Day 89 - joy of LOVE- Day 27, What They Say

Olivia has been away for four days, and boy have I missed her.  She adds a dynamic to this family that when she is not around we don't know what to do with ourselves sometimes.  But, she is back.  The prompt today is what they say.  My favorite thing that Olivia says goes something like this:

Olivia: "Mommy?"

Me:  "Yes Olivia?"

Olivia:  "Mommy?"

Me:  "Yes Olivia?"

Olivia:  "Mommy?!?!"

Me:  "Yes Olivia!?!?" ( a little frustrated at this point)

Olivia: "Mommy, I love you soooo soooo soooo soooo much!"

She's a comedian.


So, here is my 365 photo.  I have a lot of knitting to do in the next few days, so I thought it might be fun to capture the progress.  Any tips on how to make my photos more interesting?

Thank You For Your Service

My brother on deployment day.

My brother with his beautiful daughters and my two kids.

From my facebook album, joy of LOVE's prompt for the day.

Day 84 - Portrait~joy of LOVE, Day 22

Thank you all for your comments on yesterday's post.  I am in love with that photo :)  Chelsea, I will definitely be framing it with her shoes.  Thank you so much for the idea!  Bre, the star on her left shoe is to remind her (and me) which shoe is her left :)

Still following the joy of LOVE series. Prompt today was portrait. I stretched the rules a little. There was not supposed to be anything else in the shot, but I could not resist this shot. I bought these flowers while Olivia was at school so I could practice some macro shots (didn't go well, but I will post some of those anyway). When Olivia came home and saw the flowers she said, "Oh, Mommy. Did you buy these, they are so beautiful." She sat down next to them and caressed them and cooed at them and just loved them. So I just started snapping away. 

Day 83 - Hands - joy of LOVE, Day 21

Her hands holding one of her favorite pair of shoes.

Day 80 - joy of LOVE~Day 18, Going Out (or stayin in in my case)

Today's prompt was actually what you do when you go out with your loved one, but there was no going out today. Yes, it was 55 degrees in NH, but I had three other children in my house besides my own. It's what I do. I care for other people's babies, and today I had extras. I know there are people out there, close friends and family included, who think I am crazy for quitting my pretty decent State job to stay home, but I look at this photo and I can honestly tell you I was never that happy at work. I'll go back someday, but for now, this is where I am supposed to be.

We are dancing in this photo. We do this a lot. The play list today included Aerosmith's "What Kind of Love are You On?", a little Van Morrizon "Crazy Love", some "Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown B, Jack Johnson "Supposed To Be" and "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond (a favorite, and my ring tone :) among many many others.

Not a fantastic photo, but it definitely fits the bill for the 365 project. It's who I am and what I do. 

And just because it was such a lovely day, I will share some more with you.  I opened all of the windows in my house today (turned off the heat, of course) so that we could bring the outdoors inside to us!

My hubby came home today!!  And spent a few hours outside getting the ice off of our driveway.  The photos are not great, but I had to capture the moment.  Cameron got off the bus and went across the street to my parents house.  I am going to miss being right across the street :(

Day 79 - joy of LOVE, Day 17 - Hello, It's Me Again

Wow!  So much love for yesterday's post.  Thank you all so much.  I am really pleased with that photo of Olivia and I and I appreciate every one of your wonderful comments :)  That being said...

I do not like self-portraits of just me. Maybe as my photography skills improve I will like them better. The only reason I did this today is because I am still following the joy of LOVE series by willette photography and the prompt today was "Staying In". I was supposed to take a photo of what I do with my loved one when we stay indoors. The temperature in NH today was set to "defrost" at a balmy 45+ degrees. My two kids were both at school so staying indoors was not an option for little Cameron and I. The only time we were indoors was when he napped for two hours in the afternoon. That's when I knit. Today was super special because I rented a hilarious movie. This is me watching it. It was laugh-out-loud funny. "Go The Distance" with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long (I heart Justin Long). Highly recommend! 

Any suggestions on how I could have improved this photo?  Don't hold back.  I really want to get better.  I know the knitting beside me is a little distracting and the composition is bad.  How could I have made this better?

Day 78 - joy of LOVE~Day 16, Together

 

And the winner is above, with a black and white edit.  Below is the original and below that is my blooper collage.  I absolutely loved this prompt!  Olivia and I had so much fun.  My thought was to get a photo of us playing super Olivia baby, her favorite game.  We played for an hour.  I got quite the leg workout, but I was not pleased with the photos.  But seriously, we had a blast, so nothing else really matters :)

Thank you all for all of your kind comments.  I try to respond to all of you, but sometimes the day just escapes me.  I just want you all to know that I appreciate all of your advice and kind remarks!

Day 77 - joy of LOVE~Day 15, Kisses

No hubby around to smooch today, same as yesterday.  Poor me :(  I thought he might frown upon my staging the photo with a stranger, so I decided to photograph these two loving each other instead. 

Sydney was playing hard to get with Cameron this morning, but she eventually came around.  All I had to do was give Cameron a sundrop (all-natural version of an M&M) and she couldn't stop loving him!  You wouldn't believe the mess that one sundrop can make on this child's face!!

Oh and yeah for me for posting before 11 p.m.

Day 76 - joy of LOVE~Day 14, Wedding Band

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments on my sled dog photos.  I think I am a little too hard on myself sometimes.

Today's prompt for joy of LOVE is wedding band/jewelry.  I know I already did this photo last week, but since then I have wanted to try again with more dramatic lighting for more contrast.  Practice makes perfect, and I still need more practice :)  Note that my husband's ring is missing... such is the life of a firefighter's wife.

Here I was just messing around with zooming out with a slow shutter speed and then messed around in Photobucket.  

Day 74 - joy of LOVE~Day 12, Eyes

Today's assignment was to capture a crisp shot of their eyes.  Well, I got one eye.  I don't like the straight on shots, but when I angle his face I cannot seem to adjust my settings enough to get a bigger DOF.  I like this shot anyway!  Off topic a bit, that is the hat I knit for him out of hand-dyed Malabrigo merino wool.  I love the mottled look of hand-dyed yarn.

Day 73 - joy of LOVE - Day 11, Dreams

My daughter's dreams at this point in her life always include the people she loves.  Right now she dreams of never growing up and being with me forever.  I know she gets these thoughts from the things I say.  Today I was picking her up to put her in the car and I said, "Oh boy, you are getting so big.  I want you to stop growing OK?"  She looks at me with her gorgeous eyes and smile and says, "Mama, you love me so much you will never let me die, right?"  Yup, felt like a knife right in the gut.  What do you say when your child says something so profound as that?  I said the only thing a mother could say, "Olivia, I love you so much, I will never ever let anything bad happen to you."  Then I closed the truck door and cried.  (I cry a lot, but mostly tears of joy...)

I don't really have a photo to capture this, nor does this really fit into what most people are posting about "dreams".  When I started out today I was thinking of capturing her dream of petting a real, live horse.  Instead, I just captured moments that were very precious to us.

Storytime at the library is a very special activity that she and I love to do together.

 Catching a rainbow on her penguin library book which we read at her favorite breakfast place where she ordered a penguin pancake.

 

That's all I've got today.

Day 72 - Ten on Ten

It's the tenth day of February.  Do you know what that means?  On the tenth day of every month, I take one photo every hour for ten consecutive hours to capture a true "day in the life".  Ten on Ten.  Today was a pretty exceptional, ordinary day.  There are a few photos in here that fit today's joy of LOVE prompt, "Space - Where They are Comfortable."

My ten hours began at 9 a.m. enjoying a burst of sunlight in my favorite cozy corner.

A trip to the yarn store, yippee!!!

A lunch date with the hubby and this cute kid!

Back home to practice the piano.

Olivia came home from school!  

 Little Cameron snuggles the pup.

Cameron loves to snuggle with me in my corner and read his books.

 Olivia and my arch nemesis, television!  The glow and Olivia's zombie-like posture reminds me of Poltergeist right before Carolann gets taken into the TV!

Cameron's tooth is really loose now and it is starting to scare him.  Probably doesn't help that it freaks me out a little bit.  I did cry because he is so upset and I do not like to see him scared like that.

Did you notice all the comfortable spaces?  That was my day.  How was your day?

Day 71 - Blueberry Muffins and Dance - joy of LOVE~Day Nine

Today's prompt for joy of LOVE was "Passions and Hobbies" which was too easy being that today was dance class for Olivia.  Olivia LOVES dance class.  She loves her ballet slippers, her tap shoes, her skirt, her leotards, her mama-made ballet sweater, and she loves to see her friends.

She also loves blueberry muffins, which we try to have either before or after ballet.  Today it was before.

Little Dude (aka Baby Cameron, Little Cameron, Cameron James) was with us.  He likes blueberry muffins too!

 

Tonight was my second photography class.  It was just as fantastic as the first!  Our instructor explained exposure in more detail than I could handle.  I feel I do have a grasp of exposure, but I definitely learned some new things.  I had not really understood the concept of tonal values, but his explanation made it all come together for me.  

Before everyone left he talked about my blog, which I thought was pretty awesome!  He pointed out that my subject matter are things that I am comfortable with and people who are comfortable with me.  He complimented my composition, but challenged me to get that comfortable feeling in photos of people I do not know.  I agree that I do not challenge myself.  I am going to try to take his advice at the Sled Dog Race this weekend.  I will definitely have to step out of my comfort zone.  Especially because I have a love affair with my 50mm lens and to get great composition, I definitely have to be in your face or at an otherwise awkward angle.  Wish me luck!

BTW, if you want to try this, at the first class he explained how he does it.  He talks to people!  Imagine that?  I am pretty social and friendly, but I am shy in certain situations.  He talks to people for a while before he even takes out his camera.  Then he starts to take out his camera and sits it in his lap.  After he feels the person/people are comfortable, he just starts snapping away!  How do you all feel about this?  Do you tend to stay in your comfort zone, or do you challenge yourself?

Day 70 - Love, Loyalty and Understanding

the joy of LOVE's prompt today was "Gift From the Heart".  I chose to focus on my husband today.  My husband has not perfected the art of giving material gifts.  When it comes to that kind of stuff I do not get my hopes up.  Neither of us is really that into stuff anyway, nor do we want for anything.  We have our two happy children and our happy life, and we have come to realize that nothing else matters.  (Well, except a new macro lens.  He could get me that and I would not complain.) So my focus today is on the non-material things he has given me every day since we met.

LOVE - I know my husband loves me.  I know by the way he looks at me and because he calls my phone 20 times in a row hoping that I will finally answer.  I know because he tells me he loves me every day.  Before he leaves for work he gives us all hugs and kisses.  If he walks through the room again before leaving the door, he gives us all hugs and kisses again. 

LOYALTY - I know that we will grow old together.  I know we will be together forever.  My husband will never do anything to hurt me, our family.  It's just a feeling I get that I cannot explain.  I know he will love me forever.

UNDERSTANDING - My husband knows me.  Sometimes he knows me better than I know myself.  He accepts me for who I am, faults and all.  While he may not always be on board with ideas I have for raising our family, he understands that I only have the best interest of our children at heart.  Community Shared Agriculture, natural parenting, eating organic, growing our own food, hanging laundry on the clothesline, Waldorf inspired education... these are just a few of the ideas he once thought were crazy, but now understands. 

This photo is the only way I felt I could express these feelings.  Shadow heart=LOVE.  Ring=LOYALTY.  One of my crazy parenting books=UNDERSTANDING.

I borrowed the idea for this photo from someone at the 365Project community.  If you have not joined this site, you totally should.  The inspiration there is amazing!  I joined in August, a few months before I started the project.  You could join now and upload all your photos to date and it organizes it for you.  The other thing I love about it is it tracks your progress.  I am 18% complete!

Day 69 - Everything

Thank you all so much for your kind comments on yesterday's post.  I have not had time to reply to each of you personally, and I apologize.  I haven't even looked at any of your blogs today, and I am feeling guilty about that.  I appreciate all of your advice and support and I know how important it is to tell you that!  I promise to get to it in the morning, but right now I just want to get this done and go to bed!

the joy of LOVE's photo assignment today was "Generations".  My parents live across the street, but for some reason I could not get a photo of my kids with my parents today.  It just was not in the cards.  When my Dad was here, it just felt forced and I knew that would show in the photo.  My kids have an amazing bond with my parents.  Not just because they live across the street, we are just a very close family.  This makes me happy.  My son and my Dad are connected in ways that I just cannot connect.  My Mom and my daughter adore each other.  I'm so sorry I could not capture this for you today.  

So, instead I decided to look through old photos and came across this one that definitely fits the theme.  This is my Nana with my two kids.  My Nana, or Nana 2 as my son called her, passed away over a year and a half ago.  She is missed by all who loved her.

During my search I came across this gem.  I know it doesn't fit any of our themes at all, but this is my brother, Wit, who is serving in the Army and is deployed in Iraq.  We also miss him very much.  My kids adore him.  Thank God for the person who invented Skype!

OK, that was a wonderful trip down memory lane!  I did in fact take photos today.  Lots and lots of them.  I started my day volunteering in Cameron's classroom.  I volunteer every other Monday and it is a lot of fun!  I have never taken photos there, so I thought today would be a good day to start. 

Later, Olivia and I spent some time outside photographing icicle drips.  It was difficult, time consuming and the end result was disappointing :(  I just cannot seem to get the focus crisp and it bothers me a lot.  The top photo is the original and the bottom is black and white. 

Then, I took photos of my children playing.  We were all playing hide and seek together.  When the game brought us into Olivia's room she found her butterfly wings.  They both had them on.  I was snapping photos of Olivia because I had just put her hair up and thought it was adorable.  Off to my left I heard a little boy's voice say, "Don't take a picture of me."  I look over and he pretends to hide, then puts on this giant grin!  Too funny!  

 Tell me, does he look like someone who doesn't want his photo taken?  And don't get me started on my silly daughter.  She's just Olivia being Olivia!

After that it was music time.  The kids love to play our little synthesizer piano and I really needed to practice my trumpet.  I'm playing in a brass choir and I think in some sort of duet on Easter Sunday in my church.  I am way over my head!  I haven't played trumpet since Junior year of high school!  Here's a little trumpet bokeh for you anyway!

And, it is Monday, so it is weekly menu time.  Sorry for putting this all in one post, but I am tired and short on patience tonight.  If you do not care what my family is eating this week, you can stop reading now.  I promise, you won't miss any of my awesomeness ;)

This weekend I participated in a soup swap, so this week's meals are so easy for me.  Barely any cooking besides the side dishes!

• Monday - Tonight we had corn chowder, crusty bread and asparagus

• Tuesday - Spicy chicken soup, crusty bread and quinoa salad

• Wednesday - Black bean soup (I think), carrot salad and crusty bread

• Thursday - Chicken tortilla soup, green salad, crusty bread

• Friday - Pizza night!

• Saturday - Brinner (there will be no leftovers, I'm sure!)

• Sunday - Local pot roast in the crockpot with root veggies and rice pilaf (homemade)

That's it!  The only days I have to cook are Saturday and Sunday, and they are EASY!  Thanks for the soup ladies!

Nighty night!  Looking forward to tomorrow's challenge.  It really has me thinking!