P52 Week 52 Merry Christmas

This past year while participating in the P52 Photography Challenge, I realized just how much I love to take pictures. I pick up my camera pretty much every day and I am constantly thinking about how to compose a shot even when I don't have a camera in my hand. I was looking over the year in photos and realized how great it is that I have captured so many moments that I would probably have forgotten about otherwise.

Here is the very last P52 of 2012.

I had such a hard time choosing just one shot for this post though. I have been pushing my skills this week and playing around with the decorations, lights, ribbon and bows. So here is a collage of some of my favorite photos along with one that I posted last week just because I love it so much.

P52 Week 52 - Merry Christmas

I don't know... which one is your favorite?

Christmas Bells

I plan on participating in the challenge again in 2013 because it was just so much fun. Do you like taking pictures? Do you want to catalog your year in photos? If you do head on over to Photography Essentials with Kent Weakley for all the details. New themes, new "rules", new year. I can't wait. It'll be so much fun!

Christmas Tradtions

I’ve been thinking a lot about our family traditions this week. There are things we do every year during Christmas time. One thing we always do, is drive around to look at all the fun light displays while sipping hot cocoa. This year as we were driving around Little G was excited, you could hear her oohing and aahing at the displays and even at one point she exclaimed one as being “spectacu’ar”. I love it when my little one uses big words like that.

We also always decorate cookies and bake as many yummy treats we can fit into the month. Then whatever we can’t fit in we just bake in January. We love baking, in our house it’s not Christmas without a powdered sugar mess in the kitchen. This year we have baked but not yet decorated. We are hoping to change that this weekend.

Making Nativity scenes and other crafts all month makes this month so much fun and very glittery. But what’s a little glitter during Christmas?

Something I think of doing every year is sending Christmas cards with a family photo. It seems to be a tradition that is declining and I have never even succeeded in sending them out once in all my adult years. One year I actually bought some but then never took them out of the box. (Way to follow through, right?) I love getting cards from friends and family, each year and sadly I have never returned the favor. I have really decided that next year will be different. But then again I decided that last year too. So who knows maybe next year I will actually send them out. It’s the thought that counts, right?

Christmas Card Pic 2012

I'm linking up with Kent Weakly for Project 52 Photography Challenge.

A Nature Walk

Last post I had mentioned a nature walk we recently took. It was supposed to be a walk full of insect discoveries and plant discoveries however the objective of the nature walked changed a bit.

We were met with this almost eerie scene were there was obvious death with life standing firm in the midst of the destruction. It seemed so symbolic of so many things to me. Many life lessons can be pulled from a scene where destruction from fire is evident but yet a lone tree full of life stands tall in the midst. The dried vegetation you see around it is actually really sparse with lots of charred area but with the angle it looks more filled in.



While I know the beginning of new life lay below the surface just waiting for spring and that new growth will be so much more amazing, I am still sad to see the scaring from the fire.

P 52 Week 38 - Birds/Flying

I have never seen so many turkey vultures in one spot before. There were probably 10 of these guys flying overhead the whole time we were there. I attempted to capture a few shots of these guys and this was the best one I was able to get.

It was clear that there were a lot of poor creatures who were no longer enjoying life if there were so many scavengers hanging out. Then we saw evidence of that up and down the bank of the little lake. It was making me so sad that everywhere I looked, I saw death. We saw skeletal remains of many fish and birds all along the bank. There were still some plants growing but there was not the abundance of life we usually see.


And then just as we were at the end of our walk, we saw that so many of the ducks we had seen last spring were still around. All the little ducklings were just now starting to get their color. We were so excited to walk by their nesting area and see that in the midst of it all they were doing well. Here are just a few of those ducks we saw. Swimming together, playing together and getting really curious about my camera.

Linking up with Project 52 Photography Challenge with Kent Weakly.

P 52 Catch Up - Summer's Ending

This summer has been the busiest summer ever for us I am sure. It has been so much fun keeping busy and doing all that we can in the short amount of time we have. It is also the first year we didn't do school through the summer and actually took a break. I think that might be why we were so busy. Without the normal routine/schedule in place we felt a bit more freedom in doing more fun stuff. We started school back up at the beginning of August and with all that we were still doing I did not post any of my normal back to school or homeschool helps/resource posts that I normally do. We are still ironing out the kinks to our routine and figuring out all that we are doing this year but for us, it has been full steam ahead - squirrel!

We went camping a couple of weeks ago with some friends. (Taking a quick school break.) It was a very short camping trip and there was no water in the part of the lake we went to. (Everyone was depressed about that.) But getting out of town even for that short time was great. (Can you say Momma needs a break?) Getting to connect with friends and not worrying about the normal business of the day was perfect. We roasted marshmallows over the campfire, played card games, and talked a bunch. Then we turned our camping trip into a field trip (In typical homeschool fashion. *wink*) by visiting the Chinese Temple/Museum in a nearby town on the way home.

P52 Week 34 - Heat    

Around here, summer time is synonymous with wild fire season. This season has been bad, but I remember worse. Here is the view we have had for a while now. Some days it is worse than others but the smoke from the many fires settles into the valley. There are some days this year that we couldn't see the trees in the photo below. Those days are really bad and the atmosphere while choking and harsh is also eerie with the absence of the happy sounds of the birds and squirrels and owls and even the bats and crickets. While we are out of the danger of the fires it seems as though the animals still know that something is not right. I love the heat of summer and the long days. I do not love the smoke. I am so thankful for those who give up their summer to put out the crazy fires that occur. It seems never ending and the ones from this summer are either contained or out.

P52 Week 35 - Endless Summer

We took our first nature walk of the school year in search of some native plants and some bugs on said plants. Sadly I had forgotten that there were indeed some fires that had made their mark on our park.

It changed the objective of our walk and instead we found bird skeletons, fish skeletons, a couple of bugs and some other surprises I am saving for the next post. I did however happen to take this photo of the kiddos.

P52 Week 36 - Back to School

Another thing I have done a lot of lately is baking. I try not to bake too much during the summer heat but I can't help myself. I baked a ton of cupcakes and cookies for different friends events and I also dipped strawberries. I made little grooms and brides for a reception and for my daughter's 12 birthday I tried my hand at swirls. It was so much fun and of course they were yummy. (Chocolate covered strawberries, how could they be anything but yummy?) This is a gluten free lemon cupcake with lemony-white-choclate-cream-cheese frosting (Say that 5 times fast.) and the swirl berries. Baking is such a yummy hobby with fall weather just around the corner I am giddy with excitement over all the yummy treats waiting to be made.

P52 Week 37 - Hobbies

This post is linked up with Project 52 Photo Challenge with Kent Weakly.

Oh My! Bees!

If you have read my blog for any amount of time, chances are you know I absolutely love, love, love photographing bees.

Bees are one of God's amazing little creations that always fascinate me.

So imagine my excitement and complete surprise when I had the opportunity to take a shot that looks like this on Monday.

Bees!!!

Yep that is not cropped, it is a huge swarm of bees! Oooh happy dance!

Now the surprise is the location of these bees. They weren't on a tree or even the side of a building.

Looks like they are hanging on for dear life.

Can you figure it out?

They were on a trailer hitch. How crazy is that?

Okay so it gets even crazier. I first see these and start taking pictures but had my small lens so I run into the house and grab my telephoto lens so I can take pictures from a safer distance. After a few minutes later I run in and tell the kids to come see this. While hubby is contacting a bee keeper so we can get them removed.


Now here is where it gets even more crazy.

They were gone!

Yep, this is all that remained of the bees when the kids came out to see.

When I got back in, hubby said that the bee keeper said they could be "couch surfing" and to wait a day before calling him back if they hadn't moved on.

I guess the bees decided that wasn't the best place to build a hive after all.



I'm linking up with Kent Weakley for Sweet Shot Tuesday. Head on over to see one amazing Blue Moon Photograph. It's breathtaking.

P52 Ice

P52 - Ice

We are in the middle of some hot, hot weather all month. You know it is bad when 95 is considered "a cool down" and I am thankful that in the forecast there are no 100 temps. That hopefully means we are approaching the end of summer weather. (One can hope, right?) One of the kids' go to summer snacks is shaved ice. Yes, we consider ice a snack during the summer. I had found some cute snow-cone cups at Target at the beginning of summer and we have some flavored syrups for Italian Sodas so for a treat they got snow-cones with syrup on Friday after we finished our school day. (If you are wondering what I use to make snow cones click on over to this post.)

This post is linked up with P52 Photography Challenge with Kent Weakley.

Summer Time Goodness

Where have I been? What have I been doing? Am I still here? Are you wondering? If you aren’t I won’t be hurt. I know you are probably just as busy as I am trying to fit every ounce fun, responsibility, rest, more fun, and craziness into the very short 24 hour days as I am. I have been so incredibly busy that I can’t remember all that I have done.

We led our church junior high camp a few weekends ago. To say that the weekend was amazing would not come close to describing it. We spent each night in a different location and found ways to bless those around us everywhere we went. God’s glory and power was evident every step of the way.

P52 Week 30 - Sunshine

Cotton Candy Ice-Cream

The first night before hitting our camping destination we stopped for ice-cream. Little G ordered cotton candy flavor and showed everyone how to savor every last lick as she became one with the cone. I think adults can take a lesson from littles. We often forget to savor every moment as we get so caught up in doing what needs to get done and moving on to the next thing.








Little G got to go camping for her first time that weekend. She absolutely loved the whole experience of staying up too late, sleeping on the hard ground, waking up at the crack of dawn and getting dirty without having to take a bath right after. And the older kids got to go tubing on the lake for the first time. They all had a blast and loved every minute of their time on the lake. That weekend is our favorite part of the summer so far.

P52 Week 32 Summer Favorites

Another first for Little G this weekend was her overcoming her fear of dogs. She has been afraid of dogs since she was tiny. Looking over and spying this moment made me smile big. She fell in love with this dog and as G petted and played with her, so did I.

P52 Week 31 - Dog Days of Summer

PB&J with Love

One afternoon we gave sandwiches to homeless people in town. Little G insisted that she had to make a sandwich to give away also. I have never seen her make a sandwich so carefully before, and she has made her share of sandwiches. She clung tightly to the baggie while we walked around and she intently looked for that special person she made the sandwich for. She rejected all my suggestions of whom to give that sandwich telling me each time that the sandwich she made was for someone special. And she was right, that sandwich made its way into the hands of someone who was hungry. All of the students we had with us and even my little ones who tagged along got to see God move like that everywhere we went.

Never underestimate what God can do through even the youngest of kids. And never underestimate what a young person can do when they are walking in their gifting.

I got to see my kids grow in every way imaginable while we were camping and I was stretched in ways I didn’t expect. A long time ago I learned to stay teachable and over the summer I have been learning to hold my plans loosely (Thanks Kendra for that bit of wisdom.) and allow God to direct my steps. That weekend was like taking a final exam in that lesson, as almost nothing went as we had planned it. God had much bigger plans than we did and His plans are always better. Always, even when we don’t think so, they are.

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps. 

Life is still going full speed ahead and I have been learning so much about who God is and how He works recently, I wish I had time to write it all down so I don’t forget any of it. I will leave it at that for now as this post is longer than planned, but know, there is so much more to come.

This post is linked up at Project 52 with Kent Weakley.

Our 4th

After thinking that we weren't going to do pretty much anything at all for the 4th but stay home and relax, we realized that Little G had never seen real fireworks ever in her whole 5 years of life. She really wanted to see some so we decided to hit a parking lot not too far from the only place in town that was having fireworks. We wanted to make sure we were far enough that they weren't too loud for her as she does not like it when something is too loud. We did our best to keep the day low key but still fun.

P52 - KaBoom!

After dinner we had s'mores which is tradition for us on the 4th. I made a mini mallow kabob that went up in flames faster than the inside was able to get a melty. And then I hollowed out the inside of a perfectly roasted mallow which totally impressed the kids. Watching the kids is so funny as they all have different ideas of what is a perfect mallow. They range from just slightly melted with no color on the outside to almost ready to go up in flames. My favorite is when it just starts to catch on fire on one side while the rest has reached golden brown. I love roasted mallows.

Mmmmm... S'mores!

And then we headed out to enjoy the show. We set up at a parking lot that has several other spectators. Mr. V (aka Little Man) decided that even though we were so far away he still didn't want to hear them so he stayed in the back of the van. I set up my tripod and hubby texted a friend who was at the actual show. She was giving us updates as to how long before the fireworks were going to start. Little G was so exctied she couldn't stay still for more than a couple seconds at a time.

Ready and Waiting

We ended up in an okay location with a few trees in the way but it was perfect. The sound was not too loud and Little G was loving every second.

A few of the fun shots I was able to get while playing around with my camera.

She kept cheering the fireworks on yelling, "Go Fireworks! Go!" and "GaBomb! GaBomb!" while jumping up and down like crazy. It was quite hilarious and she had a total blast.
Sometimes, low key and relaxed is so much better than all out and over planned.

Linking up this post with the

Firework Challenge at Photography with Kent Weakley

and Project 52 Week 27 - KaBoom.

Our Own Waterslide

This past week's Photo Challenge P52 theme is School's Out. It's week 26, the halfway mark of this fun challenge. I have really enjoyed the first half and totally look forward to the second half of the challenge.

We don't normally take a true summer break from school. Normally we do half days most the week and take whatever days off we want. This year, everyone agreed that we just really needed a long break from formal school time. I can't believe how fast the month of June just flew past us like lightning. And just to state the obvious, it's already July! Such craziness I tell you.

Our first official day of the new school year is the last week of this month. We are going to start school with the Olympics doing a lapbook and unit study to go alnog with the games. I have so much planning a prepping to get done it's quite crazy.

The kids however are having fun playing all day and creating some very cool stuff. Like their own water slide.

They did this last year but someone was always holding the hose or they would water it down in between each pass. This year, duct tape is holding the hose quite nicely. And this is what a homemade water slide looks like. I love how creative my kids are. And the ingenuity my kids have. It has been a lot of fun watching them learn when they think they are on break.
 

Fathers

This last week's theme for the Project 52 Photography Challenge was Fathers. I am blessed to have a husband who is an amazing father. He makes a point to spend time just talking with the kiddos with no strings attached. The relationship he has formed and is strengthening is evident whenever you watch him interact with them.

 And even more so when you watch them interact with him.

 A few nights a week, Daddy goes to work at Little G's bedtime. She loves to make sure that Daddy has all his gear and that he stays safe, has his food, drink, hat, shoes, phone... the checklist varies from night to night but the whole process of sayng good bye and good night takes about 10 minutes. Then she runs out the door yelling, Good bye! I love you!" at the top of her lungs as he is walking to the car. It is truley and absolutely adorable to see how much she loves her daddy.

As my littles become bigs I love watching the relationship change. The conversations get harder and the bonds become stronger. I am excited to see how the relationship changes as they become adults and have their own children. 

This post is linked to Sweet Shot Tuesday and Project 52 with Kent Weakley.

P52 Catching Up

This is my Project 52 Photography Challenge catching up post. We have had so many things going on that I really haven't been able to stay on top of it all. I prefer life to be slow and steady like a marathon, not fast and furious like a NASCAR race. However, sometimes you have to just go with the flow and adjust. Right now the flow is fast and crazy. Here are the photos I have taken for the photography challenge that I just haven't been able to post. I am linking up with week 24, Sunlight and then hopefully tomorrow, I will be back into the full swing of posting. I have so many posts just waiting to be written.

Week 19 - Still Life

There is a story with this daffodil. It was growing amongst a bunch of weeds along the side of our house. The girls found it so we cut the blooms and brought them int he house to enjoy. There was no way we could enjoy them where the plant had decided to grow - on it's own. 

Week 20 - Mothers

The girls gave me this sculpture for Mother's Day. The Best Mom Award. Isn't it great? The only problem is that if it is sitting in a room and you are walking past, you think it is a person. So, it now resides in our guestroom. You know, to freak out any guests we may have.

Week 21 - Favorites

One of our favorite things to do is go for walks. We have this great park with a lot of trails and paths to follow. I found this lovely thistle ready to bloom along one of our favorite paths.

Week 22 - Playtime

Little G's favorite thing to do is play. She loves to run, jump, bounce, fly, and move. Here she is playing at the park. See her face? Pure joy.

Week 23 - Water

Have you ever played badminton in the sprinklers? My girls have so much fun playing in the sprinklers. See the little ballpit balls, they also love playing badminton with those too. 

Week 24 - Sunlight

We went to a wedding last weekend. It was a blast the couple knows how to have fun. Me saying that a wedding was a blast is something because I hate weddings. I barely liked my own I hate weddings so much. I just think they can be so over done with stuff, that what really matters gets missed. However, it was hot, hot, HOT! The temp reached the century mark and beyond for the first time this year. I don't think anyone was really ready for the heat.

There you have it. 6 weeks of photos in one quick post.  I am linking this post to Project 52 over at Photography Essentials with Kent Weakley. Have a great Friday.

 

Coconut Adventures

Why is it that when I have things going on that would be fun to blog about I have no time to put a complete thought down? And when I have plenty of blogging time I have nothing to blog?

hmmmm

Let's just say there have been many blog worthy adventures that I may or may not get to tell you about.


A few weeks ago, we bought a coconut. I had realized that my poor deprived children had never had the joy of attacking a coconut and working hard to get at the yummy goodness inside. I decided it was an essential adventure in their culinary education to get to take out their frustrations on a fruit/nut/seed... uh what exactly is a coconut? Just a sec let me check.








Okay, I'm back


Well, according to the Library of Congress, if we are talking about the coconut botanically, it is a drupe but it can also be considered (d) All of the above.














Anyway... the kids and I took the coconut outside and I began teaching them the fine art of hammering a pointed object (a nut pick) into the eyes of the shell and we emptied the water into a bowl.

Then I whacked it with a hammer.

The thing did not sound right and when it opened the smell was not so great (okay so it smelled rancid)

 

  and the meat was rubbery and gross. We were so bummed.

Of course we bought another one. This one sounded and looked better when we were opening it. However, the water was cloudy and when the girls tried it all of them almost in unison said it tasted like soap. Ugh an overripe coconut is not good to eat.

I am going to get one more for them to try. But how do I know that it is a good one? I buy smaller ones that are heavy for their size and sound like they have a lot of water in them. Are there any other tricks I should use? Really how does one really know if the have a good coconut?

Also remind me to think twice before letting Little G have a hammer.

As with all fun adventures, she went at it with great gusto. Actually she did a great job but with an expression like that one, it's enough to make a mommy nervous.

This post is linked to Sweet Shot Tuesday with Kent Weakley.