Blending Monochrome Monday

My rhythm has been off lately, so I'm a little late with getting the photos transitioned into black and white from the things I've taken recently! So I go back to the old reliable mixture of different pictures, all of them from this recent summer at least, while I sort myself out!

It's a funny thing where we get into some good habits and do really well with those. Eventually something comes and throws that for a shakeup and it gets a little chaotic for a while but I think the important thing is figuring out how to get away from that chaos, and into the old rhythm or making changes to that rhythm to suit the circumstances!

I've taken some pretty good adventures with my son this year! Plenty of time in the fields picking delicious and wonderful fruit. A lot of the same spots that we frequented last year of course which is nice, but also spiced things up a bit and tried to check out a new place. I think it's fun and important to give things a little shakeup now and again so that we can remember what it feels like to have newness.

I think, as a parent, one of the best things is to watch the kiddos grow up and develop their own identity and sense of adventure. There are certainly things that they will do that we need to be mindful of, to steer them away from a situation but there are lots of opportunities to stand back and watch the little fellas just grow and prosper as their own, in spite of the chaotic nature of the world.

I think as a parent, that is for sure one of the best gifts that we can give to our kids. The gift of a good childhood!

Of course that comes with lots and lots of places in our case! We don't go on extravagant trips to all across the globe. That would be interesting, sort-of but you tend to have different priorities in life when you have younger kids. I'm certainly not wholly interested in hitting Europe at the moment, despite the beauty of it. That's a sad thought as well, because Europe was a fantastic place for us to visit and it's so full of wonderful people and things to do.

The state of the world is a bit too chaotic though for that type of thing, at least in my opinion. Sure there are always going to be chaotic things going on but I think it's important to also find some joy in the things right close to home. You can get a lot out of it and have a lot of happiness when you just go exploring locally, in my opinion!

As always though, taking a look at the pictures in black and white for me brings a different set of thoughts and emotions. I love the ability of black and white pictures to do that!