Doing the Next Thing

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Experiment

View the world through my lens here.

Windows: A Photo Journal

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

I planned a really yummy Easter menu: boneless leg of lamb with mint balsamic drizzle, roast chicken (for the non-lamb-eaters), sweet potatoes, asparagus, fancy green salad, and homemade lemon meringue pie.

But we didn't eat that - not one bit of it. Instead we had pizza. In the photo above, the caprese skewers represent the only homemade item we had at our entire Easter feast! And it was GREAT!

It's been a busy few weeks, and even Spring Break was filled with things like taxes & doctors' appointments. So when the Saturday before Easter came and I started making my little "to do" list ... I also started to panic. My quick-thinking (and awesome) husband decided that the remedy was to skip it all, have pizza for Easter, and take the kids to a carnival Saturday night instead of staying up all hours to finish deviled eggs.

We had a blast at the carnival -- I wish you could have seen K's reaction to the thrill of her first fun house, first ferris wheel. We did a lot of spinning and going up high - and a lot of laughing. We stayed out late. And no one missed the leg of lamb. There's no obligation to make a big meal at Easter - the only obligation is to REJOICE in our Risen Savior!

This may go down in history as one of my favorite Easter Dinners ever!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

(1 Peter 1:3 ESV)

25/30

I don't really love myself in this photo - that shirt is so much cuter in person, and I have strange unflattering shadows across my face. But there are so few pics of all seven of us ... and we worked so hard to get this family shot of our spring break getaway. (You should have seen the camera -- self-timer all set -- propped on a book-on top of a pillow-on top of a barstool. That's a fast 10 seconds, let me tell ya!)

24/30

Sunrise in the Blue Ridge Mountains

We enjoyed a quick getaway at the beginning of Spring Break. Found a good deal on 2 nights at a cabin with a hot tub, pool table, and this amazing view! It was SO GOOD to just slow down and spend a couple days just hanging out as a family!

Monday, February 27, 2012

23/30

daughter, M (almost 13), took this photo on the way to school. it was a very gloomy, yucky day and then, all of a sudden - a rainbow and a patch of sunlight! the phone camera just doesn't do it justice!

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. - Psalm 19:1

Sunday, February 26, 2012

22/30

my sweet hubby built me this table! i'm in LOVE! (with the table AND the man ;-)

Saturday, February 25, 2012

21/30

terrarium we made for my brother-in-law's birthday. i love the way it turned out

Monday, February 13, 2012

20/30

Chocolate-dipped S'mores. I made these for youth group snacks and they were a big hit! (though it was kind of tedious, made a big mess i still haven't cleaned up, and didn't turn out AT ALL like what i pictured in my mind. but i think the teens felt loved, and that's all that matters.)

19/30

we took our Durer-inspired animal drawings and made "woodcuts" out of them (carved styrofoam plates and practiced making prints.)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

18/30

a student's interpretation of me. much thinner and cuter than the original. ;)

Saturday, February 11, 2012

17/30

another snapshot of art class: Nativity Triptych

Friday, February 10, 2012

16/30

owl sketch by one of my art students. we studied Albrecht Durer's animal drawings as inspiration.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

15/30

Note from my sweet hubby. Found in my lunchbox one day at art class.

Nature Journal

4-7-10 A (5) discovered a wolf spider hanging out in our tent in the backyard. See the full story here.

1-19-10 After dropping the Big Boys off at their tutorial, the redheads and I went to a local greenway for a 4-mile run. A (5) on his bike, M (10) run/walking with me, and K (3) in my new hand-me-down jog stroller. A kept getting ahead of us, and his instructions were to stop now and then and wait for us to catch up. About 3 miles in, I saw that he had stopped at the end of one of the boardwalk sections. I called out to him and told him to go on, but he shook his head silently and pointed vigorously at the trail ahead of him. There, about 100 feet in front of him, was a deer! A large doe had wandered onto the trail and was watching him watching her. After about a minute of regarding each other, the doe bounded off the trail and into the woods.

10-10-09 Thanks to my awesome BIL, we recently went to Disney and stayed in Ft. Wilderness campground. One night, while walking home from the pool, my Sweetie and the 3 redheads saw an armadillo cross the path in front of them! Not something we generally see here in North Georgia, so it gave them quite a thrill.

4-21-09 A Red-winged Blackbird flew across my path as I ran next to the lake at a local park. In spite of being abundant in my state, this is the first one I've seen in a long time. Our property is wooded and not near water, so they don't frequent our feeders. He was beautiful.

10-16-08 Three-ring circus in the backyard when our cat, Odysseus, catches a chipmunk. Cat with chipmunk in mouth, A (4) running after cat, Daddy running after A, everyone watching, yelling, running. The little creature is finally freed, much to the disappointment of the cat.

9-4-08 Three of Agriope spiders have taken up residence in our front garden. I love the gorgeous zigzag webs. They're some kind of agriope - we're trying to narrow it down and I'll update. I learned something new: these gals eat their webs before moving on. The zigzag pattern is to alert birds of the web's presence, so the birds don't crash into the web and break it, depriving the spider of some of its food! Cool.

9-5-08 The bees are all over our liriope out front. The kids were thrilled to see the little "pollen baskets" on their legs up close. Learned about those from the Magic School Bus!

A (4) also had his own private "nature hike" today into our woods. He found a leaf on the ground, we identified it as a sweetgum, and he went in search of the tree. He was very proud to find the tree and some seed pods as well.