Project 365: Day 11

 "Even my very helpful sister is NOT ACCEPTABLE to me!"

This is by far not a great picture.  However, it does say something about where we are in life at present.  Verily I say unto you: if one were to want to know what life has been like for me lately, all one would have to do is look at this picture.  Because that's how she looks 95% of the time in this, her eleventh month.  It surely doesn't take much imagination to picture, then, how I have looked 95% of the time in the last month...

Project 365: Day 9

  

Juliet and her grandmother sharing a moment.

Well, I'm a few days behind because of being on vacation.  Some parts of it were really good and quite fun, and if you are reading this and we visited you on our vacation, we had a great time with you :-)  Some parts of the trip, unfortunately, were not so good.  Even heartbreaking at times, but, what are you gonna do, you know?  We mourn the loss of some relationships, and yet out of loss, our marriage and family become stronger.  There is always, always a silver lining.

Project 365: Day 2

Photo of my "baby" brother, with my nephew's mom holding Juliet in the background.  I like this one because it really says 50 mm f1.8 to me!

New Year: Project 365: Day 1

My Project 365 goal this year is to practice getting correct exposure and color in-camera.  Fair warning, all photos will be SOOC and not edited at all...I have a feeling it won't all be pretty.  But I hope to get better at this, gaining time in post process and saving the editing for capturing certain photo styles desired by individual clients.

Day 1: A Christmas ornament my parents have had since before I was even around.  Or somewhere around there.  There is something incredibly comforting about your parents' Christmas tree, right?

This has been one of the best Christmases ever.  We are taking our time celebrating and will even be celebrating past Epiphany (January 6) this year.  I have a feeling Monday, January 10 is going to hit like a ton of bricks, but I'm trying to enjoy it until then. 

Along the same lines, I recently postulated to my husband a really super-simple solution to what seems to be a growing dilemma about "Christmas" and who seems to own the word/holiday/season.  Some Christians resent the commercializing and secularizing of our second most important holiday of the year.  And then the commercializ-ers and seculariz-ers resent mention of the word "Jesus" when trying to celebrate their holiday dedicated to Peace, Love, and Joy.  For the sake of brevity, I'm leaving out those who celebrate other holidays which just so happen to also coincide with the winter solstice; "Happy Chanukah", "Happy Kwanzaa", "Merry (or whatever) Saturnalia" don't really have any other connotations, unlike the seemingly innocent "Merry Christmas". 

So here's my solution: Everyone who wants to "keep Christ in Christmas" just needs to give the word away.  There's no getting it back, and frankly, the trees, the santas, the lights, the gifts, the reindeer, the hustle and bustle and energy...are really fun and will always be associated with "Christmas".  And now instead, when wishing to refer to the holiday based on Luke 2:1-20 we need merely to wish each other a "Blessed Nativity".  There ya go--two holidays in one and think how much less confusing for the children ;-)

Juliet and Her Grandpa

Faces of Max

Mr. Max is just three months shy of turning three. I'm not really sure where those three years went, but man, is his personality just bursting out of the little dude now! I'm always being demanded to "take pitcher Macky, Mom!" and this face is what usually results:

He absolutely adores spending time with other boys, as he gets enough girliness in each day to last a lifetime.

Here we are, trying something new.

The little stinker likes to run away when I call him. Such was the case right before this photo, and he stops for a split second for me to snap it.

Aaand, this is how we know Max is tired. The classic rub-the-hand-on-the-ear pose.

I Need to Learn to Enunciate

Disclaimer: My apologies, but this post runs on the risque side. Don't say I didn't warn you...

The Scene: A regular old Burger King. I am once again very brave for taking all four kids out to run errands for the day and have rewarded us with a lunch at BK. Say what you will about the healthiness or lack thereof, it is a reward to me! The following is the dialogue which took place between me and a daughter. Bet you can't guess which one.

Me: Takes a swig of my Dr. Pepper.

Daughter: Mom, can I have a drink of your Doctor's Pecker?

Me: Chokes on my Doctor's Pecker, spitting it out onto the table, causing the rest of the restaurant to stare in a concerned fashion.

And the rest of the conversation just isn't as exciting, so I'll stop right there.

I'm sorry, but you can't say I didn't warn you.

More Faces of Juliet

Faces of Juliet

She is a very expressive baby, just like her sister Emme.

Here she is, one month old already!

PSA: Very Important Message Regarding Education

I think the reason I find parenting so challenging is that I am constantly learning from it. In my previous life I was pretty opposed to learning things. It didn't even ever cross my mind that the purpose of school was to educate yourself until my last semester of college when I really had to try hard to get that 'A'; no Learning-By-BS-Method allowed. But by then it was too late on the school front and I was just months away from being a parent anyway, so it's been on the parenting field that I have had the majority of my edumacatin'.

Which brings me to what I have learned today. In parenting multiple children who tend toward the sibling rivalry side, nothing shuts off the bickering faster or regains their BFF status with one another better than this: Give them a common enemy. And I must say that I am more than willing to be that enemy if it will get the noise to STOP. What can I say, the sacrifice is worth it.

This public service announcement has been brought to you by One Tired Mama, who just today found that making fighting sisters sit and face the wall for the rest of the day will make them briefly despise her but really works to stop the fighting.

The Awful Realization

The attitude I may or may not have consistently shown to my husband regarding his geekery in all things...well, geek-ish (think comic books, RPGs, action figures, fascination with archaic languages not to mention archaic British science fiction television shows)...may or may not have thus far bordered on pure scorn.

That has now changed, in light of my awful realization this morning. Here's how it went down:

Me, driving: laughs

Him: What?

M: Oh, I was thinking about how I am so looking forward to seeing two Juliets this winter!

H: Two? Who's the second?

M: Your unborn daughter, duh!

H: Uh, then who's the first?

M: You know? The one that comes 39 days before our Juliet? What I've been waiting for since May 22, 2009????

H: Uggggggggggggggg. Groan. You've GOT to be kidding me.

M: That's why I was laughing in the first place; I knew what your reaction would be!

H: Anyway, isn't she dead? *see footnote*

M: Well, you see, that's where the time paradox comes in because if the bomb was never detonated, then none of that would have happened, ergo, she's alive! In one scenario anyway. They're at least going to show some of what would have happened had the plane never crashed because all these original characters are coming back and I've even seen the set photos of Claire being pregnant and Boone being there, and... Herein continues a long convoluted diatribe, the likes of which I will spare you--you're welcome--but suffice it to say I was pretty much the only one talking the whole six-mile drive.

And that's when my awful realization came upon me.

I am just as big a geek as he is.

Okay, maybe more.



*I realize some of my faithful readers have not yet finished Season 5. I left these spoilers in white, for those who wish not to find out what happens in the very last scene of that season. For those who would like to read it, simply highlight the text.

For those who have no idea which Season 5 I speak of, much less who is this Juliet #1 who is showing up approximately 39 days before our own...go ahead and highlight the text. You'll still be as confused as ever.*

Birthday Girl

Six years ago this kind-hearted, hilarious little girl entered this world. I can honestly tell you that our lives have never been and will never be the same since that day.

Feed Me, Seymore!

So the other night we ordered a Jumbo pizza from Godfather's. And I mean, this pizza is so huge that our entire family of five could only eat half the pizza for supper that night (well, we did have potato wedges to go with it). No problem, right, I figured the outside-the-home worker could take a couple pieces to work for lunch the next day and the kids and I could have the rest for lunch at home.

Next day, 12:30 p.m., it is much later than we usually eat lunch because school had gone a bit long. The children were about to destroy each other out of hunger and I'm about to pass out from not eating in five hours. It would be so very simple to just throw the pizza in the microwave, plop a bag of baby carrots on the table, and immediately satiate myself and the beasts.

Except that when I ran upstairs and opened the refrigerator...THERE WAS NO PIZZA. So I called dear husband--surely this was a mistake, he would never take all the pizza to work leaving the rest of his family to waste away in the middle of the day, right? Well, his phone went straight to voicemail and I rapidly deduced that this was indeed what had happened. So I did what any self-respecting pregnant woman would do in this situation--I sent the following text message:

JERK!!!! You took all my pizza DAMMIT!!!!! (sad face emoticon followed by mad face emoticon followed by red-faced horned emoticon followed by six more sad emoticons followed by three green-faced puking emoticons)

Then I sat down and cried. Cried, for the loss of an easy lunch preparation. Cried, because of high-pitched shrieking and wailing of the hungry clamor of the beasts. Cried, for the health and safety of my dear husband..because who knew just what kind of damage I might inflict on him when he returned home that night.

So anyway, I figured that message would convey the gist of my feelings, and I expected a response full of remorse and shame. Except shortly thereafter I received this on my phone:

Ha ha! That was hilarious! I'm totally saving this one for posterity. (grinning face emoticon)

Later I found out a bunch of coworkers also thought this was hilarious. Why do people think a pregnant, hungry, raving lunatic is so funny, I ask you?

Did I mention I'm having food issues lately?

Someone Should Warn Her

Really, someone should warn her that this could be hazardous to her health.

Uncharted Territory

So Middle Child was helping me make the bed yesterday morning. Oldest Child, feeling the need to put little sister in her place, was taunting her with math problems. The following is recreation is how it all went down:

H: You don't know what 1+1 equals.

E: I do too.

H: You don't know that it equals 2. I learned that in first grade and you don't even know that yet. Ha!

E: Slams the door in Oldest Child's face.

Then commences the putting on of pillows on my bed.

E: Only in Hannah-Hannah-La-La Land that equals 2!

Rolls eyes.

She Takes After Her Dad

This Relaxed Homeschooler

Originally published at Homeschoolin' Mamas
************************************************************

is doing a 180.

We have taken the plunge and signed the girls up with Minnesota Virtual Academy (a K12 program). I think I will miss our relaxed homeschooling days, but it is exciting to move on to something new, as well.

Why the change, you may ask?

Well. As much as what we have done for the past two years has really worked for us in these early grades, the times they are a-changin'. Firstborn Daughter is now moving on to third grade, and she really needs something more rigorous and organized and scheduled and planned and detailed and...you get what I'm saying? I just don't have the time or energy to put into making her education rigorous, organized, scheduled, planned, and detailed on my own. In order to continue homeschooling now that she is older, there are two of school age at home now, Max will be right behind them shortly, pregnant mama is sick and crabby and miserable, there is still a house to keep clean, meals to be made, fun to be had...(deep breath)...we need to turn to some outside direction.

And I am very excited about this outside direction! The best thing about this program is that it is all laid out for us. All books, materials for experiments, a computer, everything, is mailed right to our doorstep and modem with complete instructions, for free! I'm sure there will end up being downsides to this; I'm wondering how it's going to be having to report every thing they do and grade things, etc. I'm also wondering how having to learn within a certain time frame of the year is going to work for us. I think it's a challenge we are up for, however.

I just love learning, growing, and changing as a family. This has been a real pleasant surprise of adult life for me.

Patriotic, The Sequel

Independence Day, Urban-Dwelling Kids' Style

Patriotic

Nature

Bee in Flight


It's Pollen Time around here, and if this photo doesn't prove it,
just look at my kids' runny noses. Then you'll understand.



Broken Web


Kinda disappointing. I really wanted to shoot a spider on
this web.



Runaway Max


He really wanted to run into the water after the
"cack-cack cucks". see footnote 1 We're having this Max
running off and away predicament frequently. Wake me up
when he turns four.



Dad's Little Fisherpeople


Nothing much to say about this one. The photo really tells
the story. It might be one of my favorites.



Trail of Tears


"It's toooooo long!" "My feet hurt."
"I HATE mosquitoes!" "You said we could get
ice cream!"


The End.



Footnote 1: translated "quack quack duck". Did you get that one?