Cheeky Cocoa Beans

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

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!

Monday, March 28, 2011

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. ;)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

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.