them. For every crappy parenting moment, there are at least 2 great ones where I’m hearing “you’re my best friend, mom”, “I love you, mom”, “hold my hand, mom”, “I just want to snuggle with you because I love you so much, mom”, and other gooshy things kids say that completely melt your heart and make you forget all the not-so-fun stuff. Even though they don’t always like what I have to say (and vice-versa), they are my world. Parenting is tough, and I seriously DO think it takes a heart of gold to raise kids. No one ever said it was going to be this hard. Heck, before I had one kid I thought I wanted at least four. The second one has just about done me in.

I don’t post many photos of my kids on here, but these ones fit our lifestyle theme. They are from our vacation to Door County, WI this September. Most of the time when I’m out with my kids I just have my iPhone to take photos, but this time I made a point to bring my work camera out and try to get some photos of them just being themselves, having fun, and not paying attention at all to me or my camera for the most part. These are some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Please be sure to check out Photos by E J Russell – Beth’s take on this months theme can be seen here. Each photographer from our group will be linking to the next photographer’s take on it – lots of great posts you won’t want to miss!

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