Photos, week 5 through January

Yay, we made it through January!

Jan. 22. Blue sky!

Jan. 23. This was intentional, on "blur"pose, if you will. I pulled away my phone as I pressed the button.

Jan. 24. Samuel makes no-bakes, a cookie staple here. I once asked toddler Samuel if we should make no-bakes, and he said we couldn't because Emma wasn't home from school yet. He'd never seen me make them, so assumed I didn't know how. Now he knows how -- because Emma taught him, naturally.

Jan. 25. Melting snow bursts out of rainspout.

Jan. 26.

Jan. 27. I love that Jeff loves making Sunday dinner.

Jan. 28. Aha! We're finding many playthings as the snow melts.

Jan. 29. Icy puddle. 

Jan. 30

Jan. 31

Photos, week 3

Jan. 15. Stuck. I know just how it feels.

Jan. 16. I'm allowed to walk to school if I'm this far behind Samuel.

Jan. 17. Our new conversation spot. The day before, when I picked up Elise from ballet, she was still telling me a story when we pulled into the garage, so we stayed in the car to finish it. This day she bounded into the garage as I pulled in from the grocery store (she had come home from school while I was gone). She opened the car and sat inside. She bubbled over with news from her English class. Did I know Truman Capote was rumored to have written parts of To Kill a Mockingbird?! 

Jan. 18

Jan. 19. I literally trip over this music stand of violin pieces every day, and figuratively trip over the accompaniment.

Jan. 20

Jan. 21

Photos, week 2

Second week in, I'm already in the doldrums. Samuel transformed this week from willing subject to angry, arm-waving camera pusher, so I was banned from capturing his dad helping fasten his tie -- something symbolic to me the day of Samuel's priesthood ordination. You'd think I was the paparazzi the way he revolted. James also won't let me photograph him. The charming scene of his phone on the piano music stand and his playing by ear(bud) is relegated to a mental image only. Sigh. And my stricture to not edit is exposing (ah, a pun!) lots of weaknesses. So many "so close" efforts.

Still, this project is good for me in helping me find beauty in the ordinary or, even, in the gloom.

Jan. 8. Rubik's cube in motion.

Jan. 9

Jan. 10. Meh. The fog was like a filter, making the brown branches appear green or purple. 

Jan. 11. I took advantage of having Elise join me on my walk. She shares my word-nerd sensibilities. Where's punctuation when you need it?

Jan. 12. Just a little light house-cleaning.

Jan. 13. That's a lot of candles. Kyle turned 23 on the 11th and celebrated with us Sunday. 

Jan. 14

New photo project, week 1

Hi, there. I'm brushing the dust off this blog to use it as a tool in my latest get-through-January campaign. I need creative outlets and have missed taking pictures, so decided to do a daily photo project again. Independently, I set a goal to do something outside every day. While I didn't intend it, these two goals have a symbiotic relationship. I'm more likely to get a picture if I go outside (because my typical days alone at home are BORING, move along, nothing to see here), and I'm more likely to go for a walk if I have a purpose. My leisurely walks aren't raising my heart rate, but they are raising my spirits.

I set some parameters to challenge myself: NO EDITING! Not even cropping. These are straight out of the camera, and taken with manual settings. A couple in this first batch (I'll post once a week) are from my phone. It's not great quality, but I had it on me when I didn't have my camera, and felt those images were worthy to document.

Jan. 1. Samuel sledding.

Jan. 2.

Jan. 3.  Three sets of concentrating eyes: Elise, her teacher and Beethoven. Elise was pulling Bach from memory. Phone.

Jan. 4. It was fun to watch the horses a bit and have them eventually come toward me. I imagined capturing their cold-enhanced, cloudy breathing when I set out on my walk, but that didn't materialize.

Jan. 5. Samuel's science fair project of measuring solubility.

Jan. 6. Snow break after Samuel's first deacon duty of clearing driveways. The snow was so heavy! Phone.

Jan. 7. Self-portrait.