Photo-A-Week: Mess

This week's theme was supposed to be Spring / Autumn, but for any of my readers in St. Louis you know we are about a week early for that theme. So we'll postpone it till the dogwoods bloom. So instead we will have an appearance by one of Open Sky Studios favorite toddlers. This past week on St. Patrick's Day marked Cayden's 1st birthday. And everyone knows the only way to celebrate a birthday is with cake.

Without giving away too much about our fun session with Cayden, you'll have to keep an eye on the Open Sky Studios blog to see the full post on our fun cake session, we had a lot of fun. Of course there was mess.

P.S. here's a sneak peek at our Russell's Bakery custom My Baby Steps birthday cakes. Also, keep an eye on the Open Sky blog for a feature on Russell's and their amazing butter cream icing.

I love the look on Cayden's face here. It's as if to say, "But you told me to make a mess!"

Photo-A-Week: Underneath

Every time you go to the Arch in St. Louis you can find people taking pictures of the massive monument. I recently saw a shot of the Arch on a friend of mine's portfolio that had a perspective I had never seen before. So right up front, sorry Lee for stealing your idea :) Well at least at the time I thought it was unique to my friend. Little did I know it looks like I may be the last one in on this little trick.

This weekend the family and I went downtown for the St. Patty's Day parade. My son gets to walk in the parade with the rest of the St. Baldrick's participants, and family gets to come too. It's a great experience and a post about that will be coming soon. Any whoosie. After the parade we planned a picnic by the Arch where I was going to get my weekly theme shot. As I watched all the people around the Arch I saw several people with cameras walk out to the middle of the field directly under the Arch and point their cameras up at the sky. I sort of felt like a silly goose thinking that I had stumbled upon something only a few had thought about, but as I said earlier it looks like I am the odd man out. 

Not anymore! I am part of the crowd that has snapped this cool photo. What really strikes me about it is at first I thought it was a body of water with the reflection in the water. Then upon seeing the windows in the top of the Arch I realized it wasn't. Just for a moment though it can play a trick on the eyes. I like that.

Photo-A-Week: Bald

Last week's theme got hijacked for a very special event in our lives at the Eaton house. Last week's theme was Vegetables but we changed it to Bald. Every year for the last four years my son has participated in a shave-a-thon with an organization called the St. Baldrick's Foundation. St. Baldrick's is an amazing organization that focuses on helping find a cure for children's cancer. Matthew has lost two grandmas and a friend at school to cancer and his heart knows that he can make a difference just by collecting money to shave his head and he does it every year; him and 400 other individuals just in the St. Louis area alone. Last year St. Baldrick's was the largest grant provider for children's cancer research second to the U.S. Government.

St. Baldrick's has lots of reasons to be proud of the participants that sign up every year. But I want to focus on just one participant for a bit and how proud I am of him. The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Cor 9:7) That scripture has always raised the question in me, what is a cheerful giver? I mean who really is cheerful about giving things away. It's always a bit of an internal struggle when we think about what we could do with our time and money to benefit ourselves and then whether we should give that to someone or something else. I personally am prone to use two lines when I am asked for money or time. Let me check my budget or let me check my schedule. Then I am prone to look hard at each of them and think what I could do with that time or money that would benefit me first. I could go to the store then or use that money to get that new DVD player for the house... the list literally goes on and on. 

Over the last few years my heart has been changed by Christ and I have been given more opportunity in my life now to contemplate that scripture than ever before. Being a father means having the responsibility to make the name Dad look good. Too many children today don't have good daddy's. Which means you have to example for your children what love looks like. Meaning if God loves a cheerful giver then you purpose in your heart to show your children what that looks like. So, you begin to change yourself hoping that your children see it and are motivated to follow.

My view of that scripture changed four years ago when my son came home and put a piece of paper down on the kitchen table and said "Dad I'm going to do this". It wasn't a request he didn't say 'can I' or 'will you let me', it was, I have purposed in my heart that I am going to do this. The piece of paper was a flier about the second annual St. Baldrick's event at his elementary school. I asked him why he wanted to participate, mostly because I wanted to see if he had a reason beyond it seems like fun or some other child like answer. He said, with empathy and compassion with a real sense or purpose in his voice, "Because cancer sucks Dad and I can do something about it." 

A father loves a cheerful giver. I now understand.

Since that day my son has taken me on a journey that has let us meet new people and experience a blessing of joy that can not be found anywhere else than in the service of others. To see so many selflessly give is an encouragement to the heart, especially in these times. And the women who come out and shave full head fulls of hair is amazing. There were 40 kids from my son's school this year, 40 KIDS!!!

Our pastor said it best when talking about my son's compassion. "Empathetic people are people who look at your problem and say 'I feel your pain'. Compassionate people look at your problem and say 'I feel your pain, and I'm going to do something about it." That encompasses not only my son but every participant, volunteer, barber and financial contributor to St. Baldrick's. 

So the photo a week this week is bald because that's what my son is... BALD!