Interesting People

Day 17: Time

2012-02-17T10:03:00.001-07:00

Today's inspiration is "time." I mark time a lot of different ways. I take pictures of my family marking the passage of time. I have a clock in almost every room of my house. Time is a big thing for me. I know that, given the season of life you are in, time can seem to pass quickly or slowly. There is always the same amount of time in a day, but it is what you choose to do with that time that makes all the difference in the world. I could not choose just one photo from the few that I took this morning so here are a few "time" keepers that I have in my house.

Day 16: Something new

2012-02-17T09:56:00.001-07:00

I had time to take a picture yesterday, but could not seem to find time to post on here. So, here is a picture of "something new." I just love my new shoes!!!!! I actually have two pairs of new shoes(both sneakers), but I decided to take a picture of only one pair.

Day 15: Phone

2012-02-15T10:31:00.001-07:00

I realize that I have already posted on here today, but I wanted to make two separate posts for the projects that I have going on. This post is day 15 of the photo-a-day challenge that I am participating in. Today's inspiration is "phone." I have looked at a lot of other people's pictures for this challenge. It is nice to look at the world from another persons' point of view. What is your take on today's inspiration?

Yarn Along Wednesday

2012-02-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

Well, this week I knitted two hats that after adjusting the size of the pattern, are still too big. So, I am going to fiddle around with it and see what I can do to make something that fits snuggly on my head. I am also still working on crocheting my granny squares. I am still working my way through the book Inheritance. I am usually a very fast reader and I usually read every day, but for some reason I have not felt the need to these last couple of weeks.

Heart

2012-02-14T19:28:00.003-07:00

Today's photo inspiration was "heart." Here is the picture that I chose to take. They are my oldest daughter's hands.

Today, I also went on a field trip with my youngest daughter, who is in second grade. Her class went up into the mountains to do something good for their hearts. We went cross country skiing and snow shoeing. It was a lot of fun. I do have to say though, that my muscles are protesting greatly over their use today. All in all it was a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Blue and Valentine Cookies

2012-02-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today's inspiration for photo-a-day challenge is "blue." I have this beautiful blue vase that one of my aunts sent me when my out-patient surgery turned into an overnight stay in the hospital almost 5 years ago.

My youngest daughter's Valentine's party is today because they are going skiing and snow shoeing as a class tomorrow. Here are the cookies that I made for her party. Sugar cookies are my nemesis cookie. I am glad that they turned out well and that I did not resort to going store bought. She requested these after she saw them on the back of an M&M bag. I tried to find this particular recipe on their website, but I guess it is only on the back of their packages. My oldest daughter's class is not having a party. I did not sign up to help with my son's party because I knew that I would want to be snow shoeing with my daughter. I really hope that they continue this and in two years I will be going with my son just like I did with his sisters.

Inside your closet

2012-02-12T19:12:00.001-07:00

Today's photo-a-day challenge is "inside your closet." Here is a picture of inside my closet.

Makes you happy

2012-02-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have fallen behind in my photo-a-day challenge. I am not going to try and make up the days that I miss. I usually miss them for very important reasons, my family. Today's photo challenge is "makes you happy." I found this very easy to do. I was playing Candy Land with my three kids this morning and realized that here is my opportunity to complete today's challenge. So, while my kids may be a bit too old for this game it is still a fun game to play. Here is a picture of the board mid-game with my youngest daughter getting ready to move her piece.

Hat Envy

2012-02-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

I am knitting myself a hat from this pattern. I am hoping that it turns out alright for me to wear next week on my skiing trip with my youngest daughter.

If you would like to join in yarn along Wednesday here is the link

Button

2012-02-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

Today's photo a day challenge inspiration is button. I could not decide which perspective I liked better so I am posting two pictures. These buttons are patiently waiting in my sewing drawer to be used on some project to be determined at a later date. I am also including the list of photo inspiration for the month.

Dinner

2012-02-06T18:12:00.001-07:00

Today's photo challenge inspiration was dinner. So, here is picture of some of our dinner. I did not succeed with doing yesterday's challenge which was 10am. We were getting ready for church and 10am past by before I even knew it.

A Stranger

2012-02-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

Day 4 of the photo challenge's inspiration is a stranger. To be honest, this was a hard one for me for several reasons. I live in a small town and not that many people that I see are strangers. I also had a hard time with the creative aspect of it because my creativity has a hard time flowing on the weekends when my brain tells me that I should be focusing on my children. On weeknights, weekends, and summer I try to give them as much attention as possible because they are in school for 7 hours Mon-Fri.... I have a hard time taking "me" time even when I need it. Anyways, here is my photo for today. I hope that you had a better time getting what you wanted out of your photo today than I did.

A new photo challenge

2012-02-03T19:16:00.001-07:00

I found a great blog today, fat mum slim, and I decided to join her photo challenge. I am starting on day 3 and the inspiration is hands. Here is my photo for day 3. I decided that I needed a model, as I did not want to try to take a picture of my own hands. One of my sister-in-laws was willing to help out with this. If anyone is interested in participating please go check it out.

Chopped

2012-02-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

Before dinner tonight my kids were watching the show, Chopped. My kids enjoy watching cooking shows and getting new ideas for meals(as do I). They then were playing Chopped in one of the bedrooms until I called them for dinner. I made breakfast burritos(something that I know they will eat and is healthy) and they decided to act like judges and express their opinions about dinner. They came up with some pretty good descriptions. They all liked it and ate well. I am impressed about what they learn from everything they see. It also serves as a good reminder that it is ok that I am picky about what my children watch. I would rather them watch a cooking show then a show that is made for young children with a lot of bad behavior in it. We restrict tv watching as a rule in our house because we prefer that they use their imaginations also. Well, they used their imaginations alright tonight with dinner... Here is a picture of my son enjoying his dinner...

Yarn along Wednesday

2012-02-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Here it is Wednesday again. I am still working on my granny squares. I have 6 more to go and then I can piece it all together. I have started reading Abigail Adams. I love reading about American History.

My son has been telling my how unfair it is that his sisters have scarves and he does not. So, this weekend I knitted him this scarf. The pattern can be found here.

The long weekend

2012-01-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it is Monday again and I know that I am happy to be back into the week routine. My kids had a four day weekend, due to no school for two days last week. My husband was also on his days off. I enjoyed getting to spend time with my little family. There was a lot of lazying around and staying in pj's most of the day. There were video games played and tv watched. We also spent time with my husbands siblings and parents. All and all it was a relaxing long weekend. My kids and I are extremely routine oriented. Due to that fact there was also lots of fighting, whining, and general grumpiness to go along with all of the good times. I found myself telling myself to take a deep breath once and a while. I also found myself looking for small ways to have some sort of routine without spoiling the relaxing time that we all needed. Over the weekend I received several notes from my loving children. They all like to draw, color, and create things. I always find these notes as a much needed emphasis that at least I am doing something "right." These notes usually fill my "heart" back up with joy when I am tending to feel low. Here is one of the notes that I got this weekend.

Yarn Along Wednesday

2012-01-25T07:30:00.000-07:00

I have never participated in a yarn along Wednesday. I thought, that since it has been awhile since I shared anything crocheting wise on here, that I would give it a go. I am crocheting granny squares. I need a total of 30 of these large squares and I am about half way done. I am slowing making my way thru the book Inheritance. It is the fourth book in the Eragon series.

Here is the link back to where you can participate in Yarn Along Wednesday!

Nose Pressing and Swimming

2012-01-24T19:44:00.002-07:00

This last weekend my mom came for a brief visit. Here is a picture of my son ~~patiently~~ waiting for her.

My youngest daughter has been swimming with her class at school. Here are a few pictures. There has been a dramatic difference over her behavior towards water and swimming. She has been doing so well! I am proud of her.

I like this first one because of all of the water spray. I think that it is neat looking.

Just Because

2012-01-15T19:42:00.002-07:00

Here are some just because pictures that I took of my kiddos earlier this evening. The pose that my son chose is interesting. As usual, he is being his goofy, boy self. My girls were a little more composed in their choices.

Christmas Eve

2012-01-06T10:21:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of Christmas Eve. I also took pictures on Christmas Day, but they did not turn out publish worthy.

And of course the traditional plate of cookies and glass of eggnog for santa.

Christmas Finery

2012-01-06T10:00:00.002-07:00

A couple of days before Christmas my in-laws and us got together to take pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes. The dresses were made by my wonderful mother-in-law.

Christmas Program

2012-01-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

These pictures are about a month old. I have been very lax about posting on here so I am trying to catch up. Here are my two youngest in their School Christmas finery. The dress was made by my wonderful mother-in-law.

Random Pictures

2011-12-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

A couple of days before Christmas my sister's oldest girl came over for a visit. Here are some pictures from that. I have been having computer issues or I would have posted these earlier. I have a lot more pictures that will eventually make their way here.

Glimpses of the tree

2011-12-04T16:21:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures that I took of the family tree. This is the first year in more than 11 years that I changed the color of decorations for our tree. Enjoy

Kid's Christmas tree

2011-12-02T16:21:00.001-07:00

This afternoon, after school got out, we put my kids' tree in the girls' room and decorated it. Here are a couple of pictures. I have not finished decorating our family tree in the living room. When I am done with that one I will post pictures of it also.

Here is a random picture that I took of Juliet the other day. For some reason she photographs better in black and white than in color.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T12:15:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving day was full of fun, games, food, and family. Here are some pictures of the event. I truly thankful for the time that I had to spend with family. I took more pictures than I am posting, but of course not all of them turned out.

Sleepy boy in black and white

2011-11-18T17:59:00.001-07:00

My son came home from school today and went straight to his room and took a nap. It apparently was a tiring day for him. I usually do not let my kids take naps during the week as they tend not to sleep at night. Thank goodness it is Friday! Here is my sweet sleeping boy.

Kids and cats

2011-11-17T19:41:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures that I snapped of my kids and my cats before bed this evening.

Just some random images

2011-10-22T20:03:00.000-06:00

Here are a few random images from the past few weeks.

Fall

2011-10-03T11:59:00.001-06:00

Sometimes, I have a very hard time living in a small town. I get the most frustrated when I need to get something for my kids that I cannot get here. I also get frustrated when I go to try a new recipe and I cannot get one or more of the ingredients. Although, I am not sure I would like having all of that if it meant that I would have to worry about sending my children to school and worrying about violence levels. Yes, we are not immune to violence, it just does not happen very often here. I also love the fact that we have a lot of family here. I decided recently that I needed to look for the charm in my town. I decided that on mornings when it is nice enough to go for a walk that I would bring my camera and be inspired. Here are some of the pictures that I took this morning on my walk.

Views from today

2011-09-30T17:07:00.000-06:00

This afternoon my mother-in-law and I took some time to spend some time behind our cameras and doing just some relaxing. I had a very enjoyable afternoon. Here are a few(really, quite a bit more than a few) pictures from this afternoon.

Pictures of the Day-swimming

2011-09-30T16:01:00.002-06:00

My oldest has had swimming classes this week during school. I took my camera today to capture some of her progress. It fills my heart with joy when I see my children growing in an area that they have previously had issues with. So, here are a few images of this mornings class.

School Pictures

2011-09-21T09:38:00.003-06:00

Here is some of the school pictures that I took of my kiddos. I took a lot of them, so I will probably be posting more in a couple of days.

Big Sister

2011-09-20T20:28:00.000-06:00

Here is my sister's oldest girl. I took these last month along with her sister's pictures that I previously posted.

Just a few

2011-09-04T12:33:00.000-06:00

This summer I took pictures of my sister's girls. Here are just a few from that session of the Little Sister. I will post some of Big Sister and some of the both of them on a later date.

It's all about perspective

2011-08-31T12:35:00.000-06:00

Yes, I have been playing around with my camera some more. I finished my very first knitting project this last week and my hands have been itching for something else to do that is creative. So here are a couple of pictures from today.

Week 4-5 of classes

2011-08-19T17:48:00.000-06:00

Week four of the "classes" that I am making my way through was about using the flash. It is good reading. Most of it I already knew, but it is always good to refresh the memory.

Week five of the "classes" is about composition. I have been experimenting with my composition with still life. Here are three of my pictures. I plan on experimenting more with this before moving on to the next week.

The first day of the school year

2011-08-19T17:11:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the first day of school for my kiddos. My youngest started Kindergarten. For the first time in nine years I have 6 hours of kid free time a day.... It is definitely a change. Here are their first day of school pictures.

Week 3, White Balance

2011-08-02T15:15:00.000-06:00

Week 3 spent some time on white balance and how it effects our pictures. We were challenged to take at least three pictures in different white balances. Here are my three that I have chosen to share.

This one was taken on auto white balance

This one was taken with tungsten white balance

This one was taken with a custom white balance

Here are a few pictures that I took while I was messing around with this. I was trying to find the best way, I thought to demonstrate the different temperatures in the lighting and the bear is the one that I chose. My dear hubby likes to bring home tiny bottles of condiments. I think that they are cute. The first picture is the collection that I have so far... I even have some tiny, plastic, barbecue utensils also.. Anyways, the second picture is of two styles of A&W glasses that I have.

Week 2, part 1

2011-07-26T16:57:00.000-06:00

I moved on to week 2 of those photography classes that I mentioned last time. Part 1 of this weeks "class" is on shutter speed. Here are 3 of my photos on shutter speed.

This first one was taken at 1/640 sec

This next one was taken at 1/160 sec

This last one was taken at 1/50 sec

I love learning about photography. It can be stressful at times, but it can also be very relaxing.

Classes

2011-07-11T17:30:00.000-06:00

In the interest of furthering my knowledge about photography I have been looking at various blogs, classes, and info online. I found this free beginner class. My goal is to become really comfortable with my camera. I took three pictures for week one of the classes today. Here they are:

I am going to continue to practice this lesson all week. Hopefully I get good results like I got today.

A special visit

2011-07-07T19:22:00.000-06:00

We had a special visitor today. My mom's mom came to see us today! We had a nice, but short, visit. Here is a shot with my kiddos and her.

Family Reunion

2011-07-03T13:41:00.000-06:00

My dad's mom's family had a reunion yesterday. It was a lot of fun! It was a lot of fun visiting with aunts, uncles, and cousins that I have not seen in a few years. I took a lot of pictures, but I chose four that I would really like to share. I think they say a lot about the whole day.

Flowers

2011-06-28T21:10:00.000-06:00

I am still practicing my focusing abilities, especially with macro... Here are some of the shots that I took this evening.

The first official day of summer

2011-06-22T17:10:00.000-06:00

According to the calender, it was the first day of summer yesterday. We took a walk in a duck marsh area and enjoyed the nice warm weather. Here are some pictures of the scenery and of the kiddos. My sister and her girls went with me.

Birthday girl and Flowers

2011-06-01T08:03:00.001-06:00

My oldest daughter recently celebrated her 9th birthday. She did not get to blow out her candles because it was too windy that day at the park to light them. Here is a picture of her waiting for cake.

Yesterday was a wonderful day filled with sunshine. I took the opportunity to do some yard work and plant some flowers. Of course I got out my camera and took some pictures. Here are a few of them. My youngest two kids had fun riding bikes thru the sprinklers.

On the other side of the camera

2011-05-24T11:56:00.000-06:00

I do not usually hand off my camera to someone else so that I can be in a picture. I have resisted for almost six months before getting a picture with this sweet niece of mine.

Bees and Blossoms

2011-05-16T12:57:00.000-06:00

My crabapple tree is on its way to full bloom. Here are some pictures of its blossoms. I was able to catch a bee on a blossom in a couple of the pictures.

Squirrels and Bears

2011-05-07T16:00:00.001-06:00

My backyard has a resident squirrel now. I have seen him a few times and I finally caught a picture of him... I will be able to take a lot more of these types of photos when I get my zoom lens down the road...

I have had a collection of porcelain bears on my shelf for several years now that belonged to my husbands grandmother. I have decided recently that I wanted more room to display my pictures. I have since dusted and bubble wrapped these to pass on to our children at a later date. Here is one of my favorite bears from the collection.

Library day

2011-05-04T18:10:00.000-06:00

Our local library has story hour for the little kids one day a week. Sometimes we go, sometimes we do not. One of my darling nieces joined my son and I this time. Here are some pictures. I had my camera on black and white and did not realize it until after I snapped the picture of my niece. It looks darling...

Hard and Soft

2011-05-03T13:35:00.000-06:00

Here are my two miscellaneous pictures for the day.

Pictures of the day

2011-04-28T12:02:00.000-06:00

My son and I took a trip to our local library today....He wanted some books and I had some ideas for cool shots.. Here are the results of my efforts.. Yes, we got his books also..

Last day of March

2011-03-31T20:39:00.000-06:00

We spent the afternoon out at my in-law's house. Here are some pictures from our time.

Fuzzy seeds on a tree.

My youngest daughter checking out the mirror

My son showing off how high he can swing.

Fertilizer flying from shovel to garden.

A hard days work.

A flower that my mother-in-law has in her green house.

Black Wasp Nest

2011-03-30T20:10:00.000-06:00

My MIL found a black wasp nest in her yard. She took pictures of it when it had frost on it and they turned out really cool. I took some of it today that did not have frost on them. I think that the black and whites turned out the best.

Camera happy

2011-03-26T17:32:00.000-06:00

This time of year makes me camera happy.. Here are some recent pictures of two of my nieces and a couple of my kiddos thrown in..

Catching up

2011-03-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a month since I posted. Here are some pictures of the time in between. I love my new camera!!!

New camera

2011-02-11T19:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I will be the first one to admit it, I am spoiled.. My hubby brought home a Canon Rebel T2i for me this last Wednesday... Here is just a taste of me getting used to it, which I am sure will take a while as it does a lot of different things.

Newest Niece

2011-01-29T20:28:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of my 2 month old niece that came to visit today.

Sunset

2011-01-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words... Here are two pictures

I am not sure which one I like the best, but I do know that I love them both..

Halloween

2010-11-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

It has been brought to my attention that I had not yet posted our Halloween pictures. We had a ward party on the Friday before Halloween. My kids had a blast playing all of the games. It was a lot of fun. Here they are after a night of fun.

They were a clown, a kittty, and a ballerina

"School" pictures

2010-11-04T12:22:00.000-06:00

Last month I was able to get my girls' pictures done. I also took a few with all three of my kiddos. I think that they turned out pretty neat. They definitely show personality.

"C" family

2010-10-19T11:31:00.000-06:00

More of the "C" family!

2010-10-16T15:01:00.000-06:00

Sneak Peak of "C" family

2010-10-16T11:13:00.000-06:00

I had the awesome opportunity to take this fun family's picture. Here is just a sneak peak. I will post more in the days to come.

Traffic Jam

2010-10-14T11:18:00.000-06:00

My little guy was excited about making a traffic jam on his car carpet this morning. Of course, being the indulgent mom that I am, I took pictures of it for him. Here are a few.

My handsome little guy

2010-10-02T10:36:00.000-06:00

Here are a few more of the pictures that I took of him.

Preview

2010-10-01T14:55:00.000-06:00

I started taking my kiddos "school" pictures. Here is one of my son's. I have a lot more that I will post at a later date.

A dragonfly also decided to join our shoot.

Birthday Princess

2010-08-30T20:45:00.000-06:00

We recently celebrated my youngest daughter's birthday. The beautiful cakes were made by one of my awesome sister-in-laws! My daughter loved seeing everything together to celebrate her birthday.

Corn on the Cob

2010-08-23T13:22:00.000-06:00

We recently purchased a bushel and a half of corn on the cob through bountiful baskets. We spent the morning getting it ready to freeze. Here are some pictures of the chore.

And then we took a lunch break.

And here is a cob ready to wrap, bag, and freeze..

Girls' first day of school

2010-08-19T08:53:00.000-06:00

School started here today. Here is my third grader and first grader! They were soooo excited about going back.

Ice Cream bribed photos

2010-08-17T21:52:00.001-06:00

I bribed one of my nieces with ice cream to let me practice my photography skills on her. These are some of the shots that I got. She is such a wonderful energetic little princess.

Water drops

2010-08-07T11:09:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I took pictures of my MIL's flowers that had water drops on them. Here are a few that I think turned out great!

More Waterfalls

2010-07-19T21:52:00.000-06:00

Here are some more pics from my recent drive.

Waterfall

2010-07-18T19:51:00.000-06:00

I recently took a drive with my dear mother-in-law to play with our cameras. Here are some of the pictures that I took of one of the many waterfalls that were available. I am sure that I will post more pics from this drive later.

Nature's light show

2010-07-09T22:53:00.000-06:00

I was lucky enough to get these three pictures of lightening tonight. Last year around this time of year I was able to capture some that are purple. This year they are blue.

Blue Eyes

2010-07-05T17:43:00.000-06:00

My youngest daughter willingly modeling for me.

Birds

2010-07-05T17:13:00.002-06:00

When spending some time outside today I noticed a robin with some worms in my yard. I soon realized that it was trying to get it's baby out of my snow ball bush. Here are some pictures of the parent and baby. The parent was able to coach the baby out of my yard and across the street to the nest.

Lightening darkened areas

2010-06-20T14:33:00.000-06:00

Here is yet another photo technique that I have been doing things with. It allows you to lighten dark areas without having to lighten the whole photo. This is where it explains the technique. The top photo is before I applied the technique and the bottom one is after.

New photo editing techniques

2010-06-16T21:52:00.002-06:00

I have been working on my photo editing skills. I have been scouring photography blogs who are generous to share their techniques. I did what an eye enhancement on the photo below. I found the tutorial here. She also has other helpful techniques. I love that other photographers are sharing their knowledge!

SOOC

Eye Pop

Snow balls

2010-06-09T22:16:00.000-06:00

Here is one of my happy moments from today. It is a bowl of my snow balls from the bush outside. I think that they are a very pretty flower.

Birthday

2010-06-07T14:08:00.000-06:00

My oldest had her birthday recently. We celebrated it this last weekend. Here are some pictures from the party.

Tiger cake

Blowing out candles

Presents

She had a wonderful time playing with her cousins and spending time with her family!

Chalk, Toys, and Flowers

2010-06-03T12:27:00.000-06:00

Days like yesterday remind me that I truly am blessed. I have three wonderful children, a wonderful husband, and a wonderful extended family. Here are some pictures of my three children playing with one of their cousins.

Tu tu

2010-05-30T14:48:00.001-06:00

Here are some pictures of my oldest in her tu tu that was made for her this last winter..

I wish that she had been more cooperative... I wanted to keep on taking pictures so that I would have more than a few good ones, but oh well. I have found that setting up session with my kiddos is harder to do than with other peoples kiddos....

Tea

2010-05-05T13:16:00.000-06:00

I had a brain storm this week while I was thinking about furthering my photography experience. I would love to a children's session with a kids table and chairs with this adorable tea set. My oldest interesting girl LOVES her tea set. I think that it would look really cool outside in a really green area... Anyway, that is my brain storm for the week.

This tea set is sooo dainty that it would look "wrong" doing a photo session around a regular sized table...

Fake Flowers

2010-04-25T13:11:00.002-06:00

Here again, I am playing with my camera.. Using my fake flower props..

Grapes

2010-04-25T13:05:00.001-06:00

I have been trying to tune my photography skills here are some of my efforts with grapes.. I know, they are a weird prop, but I have to use what I can...

Clifford

2010-04-25T12:54:00.001-06:00

We had a visit from Clifford, the big red dog, this last week at the library. My kiddos enjoyed getting their picture taken with him. We did not stay for story time, because of time limitations of a school night.

Pansy

2010-03-31T13:43:00.001-06:00

I love to look thru other people's blogs. Particularly ones that have great photographs and craft ideas. I have found that I tend to be too critical of myself while looking thru other people's blogs so I am going to start a new "thing." I am going to post a picture or two of things that have made me happy every day or so.

Today I tried my hand at crocheting pansies. I saw this on someone else's blog and googled to find a pattern. The pansy pattern is/was a break from afghans. While I only did one pansy so far and omitted the last row of the pattern (due to I preferred the look that way) I would love to get some different colors and do more.. For what I am really not sure..I would love to get some variegated yellow(center) and purple (petals).

Here are a couple of pictures of my first pansy.

Creamy Broccoli Soup

2010-03-17T17:30:00.001-06:00

A yummy creamy broccoli soup. Yes, I used my new blender to make it. The girls tried it, but did not eat it after that. My little man looked at and said that he would rather go to bed hungry. I love the soup so much so that I ate two bowls. I find that my patience is rather thin these days with the kiddos not eating the things that I fix for meals or snacks. I have found when they do not eat dinner the two youngest are up throughout the night. So, I have a rather long night ahead of me. My hubby was not home for dinner so I will have to wait on his opinion of the soup.

Smoothie

2010-03-15T19:02:00.002-06:00

My new blender, a Health Master, got here today. I put it to use making strawberry banana smoothies to go with our salads for dinner. I happy to say that there is none left over. I do not know if it is just the new blender, but I am happy that it was not a struggle to get at least the girls to drink it. My little man is entirely different story. I will definitely be experimenting with this in the coming days.

Here is my oldest trying to ride her bike. It has been so nice here in the last couple of weeks. We have been walking a lot after school. The kids are looking forward to summer when they can spend more time outside instead of in school.

New Hair cut

2010-02-23T11:57:00.003-07:00

It is amazing what a new hair cut can do to boost your spirits in the winter time or really any time. I went down to one of the local salons with the intent of making an appointment. When I told the nice lady that I would like to make an appointment to get my hair cut (I was thinking that I needed to do it ahead of time so that I could arrange for child care.) she asked me if I wanted to do it right then. When I explained that I had my little man with me she said that they did not mind at all if he he hung out while I got my new do. I am not used to being able to do that sort of thing with my children. I am used to having to arrange for child care so I do not get my hair cut often. I was pleasantly surprised when my little man re framed from his usual get into everything tactic. He was soaking in all of the attention from the three nice lady's who were there. I love my new style and I definitely will be going back to that salon. They washed, cut, and styled my hair for only 20 dollars. To me, that is a bargain.

Garden Burgers

2010-02-08T23:38:00.004-07:00

It has been forever since I have updated this. The latest in our little part of the world is that my oldest daughter has been diagnosed with hypoglycemia. I have changed all of our diets to fit her needs. I would love for us to be totally raw food because that would be what is best for her. We are slowly getting there. I tried to make a jump into totally raw, but that did not work. I found myself loosing my patience with my kids so I am taking it a little slower. It will take some time to readjust everyone's taste buds to a raw diet. Tonight we ate garden burgers for the first time. They went over better then I expected. The girls ate at least half of theirs while little man picked and slowly ate some of his. I enjoyed them.

It is very challenging to find raw meals that the kids will eat. We have had some misses, but we have also had a lot of hits. The girls now get salads or wraps, whole fruit, fresh veggies, and cheese in their lunches. Whereas before they were eating the school lunches. My oldest also eats a morning and afternoon snack at school(I had to have her doctor write a prescription before they would allow it..I know, how dumb is that?). I noticed changes in her within the first two weeks of changing our eating habits, not that they were bad before they just were not as healthy as they are now. She is not as tired when she gets home from school. She is better able to focus at home and at school. She also sleeps usually an hour less then she had been(which had been almost 12 hours most nights).

The Park

2009-03-22T08:25:00.005-06:00

We found the time one day this last week to get in a half hour at the park. It was a lot of fun!

My Week

2009-03-21T10:29:00.006-06:00

I love my family! Every day this week was enriched by at least one member of my extended family. I will have to say that it might be a long time before I spend 7 hours with six kids without another adult. The other days where I had one extra for a couple of hours was great and it did not go so bad when I had my three and three other interesting people. I think that we had a lot of fun. I just wanted to share what I have been up to this week.

Swimming

2009-03-04T15:40:00.009-07:00

My interesting oldest girl has always been a water baby. She loves swimming and has been learning new things about it. She is excited to show her siblings on free day next week what she can do. We all get to go swimming that day.

My oldest daughter enjoying swimming with other kids.

My youngest interesting daughter watching her sister and the other kids. She was really fascinated when some of the kids jumped off the diving board. She said that it looked like fun.

My interesting son watching his oldest sister at the pool. He had fun annoying his cousin who was sitting in front of him.

One of my interesting nieces watching my oldest at the pool. She really wanted in the water and kept trying to convince me that it would be all right if I let her in it.

Doctors

2009-02-19T10:01:00.005-07:00

Every once in a while I have to go to the doctor and while I am there I am usually reminded why I chose not to go the rest of the time. My children have a pediatrician, but he is in another town. I like taking my children to him when I have to because he does not treat me like I know nothing. He respects me as a mother and a female. Unfortunately he is really hard to get into on short notice. I took my three kiddos and myself to a doctor in town yesterday morning. I knew that I had a sinus infection and needed some antibiotics. The kids had all been sick since Friday with head colds and mild fevers. The girls were getting slightly better, but I wanted to make sure that they did not have a sinus infection also. We had never been seen by this particular doctor, but we had gone to the office that he is in before. I do not think that I will ever go back to him again. He told me that my children shouldn't play while taking a bath or shower and that taking one everyday was too much. He also told me that my ears were too clean... Now when I he went to look in my ears one of my immediate thoughts was, "I wonder if they are icky because I haven't qtipped them in over a week." I wondered as we walked out of the office (with my sinus infection confirmed and the kids with just a virus) if the doctor was used to seeing people who did not care about their appearance. I also know that when I have a cold I feel good after taking a shower and feeling clean, even if it is for a short time. Also I let the kids play more in a hot bath when they have a fever because it helps keep them hydrated. I do know that I would never gotten the advice or comments from the the kids' doctor that I got from this guy. I do not know if it was views from medical teaching or his own personal views, but they were wacked.

My New Camera

2009-02-09T13:35:00.002-07:00

Well, on a recent shopping spree my dear husband bought me a new camera! The pictures in my new header are just one example of what it can do. I will be playing with it and the computer to see what I can come up with. I am very very happy to have a new camera!

Happy Plate

2009-01-12T17:52:00.001-07:00

At meal time at our house we get really excited when the kids eat their dinner and make a "happy plate." Generally each plate as a little of everything on it and unless we know that they really don't like it we expect them to eat it. Well, tonight at dinner we had breakfast. Our interesting little boy decided that he wanted more pancakes, but did not want to eat his hash browns or scrambled eggs. He decided that he would give them to one of his sisters when he thought that no one was looking. His aunt and I saw what he was doing, but his sister stayed oblivious to the whole thing. Then he handed me his plate and asked for another pancake. His sister never said a word about the extra stuff on her plate, but didn't eat it either. I had a good laugh about it! That was a first for any of our children to do!

Morning Fun

2008-12-31T23:00:00.002-07:00

My interesting people playing with play dough while I got to fold and put laundry away. They had a lot of fun! I have found it a little hard to keep them busy over the holiday vacation. Thank goodness for other peoples inventions! My oldest made blue cookies for Santa while the other two made noodles and chips.

2008-12-15T15:50:00.001-07:00

My interesting husband playing Candy Land with our two interesting little daughters. They had a wonderful time. Our interesting little man was taking a nap so my husband got to spend some quality time with his girls while I made cookies.

My oldest interesting little girl won both games that they played. We had to teach her that it was okay to be excited about winning but, it was not okay to rub it in her sister's face.

My youngest interesting little girl got very frustrated because her sister won both of the games that they played. I felt bad for her but, it also gave us a chance to let her learn how to be nice about losing.