Day Twenty Seven

I found myself with the very rare day alone.

What to do?

This movie is, at least, on my top ten.

My husband and I talk about how we will be the parents whose kids gather around.

Instead of a lake, it will be a beach house on the Oregon Coast.

Yeah.

I love this movie!

Day Twenty Six

Truth Tuesday...

This hangs above the window at my kitchen sink. 

It is a constant, comforting reminder to me

as my family is in this "transition" season of our lives.

"Calm down... I've got it!"

 

Day Twenty Five

Winter's getting to me, but there's beauty here.

Still tweaking my watermark... I'll fix it later!

Day Twenty Four

Yesterday, we left to see our daughter. We were trying to beat a winter storm, due on Sunday afternoon. We set out at around noon. The heavy rain started right away, and we knew that the snow on the pass had come too early. But everyone had school in the morning so, no matter how badly we wanted to just stay with our daughter and our friends, we set out in our Toyota Camry That's right. Not a Highlander or even a Rav 4, but the sedan.

The first picture shows what a beautiful view we had on our way over.

The second shows the mess we had on the way home.

My brave husband tightened his grip and plowed us onward to our safe place and to our dog...

But not before we hit a giant rock (think volleyball size) and bumped over it in a loud, scary fashion. The visibility was bad, and we just didn't see it.

I'm seriously so grateful that we suffered nothing more than a slightly bent rim and frazzled nerves.It could have been so much worse.

This is my weekly self portrait day,

but I promised that I wouldn't let myself be bound by the rules I made for this project, just guided by them.

Maybe in a few days...

Day Twenty Three

Today, we were able to travel go to Eugene to see our daughter, who is in college.

We had lunch with her and took her shopping for laundry soap.

Our dear friends who live there (and help to take good care of our girl) were so kind and invited us to stay with them overnight. We've all been busy, as families tend to be, and haven't spent time together in a couple of years. Lifelong friends are the ones who feel like home.

Here we are...

Lunch, friends, and parking meters.

(We don't have those where we live!)

Day Twenty Two

Bruno!!

Day Twenty One

This Day...

This is a good one,

because forty (mmffble) years ago, my husband was born and God marked him just for ME!

As they read this, my girls are "throwing up a little in their mouths".

This man has been my best friend for the last 22 and a half years. For almost twenty of these, we've been married. Why is he so cool?

Well...

He's gentle, loyal, snuggly, undyingly commtitted, loving, humble, handsome, committed to truth, very much his own man and someone who would do absolutely ANYTHING for his family...

As I'm typing this, I realize that I'll never be able to finish all the things I love about him,

so I'll just show you a fun moment we shared last night

with two- thirds of our children at Bend Burger Company.

Yum.

Day Twenty

He has his own room...

When his oldest sister left for college this past Fall, we just knew that the two remaining would be thrilled to get their own rooms.

I mean, what thirteen year old girl wants to share with her eight-year-old brother?

Well, he can't quite bring himself to sleep alone.

It's January. We've tried. We need sleep, too, so we've been giving in.

I have to remind myself that it won't last forever, and we'll miss this. 

Day Nineteen

Here they are...

My son had a day. Hit in the face with a ball in P.E. Hard enough to bring some tears.

Quite a raspberry on his cheek. (I'm not sure if it shows here)

My daughter is in eighth grade. That's enough for anyone to put up with in a day. Seriously.

Brave girl.

And Bruno...

Well, he's had some naughty days these past few weeks. He's really the best dog ever.

Today, he's been good and I think he's proud of himself for not getting into stuff.

Or peeing in the house.

Go Bruno!

Day Eighteen

Something blue...

I love the Lightroom action on this, although this really is this kind of blue.

It almost looks like selective color, but it's really "cold tone"

This is getting to be super fun AND addictive!

I find I'm "seeing" photos everywhere I go.

Day Seventeen

This is me, being brave...

It's Sunday, and it's my commitment to take a self- portrait every week as part of this project.

It's good for me to show up. I'm the mom behind the camera.

I realized that there should be some pictures of me and that I should find a way to be happy with myself with all my imperfections.

When I'm 55, I'll look back and say, "Ohh... I was so young!"

Ha!

Today, I'm just looking for a way to embrace the mom hair and (gulp) wrinkles.

Here goes...

 

Day Sixteen

My guys on my weekly photo walk...

Lookin' at the ducks in Bend

Day Fifteen

We finally got the kid a real Bible- not just the book with Bible stories in it.

He hasn't put it down (well, now he's playing Wii, but before that)

He keeps saying things like, "Did you know...?"

He giggles every time Adam and Eve are referred to as "naked".

He insisted on starting with the Old Testament... even though we tried to tell him that the New Testament might  be a bit less confusing. But the boy is curious about all of it.

I love this guy and the desire he has to learn. Really, this is the first time he's put down his "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series since he completed the collection with his Christmas money.

Day Fourteen

Sunrise...

Are words really necessary here?

Day Thirteen

I have always loved this necklace...

My oldest daughter wore it to one of her formal dances (her first, I believe).

Well, she left for college this past Fall and I was really thinking about her today.

Photographically speaking, I'm still having a blast in Lightroom and still having trouble on the focusing on more than just where the spot focus frame on my camera wants to focus. That said, I really have had fun with this shot. 

Day Twelve

I love this book. I went to college to study it.

After a lifetime of ministry positions, I still love it, though we are readjusting our relationship.

This Word never changes, but our lives do.

This scripture (Psalm 90) has been my prayer for much of my adult life... I just want, in the end, to know that my life's work mattered; that every experience was for a reason.

And that, now, God would bring us to a place where we can bless others.

There's always a hunger for Truth...

Day Eleven

So far, my theme for Mondays is "something blue".

My favorite color is blue and has been for most of my life with little deviations for pink when I was five and purple in the early eighties. Of course. I was in middle school. It's expected.

This is a photo of one of my very favorite blue things. However, in this DARK winter, I had to add light in the room which made it not at all blue... not even with a full on assault in Lightroom.

That's okay.

I know that my incredibly soft (if just a bit nappy) fuzzy throw is a beautiful grey- inspired blue. I like to think of it as the color of our ocean waters here in Oregon (when the water is blue and not green). I'm convinced. Are you?

Day Ten

This day (Sunday) is set aside for a weekly self portrait. Well, don't we all have those days when we're not suited for public consumption? I mean, at all? 

That was this day. So I put my toes in as a stand- in for me. It's all I had! The day was extra dark. No good light anywhere. We were exhausted from a big week. Nothing's in focus, but that, also, is fitting for the day...

I know I am trying to grow as a person and an artist, but this will have to do!

Day Nine

Saturdays are set aside for a photo walk.

There's a group for this on Facebook that I've joined.  I love this idea. 

Today, we were in Bend and we ended up at Farewell Bend Park. Brennan climbed a rock or two, we saw a brown, fluffy Newfoundland puppy, who was bigger than our lab/beagle- and he was only four months old! The ducks and the sun were out and Gracie and I had this assignment to do. I LOVE that we are doing it together...

 (I really need to work on focus in a situation like this...how to get everyone in there clearly!)

Day Eight

This is the thing...

Some days, it seems as though, in the middle of this winter, there are only a couple of hours of daylight. It may also seem as though there is nothing photo-worthy in my entire neighborhood that has gone unrecorded by me and my camera. I can only shoot so much yellow grass, so many dry evergreens. And I'm over snow.

This is where the stretching of this project comes in.

I was forced to find something in the low light inside my house to make a shot that is just a bit meaningful...

I really love Billy Graham.

He's one who has LIVED this walk in truth and true, Christ- like love for others. He hasn't lived running his own agenda or by marketing his own "Christian" brand. He really has been a true servant to God and man.

He's on my top five of those I'm most excited to look up in Heaven.

And, on this day, his words have lifted me up!

Day Seven

If you look closely, you can see a grove of evergreens in his right eye...

I'm in LOVE with these freckles!

Day Six

I love this expression on my baby girl. She's a photographer, too, and will very soon surpass me in skill and art. Maybe she'll let me work with her someday! So, like I said, the noise is there, but I'm going to choose to look at it as "film grain". *Smile*I will try this and the next shot next week with more appropriate settings. Hopefully, it will be warmer!

Day Five

Part of this project for me, in fact, a very large part, is to develop the discipline and experience to become a much better photographer. This means that there will be days when I think I have the shot- only to find in post processing that I missed some setting or focus issue. This will be good for me, but posting these will be hard for me. I like perfection. It's a good opportunity for me to get creative and work with what is.

The next three posts are a span of three days when I didn't bother to check my ISO. It was set at Hi 1 on my Nikon, and the noise is enormous. I worked them a bit in LR, but I'm just learning that program, as well. What I do know about Lightroom is that, if I use a preset, it is more than likely going to be "aged photo". I just really like it! And this is a beautiful piece of white chocolate! Next time, I will nail the focus! Yeah.

Day Four

Yeah, I know I need to reformat some things here and pretty it up a bit. I have plans for that. But for tonight, at the end of a very long day, I've decided to post and run. I had some fun with my son (and off-camera daughter) as we played one last evening of Beatles' Rock Band before we put it away until the next school break.

Shot's very noisy, but that fits the night...

Day Three

Self Portrait

I've never done this before. I'm not so much sad as concentrating...Ha!

I've got 51 more weeks to do something spectacular (in manual, too)

Days One and Two

This is it, 2010... you're up!

We are Duck football fans. In fact, the two older girls (my daughter and her roommate) AND my husband are all students at the University of Oregon. This is the fist time since 1995 that we were able to cheer for them as they played in the Rose Bowl! We didn't win. But, still...

Happy New Year!! 

Beautiful winter sunrise sky and some fun in LR. It really is not as spectacular here as it was in person.