Sunflowers

 

A local 4-H club plants sunflowers as a fundraiser.  They open the fields and ask that if you use it you make a donation to their club.   If you want to pick a flower, they ask that you make another donation to their club. I love this fundraiser!  Such a great idea!   I happily made a donation to their club and in exchange, we attempted to take some senior pictures of Quincy.  Since we were going anyway, I drug along the girls and Madison met us there with her girls.  

Quincy is a reluctant participant in the senior photos thing.  She sort of wants it done, but also doesn’t.  But also has some ideas of what she wants them to be.  I like her ideas, but i also sort of wanted some pretty pictures of her as well.  She agreed to letting us take a few in the sunflowers.   Now I must add in that Quincy had to work last night.  Her job at the nursing home has been a little rough lately.  They are short staffed, and she has been getting off late almost every shift.  So when we thought she would be home, she was still working.  We picked her out a cute outfit from her room, and instructed her to meet at Mallory’s.  She got off work, hated the outfit we picked, didn’t have time to do much to her hair, wasn’t wearing mascara, didn’t feel well because she has a cold, and was exhausted from going to school and work.  She wasn’t in the finest of moods.  Mallory basically has a way of saying suck it up and let’s do this.  Mallory took a lot of photos, took some of Evie and Wrenley, and had us out of there before dark!   You can tell she’s a teacher.  Haha!  

There was a lady there who was acting like she was having a professional photo shoot, but it was all selfies she was taking.   Harper told me it was “cringe” so I had to do a little reenactment just for Harper.  I’m serious when I say Harper is silent but deadly.  Her perception of the world is funny- and although I probably shouldn’t, I find myself laughing at her perceptions a lot!  

Mallory took a lot of good photos, and even though Q doesn’t love this one, I think it is my favorite.   Why?  Because that is Quincy’s natural smile.  The one she gives is when she’s happy, or has good news, or is being a pain in the a$$.  I’m happy Mall captured it for my wall. 

When I was a kid, my grandfather always talked about how much he hated sunflowers.  When he died, my grandma was adamant that no yellow flowers of any kind be put in his coffin spray.  Considering how we had to continually cut them out of places they grew that were a pain (fence lines, around water troughs, around barn doors, etc) I know why he had the feelings he did.  And honesty, the Kansas sunflower is a weed!   I will always have a weird fascination for them though.  I like how they grow up in weird places and add beauty to the roadsides in the time of the year that most things are starting to die.  I like how they smell like home and fall and are sort of disgusting smelling, but yet make you feel nostalgic at the same time.   And I absolutely LOVE fields of bright, cheerful sunflowers.   Every time I see one I want to stop and take pictures.  Every time I stop and take pictures, my children groan and tell me I am a dork.  I will never care how dumb they think it is, there’s just something about them.  So pretty.  So cheerful.  So amazing to see them all facing in one direction.   

And who doesn’t look beautiful standing in a field of these?  

Thank you Mallory for these amazing pictures. And thank you Quincy, for indulging your momma.  

One more thing, my Quincy girl- she’s always been a handful.  She’s stubborn, outspoken, likes what she likes and hates what she doesn’t, and has single handedly given me half the gray hairs on my head.   She is also stunningly beautiful, amazingly smart, intensely driven, and possesses amazing levels of creativity which she hasn’t even begun to tap into yet.  She has grown up so much in the last year!  She is no longer getting in constant trouble at school, her grades are amazing, and she is taking college level classes.  She works 7 days a week at 3 different jobs, and still finds time to hang out with her sisters.  I love her like crazy - and am definitely not ready to embrace her senior year yet - the sadness of Preston being out of the house is still too fresh.  Poor Jim is going to have a huge mess drying all my tears this year I think.  I’m not ready!