Guest Photographer today :)

I wish I could take credit for this cool shot, but I didn't take it. One of my students who has been working hard on portraits lately took it. The Photograper's name is Asia she has some other good work on the Musing page. I had a great day today, and while I will never get as far off the ground as Olivia, I was emotionally and spiritually there today.

Turning point!

After getting blood drawn today, Dirk felt well enough to go over to our old campus (IUS) and talked to an old professor about future options. He had more purpose and hope in his steps today than I have seen in a long time.

That time of month.....

Bills and balancing the checkbooks! It is also worse because I am just now starting to work on the taxes for us and the business too. This is the first year I have had to do this at all! Mom has done the business in the past and Dirk has done our personal returns. YUCK!!!!!

This is something I needed to learn a long time ago, I just kept putting it off. Now I am in a sink or swim situation. I will swim and everything will be fine, I may even figure out a way to enjoy it :)

dances and dancers at Starlight Competition

Sorry all these are here. I thought I put them in leftovers, but I don't have the time or the energy to switch them over right now. Hope you enjoy. I also hope to get back on track today.

Saturday's Dance Competition

The tired audience after watching 11 straight hours of dance.

The tired feet after 11 straight hours of dancing.

Kayleigh and Grampy.....

I know this is a second posting for the day, but it feels like the leak was at least a day ago! Right after I posted, I got a call that my dad was back in the hospital. So that is where I spent my evening. I had to post this shot as a partner to the one with Kayleigh and Dirk's dad below. If I posted the color version, you would notice that my dad actually has the same color eyes too. I knew his were blue, Dirk's were blue and Kayleigh's were blue, but I didn't realize until today that they all have the same exact shade of reflective soft blue-grey with violet flecks.

Water and Sun....

I woke up to a clogged toilet upstairs, and by lunch (before the plumber could arrive) this is what my dowstairs ceiling looked like. Under it are two buckets half full of water.

Right after I took that picture I walked up to the library and saw the sunlight dancing on this ceiling, it was making a rainbow too, but it was so faint it wouldn't show up on my camera.

Kayleigh and Papaw.....

I think the B&W shows how much they love each other.
This one also shows I still don't know how to tone down hot spots.

The color close-up of their eyes, shows how alike they are.
This one shows I have learned how to get rid of red eye!

Original picture, show they are both older than I want to admit.

And Lent begins....

Nothing I shot today captured the feelings I wanted, but this shot came closest.

Shrove Tuesday at St. Matthews

This is the second year our church's youth group has partnered with St. Matthew's youth group to cook the pancake dinner for the members of both parishes. Last year it was at our church this year it was at St. Matthew's.

Lots of pictures on leftovers of their very beautiful church inside and out. I love how they have service in the round. At my old church we also had a full circle for Communion, that is one thing I really, really miss that St. Andrew's doesn't have on Sundays. However, the small Wednesday night group does Communion in the round.

Arabesque with an axe

Have I mentioned lately how much I miss having Nathan around daily!
He is funny, helpful, irrating, and always makes me smile! He can be so sassy and rude with his mouth one minute, and then turn around and do the work of a full grown man without being asked and without one word of complaint the very next minute. I have been through this stage enough to know that the sassiness will improve, and the hardworking attitude will only keep improving.

Another self-portrait

I was out most of the day, but forgot the camera because it was recharging. So, here is another late night self-portrait.

Snowy Day....

It was really hard to allow Athena to drive herself and her brother to dance classes today. The studio is less than 2 miles down the road. The roads are in good condition, I even trust her driving. However, visibility is low and I don't trust other drivers. I guess this is the best snow I am going to get. It has been pretty to watch all day. It is not sticking to the roads and it is warm enough to enjoy being out in it.

I am putting the extra snow pictures on Leftovers.
I am putting the bread thoughts and recipes on Ponderings in a bit.

Tea Set...

This tea set from Korea was a Christmas gift from my Step-mom and Dad. We used it for the first time today. It is probably the nicest set of real China that we own :) I really like the colors and just wanted to record the cups before I put them away...until our next tea party. I think we may have regular high tea at least once a week while studying Europe.

If you want to see pictures of the kids and their Asian Party today check out Musings.

Baking Day....

I baked enough bread to freeze this time (I hope!). I have been experimenting with all the different grain mixtures to see which ones taste the best, which ones rise the best, and which ones hold up to slicing for sandwiches. These all have different ratios of Barley, Quinoa, Oatmeal, Millet, Wheat, Rye, Wheatberries, Spelt, and unbleached white flour. Some were soaked in buttermilk, some in yoghurt, and a couple are sourdough. My new little mill got a work out. And as they baked today, the smell was wonderful....very yeasty and grassy...

Photo-wise I was experimenting with LT exposures to show off all the textures.

The kids also took lots of pictures today. I will post them on Musings. Thursday seems to have officially become their unoffical photography day. :)

Late night shot...

It was after 11 pm, I realized I had not even picked up the camera today. So, I took it with me while walking the dogs. It captures my day pretty well.

Another day at the doctor

Yes, the other people in the waiting room thought I was nuts for shooting lots of pictures of my sick dh, but hey it was more interesting than sitting there flirting with the fish :)

Self-portraits......

I am feeling a bit better, but my head still hurts. I think I might be due for a hair cut :)

My Mosaics.....

I liked the 13 frame best, so I did two :) The first one captures the fun family moments. The second one many of my experiments.

Under the weather....

I have felt slightly bad all day. So, all I did was read and sleep by the fireplace. I read this entire book today, East...it is like Beauty and the Beast meets the Snow Queen. I am going to seriously recommend it to my all girl literature group.

Together....

I rarely have the two of them in one room together anymore. No one has plans we are all just hanging out tonight, together.

Textures

I have actual shot this piece of wood a few other times, but until I found the LT exposure setting on my camera I didn't like any of the shots. This one I do like. I like the layers and textures. I think I kept going back to it because it fasinates me how even though the life of the tree is over, it continues to shelter and nurture other life very different than its own.

Also I posted some student work over on Musings. The kids are getting very excited again. I think it was seeing me work in B&W and Sepia that inspired them. The work was all shot here in and around the house over the last three days. I think you will really enjoy it.

Playing...

Ok, this afternoon the birds were going wild again. I tried to get good pictures, most were awful. This one is a small piece of a larger picture. I was able to sharpen it up while playing in photoshop today.

This is the stone from my fireplace. I was playing with long exposures and b&w again. It is shot in b&w, but I was able to put a blue wash on it in photoshop. A long time ago, I went through a 'blue period' and I over used the blue washes. It was a lot of fun to play around, it was like being in the darkroom without the smell :)

More playing....

I was too busy to play with photoshop today, but I did play with exposures all day. This one I just did came out best. I set the camera on the van and had the exposure set on 4 sec. I tried to take quite a few of the Big Dipper and the Milky Way, but 4 secs on my little camera just isn't long enough.

Cabbage

I final have photoshop to play with. When I was cutting purple cabbage tonight I loved the lines. I took my normal photo, but then in photoshop I just rendered on cotton paper which is what I used to print my B&W prints on. I really liked how it turned out. I was actually hoping we would have a snow day tomorrow so I would have time to play, but I don't think I will get my wish.