Mom, read a book to me...

Sometimes it takes me awhile to finish things.... this post was started almost a year ago! Well I am finally sharing the STORY behind the "picture" you will understand after you read...

I love reading books to our children... and I love taking pictures of them... so when my husband called and said "Can I take some pictures of you reading to the children?" I said "sure!" then he told me that a few people would be seeing the pictures....after discovering they (the homeschool company we work with: My Father's World) wanted a picture for some ads I decided I should wash my hair! (thankfully no one can SMELL pictures :) and we rummaged through the drawers for thing that didn't "clash".

Now for those of you who know me you will find this all very funny (that is my goal to give you a giggle today!)Ok, just so you have total perspective: my wonderful hubby called at 11am, we were having a very good school day with the 7 children (we were schooling Alex and Julia last year) plus a foster baby, our helper was over as well (thankfully she was there, although I worry she really thinks we are CRAZY now!) A family brought lunch over on Mondays, so she came with her 2 boys bringing the household total to 12!-- it was CRAZY!
As the kids finished eating, I got clothes lined up, shoved all the clutter to one side of the family room and tried to make the couch corner look as "uncluttered" as possible --sorta an oxymoron in a homeschool home!!!OK so as the photographer arrives, we try various arrangements of people/seating/books and so on. After almost 2 hours of pretending to read, the kids were DONE (As was I!)
We all prayed ONE of those shots would be usable.

When we got home we all let out a low mumble OHHH when we heard the lighting wasn't good in any of the pictures, and we had to try again!
We were dealing with a deadline (need it by TOMORROW) we got through dinner, dad had a meeting, but as soon as he got home we started up again, this time we knew a little more what we were looking for!
lighting SET,
book to read SET,
uncluttered area still SET!
here is the other side of the room!!! scary! (I didn't move a thing since our afternoon session so we climbed over the mountain of STUFF to get through the room!!!)
Muliple click- click- click multi burst shots were fired. There were many comments like "just look at the book" or "pretend its interesting" "just imagine the people on this page were picking their nose" "don't poke him", and on and on! Many giggles and lots of WIGGLES!
and yes some discipline was caught on camera too --here is the mom glare -- JUST DO IT SO WE CAN BE DONE!
I don't know how people WANT to do this for a job!!!

Well by 9:45 pm we had all had it and I said "if one of those doesn't work you will need some other models"! We had taken close to 1000 pictures in 4 hours!
For all of you who think the cover on a homeschool magazine is true homeschool life moment-- well there is usually more to the story than one picture!
We are very blessed to educate our children at home and I am so thankful for the precious "couch" moments we do have and grateful that the glares are able to be few and far between :)
So if you want to see the offical final shot order a catalog www.mfwbooks.com or get an issue of Focus on the Family parents magazine (spring 09 issue) or check out the back cover of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.
Here it is... (this is the unedited version -- notice the cats tail! see nothing is perfect!)
My little boys insisted they wear their "cover shirts" for many a convention this year -- very sweet! So for the kind people who thought we just happen to have this sweet picture sitting around ~ now you know the REST OF THE STORY!

Now go read a book to your kids or to yourself for real!