Little Women, Little Men

At a small luncheon after church today, I spent a couple of enjoyable minutes observing the boys and the girls who had gathered. I watched as the boys claimed a table by the wall and the girls circled up at their own table near by. The boys' table was quiet, except for the arcade-style background music and a few questions and comments all directly related to one of the video games being played. The girls' table, on the other hand, was full of words, giggles, and more words. I wasn't surprised in any way by these findings, but rather chuckled at how truly different men and women are- even the little ones.

A picture of the boys gathered around the glowing screen. I swear it is like moths to a light- Sunday, February 12.

Same boys, same glowing screen. Just add a dad with his own glowing screen- Sunday, February 12.

Little One focused intently on the words of one of her female friends- Sunday, February 12.

Now it's her turn to share- Sunday, February 12.

Breakfast

This is a picture of my breakfast smoothie. I could have poured it into a fancy glass and added a sprig of something for a better picture, but the real beauty of this is that I can mix and drink the smoothie in the very same cup. Just insert straw.

The item lying on the counter in the background is a blender stick. I don't actually know its real name; in our house it has come to be known as the blender stick. I got it for Christmas and I LOVE it! I didn't, however, love any of the pictures I took of the smoothie-blender stick scene this morning. There was something wrong with every one- too much space between the cup and the blender stick, shadows too dark, light too blue, background not blurred. I could go on, but I won't. I actually liked the composition in this image, except for one major thing. I didn't close the curtain in the background and so I had an annoying slice of light along the back left edge and a shiny corner of counter under the blender stick. I couldn't just crop it out because then I lost part of the blender stick and the whole thing looked off. So, I went to work in P.S.E. creating more curtain and dulling the shine on the counter- Saturday, February 11.

This is the picture right out of the camera. To get to the image above, I cropped this one, adjusted the color, and messed around with the clone stamping tool to close the curtain and get rid of the shine that would not have been on the counter if I had thought to shut the curtain in the first place. And I did all of this while enjoying my wonderful breakfast smoothie- Saturday, February 11.

Knotty Laundry, Naughty Squirrels, and Perfect Children

I'll start with the perfect children. Obviously I do not have perfect children, nor do my children have anything close to a perfect mother. But there are moments every now and then, that cause me to smile with the satisfaction of a mother who is witnessing something as close to perfect as I think I'll see this side of heaven.

This is The Oldest having a tea party picnic with his littlest sister and her Bitty Twins. The best part is that the whole thing was his idea. Instead of asking to play Wii or running up to his room to play Legos when he finished school today, he found Little One and asked her if she wanted him to play Bitty Twins with her. (Insert sappy mom smile). The real kicker- they cleaned everything up when they were finished, with no reminder. A little slice of perfection, right here in my living room- Friday, February 10.

Now for the knotty laundry.

This is a load of laundry after I took it out of the washing machine today. The usual yank and shake method of separating only made matters much worse. This was so tangled that it reminded me of one of those puzzles where there are pieces of metal all twisted together and you have to figure out how to get them all apart. I finally succeeded in separating the 14 pieces of laundry that had decided to become one during their spins in the washer. I love doing laundry- Friday, February 10.

And lastly, the naughty squirrels.

I must start this rant by saying I haven't always disliked squirrels. In fact, I was remembering that a roommate from college really liked squirrels and had numerous squirrel items in our room. I never thought twice about it, nor did I walk into our room and suddenly feel like throwing things at the stuffed animal squirrel on her bed. 

My recent dislike of squirrels actually started over Christmas. You see, we had the back deck all wrapped with lights for the holidays. I love Christmas lights. They make me happy. Except when a certain naughty squirrel decided to nibble on them for a Christmas snack. The first time it was kind of funny. Ha, ha, a squirrel was eating our Christmas lights. The second time that I had to restring half the deck because naughty squirrel always chewed on the strand right in the middle, causing it to short out, it wasn't really funny at all. The third time I caught him in the act, and if I had had something heavy to throw at him, I would have. Because I couldn't take out my anger on the naughty squirrel, I sent an irate email to my husband, who happened to be at a very boring class for work and proceeded to show the email to his equally bored co-workers, who now think I am insane.

 Here is naughty squirrel perched at his favorite spot to nibble, right in the middle of the middle strand of Christmas lights- Wednesday, December 7, 2011.

This is our deck after a visit from naughty squirrel. I finally gave up replacing the ruined lights and tried to enjoy a deck only half-decked out for the holidays- Wednesday, December 7, 2011.

After sending the email, I stewed for a while, but then realized my general anger about the squirrel would get me nowhere, so I decided to channel it and put it to good use. I started devising a plan to get rid of this squirrel once and for all. While I favored my first plan, which featured me dressed very similarly to Rambo, my husband intervened and persuaded me to go with plan B, which involved getting my Dad's box trap, filling it with peanut butter and bird seed, and waiting. Though I still regret not getting to wear the camouflage head band, I have to say I'm glad we went with the second option. The squirrel was in the trap less than an hour after setting it on our deck. Later that same day we dropped him off in a field along the edge of some woods a few miles from our house and peace and order was restored to the back yard.

Or was it? A few weeks after the relocation, I caught sight of this guy sheepishly peeking out from behind our neighbor's fence.

He was acting a little strange for my liking and wait a minute, where did that rip in his ear come from? Could it be from an afternoon spent in a box trap? Now, I have no way of proving that this is in fact the same naughty squirrel. But I do wonder if chewing on those Christmas lights might have given him some sort of mutant squirrel power that allowed him to track his way back home- Saturday, January 14.

So why the ranting about squirrels today? Good question. You have this guy to thank for my mini tirade.

He spent a good part of the morning trying to get some of the birdseed that had spilled on the deck when the girls somehow knocked down my bird feeder a few days ago. The best part of this whole thing is that Little One stood a faithful watch at the back door and ran outside yelling every time a squirrel paw hit the deck railing. If only she had a camouflage headband- Friday, February 10.

The attempted visits of the squirrel today caused me to step back and reflect on the naughtiness of squirrels as a whole. No, I do not like squirrels trying to steal the food I have set out for my lovely little birds, but as I thought, I was able to acknowledge that squirrels have to eat too. And when the bird seed is spilled all over the deck, practically shouting an invitation to all of our back yard wildlife to partake of its goodness, how can I really be angry? I guess what I realized is that I can't blame a squirrel for trying to fill his belly with some yummy food. And when it comes down to it, I guess I really don't mind having squirrels living in our back yard. Their acrobatic leaps from the swing set to the trees can be quite entertaining. But be warned, come December, if any squirrel so much as looks at my Christmas lights, I haven't forgotten plan A!

Sunshine, Snow, and My Mystery Bird

We woke up to blue skies and sunshine sparkling on the little covering of snow that had arrived yesterday. It was the kind of snow that has no chance of sticking around once it meets full daylight. So, in boots and pajamas, I went out to take a few pictures before it disappeared.

I liked the thin line of snow framing the edge of the fence and also the way the top of the tree was bent over from the weight of the snow. It reminded me of something I might find in Whoville- Thursday, February 9.

I was busy trying to take pictures of the sunlight shining through some branches, when I noticed a familiar outline high in a tree a few houses away. I quickly abandoned the whole sun through the branches thing and zeroed in on the return of my mystery bird- Thursday, February 9.

I had to zoom in so much that just pushing the button to take the picture moved the camera enough that I couldn't get a good shot. So, in I went for the tripod. I wish I would have thought to have one of the kids take a picture of me taking these pictures. I am sure it was quite a sight. But I did get some clear images of this guy's back and legs, which is what I had been hoping to do. That said, I still can't say for sure what kind of bird it is. Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk, your guess is as good as mine. Hey, maybe way better. If anybody reading this happens to be an expert bird watcher, and has not yet told me for fear I will bombard you with questions and beg to come along on your bird spotting expeditions, I promise, in exchange for a positive I.D., that I will not bother you. Well, maybe just a few questions every now and then and some subtle comments about how I would love to look for birds with someone who could be blessed by sharing their years of knowledge and experience with someone new to the pursuit. Now how bothersome could that be? -Thursday, February 9.

I love the perspective in this picture. The trees in the foreground grow along the fence that the bird had been sitting on when I took his picture before. I enjoyed watching him today in my neighbor's tree much better- Thursday, February 9.

When I made myself stop taking pictures to go inside and do the motherly thing of making sure First Grader was ready for school, I noticed this little bit of evergreen at the base of our deck steps. I couldn't just walk by and leave it there un-photographed. After all, one picture (Okay, three. Really,who can take just one?) wouldn't make her late. And if I waited, the perfectly dusted snow would surely be gone by the time I got back to it. So I did what any good multi-tasking mom would do. I cracked open the back door, yelled in something about teeth-brushing, homework, and a backpack, and then scurried back to the patio to get this picture. (In case you are wondering, First Grader was ready for school with time to spare). It was a great morning- Thursday, February 9.

Imagining

"And then she saw that there was a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where the back of the wardrobe ought to have been, but a long way off. Something cold and soft was falling on her. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night-time with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air."

"[she] felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well...She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch, over the snow and trough the wood towards the other light."

 "In about ten minutes she reached it and found that it was a lamp-post. As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamp-post in the middle of a wood and wondering what to do next..."

Thanks, C.S. Lewis. How fun to live in a world of imagination- Wednesday, February 8.

(Quotes in italics taken from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis)

Car Washes and Snow

I should have figured the prediction for snow would be right today. I spent all morning and early afternoon driving around town in a van that had just gone through the car wash on Monday (It was almost 50 degrees and sunny then). Oh well. The van was clean. I tried.

Here are some shots of the snow.

 Snow falling in front of the fence- Wednesday, February 8.

White branches against more white branches against a white sky. Too much white in this picture, not enough contrast. So I tried to create some in P.S.E., contrast that is- Wednesday, February 8.

 Detail of a branch covered in snow- Wednesday, February 8.

Turning Off Half of My Brain

The idea of turning off half of my brain, especially in the late afternoon when I am not sure how much of my brain is still firing at full capacity, is a scary idea. But that is just what I did for a few moments today. We've got this book called Art for Kids: Drawing (The Only Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to Be). I got it for the kids, as hinted at in the title, but have been enjoying it quite a bit myself. Today's focus was on engaging the right brain and getting the left brain to take a back seat. I found out this can actually be done pretty easily with a couple of neat tricks. To be honest, I think my left brain was more than happy to take a few minutes rest this afternoon. The photos that follow show the fruit of my right brain at work.

This is an Upside Down Drawing. Pretty self-explanatory. You draw something upside down so that you draw what you actually see instead of what your left brain thinks you see- Tuesday, February 7.

Here he is right side up- Tuesday, February 7.

This is a picture of the next assignment in the book. It's called Abstract Magic. The task is to draw the images in the four squares just as you see them.

Then you cut them apart, piece them together, and they make an abstract face. Magic!- Tuesday, February 7.