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.


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!


Something to think about….

“Anything we have to manipulate to get we seldom get to keep.”
quoted by Beth Moore in her study The Patriarchs


Oh cloning tool how I enjoy you!

Yep, the cloning tool is one of my favorites! 
Here’s a shot from this week’s football game.
Here’s my SOOC shot…..very dark and Mr. Shane is in the background of all the action!  I think he’s a little distracting, don’t you?

And here is my first attempt with Mr. Shane taken out of the background, lighting corrected and a little cropping.

Shane’s a really good friend and all but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Sorry buddy!!!

Oh, oops, I missed his toe…do you see it?  And in between Keeshawn’s legs I see some jeans I missed.  Let’s try this again and add a little saturation and some more sharpening.
Here we go………..



Chasing us down

Some of you who keep up with my blog know that I do a lot of Beth Moore bible studies.  God uses her to minister to me in a very special way right now and has for the last 2-3 years of my life.  Different people have ministered to me in different times of my life.  Charles Stanley when I first became a Christian, then Joyce Meyer, TD Jakes and many others.  But God uses Beth right now.  Sometimes I want to reach through the video and hug that dear woman.  I love her passion for God, for Jesus and for his children.

This morning I got up a few minutes before the rest of the family.  I’ve got quite a few photos to edit and when I came across this one I was reminded of the way God hunts us down.  Passionately and insistently he chases after us until he wins our hearts.  Words can’t even describe the depth of my gratitude over his pursuit.  “Thank you dear sweet precious Jesus for hunting me down.  Go after every one of my children with your intense desire for them.”


May you feel pursued today!!!!!


What did you do this weekend?

We’ve had our camper for about a year and finally took it camping to a REAL campground this weekend.  It was so much fun.  A lot of work but loads of fun too.  We’ve camped out at a friend’s horse farm and we’ve camped a lot in our driveway but we are official CAMPERS now!

Here’s a few shots from our weekend.

So here’s what red sand/dirt/mud look like in the southeast……

Here’s our camper and our youngest son helping me sweep….
We fished almost every day and never caught a thing!  Maybe I was glad I wasn’t forced to eat something fishy for dinner…

Our middle son got a kick out of the two crickets (which we fished with) fighting…

Middle son after he got one of those guys on his hook.  The color is a little off in this photo (too green) but I was too tired to fix it so forgive me…

Here’s our friend Tonya grilling dinner Saturday night.  You can see all the kids fishing in the background…

It sprinkled this morning and was so wonderful waking up to the tap, tap, tap of the rain on the camper.  Baby girl was singing in the rain this morning.  The water was really warm compared to the air…..

These next two pictures are two of my favorites from the weekend….
Baby girl and daddy looking out over the lake…

And our youngest son with his ever-present light saber.  The look he has on his face is so him!!!…


Freaky Friday Foto


I took this photo on my walk while visiting my friend Sandy in Ocean Isle Beach NC.
Why 19 MPH?
Why not 20 or 15??


100 Tidbits about me + Photos

Well I thought you might get bored reading all this stuff about me so I’ve included photos too.  They are pretty interesting facts but photos never hurt!  Here we go….

So I was reading Dee Dee’s blog and got inspired.  Bear with me!  I did these last night as I was falling asleep so you can get in the mood with the list…

100 Tidbits about me

(yikes that’s a lot)

  1. 1.       I love Jesus.  He’s my all and all.  He’s my man!
  2. 2.      My husband’s my man too.  He did one arm push-ups for me tonight and he was in the hall which is dark so I couldn’t tell if he had clothes on or not.
  3. 3.      Don’t tell him I told you.  He’d get embarrassed.
  4. 4.      When my husband hurts himself I get the giggles.  Don’t know why but it’s insane giggles.
  5. 5.      It happens sometimes too with my kids.
  6. 6.      I’m sure I’m falling down on the mommy/wife scale right now.
  7. 7.      I gave my life to Jesus wholeheartedly when I was 29.
  8. 8.      I wish I had been 9, I’d saved a lot of bad mistakes.
  9. 9.      I never thought I’d have 4 kids.
  10. 10.   Good thing my hubbie and I didn’t meet earlier because we’d probably have twelve kids by now.
  11. 11.   We do pregnancy well
  12. 12.   I’m adopted and met my birth mother 5 years ago this month (April).
  13. 13.   I met my half sister and half brother too.
  14. 14.   They’re all pretty cool cats (now I know where I get it).
  15. 15.   My birth-dad (whom I’ve also met) lives about 4 hours away from me.
  16. 16.   He’s pretty rockin’ too.
  17. 17.   Oh, and those great parents who raised me…they’re the best!  Hi MOM!!  Hi DAD!!
  18. 18.   I had one brother and one sister until 5 years ago.
  19. 19.   Now I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters.
  20. 20.   I hate it when people leave dishes in MY sink.
  21. 21.   I also do not like (with a little less passion) putting up folded laundry.
  22. 22.   I like to vacuum though!  Kinda like riding a broom.
  23. 23.   I swam on the swim team growing up.
  24. 24.   I rode horses too.
  25. 25.   I still love both.
  26. 26.   My main hobby love right now is photography.
  27. 27.   My hubbie said I could buy a new Tamrac camera bag for Mother’s Day.  It’s already been ordered!!!!
  28. 28.   I’m six feet two inches tall.
  29. 29.   I wear a size 12 shoe.
  30. 30.   Yes, I modeled and played basketball.
  31. 31.   Wasn’t very good at either. 
  32. 32.   My kids are gonna be tall, yep, off the chart tall!
  33. 33.   I went to college at UNC-Wilmington.
  34. 34.   I majored in boys there.
  35. 35.   Then I transferred to Elon University.
  36. 36.   I double majored in boys and parties there.
  37. 37.   See what I mean about Jesus at age 9?
  38. 38.   I’m a pet lover.
  39. 39.   We are at our lowest count since having kids I think…1 dog, 2 cats, 2 fish and all the kids are still alive.
  40. 40.   I once went on a blind date where the girl who set me up ended up marrying the guy.
  41. 41.   Isn’t that weird???
  42. 42.   I paint….watercolors.
  43. 43.   Oh, I paint in my spare time which in NEVER right now.
  44. 44.   One day I WILL paint AGAIN!!
  45. 45.   I love honest people
  46. 46.   I appreciate tactful people
  47. 47.   Put them together and you’re my new best friend!
  48. 48.   I love coffee in the mornings.  Just one cup though.
  49. 49.   I weaned myself off of Diet Coke last year.  A tough tough job!
  50. 50.   I am running out of things to write already.
  51. 51.   I danced my entire childhood…tap, jazz, ballet and toe.
  52. 52.   I didn’t like toe.
  53. 53.   My sister thought I was a slob growing up.  We had to share a room.
  54. 54.   I get motion sick just thinking about a Merry Go Rounds.
  55. 55.   I do not do roller coasters….I’ll be at the petting zoo.
  56. 56.   I love sleeping and wonder if I’ll ever get enough again.
  57. 57.   I sold some nursing bras on Ebay once and my pastor found out (EMBARRASSING!!!)
  58. 58.   He now sells his underwear on Ebay (ha! Just kidding)
  59. 59.   I found out I was pregnant with my second son when my first was 5 months old.
  60. 60.   I was scared to death.
  61. 61.   I went skiing in Colorado with #3 unaware in my belly.
  62. 62.   I’ve been to Colorado, California, Canada and the southeastern US (plus Jersey).
  63. 63.   Jersey has really good silver queen corn, that I do remember.
  64. 64.   The San Francisco area was a big disappointment to me. 
  65. 65.   I like what was in my head about the area better.
  66. 66.   Now, skiing in Colorado……almost heaven.
  67. 67.   Oh, and Palm Springs California in February ain’t bad either!!
  68. 68.   My aunt owns a house at the beach.  She lets us stay there each year.  She likes us! (smile)
  69. 69.   My favorite car would be one that drives itself.
  70. 70.   I drive a Nissan Quest van.
  71. 71.   We are on the Dave Ramsey get out of debt plan
  72. 72.   It’s going well.  (besides that blamed van)
  73. 73.   I learned to like broccoli for the first time this year.  Lots of butter and sea salt.
  74. 74.   Tonight’s steak got eaten before it was off the grill ( I didn’t have lunch.)
  75. 75.   I fed the chitlins chicken tonight while me and hubbie had steak!  Go ‘rents!!
  76. 76.   I need to go to sleep
  77. 77.   My toenails are painted pink….and are for the first time this season.
  78. 78.   When the polish is off my toes my sweet hubbie calls them “nursing home” toes.
  79. 79.   The gall of some men!!!
  80. 80.   I loved REO Speedwagon growing up.
  81. 81.   My favorite books are RED, BLACK and White by Ted Dekker
  82. 82.   Favorite song??  Eliohim by Nicole C. Mullins
  83. 83.   Worst food….cauliflower
  84. 84.   Best food….chocolate
  85. 85.   I love my camera …. A digital canon rebel xti
  86. 86.   I also love Viva Papertowels…..ever tried them??
  87. 87.   I love Beth Moore bible studies.
  88. 88.   My hubbie snores
  89. 89.   So do I, or so HE says.
  90. 90.   He’s snoring.
  91. 91.   I’m not!
  92. 92.   I need to be.
  93. 93.   Gotta get up to get the gang ready in the morning.
  94. 94.   No appointments tomorrow…yippee!
  95. 95.   Oh, favorite TV shows….Dancing with the Stars, Idol, Medium, NCIS
  96. 96.   Favorite time of day….evening when the sun is setting.
  97. 97.   Wonder if I wake my hubbie up he’ll do some more of those push-ups???
  98. 98.   Better wait til tomorrow.
  99. 99.   I sleep with 4 pillows.
  100. 100.    And I’d have more if I could

My hubbie coaching and our second oldest son (above)

This is what all the siblings do while the boys are playing football (above)

This is Keshaun running and I loved the motion in this photo.  Look at the kid trying to get Keshaun’s flag.  I love his face.  Our second son is the other kid in white (above)


What in the World Wednesday???

I took pictures at the game last night and decided to do a little work with RAW images.  About 1/4 of my pictures came out looking like this…….
Ok all you bloggy photo friends, what’s up???



Scenes from Thursday night's football game

Thursday night we had a flag football game and this ended up being my favorite shot of the night.  I love the warmth of the light on baby girl’s face ….
There’s just something untouchable and indescribable that makes me love this picture.



image