The First Week of November

The cooler weather seems to have arrived in a wash of gray clouds and steady rain. I’m ready for some sunshine but I am doing a dance of joy over the lower temps since until today we’ve been in the upper eighties and that is just wrong as we near the holidays. I’m really hoping it sticks around.

Day one ~

Day two ~
I think these have been my favorite thing we planted this year and  I don’t even remember what they’re called. But they are super low maintenance and have a ton of blooms all season.

Day three ~

Day four ~

Day five ~
Remember remember the fifth of November…only I almost didn’t. Kind of like I didn’t remember the month of October until it was something like the tenth of October but I’m good with it. Eleven months out of twelve is pretty good, right? Anyway, the only picture I took on Thursday was when I was at the mall and I came across these serving sets at Ross’. I am a sucker for the white serving dishes and love the tiered look. So not a very exciting picture but wouldn’t the table look pretty with this showcasing some delicious goodness?

Day six ~
I love early mornings.

Day seven ~

Next month should be fun. I participate in the December Photo Project each year ( a photo a day for the first 25 days) and even though I cannot believe it’s almost time for it I know it is right around the corner. I’ve started working on our Twelve Days of Christmas list and I am getting geared up for Advent to begin. Can you believe it’s only three weeks away?

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The First Week of August

I didn’t forget, it’s just that the beginning of the month has been really busy. I am also behind in posting my weekly project too. Something I better take care of before I get bumped from the group 🙂

Day One ~ A tea party

Day Two ~ A quick trip to the beach and a lovely sunset

Day Three ~ A curious cat

Day Four ~ Don’t worry I wasn’t driving.

Day Five ~ Sweet friends and silly giggles

Day Six~ More sweetness

Day Seven ~ The day before  the daughter of a friend’s wedding. This is pretty but nothing compared to how beautiful it looked after the flowers were added.

I can’t believe how fast the summer is going by! The kids will be back in school in a few weeks so we are in school supply shopping-well check checking-lunch planning-finish up those boni libris mode. Soaking up as much sun as we can and packing in all the spend the night with friends that we can before we hit homework and tests to prepare for days.

Thankful for the rest but eager to get back to the routine though. Turns out the the children are not the only ones who function better with a schedule 🙂

The First Week of July

July 1st ~

July 2nd ~

July 3rd ~

July 4th ~ (Photo credit belongs to Abby)

July 5th ~

July 6th ~

July 7th ~

A fun start to the month with lots to look forward to…Sarah’s trip to Haiti, friends from out of town, and who knows what all else!

The First Week of March

For some reason the month seemed to start off at an odd pace. Partly, I think, because the first fell on a Sunday and partly because it was just a busy week.

Somehow the previous week had slipped past without me paying much attention to the theme for the 52 weeks project I do with some other ladies on facebook. Which was a real bummer because it was food and I love food photography. I didn’t have a lot of time to get super creative (one of the girls actually used green beans to make the outline of the Eiffel Tower…very cool!) but I liked my simple take on a household classic.

Day two had me hosting my monthly photography meet up. Rob asked me if I thought the group was beneficial for me and it really is. If for no other reason than I get to be with a bunch of women who actually want to talk photo speak and enjoy doing so.

Hydrangeas are some of my favorite flowers so on the third day of March I made liberal use of the ones I bought for the table decorations for Pursuit Community . Normally the blue and purple ones are my favorite but I’ve been enjoying the mostly white ones that seem to be more abundant right now. What I really liked was finding the little hint of blue though.

The middle of the week and day four found me with my second sick child at home. On Monday and Tuesday it was Abby but then it was Claire’s turn. Which was really really sad because it was Egyptian Day for her class and she had to miss it. She worked so hard on the collar for her costume so we’ll have to do something special with it but for the moment she was sleeping a lot or sipping on ginger ale.

It has been an odd week with children home sick and my routine thrown completely off. Usually the first week and a half or so of summer break is a bit of a shell shock with the kiddos crowding my space and being noisy but then I adjust and we settle into a new routine. Emily started running her fever Wednesday night so she joined Claire on couch patrol Thursday. And it was good Em was home because when the school called that Sam was running a fever they were able to stay at home. More than half the day was done so I went ahead and picked up Abby and just kept them all home on Friday. My everyday liturgy has been completely skewed.

By Thursday I was feeling a little claustrophobic so I decided to take the van through the car wash. (Would you believe that is what I was in the middle of when the school called about Sam?) When she was little Claire was terrified of the car wash. Sarah used to get out and hold her near the exit so they could watch us come out. One of the favorite parts of the car wash is when they put the rainbow foamy stuff on. The colors are so pretty! Part of the dash board showed in one of the pictures I took and it really looked like some kind of crazy beautiful skyline. I used that one in a post I shared yesterday.

 And that leads us nicely into day six in which my beloved very graciously removed me from the still somewhat sick but settling nicely into the stir crazy and we’re bored pandemonium phase and whisked me off for a double date with friends.  And said good friends suggested sushi and it was such a relaxing evening. (I only eat the ones with cooked stuff in them.)

The final day of the first week of March dawned cold but sunny. Something that we have seen precious little of recently and according to the weather report will be in short supply in the coming week. As the day wore on it warmed up to a beautiful 70 degrees and it could not have been more perfect for our school’s annual golf tournament.

But wouldn’t you know it? As the beautiful day progressed this love of mine felt worse and worse. He is down for the count and for the first time in I can’t remember when he called a friend to cover the preaching and missed church. He has spent the entire day in bed so hopefully he’ll be feeling better soon.

Return, O my soul, to your rest; 
 for the LORD has dealt bountifully
 with you. ~Psalm 116:7

The First Week of February

Surely I can do this for a year…after all it’s only twelve weeks. So even though this is posting a little late since the blog was down  I still wanted to share a shot from each day of the first week of February.

I can do this…I can do this…

The first day of the month fell on a Sunday. Normally our church gathers to eat together after our services but on the first Sunday of the month we meet up in each other’s homes for lunch. Our friends that joined us have a daughter who was about to turn one and we were quite happy when the rain let up long enough to scoot outside and take a few pictures.

Day two found me in Navarre attending my third meet up for Pursuit Community. A monthly meeting of other Christian women who enjoy photography and other creative endeavors has been good for me. It was the final push needed to make the recent changes around here and I am learning so much about this craft so close to my heart. It was our Valentines celebration and our lovely hostess made us each a sweet smelling jar of bath salts.

On Tuesday I was at the school with the other Board of Governor’s wives serving a Greek lunch to our fabulous staff and teachers. We do it once a month from January through the end of the year with each month having a different theme. I had a really nifty shot from the day but do to some technical difficulties (it was taken with my phone) I cannot find it. Trust me it was a good one though!

Day four was rainy. A beautiful stay inside and read a good book rainy day. That’s not what I did of course but it was that kind of day.

The next day the rain cleared and it was cold and windy but some sweet friends still met up with me for some pictures. These are some of the most precious children and not only do we get to worship with them and their parents each week they also live right down the street from us.

I have a tradition of doing a birthday shoot for each of the kids so on Friday I picked Emily up from her yearbook meeting and we headed downtown. It was still pretty cold and she was worn out from a long day so we took a couple of pictures and then enjoyed a cup of the best hot cocoa in Pensacola from Adonna’s Bakery.

The last day of the first week ended with an unexpected but wonderful day spent with my parents and two of my sisters. My Dad took us to the shooting range where we did him proud. Turns out us girls are all a pretty good shot.  After treating us to lunch he headed home and we spent the rest of the afternoon bumping around an antique shop. This case of old Coke bottles made me think of my uncle’s barn and childhood afternoon’s spent playing there.

The shop is really neat with lots of interesting things along with old staples like classic books and old toys. I also found an amazing dress for a photo shoot I’ve been working on putting together but that is a post for another day.

The rest of this month is shaping up to be pretty busy. Last week had a coffee date spent talking about art and God and His faithfulness, a sweet lunch with friends and their babies and Sam’s first major feast at the school. He brought the house down with his partner as they introduced Cronus and Gaea and kicked off Zeus’ Family Reunion.

Sometimes it can be so busy that it is hard to keep it all straight and things get forgotten easily. I think that’s why I wanted to do this first week monthly project…to take time to mark the ordinary specialness that is my life.

So teach us to number our days

that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

Friday Photo Journal    Best Shot Friday    Photo Friday

The First Week of January

The sun set on the evening of the first day of the new year and a beautiful sun set it was.  I liked that it wasn’t gloriously vibrant and spectacular. Sometimes we’re looking for that…for the BIG amazing moment. But for the start of the new year I liked that it was calm and sure of it’s promise that day’s end had arrived.

The second day of the week found the Christmas tree untrimmed and out in the yard. Normally I leave it up until our 12 th day of Christmas but this year the new additions to our home were very exuberant in their enjoyment of the holiday bling. I gave up keeping bulbs on the bottom half of the tree but drew the line at restringing lights every day. Tom was quite curious as to where the tree went.

One of the things I love about our 12 days celebration is the traditions that have developed. One other family has joined us in celebrating Christmas this way so one of the days is spent together. We didn’t intend for it to be the same activity each year but that’s the way it’s worked out…dinner and a hockey game. Although I’m not sure our team appreciates the custom since they’ve lost the game both years. Coincidence?

Even though the tree had come down we still had other decorations out. I love the warmth and outdoorsiness of our decorations. I used to try a different theme in my decorating each year but now it’s settled into basically the same kind of thing with some minor tweaks each year.

The fifth day was hard. We were slipping back into our old routine of going to school and on top of that, Rob was leaving to go out of town for the week. Hats off to military families and women who deal without their spouses for long extended periods of time. I hate being apart from him. But this is a good annual conference that he really enjoys and it gives him the opportunity to spend some time visiting and learning from another pastor in ways that he normally wouldn’t.

The sixth day was fun! I am experimenting with some new ways with my photography and wanted to practice so Sarah agreed to be my subject and we spent some time with my Mother at the downtown library taking pictures. Man that place was busy! We ended up spending most of our time in the kids section which wasn’t nearly as crowded.

The year of the selfie…not! For me anyway but the kids will randomly grab my phone and take pictures of themselves alone or with each other. I never know what I am going to find. Which pretty much sums up the year ahead.

There were lots of unexpected things in 2014, some easy and then some not so much. But all good because they came from the hand of our Father. So even though I don’t know what lies ahead I trust that it will all be for His glory and our good.

Happy 2015!