A Mother's Dilemma

Playing with the ISO last night in the snowstorm. That's a whisper, in case you can't tell.

It was pitch dark outside, with just one porch light illuminating behind me. I kicked up the ISO to 6000, opened up the aperture wide and hoped for the best. 

Depth of field is very small. But there's plenty of light. And grain. Can't forget the grain when the ISO is that high.

{But it beats not getting the shot at all.}

And some sad looking mums. I think they're in shock at the snow falling around them.

J was target practicing this week. He let me look over his shoulder and take a few photos.

I was trying to get it just right, when he let go of the arrow. Startled me enough that I jumped back. 

Evidently you can't hold an arrow back long enough for someone to take their sweet time setting up the perfect shot. As he informed me when I said, "Why'd you shoot?"

Oh. I didn't think of that.

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A friend of mine has a dilemma. 

She has three daughters - the oldest is a senior in college, the middle one is a senior in high school, and the youngest is a freshman in high school.

When her oldest was a senior in high school, my friend did NOT buy an ad in the yearbook, the sole purpose being to wish her daughter the best as she walked off into her future. It was her oldest, for Pete's sake. You don't know anything with the first one.

{As I found out the next year when J was a senior. And I didn't buy an ad in the yearbook for him. And now I don't know what to do with K.}

But my friend wants to buy the middle daughter an ad. She checked with the oldest daughter, who said she doesn't care.

For all you moms out there, you know the kind of dilemma this is causing.

It's the keep-everything-fair-and-even dilemma.

If she buys the ad for the middle daughter, what's she going to do with the youngest? 

If she buys an ad for the youngest, the oldest will be the only one without a yearbook ad.

If she doesn't buy an ad for the youngest, then the middle child will be the only one who got an ad. Then the other two will feel that the middle child is Mom's favorite. 

Which you know is what every child thinks when they suspect one is being favored over the others.

~~~~~~~~~~

This has been the topic of many discussions lately and she still doesn't know what she's going to do. She thought about putting a "P.S. Hello, oldest daughter. I love you, too," in the middle daughter's ad.

But that seems a wee bit tacky.

We've been telling her she really can't do it for any of them, once she left out the oldest daughter. If she wants to keep it fair and even.

Unless she really does like the middle child best. Then all bets are off.

What do you think?