Photography Actions

I love Pioneer Womans Actions as well as MCP Actions.

So I wanted to share a few of my before and afters with you.  (After posting I realized this isn’t EXACTLY the same shot, but goes with the 4:30am editing)

Before:

After:

One Click Color by MCP Actions at 40%   –   Lovely and Etherical at 100%  by Pioneer Woman Actions   –   Selective Sharpening turned up to 80%

Then here’s baby girl:

Before:

And After:  One Click Color again/ Raised exposure in Camera Raw and used MCP’s Magic Powder

I should have lightened up around her eyes some more but oh well….it was 4:30 this morning and I couldn’t sleep.

Here’s one more but I couldn’t tell you what I did!!  I just love her hair in this one.  It needs a little more work but here it is anyway….

Before:

After:

I had such high plans of this being a great tutorial but my early morning wakefulness got the best of me.

Enjoy anyway!


Rain, Glorious Rain!!

Last night we finally had rain.  Real, pouring down, thunderous, booming rain!

It was glorious!

Jacksonville has resembled the Majava Dessert.   I swear a scrub brush flew by yesterday.

This morning our neighborly little friends were bathing outside the house.  Of course I ran for my camera.  These were my favorite shots.

Isn’t her reflection spectacular?

Don’t you wonder what they are thinking?

Oh, to be a duck!


He’s our hero!

All three of my boys had football games on Saturday.

There are times when son #3 takes an interest and other times when he doesn’t really care about what’s going on.  But I’ve noticed this season as we have progressed so has he.

Saturday I watched him run for 40 yards or so, but my proudest moment was this one.

He was chasing after the guy carrying the ball, got trampled, picked himself up and pulled the guy’s flag.

I tell ya, it was a moment that would make a mama cry!

Enjoy it in pictures as I did on a breezy Saturday morning in Florida…

The collision…(he’s the guy on the right getting clobbered)

The knockdown….

The pain…

And the snag!  You go little man!  You’re our man!


Awesome homemade mosquito spray

Check out Jillee’s post here!
Or try Doterra’s terrashield with water or a carrier oil.
I use the water because I don’t like the oily feel. Put in a squirt bottle and enjoy!
Either is fantastic and no Deet!


A little Photoshop!

I’ve been playing with some new techniques with Photoshop and wanted to show you the end results.  I’d love to tell you all I did but I was interrupted so many times I don’t know where to begin.

Cropping, Clone Stamp and some Camera Raw adjustments and here you go.

Before:

After:  (no kids in background, no gatorade on ground, no poly cone).  One photo I did not center him but he likes them centered so I did this one for him.  Usually, he’s left or right of center.

So go play with Photoshop!  I love the YouTube tutorials!  This one is my new fav because I shoot with a high ISO at times to capture the action on the football field.  It reduces NOISE or all those annoying speckles.


Mom’s Night Out


My Main Squeeze

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat and talked about my walk with the Lord over the past two years.

Since moving to Florida we’ve been on an amazing journey.  My darkest times were during our first year here.  We were renting a house, homeschooling in a far smaller space than we had done before and living in a gated community for the first time.  Yikes.  We’d moved from rural SC where peeing in the back yard was a sport in and of itself.  Now, we received nasty grams about the very way I’d potty trained three boys.  I cried.  I longed for our former home.  The kids missed their friends.  I missed my friends.  I wanted our yard, our woods, our life for the last 10 years.

I longed for the lifechanging Bible Study I attended.  I think I took one year off in my 6 years of having 4 children.  Those women there were my lifeline.  I grew, I cried, I loved and I was loved. Some of my best friends are still in my life because of our vulnerability shared during Bible Study.

There were nights of sitting on the porch crying with a friend from home because I’d had a child diagnosed with ADHD but had no answers, one wasn’t reading and I didn’t know how to help and one was dying to get out of the house and go to school.  My life was falling apart.  I felt like a failure as a mom.

The first year was dark, yet I knew Florida was where God wanted us.  Why?  He was certainly the only one who knew!!

As the first year morphed into the second light began to shine.  We discovered LearningRx through a friend in our homeschool group.  It was there I began to find answers to help my kids.  The folks there were kind and seemed truly interested in my children.  They offered hope.

Fast forward to today as I sit reading The Purpose Directed Business by Ken Gibson.

For those of you who’ve read The Purpose Driven Life you know what an impact that book can have on your life.

“It’s now about you.”

And it isn’t.  Those words offer so much freedom.  Freedom to be messed up, sad, happy, uncontrolled, hopeless, hopeful and most of all totally dependent.

Today, I sit and read feeling excited.  I’m excited that the man who founded the company God has used in my life is a Christian.  I’m excited to be a partnering parent with LearningRx.  I’m excited that none of this is really about me or about cognitive thinking skills (although high on my list), it’s about God.  It’s about what He wants to do through me, in me and for me.

He’s my Main Squeeze.  And I say that with the upmost respect.

To the one who knows me like no other…..“Thank you dad!  Thank you for stirring in me a desire that comes through you to reach other moms and children for your glory!  Open the eyes of my heart to see and love those you put in my path.  Expand my territory.  Be huge.  Be God!!”



Unlock the Einstein Inside

Did you know you can download Ken Gibson’s book Unlock the Einstein Inside for free? Are you like me and love free things? This is one of those must reads for moms, anyone looking to get Sartre or understand the brain better.
Click here to download the free ebook!


LIKE ME!

I think she looks like me!?


Essential oils

Beeyoutiful and doTerra are my favorite oil companies. I recently found this wonderful way God provides for us.
Check out www beeyoutiful.com and doterra.com

Grape seed crush from Beeyoutiful:
Try the citrus solution to keeping your body and home healthy. Grapefruit Seed Crush, an extract made from the seeds and pulp of grapefruit, is anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic for just about every healing, disinfecting, and cleaning need. It’s even safe and effective when taken internally — including babies and pregnant or nursing mommies. One great advantage of GSC over traditional antibiotic treatments is that “super bugs” don’t evolve to overpower this product as they do antibiotics. And Grapefruit Seed Crush doesn’t harm beneficial bacteria lining the intestines.

For personal hygiene, gargle with diluted GSC to help sore throats, mouth sores, and halitosis. Mix it with shampoo to treat eczema and dandruff, and spray a solution of GSC on athlete’s foot. Taken internally, Grapefruit Seed Crush fights parasites.

Around the house, instead of pouring on the usual, toxic cleaners and disinfectants, let the powerful anti-microbial action of Grapefruit Seed Crush keep your home clean and healthy. Mix up natural bathroom cleaners and mold killers, add it to your dishwater and laundry tub, or make anti-bacterial baby wipes for bottoms and public toilet seats. By creating your own health-friendly cleaners, you’ll save money, too.

There are practically limitless ways to put Grapefruit Seed Crush to work (see the long list below!), but for all uses, GSC should be diluted with water. Adding 3-6 drops to 6 oz. of water is generally a good proportion. GSC is non-toxic, so an extra drop here and there won’t hurt. Results are usually better, though, when Grapefruit Seed Crush is used frequently in a more diluted solution than less frequently in heavier concentrations. You’ll doubtless find your favorites as you try these ideas.

Medical Uses:

Sickroom — Spritz with a solution of GSC in water. Add it to a vaporizer or mop water.

Mouth and Gum Infections — Swish and gargle with water-diluted GSC. You can swallow it for internal benefit.
Sore throat – Gargle with diluted GSC and swallow. Many germs enter the body through the mouth, so stop them in their tracks. GSC kills strep throat germs and helps viral sore throats, too.
Candida Overgrowth — Drink a diluted GSC solution to kill yeast in your gut. Even babies with thrush (an oral yeast infection) can be helped by drinking a few ounces of water with a couple drops of GSC added. For female yeast infections, dilute and douche 12 hours apart for at least 3 days (grapefruit seed extract is considered by some to be even more effective than nystatin and other yeast-killing agents—and without the bad side effects of those drugs). For thorough treatment, some women drink GSC regularly for several months. Others stay on a maintenance dose for longer. And, of course, cutting down on sugar and refined foods will improve your chance of victory in the yeast war.
Baby wipes — Mix water, aloe vera gel, GSC, and any pleasant-smelling essential oil. Soak paper towels or small washcloths in the solution, and store them in a plastic container near the changing table. GSC kills painful yeast-related diaper rashes.
Skin and scalp cleaner – Add GSC to shampoo and regular liquid soaps, or dilute with water and chamomile tea or aloe gel for a facial scrub. It’s beneficial for dermatitis and acne. For warts and cysts, GSC can be applied undiluted (the only exception to the dilution rule) directly onto the affected area; cover with a bandage. With these applications, you can skip the antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers. They cause your body to become more resistant to antibiotics — which you might really need someday for a life-threatening emergency.
Diarrhea, food poisoning, stomach flu – Dilute and swallow GSC every few hours as needed. Be sure to take GSC on trips out of the country (use bottled water for diluting).
Poison ivy and poison oak — Symptoms improve and feel better quickly after an application of diluted GSC.
Parasite cleansing — Even folks in non-third world countries can have parasites that weaken their health thanks to imported foods, sushi, other popular raw foods, and household pets (dogs can transmit 65 known parasites to humans while cats carry about 40 contagious diseases that affect people). Drink a few ounces of GSC solution regularly, and enjoy your pets and sushi without worry.
Athlete’s foot, ringworm, and other skin and nail fungus problems. — Spray with a diluted solution.
General Purpose Uses:
Animals – Dogs, cats, birds, all livestock, and even fish can benefit from GSC for wound healing, parasite treatment, and in place of antibiotics. Cats will ingest sprayed-on GSC solution when they groom themselves. Clean your dog’s kennel and the cat’s litterbox with diluted GSC. Put a few drops in your fish tank and get rid of algae problems! It helps prevent fish diseases, too.

Drinking water – If you aren’t sure about the safety of water you have available and can’t boil or distill it, first let the particles settle (or filter them out), then treat with GSC. It tastes a little bitter, but you”ll know it’s keeping you safe from parasites and disease.
Toothbrushes – Keep family members from re-infecting themselves with germs left on their toothbrushes. Mix up a glass of GSC solution for each person to soak their toothbrush in between uses. The mixture will last for several days before needing replacement (a GSC-soaked brush should be rinsed before using it again).
Fruit and vegetable wash – Remove pesticides and parasites before eating. You can add GSC to a bowl or sink full of water, or you can make a spray. This is much cheaper than expensive food washes sold at the store and just as effective. You’ll find fruits and vegetables stay fresh longer, too.
Replace toxic cleaners and bleach — Make a spray bottle for cleaning your bathrooms and kitchens (don’t forget the cutting boards). It disinfects even better than rubbing alcohol or colloidal silver! GSC helps do away with mold problems. Add GSC to your laundry to disinfect and brighten clothes and bedding.
Public bathrooms — Combine a dab of baby shampoo with water and GSC, and soak paper towels in the solution to make your own wipes. Keep them fresh in a zippered plastic bag in your purse or diaper bag. Or carry a tiny spray bottle with the diluted mixture to spritz questionable surfaces.
Houseplants – If you have an aphid problem or scaly mold, dilute GSC with water and spray the tops and bottoms of leaves and stems. You can add cayenne or garlic juice for stubborn plant problems.
Sprouts — Treat the sprouts you grow with a diluted GSC mixture and spin them dry for a longer life in the fridge.
For home and body health, a Grapefruit Seed Crush solution is the solution!

Important: Always dilute Grapefruit Seed Crush before using, and never use any form of Grapefruit Seed Crush in your eyes.

(taken from Beeyoutiful’s website:  info about Grapefruit Seed Crush)


image