Black and Whites

I have this thing for "real" pictures. I love taking pictures and hearing the click and hearing the film wind when you're all done. I love taking the film to get it developed and the anticipation of wondering if any pictures will turn out. Sure I like my digital camera and the ability to cheaply take a multitude of pictures but there's just something about real film. About two years ago I bought an old Nikon on E-bay, turns out the auto focus on those has this problem of going out and Nikon will fix it for free if you send it in. I called Nikon and got everything ready to send in and what do you know, it's been sitting in my cupboard for a year and a half. The other day when I was cleaning out said cupboard I pulled it out and re-attached the lens and the strap and loaded a roll of black and white film and then sat and very patiently tried to focus manually while at the same time capturing my ever-active children. Friday I took the roll down to Fred Meyer and today I picked it up. I'm very pleased with some of the pictures. Here are a few of my favorites. My other favorites are on Facebook.

Organization Part 2

Not too long ago I posted about organization, here is the continuance of my reluctant but thankful slide into it. Reluctant, because well, every time I hear the word "budget" or "schedule" I want to run and hide. Sorry, it's a gut reaction. I'm still finding though that planning ahead and having a schedule really helps out. My latest "find" is the meal schedule. The last two weeks we have sat down as a family for Saturday dinner and planned out the next week's meals. The kids like helping come up with ideas though Ivan seems to want oatmeal for every meal. It's flexible enough to switch around a few days and helps me figure out what I need to do each day to be ready for the next. I know many of you are rolling your eyes and saying, "I could have told you that!" but I'm finding that by working out these scheduling things naturally by myself they seem to stick a little better. I'm a slow developer, what can I say.
On a homeschooling note, I'm still waiting for Hannah's homeschooling material to get here, it was back-ordered everywhere I tried to order it. So we've been working on numbers and math and including her violin practice in the school-work category. Ivan has been working on a Brain Quest Pre-K workbook and absolutely loves it, he begs every day to be allowed to do his school work. Hannah would rather draw and color but after lunch while Clayton and Mod are asleep we work a little. So far it's going better than I imagined, I must be learning patience.
Someday I may be fully converted to a scheduled way of life and I await the day that my gut doesn't turn at the mention of the such words.

Momma!

Yesterday when I went into my bedroom with a load of laundry I heard, "Momma, Momma, Momma!" And I came out slightly cross to ask, "What?!" (We've had many discussions on not constantly saying momma when they want something.) and they all looked at me like, "What are you talking about, we are watching Rockadoodle and can't be bothered." Then later Ivan went outside and a few minutes later Hannah went out and was yelling for him because she didn't know where he was; I came out too and heard, "Momma!" from what sounded like the driveway area and I yelled for Ivan to come back into the grass. We then heard giggling from under the chair on the porch, he was hiding. And yet again, the front door was open and the kids had been freely going in and out when I noticed that Hannah and Ivan were on the floor in the living room and not trusting Clayton in the front yard by himself and hearing a distant, "Momma!" I got up from the computer put my cup in the kitchen and walked immediately to the front door and called Clayton in only to turn around and see them all looking at me with blank looks. Finally while Clayton and Mod were in nap-land, Hannah, Ivan and I were laying on a blanket in the front yard reading when I heard "Momma!" again followed by some weird cackling noises and realized that all day I had been tricked by a bird. Our neighbors are bird-sitting a parrot who's favorite word is "Momma" and my children probably think I'm crazy.

Just Like Us

Today for lunch we had biscuits. Simply because we were out of bread and they were easy. Lately I've had trouble coming up with lunch and dinner ideas but that's a whole other post. But while I was making said biscuits my mind was wandering, as it is often prone to do and I started wondering: (are you ready for these deep thoughts?) How come in tabloids whenever a celebrity is not wearing their wedding ring it automatically means "trouble in paradise"? These same tabloids also claim that stars are just like us; which would lead me to believe that they forgot to put their ring back on after making biscuits, or painting, or changing a really disgusting diaper. Sounds more plausible than "We're going through a rough patch and even though I don't want to talk about it, I'm going to take my wedding ring off and go out in public." Well, almost plausible, do they make biscuits or change really disgusting diapers?

Generic Art

The Plate of Inspiration

I went dumpster diving...well recycling bin diving at the post office the other day and came home with a stack of fall catalogs such as LL Bean, American Girl Doll, various clothing & bedding catalogs and Pier One. Whilst browsing through the Pier One catalog I came across a plate that I liked. Well, I liked everything about it except the fact that it was a plate and since I had a random canvas in my craft closet and acrylic craft paints at my disposal I thought I would attempt art once again. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and I think I'll hang it in my bedroom.
Hannah also, in a fit of inspiration, tried her hand at a similar one and let Ivan choose the colors for her.

Dandelion Wine

When Erik and I got married I was given a cookbook that had a recipe for dandelion wine in it. I have always wanted to try this recipe and so this year I did. A few months ago the kiddos and I spent an afternoon picking dandelions from our neighbors yard and I spent a few more hours plucking all the blossoms to make the wine. It has been sitting on my counter fermenting and tonight I screwed up my courage and popped the cork. Bleck! No thank you! We're not much on drinking wine in general though I don't mind an occasional glass but this wine...not so much. I re-corked the bottle, put Mod in the front pack and walked over to our neighbor's house to share with her. She had made me promise I'd let her try it. The look on her face was priceless and she kept on apologizing for not liking it all! She described it as, "you know when you put on too much perfume and the vapors get in your mouth? But not a good perfume, a really, really cheap one." I just laughed and told her that is was okay, I didn't really have high hopes for it but I'd always wanted to try it. Now I'm looking forward to pouring the rest of it down the drain and reclaiming the counter space the bottles have been taking up, small as that space may be.

Not for the Weak Stomached

Tonight I got to witness the table-saw battle wound and not only witness it but re-dress it and take pictures. I got the old bandage off and went to grab the camera but it gave me the "change the batteries" note so Erik had to wait while I dug out some new batteries. My bandaging job will work but is by no means professional, I couldn't figure out the applicator for the tube gauze/dressing thing but it's covered and it's clean. I almost started this post with "Tonight I got to play nurse"...but thought that might be TMI : ) Here for the curious, in all it's glory(?), is his wound.

Homeschooling

Let the fun begin! Today I finally committed and bought homeschooling material for Hannah. On advice from my mother-in-law we are going with "Sing, Spell, Read and Write". Everything I've read about it seems like it's right up my alley and I also really trust my MIL's advice. Plus Hannah loves to sing! Sounds like a good fit for us. I upgraded the shipping so I'm hoping it's here within a week or so and we'll start. I'm looking forward to this. Check back in a a few weeks and I'll let you know what I think.