Looking Back At Thursday

Greetings this fine Thursday morning from

DYLAN

and the picture that started it all …

It was Thursday morning, October 22, 2009 and Hubs was out of town on business.  It’s always hard to have him gone, and Dylan in particular was missing his dad that morning.  After helping him get ready for Crazy Hair Day at school, I asked him if he’d like me to email dad a picture.  Dyl was thrilled.  And so without any prompting from me, he made a silly face, waited for the camera to ‘click’ and then hovered over my shoulder, giggling, until his picture was safely on the way to dad.

Later that morning, Hubs sent me the following message:

Thanks for sending that, it made my morning …. I’m not allowed to have the e-mail open during the training but during the breaks I will open it to see if there is anything new.

And as requested, more silly pictures of the kids followed that day until our dad was safely home.  The pictures back and forth helped all of get through a long separation until we were back under the same roof.  Our Thursday pictures had served their purpose and were no longer needed … 

… until April 22, 2010 when I emailed family on another fine Thursday morning. We had been blessed the week before to have family in town for birthdays and a very emotional baptism.  After the high of being surrounded by that much love and support, there was an emptiness that returned in the following days.  And though it’s one of the unfortunate realities of  having all of our parents and siblings out-of-state, it never seems to get easier.

And so that morning as I was flipping through pictures from the previous weekend, I found this great iPhoto from my mom and reached out to the family we were missing terribly with greetings from

CAMERON

 

who proved that Reverent and Goofy can quietly co-exist at baptisms.  We wished everyone a great day, which at our house that morning included snow, hail, rain, wind, blanket forts and hot chocolate. 

Once again, pictures on a Thursday helped make separation easier—at least for me.  The emails back from family seemed to echo the same theme:  love you, miss you, wish we were there….

I thought about that idea a lot during the next week, and ways to stay in better contact during those weeks and months apart.  An idea started to roll around in my head.  What if every Thursday became a way to connect?  What if I sent pictures of the kids just as they are:  crazy, silly, dirty, whatever – so that family and friends could have a window into the lives of TDHD?

So one week later on April 29th, another email went out to family with greetings from

SAVANNAH

who wants to remind everyone that outfit selection should have nothing to do with calendar dates, but the weather outside.  After two days of straight rain, we had snow flurries for 1/32 of a second yesterday morning which Savannah declared meant that it was really winter and that she should wear this gem of an outfit.  The sun coming out within seconds of her arriving at school was irrelevant. 

Looking back on this picture, I love the random red puff ball of a clippy strategically placed on the back of her head.

The whole next week, I thought about which pictures I would send on Thursday—pictures that captured the soul of TDHD and that would hopefully put a smile on everyone’s face.  I was so excited to send out greetings on May 13th, but my computer started acting up and some family members never got the message.  At that point, I wondered if it might be easier to just put the greeting up on the blog and include pictures from not just one kid, but all of them.

And so I did.

And that’s how the whole Thursday thing happened.  And the the weird thing is how much I look forward to these posts each week.  I hope that everyone has enjoyed them as much as we do.  The kids LOVE IT when I let them get on the blog and they laugh and giggle as they scroll back through their favorite Thursday pictures.

Which makes me wonder ….

Every family must have Thursday pictures—pictures that perfectly capture their kids’ spirit and energy.  Pictures that make them laugh out loud, cringe, smile or cry.

I want to see them.  I want to share them.  I want to celebrate the Spirit of Thursday.

I’ve thought about this idea last week when I posted pictures of my nephews along with our family pics.  I love these boys and their amazing parents.  Finding “Thursday” pictures to share of them made me smile.  And the hysterical pictures my sister emails me of her five?  Soooo Thursday worthy.

So here’s the deal:

Email me your favorite Thursday pictures of your kids/family/whatever and I’ll post them next week.  If there’s no caption included with your pictures, I’ll make one up, which pretty much means it will be sarcastic and fairly inaccurate … so be forewarned.  ;)

I can’t wait to see your pics!  Send to: tdhdblog@gmail.com.

I firmly believe that Thursday’s rock.  For everyone.

Now go enjoy your weekend!

~Nike