Father’s Day 2011

For Father’s day this year Brian had to work, so we only had a few hours together.  To celebrate we went to one of our favorite places.  Most of the time my view of the kids was like this:

Though I was sure to torment them by demanding a few facial photos ;o)

Though overcast, it was bright. Please excuse the somewhat pained expression  :o)

and, though he has the BEST smile in real life, capturing it on “film” has become impossible. I hope this phase passes soon!

My amazing, wonderful husband spent his time cutting trees for the owner. Here he is with his saw near the beginning:

and here is after, taking a break by the creek  :o)

There are no pics of me as I was behind the camera ;o)  but here is what the youngest family member did:

He is just too cute and oh, so sweet!!!  His napping allowed me to get some flower and foliage pics that I am pretty excited about. Sadly, it is too late tonight to add them.  Hopefully I will add them soon.

Mother’s Day part II

  My eldest is all about fun and, as any day with a name *must* be fun, she spent the week before Mothers day getting her card ready, discussing gift ideas, and doing things for me because “Mother’s Day is *almost* here”. :o)  Saturday night she asked to do the reading for our family devotional time “for Mother’s Day”.  She started by reading Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.  “There is a time for everything under heaven – A time to be born and a time to die…….”  ;o) Rather an interesting start but She loves the rhythm of those verses. She then turned to Song of Solomon because “that sounded fun” I tactfully discouraged that and asked her to find something in the New Testament to finish with.  I guess Song of Solomon may have been fitting if we wanted to discuss how I got to be a mother! I just wasn’t ready for the sort of discussion that could arise from some of the verses that she might open to. Lol!

  She decided to read in John 19:14-27.  It is the account of Christ’s death on the cross. What got me was the last 2 verses and how touching they were for a Mother’s day reading. Listening to her read, I was struck by Christ’s act of love for his earthly Mother. He was suffering an agony I cannot even imagine, physical, emotional, and spiritual pain, and what did He do?  He saw Mary and, concerned for her well being even in the midst of his suffering, He arranged for her care. He was dying by means of torture and still He took initiative to ensure that she was loved and cared for.  It was such a beautiful picture and, as a mom, such an encouragement to me that He cares for me and my ministry as a mom. The poignant beauty of that passage has lingered in my mind since she read it.

Though I have read those verses many, many times, they have never really hit me like that before. My little girls “random” choice of passages really blessed me and were one of the sweetest gifts I received, so I thought I would share……. 

Mother’s Day 2011

  Here is a picture I took today of my amazing kids. I can’t begin to tell you how much I love them! 

I will also say that getting a picture of 4 kids all looking at the camera and looking decent is harder than I thought! ;o) I may be slightly biased but I think I have a mighty good looking bunch of kids! :oD

Absence

So, I have been thinking about my blog and wondering why I don't have any desire to update it. I finally came to the conclusion that my blog is like my happy place... It is what I want to do when life is good, when I have things to share that are upbeat, inspiring and happy. When life is hard I really don't want to blog. I don't want to put up a false front and make it sound like life is going great and I don't want to be a downer, so I just don't blog.  Lately my camera has stayed tucked away in it's bag, I have tons of unedited, ignored pictures on my computer begging me to play with them, and I have a neglected blog. I guess that gives you a pretty clear picture of life right now and how I am handling it. So, when life gets better or I get out of this funk I will be back. ♥

Today

  I realize that posting again so soon is rather shocking but today I awoke to a white world!  It was beautiful and my sweet husband delayed leaving for a few minutes so I could go out with my camera. I think we got a good 2 inches! So rare here….

I think I am getting rusty with my camera though :oP I need to get it out more but I did manage to get a few that I thought I would share

The view out the backdoor: 

The view from the front:

I found the contrast in color between the weeping willow and the incredibly blue sky to be fascinatingly beautiful

Another tree and my attempt at sun flare

  

And my not-as-successful-as-I-had-hoped  water droplets:

   

Coming next *should* be more vacation pics  :oD

A start

  Well, as I decided to post a pic of each of the kids from our vacation….. Here are the kids all bundled up for the cold  :o)

 

 

Confusion and delay

  :oD  Some of you can probably guess what movie kick we are on right now… Yep, Thomas the Train. It is wonderful for sick 3 year old boys. :o)

  My good intentions of more frequent updates, of posting vacation pictures, etc…. have remained that…. just good intentions.  No matter what I have tried to accomplish I met with confusion and delay. From some little person accidently forgetting that they weren’t supposed to touch my USB cord for my camera and losing the little adaptor end, to sick kids, to a million other mishaps, I just have not been able to make my intentions into reality.  :o(  We did just find the USB adaptor thing and so the pics are on the comp but, as I sat down to sort, edit, and post them, my little guy (who isn’t feeling well) woke up and needed me. As the kids are still sick, I am not sure having them on the computer is getting me that much closer. *Sigh*  So, I have decided not to promise any more posts ever…. 

  I am currently trying to evaluate my need to edit pics before posting. It really slows me down and makes it harder to get them posted. So, the question is, will it drive me nuts to see them on my blog un-edited or can I just enjoy having more frequent posts? I feel the need to say “Hi, my name is B and I am a photoshop addict”  :oP   It is the same quest for perfection that haunts so many aspects of my life. Nothing I do is ever good enough for my standards. I guess I will need to tackle that to….. <rolling eyes>  Along the same lines, I need to sort the million pics on my computer and delete the ones that aren’t up to par, edit the ones that I need to edit, and get them put on CDs so I don’t risk losing them all again.  I am not good at deleting pics that are mediocre. Decision making is not my strong point :^)

   Well, the aforementioned sicky is hungry.

Toodles!  ;^)