craig wears a suit everyday to work.
this is something i think our kids will remember about him.
and this scene every few weeks…
clean wet shirts drying in our room.
waiting to be ironed.
they will remember wrestling after work…
bike rides…
games in the yard…
playing basketball…
family night…
swimming together…
family meals…
eating ice cream.
craig is a good dad.
he is present. he is loving. he is concerned. he is involved.
the kids will remember that too.
my dad was a good dad too.
he was just here for lunch.
thanks for staying dad.
things i remember about you dad…blue shirt and khaki pants A LOT.
a tray of colognes on your dresser.
wearing your head phones in your cushy chair in the library room.
the pocket door to the library room.
putting on records…and that sound that the needle makes when it first bounces onto the record.
your big speakers hanging in the living room that mom hated.
your office at the star journal.
the way you bend over and lean in and cover your eye when you take pictures.
buying shoes when we would come to wichita because most places didn't carry your size.
driving to fredonia in the little orange pick-up truck to have the newspaper printed after kindergarten.
counting oil wells on the way.
the smell of the printer.
getting a popsicle or treat at the grocery store sometimes while we waited.
listening to "hey babe you wanna boogie?".
drinking diet pepsi without the lid or a straw and always requesting extra ice.
i could go on and on.
i love you dad…hope you like your book.
and i love you too craig.
don't forget to vote today…you rocked it yesterday!
Lori - Those pics could be from my family farm! I’m now a city girl in the East and I do miss the wide open spaces in SW Kansas! The best sunsets and the golden waves of grain are truly breathtaking!
erin - I live in Kansas! Born and raised. It gets boring sometimes but I have lots of green space around me, No horrible traffic, nice people that wave at you when you are driving even if they don’t know you, a house that I could never afford anywhere else, good schools and great neighbors. Wouldn’t live anywhere else.
Pansy Cottage Girl - Just had to comment about this. I’ve lived in southern California my entire life,43 years. I’ve worked in the movie business and I know a lot of people. But here in so-cal. Everything is so contrived. People aren’t real and you HAVE to lock your doors and car. We have a lot of traffic, the cost of living is rediculous and its a real challenge to instill family values in your kids when everyone is so concerned about what they wear & drive. I’m sure some areas have a sense of community but I dont have it for my kids. I’m a very outgoing person and I find it really hard to make meaningful relationships. I would move to the heartland in a hot minute if I could.
Ashley Crenshaw - Oooh! I’m so happy I found your blog (via The Inspired Room’s Melissa)!! I was born and raised in Kansas and now live in Colorado. It’s so nice to be reminded of my roots and how much I still love it there. Thank you for the beautiful pictures. Seriously, Kansas is awesome!
chasity - love how you captured the spirit of the midwest in these photos…they are fantastic!
chas
Sara - I want to learn to take pictures like this…amazing.
I love Kansas too. It’s dreamy.
Heather Richter - Just moved here…you captured it perfect. Love the sunsets here.
Cheryl Enlow - It looks so beautiful!
sandy toe - Wonderful pictures!
sandy toe
katy - I hear ya….it is beautiful!!! We are one of your neighboring states (OK) we live about 30 min. from the Kansas border.
I love looking at the wheat fields, I can see them from almost any window in our house.
Very nice pics you took!!
Traci - great photos. cuttin’ wheat – i love that time of year. we won’t be doing that until the mid to end of July. you need to be taking photos at the old farm. awesome.
Karen - Stop. STOP! You’re giving my WI dairy-farmer-husband, CROP-ENVY!
Still…beautiful. Just beautiful. TFS.
Staci - You can make a picture of a truck look incredible π I love that Sean was playing Legos…alone….and I LOVE that he was singing Joy to the World π Gonna go vote!
Kelly - Thank you for the beautiful photos. I’ve lived in Iowa and miss is so much.
Meta - hello,
here a message from a lurker in the Netherlands (so excuse me for my english and where the corn in the fields has not yet grown higher than 30 centimeters! yours is so high already!)
you have a great blog and make even greater pictures!
you’re an inspiration!
after years of being busybusybusy with everything and everyone around me I came here to read and saw your creative powers…..
yeah! I remembered I have those powers too and was in shock when I realised I did not work with them for way to long!
shame on me!
so I digged up my creative stuff/ cleared out my craftroom and YESYESYES!
me happy!
thank you!
and keep on blogging, I love to read it!
Keri - These are lovely. Starfish and oceans are great, but there is something to be said about wide open spaces! Kansas looks beautiful!
jolyn - I am officially homesick now. “You can take a girl out of Kansas….”
(I recently discovered you, but this is my first comment:)
Amber - I’ve been living on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland almost all my life and I never thought I could move to a middle-of-the-country state where all the land is flat. I am surrounded by mountains, ocean, reservoirs, bays, cities, etc. I would feel trapped in those middle states. Lol. But you sure make it beautiful with those pics!!
Erin - You captured the Midwest beautifully! I love living in the Midwest – don’t think I could ever leave!
Jenn - beautiful. hoping to see it in person some day!
Angela Henrie - I love farms. I wish I grew up on one. There’s a little patch in the middle of my town that still grows corn. I get so excited to see it growing. I hope they never develop that land – it would be a horrible day for me!
gina entz - I LOVE Kansas too. I’m always telling Ryan how beautiful Kansas is. And he always tells me I’m preaching to the chior. Great pics!
Rach - Yes, but you have summer thunderstorms that leave that sweet smell of wet grass when they are done; you have fire flies to run and catch in big glass jars with holes in the lid; you have clear skies not plagued with smog; and you have quiet summer suburb nights where you can leave the windows open and only hear the sounds of crickets. Kansas is a good place to live and your kids are your very own movie stars that you worship and adore. π
Becky @ Farmgirl Paints - Nothing like the Midwest. I love it. GORGEOUS pictures!!
sarah keith - yes…it is a lovely state! I enjoyed seeing all the combines “workin’ it” out in the field. I’ve never been in June–usually in late fall-winter. No oceans-No starfish—but what you have is a mean sunset across a wheatfield!
Meredith - I can see why you love it so much. These photos could easily be mistaken for rural Australia. There is a quiet, calm beauty all of its own that sort of steals its way around your senses. Meg, these photos are simply beautiful.
Do you do “best part/worst part” of your day with your kids at the dinner table? One of my “best” parts yesterday was your lovely comments on my blog – I felt really encouraged – thanks for being so generous. Meredith xo.
Kristine Robb - what you do mean no celebrities?! you have DOROTHY!! π
Vera - That’s funny, we both did similar posts today about our little neighboring states π
rachel - Lovely picures – Kansas tourist board should hire you, you’d soon have the tourists flocking there π
Karina - Kansas certainly looks beautiful, I’ll have to visit one day. Your blog got my vote!
Kelly - Your pictures are great! I love your “amber waves of grain” shot!
Gram - Love Kansas, my parents met and married in Kansas, both my sisters were born there, my best friend in the world was born and raised there.
angela - Amazing pictures…love them! I grew up on a farm in Ohio and I miss it and that life whenever I see photos of corn, wheat, sunsets, tractors, etc…
Thanks for all the inspiration.
Kathy - Never been to Kansas but your pictures are beautiful so Kansas must be too.
Anne - You take seriously the most “lively” pictures! I love the one with the cows the best.
ali - You must be a photographer…i just came across your blog yesterday and can’t even remeber how…too much random time at work! But I had to ask what kind of camera you have. I know it’s mostly skill but your pictures jump off the page! they are amazing! i love them!!
Deva84 - OMG! Absolutely amazing blog! Just brilliant! Feel so warm to be here!
Have a lovely day!
Deva
Liana - Just voted. I love cake wrecks too, but you win, no contest!
GREAT pics, by the way. You really have a talen for finding beauty in everyday!
Cate O'Malley - Beautiful pictures! Would love to live in the country, but in the meantime, will happily live vicariously through your blog. π
Anna Marie - ummm….you do have totally awesome fields of sunflowers! the first time my husband showed me a field of sunflowers just on the other side of the missouri/kansas border i was in awe! do you have any near you? if so…you have GOT to take pictures. those fields plus your photo skillz equals awesomeness…no joke π
love
anna marie
andrea liese - your lucky, i am in CA and can’t wait to leave to a more simple life, i love the pics
Ruth - It looks so beautiful. I would move to the middle of nowhere anyday if I could!
Amy - I spent my summers with my grandparents in Eureka so these pics bring back incredible summer memories. Also now craving the tastiness that is corn picked from the field then served with freshly caught fish.
Nina - Meg – those cows look like they are posing for you!
AnNicole@OurSuburbanCottage - Absolutely beautiful. I actually drove from Oklahoma to Kansas City in the spring, and I marveled at how beautiful the fields were. It had been raining, so everything was grey and vivid green. Amazing…
Meredith Salmon - Meg,
I am really inspired by your blog. Your photos are amazing and I can not wait every day to see what you have posted. I am a working mother of two boys (5yrs and 7 months). I have the same camera you do and love taking pictures of my family. I would love to know more about how you alter or enhance your photos. They are beautiful and vibrant. I would love to know more about your photos of families. I know you get a lot of this but you are an inspiration. God Bless.
Tracy - LOVE the pictures and the song on the radio is one of my favs considering the fact that I actually am from the Country – Arkansas to be exact! HA! Have a great weekend, Meg! :o)
pve - makes me wish I was in Kansas, right now wearing no shoes and sporting overalls.
Dina - oh my, it is beautiful! thanks for sharing!!
Melanie - Your photos are breathtaking. Love ’em.
Gretchen - I was just stuck in a traffic jam on the 101 Freeway in Hollywood while I was taking my son to a playdate. Came home, opened this and started to cry! Man, would I rather be walking through a cornfield!
Sharla - These are all so great – although I see these things around me, they just seem prettier when someone else points them out.
Starnes Fam - The Midwest is a lovely place to live and since I’m only in week 7, I’m still discovering all of it. Happy to be here! Beautiful pictures, as always.
Trish - holy cow your corn is so tall compared to ours in Michigan! I voted for you yesterday… I’ll go vote again π
Dani - Beautiful pictures! I want to take pictures like that!
Going to vote… as I have done everyday since you posted about the award!
Heather @ Cookie Mondays - holy moly! you are killin the competition! you rock, meg(an)!
valerie - BEAUTIFUL! The pictures of the wheat are just gorgeous!
Jo - Meg,
The 3rd picture is definitely beautiful π Good eye, good eye. I see that stuff all the time living in Texas, but I don’t like to be stereotyped as a ‘redneck’, just not my cup of tea. Yes, we have TONS of cowboys/girls here, but i’m not one! It’s neat to see though, I think personally. The pictures are fab. *RUNNING TO VOTE*
purejoy - y’know? i think kansas has some pretty sexy wheatfields. your pictures are lovely. eye candy! is that queen anne’s lace? if it is, i’m in love. even if it’s not. . . i’m still in love.
Ambre - Wow, I never thought anyone could make me miss Kansas…but I LOVE that 3rd pic!