Tonight, we had our family home evening and made our resolutions for the new year.  Mae Mae made a goal to read 100 books by June and started working toward her goal right away.  She read 6 books tonight and is ready to go back to the library to pick out more.

I like to set goals at the beginning of each year.  I like the determination I feel to better myself.  Some people don’t like to make resolutions as it is hard to keep a goal for an entire year.  I don’t look at it that way.  Not all of my goals even require action every day of the year.  Some are just short term goals.  I guess it takes me back to the days when I was in young women’s.  When I made a goal to work toward and actually accomplished something.  It is so easy to let time slip away and realize that the time was wasted.  No improvement was made.  So, I am thankful for the tradition of New Year’s Resolution and for the motivation I feel to become a better person.

Another fun part of the togetherness weekend was “talking shop” with Holly.  After taking a break from photography for a couple of years (aside from teaching workshops), she is getting ready to re-start her photography business, offering only newborn sessions.  And…you should see her newborn pictures.  They are AMAZING.  Anyways, while she was here, we discussed studio set-up.  I just upgraded to a Westcott continuous lighting system and am getting the hang of it.  Here are a few of the first pictures I took with the lighting:

Holly is converting one of her bedrooms to a studio and was showing me some of the great ideas she has come accross to create an amazing studio space.  It has gotten me really inspired.  Because we are extremely limited by the weather here, I have been considering setting up a studio in my home as well.  Now I have a ton of great ideas and am getting super excited about the prospect.  Obviously, I need to wait and figure out where we will be living first     But then….