Lundberg Newborn Session, Maple Grove, MN

The sweet Lundberg family (as a distraction) and also a note <3

The hardest part about all of this is explaining it over and over again to my four year old. Our 20 month old doesn’t know the difference, but our 4 year old does. She’s taken everything very well, but she hit a breaking point last night. We were on our walk and she wanted to go to the playground. We tried to explain why she couldn’t and she fell to the floor crying. My husband just looked at me clenching his teeth with stress and I just looked to the cement with tears in my eyes. Never did I imagine that we’d live during a pandemic. We live a very privileged life. We’ve been explaining it the best way we know how. We found something online that suggests saying something along the lines of: “We're working together to keep more people from getting sick by pausing school and other places crowds may be. It’s so awesome that so many people are working to help one another out!” And we rephrase it depending on the situation. It’s helped. Then there was our walk in the rain this morning. Letty was pushing leaves out of the road with her rain boots onto peoples yards. I was trying to be patient, but I didn’t really want her kicking leaves from the middle of the road onto peoples yards, so I gently asked her to find a different activity. Then she looked at me as serious as can be, “Mom. We all need to work together to keep the cars and people safe. Just help me.” So we kicked the leaves out of the road like fools because there was no way to deny her that. I’m scared and I’m sad, but I’m also hopeful. I love watching people come together. I’ve been reaching out to friends and they’ve been reaching out to me. We’ve shared sanitizer, tp, and sent our second to last pack of baby wipes to someone that needs it more. We've purchased gift cards, written reviews, and checked in on our small business friends.I’ve been seeing the best of people and I’m hoping it sticks around. I hope that when things get better, we remember when they weren’t always that way and that we continue to show people our kindest side.

As for my freelance job as a photographer, I am overwhelmed. I’ve had a few jobs get straight up cancelled and I’ve written the word postpone in too many emails. I’m thinking about a message I wrote last year about doing close to 200 shoots and how I wouldn’t be doing that in 2020 because it was too much. It was too overwhelming and it’s too hard to be a full time mom and work 20-40 hours a weeks. But here we are. I don’t think I’ll even get the chance to turn down much work like I have the past few years and it’s incredibly humbling. I’m doing my best to support my friends with small businesses, my friends that are finding themselves unemployed, and strangers that just need some baby wipes. If you find yourself at home with an extra few minutes to spare and we’ve worked together in the past, I would love for you to follow along on my Facebook and Instagram business page or to leave me a review.

To all of my friends that are in the medical field, teachers, working in stores, driving truck, delivering packages, or doing one of the many other jobs that are keeping the world turning—you’re the real MVP’s and we’re grateful for you.

I hope you’re finding the good in all of this and giving yourself all of the grace you need. Lots of love and virtual hugs to you all.