homeofthebudds

{this moment}

inspired by SouleMama

- A wordless moment that captures the essence of the week.

(Wordless? I'm not sure I can handle it. I'll keep it brief.)

Mud dancing.

A little more woodsy walking

We went back to the woods last weekend.

We looked for the frogs we heard calling to us.

We took some pictures

We walked and walked and walked.

We practiced some new skills - wink-wink

And we kept our eyes out for deer. (there were none. It amazes me that this is directly across the trail from that brown and orange leafy goodness in the previous picture.

We saw mossy logs. Lots of mossy logs.

Some of us got a little help on the walk back to the car.

I can't wait to see this place in the snowy winter. And then the spring. Oh my word. I may have found my new favorite place.

A little walk

Dave sent me out on a walk. All. By. Myself.

The sun was shining, the air was crisp, and the trees were beautiful.

I know this is going to sound lame, but I never really realized that mushrooms push up like this. I guess I didn't realize that they were already big when they emerged. There, that kinda redeems me a little right? They should be small like seedlings or something. Not full grown plants. Or spores. Or whatever a mushroom is.

I really really wish the leaf had been in focus. And not the grass. But when its your pocket camera, and you're just kinda holding it on the ground and shooting...you don't always get what you're going for. Maybe I should read the manual for this little camera, too. Hmmm.

Do you see that beautiful blue sky? (And that rather odd looking plant? I was taking a picture of the plant, but it turns out the sky is what's important) By the time I got home it was moody and grey and there was thunder in my ears. I made it inside with a few minutes to spare before the rain came seriously down.

It was a good morning.

:)

photo shoot by the window

Once I (mentally) passed off the website construction, I was free to do other things. Like, take pictures!

Brennan thought it would be fun to join me.

He was rather proud of his work and showed it to everyone. "Look Chickens!!! Look at picture chickens!!!"

He's a very proud photographer.

When he's not befuddled by the camera.

I'm sure I make that face too when wondering what my camera is up to now.

Tomorrow (or shoot, maybe later today) more of his awesome expressions. I love when he cracks himself up.

Some hobbies

This has been a common scene in our house lately.

Ellen's been reading, reading, reading. She espeicially loves Nancy Drew mysteries right now. They have the nicest, tamest mysteries completely appropriate for my lovely. Instead of the ever so common lying, cheating, stealing mysteries these usually turn out to be a mistake that gets cleared up or someone who made a poor choice, regrets it, and is trying to figure out how to fix it. And Nancy and Clue Crew don't just harbor suspicion and try to build a case - they talk to their 'suspects' and actually believe what they say! I love that.

There's also been a lot of drawing going on - by both Dave and Isaiah. Here they were working on drawing David from this book:

These David Shannon books are hugely popular in our house. It might have something to do with the fact that their dad's name is David. Maybe. We've checked out all we can find, including one about the dog Fergus and a little girl's fairy powers in Alice the Fairy. These are Isaiah's favorite books to read to me when it's his turn. He almost always chooses one of the David Shannon books.

Dave's been discovering his inner artist and is totally digging the Magnadoodle.

Today's 200

We've got pumpkins!!

(I swear I did not alter the color on this photo at all. It really is that orange.)

I was feeling incredibly unproductive today so I told the kids to head outside and grabbed my camera and got productive.

Ellen was gettin down with her bad self.

Isaiah wasn't getting down so much as just sitting down.

And one last favorite...

Art/camera night

Today's inspiration didn't strike until Dave got home and announced it was art night.

Actually he said "come here kids" but we all knew that meant "Hey! It's family art night!"

Once I got my camera out, Isaiah got his out,

And I'm sure Ellen would have gotten hers out if Brennan hadn't beat her to it.

He's caught on there's something a little off about that pink camera he's been using and would now like to use a camera that has an lcd thank you very much.

He has not, however, realized there is such a thing as a shutter. He walks around pointing the camera, saying "Say cheese!" (Where did he get that from? Seriously. I never say that.) and being quite pleased to see his 'picture' on the screen.

Ellen has been a champ about letting him run the battery down use it.

She's a keeper.

Dandelions are the coolest.

Yesterday's 200 pictures were taken on a friend's camera. Probably not really 200. But I was snapping away. It's so interesting to use a different camera and be completely thrown with controls in a different place, trying to decide should I shoot in auto or try to figure this out. I went for the auto.

Today I didn't make 200 either. I didn't even get the camera out until late afternoon when I saw a perfectly round dandelion.

You know I have a thing for dandelions.

I feel like I'm getting the hang of adjusting the shutter speed and ISO relatively quickly and I've finally found how to adjust the aperature. Hopefully tomorrow I'll remember to practice with that.

Tonight I was determined to get the hang of being able to shift around the area of focus. That's been on my list for forever and I'm happy to say I finally got it tonight.

It's really easy if you read the manual carefully. If, however, you skim the manual, you're liable to miss the key step and sit there for twenty minutes wondering why your camera is not behaving the way the book says it should.

Kinda like these little seed guys who tried to leave the mother ship but got hung up on a spider web and are now left wondering what to try next.

That giant sunflower I've been photographing all summer is not confused at all. It is quite confident that fall has arrived. Look, it changed its colors and everything.

Some of yesterday's 200

After church we went to the farmer's market,

where a hopeful someone counted their change, hoping, hoping

for a mermaid.

Mermaids, it turns out, are rather expensive. So a pink poodle was approved as a replacement.

Later we went to the park for some peace and quiet.

This picture makes me want to holler "SERENITY NOW!" I don't know why. One should not holler when someone else is having some peace and quiet.

Instead of peace and quiet, I opted for the humiliating experience of showing everyone my arms are like spaghetti and I can barely hold myself up. That was fun.

Maddie and Megan came to join us. Well, really we were joining them.

Brennan looks kinda like a doll to me in this one. I'm not sure why. It's a little disconcerting.

Have you ever noticed his eyelashes? They're rather long.

Things we're doing

The kids have been super enjoying the show "Wipeout" lately. They get to watch a couple minutes of it before bed if they do a good job getting ready. Just a couple days ago they discovered you could apply to be on the show and they both instantly wanted to fill out applications to save for when they are 18.

So we located an application (Thanks Howie!) and they've been working their way through it this week, using it for their writing practice.

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On a completely seperate note, we've had fruit flies lately. Recently on Passionate Homemaking I saw this little easy, free, nontoxic fruit fly solution.

For your own fruit fly trap get a jar. Put a piece of fruit in it. Make a piece of paper into a funnel. Put it in the jar. Leave it on the counter in a good place (i.e. where the flies are and where your children can't reach it.) You're done.

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At a garage sale yesterday we came across an Anne of Green Gables Paper Dollhouse. It was a quarter. The kids love it. All of them.

Especially Brennan.

The best part? The kids have now been introduced to Anne, Diana, Gilbert, Matthew and Marilla. I can not wait to start reading them the first book. In a few years.

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Isaiah, after waiting so patiently for me to make a decision about what to buy, finally has his own camera.

He is sooo pumped.

(And bonus! It's waterproof! Can't wait to take them to the water park.)

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I've been reading a book that challenges you to take 100,000 pictures a year. Which translates to at least 200 a day. So yeah, there were plenty of pictures to choose from today. This was one of my favorites.

And this.

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That's enough for today.