Books & Shows During Social Distancing.

Alright, the truth is, no one knows what’s going on in the world out there. We are told to stay home and out of crowds but for those of you who are not accustomed to staying home, I have some good news for you! I have been a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) for 3.5 years now, and some days are obviously harder than others but the good news is, you can get through this!

Don’t have kids? Perfect, I am actually writing this more towards you! I have a list of shows and books for you to binge during social distancing!

Books:

1. The Bible - Read it, you need it right now. It doesn’t matter what version, amplified, King James, New Living Translation - Get one and spend some time in His word.

2. Harry Potter Series - 7 book series about a wizard, Harry Potter, who attends a wizarding school called Howgarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The series follows him through his school years while he struggles against a dark wizard, Lord Voltemort.

3. The 5 Love Languages - This book is AMAZING to help you understand yourself and your partner and how each of you feels love. Just because you feel love one way does not mean your partner feels love the same way. Especially with social distancing and being around your partner more, this book may help get through these “isolation” days.

4. The Maze Runner - 5 book series about a group of teenagers that get sent to a strange land and do not remember how they got there or anything about their lives except their name. One part of the land changes everyday, the maze, which they think is how they get out of “The Glade”.

TV Shows:

1. Grey’s Anatomy - Medical drama about Meredith Grey from her intern year into her years as an attending. It shadows her life and her friends, and there are about 16 seasons now. I got sucked in a few years ago, binge watched Netflix and now watching in real time (DVR).

2. Fuller House - Sitcom spin off of Full House with all the same characters except now DJ is raising three boys by herself in her dads house and Kimmie and Stephanie move in to help her raise them.

3. Last Man Standing - Sitcom where the main character, Mike Baxter, has three daughters. He tries to stay manly with his job at Outdoor Man but doesn’t always stay away from all the drama. This show is hilarious!

4. Manifest - American drama where flight 828 from Jamaica goes missing for 5.5 years and finally returns. The passengers have not aged and do not feel like they were gone any longer than their normal flight. The start having these visions they call “callings” that help and hurt them while trying to help other passengers and those around them.

I hope this helps some of you get through this social distancing. It doesn’t have to be boring and you don’t need to be stuck in the house. Head out to a local state park and go for a hike or a run. Go play outside with your kids.

See y’all soon! Good luck out there!

xoxo

Nina - Your Metro Detroit Newborn & Family Photographer

Update Your Images!

Alright, so this has been a topic that’s been super heavy on my heart the past couple months and I am going to get a little morbid but I feel this needs to be addressed. UPDATE YOUR IMAGES and I am going to tell you why.

You're getting older and so are your kids. They've moved out of the house and have children of their own. You have not updated your family pictures since your oldest was in middle school or younger and until now, you think that’s been okay. Your kids get school pictures every year and pictures with every sport they’re in, every season. Follow all that up with senior pictures, and its like you’re constantly spending money on pictures for your kids, but lets be honest, do you have any of those hung in your home? Do you have a recent family picture that resembles who you are now? Would your grandchildren recognize YOU in the pictures you have hung?

Listen, I am not saying that old pictures aren’t okay but those images are nice to sit down with your kids and grandkiddos to reminisce with. Truth bomb though, we don’t remember you that way. We love seeing your eyes light up when you tell a story about an image you see. We love hearing you tell stories about when you were younger and how different the times are. We love hearing about your wedding day and seeing the dress you wore. We love looking at those old pictures of you and your family especially when you tell us that we look like your great aunt, when we never met her. But those aren’t the images we want when you aren’t around anymore to describe them or point out those people. We want images of you of how you are now. We know who you are right now. We know what you look like right now. When we go through a box of pictures for those boards we are going to put up at your funeral or wake, we want images of how we remember you. How your grandkids see you and remember you. So update your images.

So, book an extended family session with all your kids and your grandkids. Book a session with just your partner. Book a session with just your kids or grandkids. Just book a session and update your images. Its not for you, its for us. We need you to have images for us so we can reminisce with them, when you’re not around anymore. We want to show our kids pictures of you, how they and we remember you. We want to sit down with our kids and grandkids one day and not have to guess who is who in a picture, we want to tell a story. We want to be able to show our grandkids you. If my grandchild looks like my mom, and (s)he never met her, I want current, updated images of my parents now, to show them. We don’t care if you think you don’t look the way you want, we don’t care if you think you’re “fat” or “not pretty anymore” or whatever excuse you have. Its not for you at this point, its for your kids. Do it for us. Do it for your grandkids.

UPDATE YOUR IMAGES!

With all the love,

xoxo

Nina - Your Metro Detroit Newborn & Family Photographer

Hey again, it's me!

Hey Friends! I do have an about me page, but I still think a general introduction every once in a while is a good thing, at least to keep my face around so you feel comfortable with me holding, snuggling, settling and capturing your sweet babe’s newborn session, or their entrance into the world, or their whole first year. Basically, if we’re going to work together, lets be semi-friends. So, lets do 15 fun things about me!

1) My name is Nina and no it’s not short for anything. Just Nina. My mom’s name is Tina and she wanted to name my sister Gina, but my dad said absolutely not. haha.

2) I’m the oldest of three. I have a younger sister and brother. We are all 2 years apart. My best friend thought they were twins for the longest time, but they’re not.

3) I am a girl mom. I have two sour patch kids [seriously]. They’re sweet most of the time but having two toddlers, the sour really comes out during tantrums, A LOT.

4) I’m married to my favorite person. We are going on 7 years of being together and 4 years of marriage. I would not want to spend this crazy life with anyone else.

5) My favorite show is 24. I fell in love with it in 8th grade and have loved it ever since. I started watching it while it aired in the middle of the 3rd season, and never missed a live episode. (I also have a small crush on Kiefer Sutherland).

6) My favorite color is pink. Sometimes I like baby pink, sometimes mauve, but overall pinks are my fave.

7) I’ve lived in Michigan my entire life and have never been to the U.P. It’s on my list of things to do but still haven’t made it up quite that far.

8) I went to school for criminal justice and worked as a police officer for a hot second. As much as I thought I was going to love it, the job just wasn’t for me.

9) Newborn sessions are where my heart lives. I absolutely love setting up and designing your session, the clean up, the baby snuggles and settling. It seriously makes my heart so happy when I know I have a newborn session coming up on my schedule. So bring me all the newborns ;)

10) I don’t drink enough water, ever. I tell myself every morning I need to drink water, and I still don’t. I forget, but I solidly make time for coffee (haha).

11) I am afraid of fire and finally lit a match to light a candle for the FIRST time this past fall. This is not a joke, and my husband thought I was insane for never lighting a match before, but I was so proud of myself and I still think he’s in a state of shock about it.

12) I’m an enneagram 6w5, type A personality and faithful to a fault. I am also a perfectionist and have a hard time just “taking the shot” without the shot being perfect, which actually makes me anxious.

13) I watch way too much TV, but I prefer binge watching 20 seasons of a show over watching 20 different movies. I also prefer reading book series with three or more books, so I don’t have to find a new book. So if you have any TV or book recommendations, send them my way!

14) We do not have any pets. Although I would love to have a dog one day, our scehdule’s do not allow for all the training and responsibility that comes with owning an animal.

15) And finally, my favorite animal is a penguin. I don’t know why, but I have always been obsessed. I think they’re cute and funny.

Well, if you’ve made it this far, thanks! and that’s me in a nutshell. I am always down to answer questions and I want to learn about you too. I post a lot of questions to learn about you on my Instagram page, so go check that out if you haven’t yet. Until next time.

xoxo

Nina

Your Metro Detroit Newborn Photographer