This week, for the second year, I am participating in a self-portrait challenge extended by Ali Edwards called Pieces of Us. The goal is to get in front of the camera and take at least one self-portrait per day following a prompt. You can learn all about it over on Ali’s blog. I loved this project last year and enjoyed the challenge of taking creative self-portraits each day and I am very excited to tackle it again this year.
Each day I hope to share my words and photo(s) from the previous day’s prompt here on my blog. I hope you will follow along and consider joining in the challenge yourself, if you’re not already participating.
Pieces of Us | Half-Face
Today we ran a few errands – curbside lunch pickup, dispensary pickup, ice cream date at Dairy Queen. Whenever we leave the house, this is pretty much the standard view of people’s faces. Who could have known that last year when we participated in this project that the prompt of “half-face” would become part of our normal every day lives. We have a multitude of face masks in a multitude of places. I’ve usually got one in my purse, spares in my drawer, and in random coat and jacket pockets. Shawn keeps his main one in his pocket each day, spares in his drawer. We each have an extra in the center console of the Tesla in case we ever forget one. This “Friends” themed one was made for me by Amber and its my current mask for this season. I’ve been enjoying trying different styles and patterns for different seasons. Shawn has one that he loves and fits him best. It was made my Amber and features the Death Star. Ruby doesn’t really seem to notice anymore that we wear the masks. She really has adjusted to this new normal perhaps better than we have. I don’t know when every day mask wearing will end, but even though we started our vaccines this week, mask wearing will still be a choice we make for the foreseeable future.
Note: Cone was smaller than it appears.
Another note: Yes, I was this excited for this plain vanilla ice cream cone today.
Our DQ dates have become a favorite pandemic-life pastime. We order from the drive-thru – a small Reese’s Blizzard with chocolate ice cream for Shawn, a small vanilla cone for me – then we sit in the parking lot and watch something on YouTube in the car. Usually it’s an episode of an interview show that Adam introduced us to called Hot Ones. Today we talked about the possibility of moving out-of-state and some of the considerations surrounding that idea.
You won’t often find me with my nose in a book, but this has been a more frequent scene around here lately. As a kid, I loved reading and almost always had a book in my hand. As I got older, I read less and less for enjoyment. My undergrad work involved a TON of reading (hello English Lit major!) and from that point on I kind of lost my love of reading just for me. Shawn and I love listening to audio books and have enjoyed a few different series such as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and Hunger Games. But in the last decade I can probably count on one hand how many physical books I’ve read. Last month, I decided to set a goal of reading for 15 minutes each day. I finished one whole book and made my way halfway through this one. I’m setting a year 41 goal to read at least 5 books in either paper or Kindle format. I’m excited for possibility of returning to reading as an enjoyable pastime.
Two halves make a whole. At this point in our lives and in our marriage we feel like two halves that complete each other. Shawn is my best friend and my soul mate. We were destined for each other from the beginning. Now we spend our days improving ourselves to make the whole stronger, happier, and more resilient. We never take for granted the trails, backroads, and highways that got us here. We appreciate and support each other. We cradle each other in the hard times and cheer each other on in the good times. We meet in the middle. We take on more of the load and carry extra weight when one of us needs a break. We talk it over. We hug it out. We look after one another. We make space for each other. We might love each other more than ourselves, but we are working on that. We chose each other 14 years ago never looked back. We have built a life we love. We are in this together.
Only two days left in this challenge! It’s been so fun. I am happy to have been able to capture the other members of my family in today’s prompt. Are you including others in your photos?
Leave a Reply