You Capture: Vibrance

When I saw that this week's photography theme was vibrance, I thought about just following Josiah (8) and Grace (5) around with the camera and catching all their energy in photographs.

I didn't. But I thought about it. And the thought made me a little tired.

So, instead, I focused on the bright colors around me, like the wisteria climbing high into the trees. One day, I hope to have wisteria in our yard. Until then, I can enjoy what grows along the road and in other people's yards. (There's a lot of it around here. How about in your area?)


And then there's the vibrant colors in the produce department...

Bright yellow pansies in front of one of the stores that sells all the supplies you could possibly need to grow bright yellow pansies, or nearly anything else...


And my own vibrant little purple phlox blooming around the lovebirds.

Works For Me Wednesday: Kitchen hint

I don't know about you, but I almost always buy the cheap trash bags without the bells and whistles...OK, without the drawstring or another feature that might help the trash bag stay in place around the top of the kitchen trash can. The thing I have found to help keep the trash bag from falling in (since these cheaper bags also tend to be shorter) is to keep a diaper wipes box in the bottom of the trash can.


The diaper wipes box supports the bottom of the (shorter) bag and also comes in handy as a place to store trash bags so they are conveniently placed and kept clean. I would recommend using a diaper wipes box with a solid lid (unlike the one in our trash can) so the clean bags would stay clean even if the trash bag in use should leak.

An added bonus? Since the box is supporting the bottom of the trash bag, it helps improve the accuracy of children who are being trained to take out the trash and haven't quite gotten the hang of securing all four corners. ;)

Want more WFMW posts on kitchen topics? Check out an easy way to keep up with leftovers/keeping recipes in a notebook and chopping onions without the tears!

Funny boy...

I was looking through my photos on the computer just now and ran across these photos from a recent trip to Athens.




I noticed that my 13 year old

had renamed those two photo files with "greatest place on earth" in the file name. ;)

When I can't think of anything to say, I show you photos of Grace sleeping

It has been quite a week. Nothing terrible...I certainly can't complain (except perhaps about Algebra), but it just felt like a really long week.

So, instead of talking about Algebra and boring the vast majority of you to death with details about how unmotivated my teenage son is to learn this subject, I will just show you photos of Grace sleeping. She's so photogenic even when she's sleeping (yes, perhaps I am biased) and I apparently can't resist taking her picture when she's asleep, since all of these were taken within the last month.

Here is Grace (now age 5) sleeping with one of her beloved babies...


and fairy wings...


with an impressive stack of books...


and, last but not least, there is pictorial proof that she does sleep in her own bed at night!


As a bonus, here's one where she should be sleeping but she's not. There is a stethoscope peeking out from under the "pillow" she made...she has a thing for stethoscopes. She's apparently a well-rounded child, judging from the things she adores enough to sleep with.


I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

You Capture: Youth

Youth [yooth] -noun. The time of being young.

The time of playing with bubbles until you run out...

Grace (5) and Josiah (8)

The time of playing with your best friend all day long...


and loving every minute of it.


The time of looking forward to tomorrow, because there's even more playtime ahead...

Grace (5)

Brothers

Isn't this a great shot? Talk about capturing someone's personality...

Robert (13) and Josiah (8)

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday fun.

Giveaway winner

Congratulations to the winner of my postcard giveaway...

A Joyful Chaos!

You Capture: Emotion in black and white

Although I asked Josiah to make a sad face for this shot

he does just fine on his own, thankyouverymuch. He frequently shows his melodramatic side (especially this week...) and often reminds me how great life would be if we only had a dog.

Fortunately, until that happens, we have several loaner dogs in our lives, including the music store mascot, Katie.


Josiah would probably make an argument about how much more attentive he would be with his schoolwork...if only we had a dog!

I know better.

~~~~~

This week we had birthday girl excitement



...lots and lots of birthday girl excitement, since my birthday is a day before Grace's, and Jason's is earlier in the month. Grace is now 5! You would have thought she turned into a queen with all the "It's my birthday, so I get to choose" comments that came out of that sweet, spunky little girl.

Make that a sweet, spunky, and gorgeous little girl.

Wordless Wednesday: Pine trees

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday fun.

Overheard: Being Four

I cannot believe that my baby girl will be five soon! How can this possibly be? It was nearly a year ago when we were grocery shopping and Grace spied a box of "pink" cake mix at the store. She very excitedly told me that she wanted me to fix her that pink cake for her when she turned five.

Five?! How could she say that so casually? I am standing in the middle of the aisle, hardly able to breathe with this thought, and she's casually talking about being five within a month of her fourth birthday!

Then again, she is also the same child whose first thought after potty training was "Now I can become a mommy." I guess she thinks that the faster she gets through these years, the sooner she can be a mommy.


Still...I love what a sweet, quirky, clever little girl she is. I'm not in any hurry for her to grow up, so I am relieved that she's promised me she will stay little for me for a long time. And since she so freely shares what is going on in her four year old mind, I have plenty of blog material (if I can just remember to write it down).

~~~~~

Grace: I said what I said, and I meant what I meant. A four year old is faithful 100%!

~~~~~

Grace: Lots-O [the strawberry-scented bear on Toy Story 3] wasn't nice, 'cause he didn't want to treat her [Big Baby] the usual way. You know, "Treat others the way you want them to treat you."

~~~~~

Grace: Mommys are the specialist thing in the whole wide world.

The adoration is mutual. :)

Overheard: The "Is it too late to talk about Valentine's Day?" Edition

No doubt about it--it's pretty fun having a four year old in the house. Who else would insist that I encourage me to take a picture of the chocolate goodies my Secret Sister gave me for Valentine's Day just so I could put it on the blog?

Thank you to my Secret Sister!

And who else would volunteer every day to help me eat those chocolatey goodies?

Oh, yeah. My boys would do that. ;)

But I have to tell you, it was so much easier getting Grace to write her name on the Valentines for the homeschool play group party than it ever has been with the boys.


And she not only made Valentines for Dad and Mom


but also for Puppy (a.k.a. Josiah)!



But my favorite part has been watching her excitement over every event, no matter how small. And, of course, playing with her a bit...

Me: Grace, it's time for bed. You need to get to bed quickly so the Valentine Creature can come and bring goodies!

Grace [wide-eyed with wonder]: Really?!?!

Me: No...but you do need to get to bed.

She giggled! Then, later, as I was tucking her in...

Grace: Mommy, now the Valentine Creature can come! [more giggles]

Before she went to sleep, she had some questions...

Grace: Um, what's tomorrow, Mommy?

Me: Tomorrow is Tuesday.

Grace: No, I mean, is it Easter? Or my birthday?

I guess you can't blame her for wanting it to be another holiday. After all, the stores already had St. Patrick's Day items out by this time!

Overheard: Josiah

8 year old Josiah

Josiah: Are we having a babysitter tonight?

Me: No. Why would we? [This was on Thursday]

Josiah: To celebrate survival. You know, if your family had 4 kids, you'd pick at least a day every year to celebrate survival. Especially if you're the mom.

Hmmm...I like this. I think I could celebrate survival.

~~~~~

Josiah: My mother didn't raise me to be a bench!

That's probably one of the few "I didn't raise you to..." that we haven't said. I suspect Grace was trying to sit on him.

~~~~~

Josiah [Looking out the kitchen window instead of concentrating on his schoolwork in front of him]: I wonder what those birds are thinking as they fly...

That pretty much sums up our week right there. Spring fever has hit!



How was your week?

Postcard Giveaway! (CLOSED)

These customized postcards are perfect for making an announcement, promoting a business or an event, creating your own unique recipe cards...so many possibilities! UPrinting's postcard printing makes the online printing process easy for all of your postcard printing and marketing needs, whether it is for personal or business use. UPrinting is an online printing company that has customer service to suit your needs, with 24 hour live support via chat or phone.

The details of the giveaway prize:

• 100 postcards for one (1) winner
  
• 5" x 7" 14pt Cardstock Gloss
• Front Only Printing
• 2 business days turnaround
  
• Limited to US residents 18 years old and above

I will be given 100 5x7 postcards for hosting this giveaway, which comes at the perfect time because I need more of these church nursery reminder postcards printed:


I have ordered these postcards in the 4" x 6" size from UPrinting before and they turned out beautifully! (Just between us, I think I'll have the graphic image on the postcard be smaller than 5" x 7" so I can use these as postcards without having to pay more than postcard postage for them due to their large size. I can cut them down to a good size easily enough.)

So, what would you do with 100 postcards? Leave a comment telling me how you would use the postcards for a chance to win! (Please make sure I have your email address so I can contact you if you are chosen as the winner.)

For additional entries, you can leave additional comments for each of the following things you do:

* Follow my blog with Google Friend Connect
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* Promote the giveaway by posting a link to this post on your blog
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* Like UPrinting on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/uprinting)

The giveaway ends on March 17th at 10:00 p.m. ET, at which time I will randomly pick a winner from the comments. The winner will receive an email with a coded link from UPrinting to claim the prize.

Disclaimer:
This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting. No monetary compensation was given and I will receive postcards for hosting the giveaway. For more information about postcards, please visit http://uprinting.com/postcards.html.

YAHWEH

Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street


Take these shoes
And make them fit

Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere


Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean

Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones



Take this soul
And make it sing, sing

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Take these hands
Teach them what to carry



Take these hands
Don't make a fist

Take this mouth
So quick to criticize
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean



This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?

Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill


Take this city
If it be your will

What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart



Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break

Yahweh by U2

Wordless Wednesday: Reflection

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday fun.

Lyrical Photographs: Hold Me, Jesus

Sometimes my life just don’t make sense at all
When the mountain looks so big
And my faith just seems so small

Glacier, Montana
September 1995

So hold me Jesus, ‘cause I’m shakin’ like a leaf
You have been king of my glory
Won’t you be my prince of peace
When I wake up in the night I feel the dark


It’s so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart
So hold me Jesus, ‘cause I’m shakin’ like a leaf
You have been king of my glory
Won’t you be my prince of peace
Surrender don’t come natural to me
I’d rather fight you for something I don’t really want
Than to take what you give that I need
And I’ve beat my head against so many walls
I’m falling down, falling on my knees
God please
And the Salvation Army band is playing this hymn

Shirley's collection

And your grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin
So hold me Jesus, ‘cause I’m shakin’ like a leaf
You have been king of my glory
Won’t you be my prince of peace

Listen to the song performed by Big Daddy Weave on YouTube by clicking here.
Lyrics by Rich Mullins

Check out more Lyrical Photographs at my friend Kathleen's blog, Treasured Chapters.