baby love letters

What's This Site About?

Thanks for joining me at Friday Letters. Since publishing the little book, Held in the Arms of Love, (see June 26th post and cool mom picks ) I have been asked lots of questions about writing letters to one's children. Friday Letters is to make the process easy and fun. You can join me just for today or come back on a weekly basis. The purpose of this blog is to help parents create a meaningful letter to their child, even if it's only one paragraph long and takes 15 minutes to write.

Each Friday a new question will be put up on this blog. Your response to this week's question can stand on its own or be joined together with answers to future questions.

1. Read this week’s question and spend no more than 15 minutes writing your answer.
(Obviously everything you want to say can’t be said in 15 minutes but this gets your thoughts down on paper and you can always write more letters in the future.)

2. For the photographers of the group
Create 1-3 photographs on this topic to accompany your words.

3. Save your letter in a place where you keep important papers.

Content and images on this site are copyrighted.

Friday Letter questions are for individual use not for commercial purposes, without the author's permission.

Friday Letters...102

"The air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what you want, then forget it, and go about your business. Suddenly, the idea will come through. It was there all the time."

Henry Ford

"Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged."

Thomas Edison

In early 1999 I began working with a little idea...more like a passing thought. Sitting on my desk was a list of questions I had been asking clients with newborns to answer to accompany their mother baby, father baby images. A letter was written from the answers to these questions. The letter was then to be framed and hang on the wall beside the image or tucked into the back of the picture's frame.

Sitting next to this paper were sketch type images I had just taken of my little grandson with his father. The idea that came to me was...wouldn't the combining of these two things create an interesting hallmark card. A few days later the little card idea was seen by a book printer who suggested it would be an incredible idea for a gift book for new parents. So was born the little book, Held in the Arms of Love.

I love Seth Godin's post for today...

"Big ideas...are little ideas that no one killed too soon."  

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Friday Letters...101

"Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning."

Maya Angelou

This week I have spent a lot of time enjoying the gorgeous colors of fall. But I won't allow myself to load up those images until I post my last ones from the beach. These didn't fit into a slideshow.. but were a few I wanted to share.

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Friday Letters...100

"There are two ways to live: 

you can live as if nothing is a miracle:

you can live as if everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein

Yeah!!!!!!! A little over two years ago I started this blog hoping to help people who had bought my book, Held in the Arms of Love, get their letter done. Here we are 100 questions later and people from all over the world stop by. Some from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Austraila, New Zealand, Mexico and no less important all over the USA. (If I missed your country will you please add it in the comment box.)

I'm honored that you take time out of your week to read the question and think about what you would answer to your child. I hope these prompts are helpful and will bless your children with your words later in their lives.

 

The slideshow that follows is a miracle. It's always so much harder photographing your own family, especially when they get to the age of goofy expressions, missing teeth, and tormenting hands that just don't seem to be able to stay off of someone else.

These images are a present from all of my grandchildren to me. I wanted a wall portrait of all of them together. Since we seldom get to be in the same place at the same time... this was my big opportunity. Even finding the right outfits was a miracle...something timeless.

We had a little family meeting before the shoot and I asked for one hour of them doing everything I asked.. without any horrible faces, teasing or not listening. They gave me two hours I will never forget...everyone loving each other and just enjoying the sun, sand, surf and each other. Am I spoiled or what?

So even though these images are terribly small for you to see... they are a precious gift from my family to me...and I cherish everyone of them.

Chapter 5...cousins.

slideshow 

"The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world their will not be, another child like him."

Pablo Casals

chapter 4...dads and kids

The Sand Castle

It all started two summers ago... two little boys, two small shovels, two light sabers and a big dream... build a large sand castle with a mote. As their dads saw them digging feverishly in the hot sun they literally dug in and enlarged the dream.

Vowing never to use those short handed shovels again, the dads came armed this year with man sized shovels. It was more of an excavation project than the construction of a child's sand castle. Two and a half hours from start to finish!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Look below for chapter 4...dads and kids

slideshow 

PS See you tomorrow with Chapter 5...cousins

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chapter 3 ...the surf

In my neck of the woods, the ocean does not speak of tropical, warm waters to frolic in. A wet suit is the typical attire if you are serious about going more than a few steps into the surf. Here children find fun ways to interact with the waves but more at arms length. Splashing in shallow bone chilling cold water at the edge of the beach or making sand castles that the pounding waves can attack is more the norm. 

Stop by the link below for todays slideshow 

slideshow

PS See you tuesday for chapter 4 ..dad's and kids

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chapter 3

Check back on monday morning for the next chapter...surf

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Chapter 2....sky

 "Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country."

Anais Nin

I wish all of you could see this slideshow on a large monitor... it has some of my favorite beach images. I usually go for color at the beach, but some of these just spoke to me in black and white.

Enjoy!

 chapter 2...sky

slideshow

PS Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for chapter 3...surf

Friday Letters...99

100 questions!!!!!!!!! Can't believe I have actually been able to think of this many ideas to share. It's funny how each week something happens in my life that prompts that week's question. This blog has turned into a sampling of the chapters in my life. Some of my favorite life-stories have one thing in common...the beach. 

On our coast we never know how long a break in the weather will last, not even during the summer. If it isn't raining or blowing, you rush out and take in the experience in one big gulp because tomorrow may turn into an indoor day. 

When the children hit the beach it's like you have unleashed joy...they come alive with energy, curiosity and creativity once their toes hit the sand.

In anticipation and celebration of question 100... I will be sharing "Chapters Written in the Sand". Starting today a new slideshow each day from my summer beach treks.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1..Sand

slideshow

PS Stop by tomorrow for Chapter 2 ...Sky

"The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it."

Niccolo Machiavelli

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Friday Letters...98

 

"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books."

John Lubbock

Sometimes we so take the beauty around us for granted that we fail to notice something magnificent like this scene that I happened upon the other evening. It lasted for maybe five minutes in different forms of this combination of the moon, the clouds and the city below.

I hope we all learn to love our earth, so that my grandchildren see many beautiful sights like this one during their lifetime.

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Friday Letters...97

"How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'."

Martin Luther

"We shall never have more time. We have, and always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going... Concentrate on something useful."

Arnold Bennett

"Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy."

Wayne Gretzky

Recently I created a new list. It includes all of the things on my To Do List that never seem to move off of it. I titled it my Procrastination List. This little list has been a tremendous help to me, because there in black and white are opportunities not realized and burdens created. 

Today my husband and I tackled the big home maintenance project that has lingered on my To Do List all spring and summer. With the window of good weather closing I knew this was our last opportunity for the year to get this job done.

It was surprising how little time it actually took... once we got going. It was lots of hard work but the weather was perfect and the job turned out great. It now is ready for completion on Saturday.

Can you guess what job I checked off my list today?

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