Project 365–Days 52-58

Day 52 – We had really bad weather last Monday … in fact, it was one of the worst winter driving experiences I’ve had in a long time.  I literally thought I was going to burst into tears when I went to pick Andrew up from school.  Aside from the fact that it took me twice as long to get him, I also had to take his friend home – who lives way out in the country, on roads that were not in the least bit plowed.  It was scary.  The other two ride the bus home and because it was snowing so hard and our driveway is so long, Andrew volunteered to go out and get them on the four-wheeler.  I knew I really wanted this to be my picture of the day because it so adequately described the day, but because the bus was a half hour late (we literally live five minutes from their school), I ended up standing on the front porch waiting for them, sure I was going to miss my shot if I stepped inside to wait.

Day 53 – playing with my new 24-70mm 2.8L lens … those are the orchids I got from Walmart several weeks ago in the center

Day 54 – one of my favorite walls in my house right now … we took these pictures in our woods last fall for our Christmas card and I just love every one of them and the way they’re grouped on the wall

Day 55 – not exactly great focus but I love this one too much to care … this was on one of our three snow days last week … three neighbor boys came over and there was a lot of shooting and chasing and battling with toy weapons

Day 56 – snow day #3 … the kids were probably outside for at least five hours … I was outside playing with them for probably 3 1/2 of those hours … it was such a wonderful day spent sledding in the front yard and building a snow igloo in the backyard … one of those days when it’s not too hard to find things to love about winter

Day 57 – another day spent outside enjoying the snow … this time Joel gets in on the action … I LOVE the expression on his face!

Day 58 – CHOCOLATE!! … what more needs to be said? … expect that the brownies that these little guys found themselves baked in were oh so yummy

I love how this week’s pictures remind me of how much I have to be thankful for!  Thank you Jesus for blessings beyond my wildest imagination!

Project 365–Days 45-51

I am seriously thrilled that I’ve made it to day 51.  Only like 314 more to go!  Ha!  Actually it’s been fun to try and capture at least one picture a day.  Some days I find I’ve taken lots of shots I love and other days I feel very disappointed with what I’ve captured.  Some days I feel artsy and others I’m just trying to capture a piece of what happened on that particular day.  Here’s a glimpse into this past week…

Day 45 – Valentine’s Day with three of my favorite valentine’s…

Day 46 – this was the first of several warm-up days and the first day we got to see the grass in a long time

Day 47 – the moon was amazing all week so I kept trying to get a good shot of it … although I think this one is neat, I’m adding “learn to take pictures of the moon” on my growing list of things I’d like to figure out…

Day 48 – my Sweetie bought me beautiful red roses for Valentine’s Day, but on this particular day they were well past their prime so I took pictures of the stems instead.  Definitely not one of my favorites from the week but oh well.  Moving on…

Day 49 – not much explanation needed on this one … beautiful sunrise = the perfect way to start the day

Day 50 – this was one of those days when I was able to get some gorgeous flower shots, but I decided that this picture said more about how we spent the day.  It’s also a cheater because Joel actually took this one instead of me!  Here’s my sweet Grandma and I during a visit to her new home this past weekend.  Today marks one year since my Grandpa passed away so it was important for us to be able to spend the day with Grandma.  We took her out to lunch, visited the cemetery and spent some time just sitting and visiting.  It was a lovely day!

Day 51 – A mini photo session with my firstborn – Andrew.  He’s growing up right before my eyes and I’m just thankful for him – even when he complains about having to take pictures outside without a coat on!  We had a few chuckles about the fact that I was all bundled up and he wasn’t!  But he was a good sport about it!

Project 365–Days 39-44

I think I’ve settled into a once a week project 365 posting which I can keep up with. I may not always post on Mondays, but that’s what I’ll aim for. Taking a picture a day is hard. Sometimes I have the hardest time coming up with anything interesting to photograph, but I like the challenge and accept that every picture is not going to be a work of art. Some I like to be more artsy with and others more appropriately depict our life for that day…

Day 39 – dried flowers from an arrangement my sweetie gave me a few weeks ago

Day 40 – two new Webkinz bought with birthday money

Day 41 – with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, love is in the air

Day 42 – the aftermath of the school Valentine party

Day 42 – the game of the weekend

Day 44 – a sweet piece of heart candy confetti from a sweet cupcake treat [and some sweet little fingers to display it!]

Days 33-34 and 36-38

Day 33



Day 34

Day 36

Day 37

Day 38

Project 365: The completion of month #1!

I'm currently doing a little victory dance here! When I set out to do Project 365, I secretly felt fairly certain that I wouldn't even be able to make it through month one. It's not that it's a burden to take one picture per day, it's just that I'm not very good with goals and we all know that life happens and sometimes it's just very hard to get creative when there's nothing really inspiring happening. But I was determined to just take it one day at a time and so here I am celebrating the completion of one month. Hooray! Now it's on to month #2 ... but first here are my last three pictures for January...

Day 29 - Matthew and his best buddy from school



Day 30 - A piece of the chocolate cake that I literally craved for about two weeks and finally made this weekend

Day 31 (taken with my point and shoot camera) - The blessing of a morning sunrise especially when we can go days around here without seeing the sun at all! I told the kids this morning that they better drink it in because you never know when you'll see it again - especially since we're supposed to get a big winter storm this week. *sigh*

Project 365 - Days 26, 27 & 28

Day 26 - My favorite "at home" apparel ... tennies & my favorite black sweat pants



Day 27 - In anticipation of a field trip to the circus, the 3rd grade held a clown costume contest and parade ... this sweet clown - my Katelyn-girl - was the cutest one by far! (and yep, I'm totally biased!)


Day 28 - I have really struggled this week with winter blahs, so when I saw a beautiful orchid plant in the grocery store this morning I decided to splurge and buy one for myself. It really brightened my day!

Project 365 - Days 22, 23, 24, and 25

Day 22 - My weekly E-mealz menu



Day 23 - Katelyn turns nine and receives a handmade hat and scarf from Nana

Day 24 - Celebrating the beauty of winter

Day 25 - One of the roses that Katelyn received from her Daddy for her birthday

Project 365 - Days 19, 20, and 21

Day 19 - A night of great family entertainment with the Harlem Globetrotters

Day 20 - Matthew turns 11!

Day 21 - Katelyn's sick eyes

Project 365–Day 18

Celebrating the little things … like my daughter’s gorgeous eyelashes!

Project 365 - Days 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17

I'm pretty sure I'm in the midst of a crisis of confidence which is playing mind games with my desire to want to post my pictures. Thankfully, this little moment of mine isn't preventing me from actually taking the pictures ... I just don't feel good about them. *sigh*

Nonetheless, here they are:

Day 10 - There are days when I feel like all I do is sit in my car waiting to either drop off or pick up my kiddos from school. This is my view from my spot in the carpool line at my son's middle school...




Day 11 - Okay, I think I really do like this one. It's artsy. I've been trying to take my camera with me when I leave the house and this was one of those times I was glad I had it. It was a snowy, wintery day but I had a lot of running around to do. At one point, I got back in the car and noticed that the snow and ice that had formed on my windows was really quite stunning. Out came the camera and thus this shot was born. I have no idea why some of the ice is green, but I think that's one of my favorite things about this picture.



Day 12 - This shot was taken while driving my kids to school. I was driving through our neighborhood when I looked out the window and saw glorious sunlight peeking through the trees on the newly fallen snow.

Day 13 - My son, Andrew, was chosen to be student of the month at his middle school. Each month they choose one boy and one girl from both 7th and 8th grade to be honored. In addition to this letter, Andrew gets a certificate of achievement, a photo shoot with a local photographer and his picture displayed in the hallway at school. I'm so proud of that boy!

Day 14 - This picture does not excite me, but it was the only one I got that day. Must've been a busy day. I planted a few herbs in pots shortly after Christmas and on this day the first, tiny chive plants emerged through the dirt.

Day 15 - I have no idea why this picture is over to the left while the others are all centered, but since I've already spent too much time on the computer today as it is, to the left it stays! We had the amazing opportunity this past Saturday to spend quite a bit of time bird watching. It was such a blessing to observe these beautiful cardinals in their natural environment on a cold, snowy day. When everything around us is somewhat dreary, this splash of color is so encouraging.

Day 16 - My husband surprised me with these gorgeous roses. Another splash of color that brightened my day and lifted my spirits. I'm so thankful for the thoughtfulness of my man!

Day 17 - Another herb garden shot and apparently another picture that didn't load on my blog properly. Boo! I do like how tender and fragile these tiny basil sprouts are, however. There is just something about watching things grow ... especially in the dead of winter.

These tiny plants remind me a bit of my journey with pictures ... I'm not exactly where I'd like to be all of the time, but I'm growing and learning. And when I look back on where I've been I can only be thankful for how far I've come.

Day 9

Yesterday's picture is kind of a silly one ... my son's army guys. But those army guys were a pretty big part of their day. In our basement, they set up a huge plastic toy battle ... there were lego fortresses, blue plastic storage bin lids as swamps and lakes, plastic children's chairs were caves and hiding spots and of course the army guys were set up amidst it all.

They kept begging me all day to come down and take pictures of their set up, but admittedly, I kept putting them off. I thought for sure I could come up with something more creative for my project 365 shot than toys scattered across my basement floor. In the end, though, they dragged me down there with camera in hand and now I see that there was nothing more creative than the imagination of two boys and their toys.

And thankfully they so kindly removed the one army guy that had somewhere along the lines lost his head in battle before I took the picture!

Project 365 - Days 6, 7, and 8

Day 6 [taken 1/6/11] - I've been working on guitar pictures all week ... this one is my favorite! I like the angle of the guitar the black and white edit and the solid black frame. I also like that my son and husband are going to start taking guitar lessons together starting in February. Yay for music and pictures of musical instruments!




Day 7 [taken 1/7/11] - Normally I would never publish an out-of-focus picture but this one intrigues me. My flash didn't fire but I think I'm liking this picture better than I would've with the flash. It was taken at the Fire & Ice First Friday festival (wow...that's a lot of f's!) in the city where my parents live. They had ice sculptures and this station set up where anyone could come and roast marshmallows. The night was perfect for such an event ... it was snowing but not windy and the streets were crowded with families enjoying a fun, winter evening in January!

Day 8 [taken today-1/8/11] - Joel and I treated ourselves to one of our favorite treats for lunch ... Crunchy Asparagus sushi and three delicious sides ... all from one of the best restaurants in town. It was incredibly delicious!