monadnock mama

Kelli Ann Wilson April 28, 2014

new lens // nikkor 105mm 2.8d

My husband, who is always amazingly supportive of all of my hobbies & whims, got me a new camera lens for my birthday — the Nikkor 105mm 2.8d — and it is wicked cool (pardon my New Hampshire-speak). Can I just say that I am so grateful to be married to someone who not only knows what I want, but knows what I want even before I know that I want it?

I’ve never used a macro lens before, and this one is manual focus on my camera body, so I’m anticipating a bit of a learning curve. Numerous wise people have noted that it’s not just how much you practice, but how far you push yourself outside of your comfort zone, that makes the real difference when it comes to getting better at something.

I give you my inception — withering tulips.

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Kelli Ann Wilson April 28, 2014

today is my birthday // i’m 33

One cannot love without suffering or suffer without loving.

Look at the mothers who truly love their children: how many sacrifices they make for them. They are ready for everything, even to give their own blood so that their babies grow up good, healthy and strong.

— St. Gianna Beretta Molla

Today is my birthday, and I am thirty-three. I share my birthday with many notable figures. But, today I learned that my birthday is also the feast day of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian wife, mother, and doctor who discovered in the second month of her pregnancy that she had a uterine fibroma but refused surgical interventions in order that she might carry her child to term. She successfully delivered her full-term baby daughter, Gianna Emanuela, but died seven days later on April 28, 1962. Although I am not a Catholic, I do place an enormous value on motherhood and I strongly identify with the all-powerful love for one’s children that St. Gianna embodied; I am honored to share my birthday with the feast of St. Gianna Molla.

You can learn more about St. Gianna Molla here.

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Kelli Ann Wilson April 25, 2014

17 // 52

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This week you are on vacation from school. I have to admit that I have really missed our lazy mornings. Now that you’re back in school, it seems like we are always rushing. On Sunday the Easter Bunny gave you a book about drawing animals and you have been spending a lot of time looking at it and trying out the different techniques. We have other “learn to draw” books, but they are really too simple for you. This new guide is for more advanced artists…which is what you are now!

Zane: Your egg obsession continues! The Easter Bunny gave you a mother hen with baby chicks that “patch” (your word for “hatch”) from eggs, and also a book all about how robins build their nests and take care of their eggs and babies. I am so touched that you want to be a mother bird. I guess it means I’m doing something worth imitating, which is not only a huge responsibility but also a great honor.

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Kelli Ann Wilson April 23, 2014

corners of my home // early spring

I’m not really into “home decorating,” especially given that it’s enough of a challenge just to keep the place clean with a toddler around. But, I do really like to make things — in other words, I like to craft. I decided that I’d like to share some of things I’ve crafted and the little spaces I’ve created around the house. My decorating impulses tend to mirror the seasons and I love bringing bits of the natural world into my home, both with found objects and with those I create.

I feel like I really lost touch with “nature” during my late teens and early- to mid-twenties. The house we rented when we first moved to Walpole was in a very rural area, and living there re-awakened my sense of wonder and helped me to re-learn the rhythm of the seasons. I feel so lucky to have had that experience because it truly changed my life. I now feel much more myself, and I think a lot of that can be attributed to my reconnecting with the natural world.

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Kelli Ann Wilson April 21, 2014