Spring has sprung (and yes, I know I'm late)

My, oh my, how time flies.

I knew I had gotten behind on posting, but I didn't think I was almost three months behind. Life got super busy in January and hasn't really slowed down. So what's new in the Lynch house?

Well, definitely a few things. After my last post, I spent then next couple of weeks at work being very busy. We were ramping up for the spring semester to start and getting all of the files in order and the initial certifications done for the students who were using veteran's education benefits. And then the 24th came around. The last Friday before the semester began, I completed my work day and went home, having filed a bunch of certs and attended a meeting with my newly returned full-time colleague and my boss. What I didn't expect was to get an email at seven that night telling me that my temporary position had been terminated, but they would love to keep me as a student worker. I won't lie and say I wasn't salty about the whole thing, I was, but ultimately I decided I would rather spend the semester focusing on my coursework and my family. So, I'm not with the VRC anymore.

Which leads me right into the spring semester. I'm taking nine credits of photography classes. I'll graduate in May with an Associates of Arts in Photography, which is really cool. I'm having an absolutely amazing time. My instructors, Becky and Greg, are great teachers, and I'm learning a lot and having fun applying that information to practice. SO I'm in a second level of both the black and white film class and the digital class. I'm also taking a class on alternative processes, which has been the highlight of my semester. I love the ease of the digital camera, and it will always be special to me because it was Hannah's, but when it comes to the overall process of producing images, I really enjoy the processes that are more hands-on. I love being in the darkroom, and it is now a goal of mine to have a she-shed and convert it into part writing office, part light room, part darkroom. And alt processes? I love them. So far we've spent a few weeks making cyanotypes, both object contact and digital negative prints. I've printed on watercolor paper, painted rocks, and even a pocket square (which was not my best work, but I absolutely will try again.) We'll be finishing transfers after spring break, then moving on to lumens and Van Dyke Browns.

All of that, and then there's the littles. We've had a busy few months' worth of activities. Connor finished his basketball season, and that overlapped with both of the kids starting baseball. We're on the ball fields four times a week for practices and twice on Saturdays for games. They each have Scouts once a week. And Taylor just finished a series of beginner ballet/tap classes on Sundays. (She's an amazing kid, but dance is not her jam.) So they've been keeping me hopping.

Taylor at bat

I say me because Zach was gone for a month, completing a language immersion trip in Tokyo. He just got back eight days ago. I didn't do it all alone, though. My wonderful mom came out for five weeks to help. She flies home in a couple more days, and we'll miss her a whole bunch.

Zach in Tokyo

My beautiful Emma is coming out to visit next month for her spring break. I haven't seen her since August, and I can't wait to have her home with us for a few days. I think she's ready for a few days away, too. She's been having a rough time at her job, and she's been taking fifteen credit hours. So I'm looking forward to giving her a week to decompress and step away from the things that are stressing her out right now.

Zach will be done with language training this summer. It feels like it went by so fast. We know we will be moving in July, he has to do a one-year graduate program before we move to Tokyo. He got in to two schools in different parts of the country, now we're just waiting to see if the army will grant him the extra funding to go to the better of the two options. Which means that for now, we know we're moving, but we don't know where yet.

In other news, and because something in my brain thought "hey, you don't have enough going on, lemme help you out there," I'm also writing a novel. A fantasy novel. With lots of world-building, tons of research on different subjects, and an overarching plot that definitely gives this-is-a-series energy. I'm still very early in the process, but I spend at least an hour working on it every day, and if I don't have the first draft done before we move, well, my daily once the kids start school in the fall I'll have all kinds of time to focus on the book. I'm not ready to share a lot of detail about it yet, but I am so excited to build it up to fruition and share it with the world. What I can share are the pictures below. These are my main characters, Zee and Mal, as depicted by some of my first attempts at AI image generation, which was very entertaining.

All of that (and probably more that I forgot to mention) n I've been so long since my last post. I know, I need to be better about it. I may have to just schedule time each week that is solely dedicated to updating my blog and my socials, and that way I have a dependable routine in at least one regard. Otherwise I tend to drop the ball on some things. Maybe that should be my next self-improvement goal.

The Lynch family has a lot of big changes come up, and I am so excited to live them, to photograph them, and to share them.

Happy Spring, y'all!