Archives for May 2008

Our weekend

We finished our flag football season 13-3. It was a fun season! The boys had a blast after last years 0-14 record. A winning season was a blessing to us all. The weekend was beautiful. I love spring! We’ve had very little humidity and the days are just perfect!!! I slept in the camper last night by myself with the windows open, snuggled up in layers of blankets and slept like a baby. We’ve slept in it all weekend. Camping in the front yard is the best!!

I wanted to share a few pictures of the weekend’s football game.
Here is the whole gang. Not a very big team in numbers but full of heart!

Here are both of our oldest running towards the end zone.

And here’s the greatest coach in the world! Our dad! He’s encouraging one of the players that had a rough "last play".

This is from our day last week when we ate dinner at 3:30! It’s all out of focus and blurry but has good bokeh and wonderful expression!

Until tomorrow….

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Posted: May 19, 2008 by Julie |Category: Happenings | Tags:

Freaky Friday Foto on Saturday

Last night we had the first of our play-off games for flag football. The boys played great. Today we had a 10am game which we lost. It was a bag of mixed emotions for me…..I was ready for the season to be over but also sad they didn’t win so they could play in the championship game at 1pm.

While I was TRYING to concentrate on taking football fotos our crazy 6 year old was trying to see how long he could stand on his head. I think he started to get delirious.

I’m sure our next trip to the chiropractor will be interesting!!!
Have a great weekend…

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Posted: May 17, 2008 by Julie |Category: Chuckles | Tags:

One of those weeks…

Some weeks are just “blah”, ya know?
This was one of them. I try to remember those poor people who have no rice to eat and are starving in China because of the typhoon and not feel sorry for me. But then I remember that we have each been given a lot in life and what is hard to others may not be difficult for me and vice versa.

So I try to give myself some grace in this “blah” week. Hormones, hubbie being gone, being tired, not feeling good….who knows what it is – or maybe it’s all of them combined!

Yesterday evening we ate dinner at 3:30 at Applebees. I was on my way home from the chiropractor, all the kids were hungry and I had no energy for cooking so I succumbed to the restaurant temptation and we feasted on cheese sticks, salad and water. It was SO nice not to have to worry about dinner come 5pm when all mine are usuallly STARVING (or so they say).

We enjoyed the evening without anything to do and the kids all ate a bowl of cereal before bed. I’m thinking my next Works for Me Wednesday might be just that….feed kids dinner at 3:30pm EVERY night!

Since we ate so early I took the camera outside and took pictures. My daughter is about the only one who will sit still anymore for me. The rest of the gang was here, there and everywhere.

So here’s baby girl….a straight out of the camera shot with a touch of saturation. I didn’t have the energy to do any more tweaking so here she is…..sippy cup and all…

Here is a shot of my FAVORITE bush in the yard and yes, I know it’s name but I don’t have the energy to look up how to spell it…
So here’s the pink bush…

Hope you have a great Friday!

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Posted: May 16, 2008 by Julie |Category: Photography and Tips | Tags:

The sweet middle child

I took this photo of our middle son yesterday after picking him up from school. I think he’s an awfully cute looking fellow, don’t you?

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Posted: May 15, 2008 by Julie |Category: Our Family, Our Lives | Tags:

Works for Me Wednesday

I admit I’m a little at a loss for a good tip on What Works for us….
The thing on my heart most today is homeschooling I think. Homeschooling works for us. No carpools, no buses, no lines, no homework, no anything we don’t want in our lives. We do use school occasionally. We have two in school this year. All three boys will be home next year and our daughter will be in a half day K4 program.

You know, what works for us changes sometimes daily, weekly, or monthly. Each school year is different. So what works today may not work tomorrow. And I think we’re good about changing once it doesn’t work anymore. I remember hearing that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Makes sense to me.

Leaving you with another “works for me”…..always having my camera! This was taken through my storm door. Aren’t the reflections cool?
(more Works for me Wednesday found here)

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Posted: May 14, 2008 by Julie |Category: Our Family, Our Lives | Photography and Tips | Tags:

I feel like this sometimes…

While we were visiting my mom and dad I got this very ~~interesting~~ real photo of our daughter ~~pouting~~ whining about the shoes I ~~suggested~~ made her wear to the park. She wanted to wear flip-flops but wise ole mom suggested the shoes you see in this picture.

You know, I wish I cold still get away with this sometimes. "Oh boo-hoo-hoo, I can’t get my way. Why does everybody hate me? I just want to wear what I want to wear?"

"What’s so wrong with that anyway??"

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Posted: May 13, 2008 by Julie |Category: Happenings | Tags:

Mother’s Day Trip

This past weekend we went to NC to visit my mom, dad, sister and her family. Here are some shots from the weekend. My first one is because of Shutter Sisters’ photo for today.

Lightening Clouds on Friday night at about 10pm or so….
(shot at a very high ISO so a little grainy but very cool none the less)

Our oldest son choosing to look sweet for the time being…

Our day at the park….everyone on the train but mom! “Hi mom!!”…

Dad and his girl…

Crazy boys…

Baby girl at Steak N Shake on the way home…
Hope you all had a great Mother’s Day!!!

6 Comments

Posted: May 12, 2008 by Julie |Category: Our Family, Our Lives | Tags:

Should I stay or Should I go?

I remember liking that song…don’t ever remember who sang it. I’m horrible with all that who sang what stuff.
But today I’ve been thinking about God’s call on our lives. What do we do when he begins to close doors in our comfortable little lives? Do we panic? Do we get worried over what’s next? Sure we do. Our flesh panics doesn’t it?

I wonder what God thinks about those doors He is indeed closing. I imagine a father patting a diapered bottom scooting me along to the next step, maybe away from danger, maybe toward something really yummy like "peaches". Oh yum, yum! Food! (I mean He knows I’m all about the food!)

God’s never really happy with less than the best, you know? So when I settle comfortably in good but not best what does He do? Oh yea, you know! He moves me. My question is what is my (our) reaction?

"Oh yippee, Dad’s moving again! You know it’s always a great adventure with Him. He’s got the best surprises!! AND He loves more than I could ever know so this is gotta be great!!!!"
or
"What are you doing God? I like it here. Why do you want me to move from where I am? Do you know what’s out there? I mean, I like my life. God? God? Do you hear me? I don’t like change. Hello?"

Oh for me to come to Him with the eagerness my kids come to me with when I even hint at a trip. "Where are we going mom? What are we going to get? How long will it take? Will it be fun? Who else is going? Is there a playground? Hey, someone get the football and let’s go!"

Oh Father turn my heart so towards you that I know the moment your thoughts shift towards me. Make me eager to follow you for you love me more than I can imagine. Protect me and my family and make us God Chasers!!!

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Posted: May 7, 2008 by Julie |Category: Happenings | Tags:

Works for me Wednesday

Today is partly about confession. There is something we do as a family that I hesitate to tell people sometimes, especially homeschool moms because I know how tired we all are. With that said my confession is this….We have a housekeeper. Yep, an angel descends on our house once every two weeks and makes sure the toilets are scrubbed, the shower isn’t growing things and that my boy’s bedroom doesn’t have 1/2 an inch of dust covering it or mold growing underneath the beds.

It works for us.

We’ve vacillated between having her once a month (when money is tighter) and then, just recently, went back to every two weeks. This helps us to feel less overwhelmed in all that we do as a family. It helps us keep balance in our lives. Oh, we still do plenty of scrubbing, vacuuming, and dusting in between but knowing that at least twice a month everything is clean at the same time even if it lasts only for an hour is very comforting.

Sometimes as homeschool moms (and as women) we believe we have to "do it all" and for the most part we do so much. Giving ourselves a break and letting someone else in to help really, well, helps!

So I encourage you to find something that will help you lighten your load today. (psst….it’s okay, really!)

See more Works for me Wednesday (or today’s Doesn’t Work for me Wednesday) posts here.

3 Comments

Posted: May 7, 2008 by Julie |Category: Homeschooling | Tags:

Get your flare on baby…

This was a fun assignment (See the assignment here!) although I didn’t have much time to complete it. I snapped this as the sun was setting in our neighborhood while I was supposed to be watching Dora with my 3 year old. I was sitting on the couch so you are looking out of my den windows.

Shutter Sisters asked us to try the “other end of the spectrum” by shooting with our F-stop high (narrow) instead of low (wide open). I admit, that like Sarah I love shooting with a 1.8 (lowest my camera lenses will take me) f-stop. But after admiring her photo at the link above I had to try this. 10 minutes later this is what I had.

This is what Sarah had to say about shooting at the narrow end of the aperture range (f-stop)
“The narrower the aperture, the longer the exposure you can use, and that’s how you get those lovely rays in the form of star-shaped flares”

Canon Xti
Aperture at 29
Shutter way down to 3.2
ISO 100
Manuel

Isn’t it cool? I love the starry sun!