When Skies are Grey

After a several very grey and rainy days here in Washington and a few grey days in my own heart, I had a taste of sunshine. We woke up this morning to the sun sparkling on a fresh blanket of snow. Although it had mostly melted by mid-morning, it was a keen reminder of the glory that is all around if you just have eyes to see it. The sun filled morning came on the heels of having enjoyed an essay written in 1910 entitled "The Glory of Grey." I read it Saturday afternoon while sitting in front of the fire watching the rain fall. Reminding me to look for the majesty in every moment, and that beauty is sometimes especially noticeable against the grey skies of ordinary life. Here's a little snippet from the essay.

"Lastly, there is this value about the colour that men call colourless; that it suggests in some way the mixed and troubled average of existence, especially in its quality of strife and expectation and promise. Grey is a colour that always seems on the eve of changing to some other colour; of brightening into blue, or blanching into white, or breaking into green or gold. So we may be perpetually reminded of the indefinite hope that is in doubt itself, and when there is grey weather on our hills or grey hair on our heads perhaps the may still remind us of morning."
-G.K. Chesterton

A couple shots from my photography class for the elementary school kids at their Afternoon of Art.

Chesterton Quote of the Day

"You will find that rich colours actually look more luminous on a grey day, because they are seen against a dark background and seem to be burning with a lustre of their own. Against a dim sky all flowers look like fireworks."

-G.K. Chesterton: Daily News, September 3, 1910

the whole world in His hands

This week has been a bit of a ride, more like the past several weeks. Amidst all of the turmoil there have been so many opportunities to see all of the blessings in daily life. I think sometimes we see them best in the conflict and chaos, or at least they're most visible if we have eyes to see. Sometimes my eyes are a little slow to open to the surrounding graces, but each day is a little step toward that. 

Sending a little love to Daddy

Linked together with love

Raindrops keep falling on my head...
(I've had that song stuck in my head since I took this picture)


and one with a smile


a take off a hairstyle idea we found on Pinterest

My sweet Valentine flowers from my number one man Stan.
xo




Chesterton Quote of the Day

"Of the sane man there is only one safe definition.
He is a man who can have tragedy in his heart and comedy in his head."

-G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

i {love} my life

i {love} my life. i was sitting at my kitchen counter this morning, drinking my morning coffee and talking to my laptop (my dear husband via my laptop) thinking LIFE IS GOOD. not always ideal, but it is good. ideally i'd be sitting at the kitchen counter, coffee in hand, with my handsome husband rather than with my laptop... but i love my life... long distance love and all. ideally there wouldn't be dirty dishes in the sink or a month's worth of laundry downstairs, but i love my life... messes and all. ideally my sweet girls would always get along and never get in trouble... but i love my life... bickering, sibling rivalry, discipline and all. despite the nonexistent ideal life, i love my life.

i love surprising my kids. we rarely go to the theater... i'm just kind of a cheap skate when it comes to spending bunches of money on something i can have shipped to my house via netflix in a just few months. but nonetheless, every now and then, it's fun to surprise the kids with a trip to the movies. we went to see how to train your dragon. very cute, sweet & funny family movie - we loved it, although i wouldn't recommend spending the extra to see it in 3D.

i love my second born. we went in for week two of ballet/tap class for emma. she's still in love with it all, though i think her favorite part is the free danicing in the beginning before you actually have to pay attention. hee hee. after watching emma the past couple of weeks torrey asked if she could try her hand (or feet) at dance, so the teacher let her stay on for the next class to give it a try. she totally rocked it, so we'll be picking up another set of shoes for her this week. :)

i love my first born, half days and sunshine. i love half days (half as much as i love days off, but still i love them. lol) and this week we had three. yahoo. wednesday we had the perfect combination of half day and sunshine. at our house 68 degrees = swimsuit time, at least for those well under 30. the girls and i had a picnic, rode bikes up and down the street and played some backyard baseball. torrey pelted me in the leg with one of her line drives, but i was able to limp my way over to tackle her and implement some tickle-torture.  i added a few more pictures of our little game, ballet & a few others here.

i love my hobbies. how lucky am i to have the opportunity to invest time in a hobby that helps you find the zillions of blessings that fill your everyday life? answer: pretty dang lucky! this week i made another album using the fabulous punky sprouts mixed media albums. you can check out the rest of the album here on their blog. (i did a review on the albums over at the scrap review... here.)

i love being a mom, watching my kids learn and not having homework. rather than homework, i have housework... the difference is you could theoretically pay someone to do your housework without getting busted. but really, i {usually} love helping my little ones with their after school work. watching little minds bloom and grow is a wonderful job to hold.

i love my life.

teetering on the edge

Supplies: patterned paper: Paislee Press Photogenic kit (lined & brown- as overlay) & In Good Comany kit (green), Taylor Made Indefinitely Kit (pink) oscraps.com; overlay: Paislee Press; negative frame: Rhonna Farrer House of 3; word art: Taylor Made Composure kit (oscraps.com); flower: Paislee Press In Good Comapny Kit (oscraps.com); heart: Taylor Made Indefinitely Kit (oscraps.com); font: Arial

oh wow! how did i get so far behind again? i love, love, love social networking and networks. but sometimes i'm not always the best about getting all of them updated at the same time! so here i am, getting this baby up to date... at least until the morning when it falls behind again. lol. but that's the nature of the beast i guess. keeps me out of trouble anyway!

last wednesday i took some family pictures for some friends from church. i love, love, love this family! they're funny, they're generous, they're sweet, they're thoughtful, they're the best. i am so thankful to count them as friends. anyhow, this little fella is the cutest ever. the more fun he's having, the more serious he gets. it's so darn cute. couldn't you just get lost in those big brown eyes?

we spent thanksgiving with my family, at my sister's house. very low key, and perfect. we ate, of course, and simply had a nice time together. i only fell apart once missing stan. it seems like it's the little things that set me off missing him... trying to carry a heavy table up the stairs by yourself. then your wonderful children, who mean well, try to help. my wall still stands, relatively unscathed from the incident. but the experience (silly as it seems) left my heart a little heavy. just a jabbing little reminder. so when i arrived at my sister's and my dad asked how i was... well, you know how it goes when someone asks you how you are and really means it... {sigh} i got it out, and had a really nice day with my family. i have so much to be grateful for.

my sweet niece came home with us from thanksgiving to spend the night. i told her she could come as long as she helped us clean (our project for that friday) and man did she ever! she is a cleaning machine! she helped the girls with their rooms and with our laundry. i think i may have her come over every weekend! lol. after the cleaning was done they got some play time in, jumping around. there are a few more pictures here.

on saturday the girls and i stopped by schuh farms. we've gone nearly every year to pick out christmas ornaments for the girls. it's a little farmers market in town. at christmas time she has bunches of trees each with different themed ornaments. the girls roam around until they find the one that they love more than all of the others. it's fun to see what they love each year, and how it changes over the years. we've had brides, frogs, guitars, coffee mugs, ballerinas and snowflakes, but this year we came home with an ice cream cone and a santa in a dome.

then came a few days worth of pictures just because. nothing in particular noteworthy of the day... but still a picture to walk away with. something to look back at from the beginning of the year to now.

tuesday my sister and i took my grandma out for a day of antiquing and shopping in a cute little local town. we never quite get out as often as we'd like... especially the three of us together. but it worked out rather magically and at the last minute. (that's just how we roll!) to my very special grammy... happy birthday! i love you!

i swear my girls have clothes other than this red coat! it's been so chilly outside, it seems it's made an appearance in a lot of pictures lately! guess that's how it goes this time of year.

today we were feeling motivated to get some hairdo's done. emma's was a repeat, but torrey's we made up this morning. she said all of the kids at school thought it was a peace sign. maybe next time we can really try for making it into a full peace sign with the circle and all.

Supplies: patterned paper: Family Ties Kit, Fei Fei’s Stuff (white) and Berry + Charcoal Kit, Paislee Press (red); notebook paper: Photogenic Kit, Audacious Designs; acrylic frame: Family Ties Kit, Fei Fei’s Stuff; brush and staples: Paislee Press, Chasing the Sun, Photogenic Kits; grid: Family Ties Kit, Joyce Paul Designs; heart: Adobe Photoshop; fonts: Lainy Day and Courier New

and i thought i'd give a little sneak of a project i have in december's issue of scrapbook ellaments. the article and project are here. (but promise not to tell my new sister-in-law, because it's for her!) and while you're visiting ella, be sure to sign up for their email list. you'll get a monthly link to their free eZine along with coupons and info on their latest books. but wait, there's more! i'm going to have a giveaway coming up, and signing up for the email list will give you an extra chance to win! :)

wednesdays & thursdays

i didn't get my pictures up last night since i fell asleep on my couch on accident. oops. so i'm going to flood today's post with loads of pictures from yesterday and today. anyway, i was playing around with panning while emma was riding her bike yesterday afternoon, and after a lot of blurry pictures, i struck gold on this baby (at least i really like it).

{{added}}

panning how-to

focus your camera on your subject that's moving in a predictable pattern. staying focused on the subject follow them with your camera taking pictures while they're moving. you should keep your subject in the same place in your frame as you move your camera. *side note* if your shutter speed is too fast, it'll be harder to get a blur. :)

figured i'd get another shot of a fun hairdo. i modified it from one i saw on this site... which i was linked to from this site. it looks a little on the ratty side since i took the picture after a full day of playing & hanging at school. i just love the blogging community. there are so many amazing moms that share their fabulous talents with the world through blogging! i think that's pretty dang cool.

are you ever too old to fly through the air via your daddy's arms? i really don't think so! although they're getting a little harder on the back. lol



figured it was a good time to get another picture of my other little princess today. man, i still can't get over how much her glasses have changed her sweet little look into a tween-ie sort of look. i guess, according to online dictionaries, she technically IS a tween! how did that happen so fast? stan tells them that they don't have permission to grow anymore. and they respond, "we can't! God makes us grow!" :)

today emma came home from school upset because apparently some boys told her to "be quiet". she has such a sensitive spirit, she was just devastated. so when i was getting my picture of the day torrey said, "hey mom, get a picture of me with my muscles and write, 'don't mess with my sister' on it in photoshop." i just thought it was so dang cute. what good sisters they are!


stan the yard man decided he was going to burn our dead pompous grass bushes instead of painstakingly hacking them apart. after a call to the fire dept to make sure that was ok, he went to town. he looked like a kid in a candy shop setting those babies on fire. ah smell the testosterone... and smoke. :)

death, taxes & science fair projects

what might the title of this post have to do with this lovely picture of my sister & niece? well, nothing. my sister does a co-op school deal with her kiddos, so it leaves some time for a girls day on thursdays sometimes. they stopped by with a suitcase for us to borrow for our trip & had some coffee. and that was the highlight of my day.

the rest of my day was filled with the other fun-ness. taxes. blech. seems like there was a ton more paperwork this year than in the past. so it's been a lot of sorting, printing & imputing. i worked on taxes for a good portion of the day, then helped torrey with her science fair project when she got home from school. she needed to get her display board done to turn in tomorrow. electrolysis & water. it would be today that my printer ran out of black ink, and a major headache to strike. murphy's law, i guess. thanks a lot murphy! we did get everything finished, though. [she's turning it in early since we're heading out on vacation.] i forgot how much work went into those babies. i'm really gonna need our vacation after that project! lol. but now i'm rambling with my headache... so it's time to say goodnight.

oh! and wow, i guess i hit 50 days on 365 today, too. whoo hoo!