Look Who's 6 Months!

Our delightful chunky monkey, Jayden!!

BTW, it has already been brought to my attention that these are not the vines that bananas grow on... just letting you know....

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lately

I've enjoyed fresh picked fruit from the tree in our back yard!

And since fresh fruit is the theme over at Renaissance, I enjoyed the challenge of taking pictures in my own back yard.

Lately I have enjoyed a couple of tomatoes from the garden and got busy making zucchini bread:

We grow way more zucchini than I can ever use... thankfully Cody takes some to his teachers. I have enough zucchini to bake a double batch of bread each morning for a week!

Lately I read a few chapters in a digital photo design book, learning that oblique and angled lines should never enter or exit a photo from a corner of the frame. I really tried my best on this next shot, but it just wasn't possible to follow the rule...

And that shows that lately I've been prepping the ceiling for paint.

This weekend I will try to get the paint finished on the ceiling, babysit my grandson a few hours, order some prints from a wonderful photo shoot, and hopefully enjoy some warm weather, and possibly connect with some friends at church.

Blessings!

Wordless Wednesday

Hello, New Month! Time to tackle some tasks!

A continuous life theme for me is "fresh starts". Whether it's the beginning of school years or New Year's Eve, I love taking time to plan, chart and start over once again. For several weeks I've been swirling around in a lot of mental "to do"s, biting off far more than I can chew, wondering how to "pull it all together".

This morning I got excited yet once again... it's August 1st, the beginning of a new month, the start of a new week. Instead of mentally thinking on this for the day, I took action and wrote down what I'd like to accomplish this first week. I hope to do this each week during this month. I hope to accomplish my goals!! Perhaps breaking them down into weekly increments will help me finish them off! We'll see...

At first I made a simple list. I want to re-establish some daily habits that mean a lot to me, but which have sparsely shown up since I become distracted with projects... Remembering a girl in college who made large monthly posters with goals and boxes to check off, I made myself a paper to tape up, which has each day this week (not including Sunday), and a vertical space to record letters which are the codes of my goals.

While I would love to have this week's main goal a bit bigger, I stuck with clearing my entry shelves, painting my ceiling and keeping the kitchen clean each day. In case you don't want to try to read the legend at the bottom of my paper, I'll write out my daily goals:

D: Devotion/Prayer I've been doing really quick prayers and barely paying attention to giving my relationship with God a priority in my day. I want a D in each column this week!

R: Read, 30 minutes. I might get in more than 30 minutes a day, who knows. I love to read, whether it's a book on photography, a classic novel or a family life book. Right now I have a few books competing for my attention:

My next two goals are really hobbies. Part of me thought, "Why list hobbies? Shouldn't my goals be 'responsible' and 'task oriented'?" But, creativity often times fuels the other areas of my life and improves them because when I feed my internal creative monster, I am happier and then give greater effort to the other areas in my life... such as keeping the kitchen clean, organizing and painting.

C: Crochet. I am really going to get the blanket I've been working on for Jayden finished this month!

P: Photography. I'd like to try something new a few days this week... perhaps applying something that I am reading about... perhaps getting a small notebook put inside my camera bag and taking notes on what I am doing when I take pictures... we'll see.

And, last but not least, actually the biggest part of life lately:

H: Home Improvement (Paint) It suddenly felt like too much work yesterday when I looked about the living room, entry and halls. I need to cut in the ceiling paint, then roll the ceilings (I don't move furniture out and make a big production, I just get it done, which also means that I have to cover stuff as I go, hoping to not make a big mess... No, don't try to talk me into doing it another way... I'll be fine and the results will be great...). Then I need to do the walls and we have a high vaulted ceiling and I'll be up on a tall ladder... and... sigh... why am I doing this?? But, I can do it if I just break it down into weekly goals. This week it's the ceilings... that's it.

And now I must go... because life is taking place all around me and events like going to the bank and running into the store are still going to have to take place...

Oh, and I decided that in order to make progress in the chosen areas, I will make myself give 15 minutes to reading or hobbies prior to getting on the computer. That means in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening... whenever I want to hop on the computer, I will make myself spend 15 minutes working on something else.

Weekend Wonder

Wow, could I ever have some fun with a title like that. Weekend Wonder... as in I wonder what we'll do this weekend. Or, the wonder that I usually seek out... the moments that remind me how wonderful life can be... on a weekend. I stopped myself from grabbing my camera to take another shot of my purse, camera bag and bright pink "grab my hobby and go" bag. They were lined up again at the corner of the driveway waiting for an adventure.

The theme over at the Lens photo challenge this week is "The view from here". As I was editing photos from today's outing, I had to giggle. Because I so often experience this view:

because I stop to take pictures of "things" and the family doesn't wait for me. But, there is my trusted photographer loving man, carrying my camera bag for me!

But, my favorite view today was this one!

Our road trip took us to another part of our bay... where we saw ducks...

rocks...

an orange colored tree...

Bek!...

a frog, unique to the habitat...

(That's actually Cody, of course)

each other...

and a little bee!

Not to mention the dragonfly:

We laughed, we cried, it moved me, Bob! (Sorry, that just keeps going through my mind and if I don't type it out, it will continue to haunt me for the next several minutes... thanks for understanding)

And why is it that train tracks...

... beckon to be walked down?

Scott asked, "Do you think there are any good photographs to take on the other side of the tunnel?" And, well, there's only one way find out!

And here was our reward:

A lovely little beach!

Perfect for exploring:

And then we made our way home. The End.

Foto Friday time!

This past week's Renaissance photo challenge was sunsets. I did not photograph one of those, though, so I will share my favorite photo from this week... it was SO hard to choose just one, but here are my favorites in order from the most favorite to the others which are almost my most favorite!!

My boy loves his dog.

Progress...

I long for simplicity in the home. Open spaces. Clutter free zones. If something is "there" it should be because I love it or I need it. Painting the interior of my home is giving me the chance to purge and shoot for attaining these such longings...

The walls of the kitchen are now done. Although cabinets need a lesson or two in cleanliness and the ceiling paint hasn't been purchased yet, I am enjoying the immediate results. I hope to keep the walls as empty as possible and to get the chance to reorganize cupboards so that I have less "sitting out" on vertical spaces...

Without further ado... here is my progress:

Now to decide if the next step should be the dining area:

Or the entry way:

***My dining area looks that atrocious because that's where I cleared my painting supplies... it's not that bad... The entry way, however, usually does look this bad...***

What tasks have you been tackling lately?

Whatcha been up to?

Some days it seems like "What haven't I been up to?"

I've been crocheting here and there and the other day Jayden came for a visit and his mommy doesn't know, but when she was busy, I had me some photo fun with baby boy! Here he is in an outfit which kind of matches the blanket I've been working on for a couple of months:

He'll be six months old soon!!

And I slip into another room to peek at little Christopher, napping. We had the best time with him the other night. He says the funniest things.

And in and around every little bit of time for this or for that... I am working on the interior of our home. This:

Became:

(Yes, while repainting the kitchen, I made zucchini bread.)

I've been testing colors for weeks. I didn't want to paint any walls of the house white... or off white. But, Scott shot down darker colors that I picked out, which is probably fine because I truly need a bright home. I really detest my windows being covered. If there are blinds installed, I simply pull that handy cord until they are drawn up to the top and smile victoriously. I don't mind a valance, but no heavy curtains, thank you! Here is a bit of my progress... and, for the record, I am not painting the walls "white", I am painting them "polished pearl". (I did win with my color selection for the entry, living room and hallway colors, though... but, that will be next week or so...)

Oh, the window sills are not going to be white... nice color, huh?

Getting started on this has given me yet another confirmation that I am not as young as I used to be... my back just aches after working on this. But, sights like this motivate me to coninue on. Really, the kitchen never beckons to me to begin with... but, now, it's less and less inviting!!

Well, all that means is the music needs to be turned up and playlists must be enjoyed, because this is going to be a long process....

And that, my friends, is what I've been up to...