project 52, week twelve.

I'm a day late posting this, even though I had all of the elements ready on Sunday night. My computer started running slowly due to not having enough memory available, and once I finally freed up some room, I just decided to wait until today to post everything.

In my weekly vlog, I talk about what has been troubling me this month. I didn't get as in depth about my feelings as I had planned, because it is still too difficult to really talk about it.

There are some things that give me solace. Little things, like Papaya Mango Snapple, my french press, my walking playlist on my iPod, seeing all of the lovely things in my Pinterest feed, and Instagram notifications. 

And there are the constant things. 

Big things, like Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit, which I have been able to feel so heavily this month, much to my comfort. The Lord knows exactly what we need, always.

And my husband and children. They are my anchor, and I delight in pouring myself into them, even when it feels like it's not much.

Music.

And, remembering. With Niki's help.

Self-portrait.

M'ijo.

Of interest, because I love trees.

My iPhonearoid of the week is over here.

And my Weekly Vlog is over here.

Have a lovely week, everyone.

project 52, week eleven.

I'm a couple of days late getting last week's installment of Project 52 posted. I explained why in my Weekly Vlog. I haven't felt very energetic today... my little Ladybug has been running a temp since yesterday, and we've both been coughing incessantly. Fun.

Anywho, here are a few snapshots from last week.

Self-portrait. In the ER. At 1:00. A.M.

My beautiful boy.

And some, like, hospital stuff.

My iPhonearoid of the week? It's nice. Check it out.

And as I said above, my Weekly Vlog explains why I'm so late in getting this done.

Have a wonderful rest of the week, folks.

project 52, week ten.

A better week for me emotionally, but almost a bust when it came to shooting! I seemed to be so busy for much of the week that I didn't shoot much! Luckily, I did shoot SOMETHING.

Me.

My daughter.

My class. (One of them, anyway.)

And, some obscure beauty found in a miserably wet and cold day.

My iPhonearoid of the week is here.

And my Weekly Vlog is here.

Have a wonderful week, folks.

close your eyes, and make a hope.

Have you ever seen the Cedric the Entertainer segment of the Kings of Comedy film? At the beginning, where he talks about how black folks "don't hope, we wish?" Well, I was thinking about that randomly today, and noticed how I seem to do that often. I think it's a problem.

Why? Because faith is not the substance of things wished for. And we are not instructed to not lose wishes.
The Bible does not tell us that wishes will not lead to disappointment. It says that hope will not lead to disappointment. A certain kind of hope will not lead to disappointment.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.  -Romans 5:3-5


I often find myself still defaulting to wishing mode when troubles arise. I wish I could take care of this. I wish I could do more to help. I wish I could make this go away. I wish I had just a few more clients. I wish I had just a few more students. I wish I had more gigs. I wish I had more time. I wish my efforts at "whatever task" were more successful.

I have a lot of wishes.

I think there is an inherent sense of hopelessness in wishing. You don't really believe what you wish for will happen, because you have been disappointed so many times or had the wind taken out of your sails so many times you think that this is your lot in life.

Hope, however, looks forward to. There is an inherent sense of expectation in hoping. Things may not be great, in fact they could be downright negative, but there is still a feeling inside of you that expects and looks forward to circumstances improving. That is what gives birth to faith.

And THAT, hope, is what I want to default to more often than not and eventually always.

The events of the past couple of weeks have had me reflecting on this. I am certainly out of the habit of navel-gazing, but my reactions this week and last week have led me to question some behaviors. It is time for a conscious change, if I am to live out my one little word for this year and be free.

crock pot wednesday: forgetting photos. and the dried basil.

Yes, it's Friday and I am just getting around to sharing what I did for dinner on Wednesday. Again. Sometimes, it just happens that way. I totally meant to write my post Wednesday night, of course, but I fell asleep way early. I don't know why, but I have felt completely wiped out the past few days.

Anyway, I also didn't take any pictures Wednesday morning, due to being in an extreme hurry. My apologies.

I revisited the Chicken Cacciatore. I noticed it was one of my most popular posts and got inspired and thought, "Hey. That was pretty good. Maybe I'll just do that again, since I have almost everything I need for it." I literally needed five small items to complete the meal.

Okay. Now that I am thinking about it, I guess I needed more than what I had on hand. Forget what I said.

This time, I remembered almost everything. Doh.

I failed to remember the dried basil. Other than that, I did everything that I did the last time, except this time I did not omit the tomato paste and I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which is what I normally use.

It still came out pretty tasty. I think I will make this one more time before the school year is out, and I will be adding the dried basil, along with crushed rosemary, minced garlic, and dried parsley. And a larger can of tomato paste.

And now, to figure out what to cook next Wednesday. Why is it getting so hard?

project 52, week nine.

This week came and went, and I was happy to see it go. It was a difficult one for me.

I did not stop shooting, though.

Me.

Kidlets.

My town. 

It's a very, very, very fine town.

My iPhonearoid of the Week is another selfie, right here.

And my Weekly Vlog is right here.

Have a wonderful week, folks.

in like a lion. and needing the courage of a lioness.

It rained all day today. I took a few pictures with my iPhone in the evening, but the only time I took Niki out of her cozy home was when I went out for a very early dinner with my husband and kidlets. My oldest was in an all-day rehearsal for a play in which he is the lead, and we had a few hours to kill until he was finished. It was a lazy Saturday.

I did not cook a crock pot meal on Wednesday, because I was running way behind schedule that morning. We ended up getting take-out that night. I have no idea yet what I will be cooking this coming Wednesday, so I am up for suggestions.

This has been a difficult week. Some events have transpired that have left me feeling completely drained. I really do not feel like writing about it at the moment, but I have worked overtime this week to remember where my help and strength are found. Without keeping my thoughts fixed on the Lord, the feelings of helplessness are overwhelming.

I probably will eventually write about what I am feeling, when I think I can put it into words. I can't right now. But even though this is now a blog that I know people are reading, it is still a personal journal and I do want to write my thoughts down here. Once I can collect them.

Have you ever had those days (or weeks) where you wanted each day to pass by super-slowly, because you didn't want the next day to come?

It's been one of those weeks.

project 52, week eight.

The weather was so great, and the relaxing thanks to break was so great, that I didn't even blog for four days straight.

But I did take pictures. Niki's almost always by my side, or at the very least, within close reach.

Self-portrait.

Me and my mommy.

A pretty little Rosebud.

I think I like driving way too much.

My iPhonearoid of the week is another self-portrait. And oddly enough, it's lovely. You should see it. It's right here.

And My Weekly Vlog is right here.

Have a great week, folks.

the joy of love, final days.

It is the final day of The Joy of Love, hosted by Kelly Willette, and as soon as I finish writing this post I am going to go downstairs and share all of this month's posts with my husband.

The last theme was "the future." And for this, I am posting a simple photo taken by a friend of ours at a wedding.

And here is where I get cheesy. So, indulge me for a moment, if you don't mind.

We are bonded for life. We have weathered every storm imaginable, and will continue to do so. We will raise our family, see our oldest graduate from high school in a few years, slowly (hopefully) watch each child, one by one, leave our nest, and eventually usher in a new era of our life with grandchildren.

We will see things, do things, say things, and make things that we hope will have a lasting impact on the people around us.

We will continue to smile, cry, and laugh together and even sometimes quarrel together.

We will continue to ride in the car together, watch TV together, dine together, and sit and do nothing together.

We will gaze into each others' eyes and get lost, knowing it's okay because we have already found each other.

We will watch our hands grow old and wrinkly as they hold one another tightly over the years.

We will refer to each other as "honey" or "baby" at least a million more times.

And we will continue to love and serve God, love and serve others, and love and serve each other.

That is our future.

the joy of love, day twenty-five.

"When do you love them best?" That is the theme for day 25 of The Joy of Love.

When I finally sat down and read my email for this day's theme, the day had been over for a couple of days! So, I've had some catching up to do, and today, my husband is not really in the mood for me to be snapping pictures of him. Long day. For both of us.


Fortunately, I do have some recent photos that effectively convey who my sweet husband is, and when I feel like my love for him is almost too much for me to take without feeling like I am going to burst. Those times are the precious moments when I really sit (or stand) and observe him being Daddy.

He is a good one.

the joy of love, day twenty-four.

The theme for day 24 of The Joy of Love is,

"where."

As in, where we fell in love.

Well, here it is.

(And no, this isn't a photo of that exact time, because I took no pictures then. This is more recent, and representative of where and how we fell in love.)

One day I'll tell you the whole story. It is sweet.

the joy of love, day twenty-three.

The theme for day 23 of The Joy of Love is,

"Facebook."

I had planned on using the photo that I took of my husband that he actually used as his profile picture (and is still using, almost a year later), but when I went to the Facebook photo album in which it is located, I found this one.

Sigh. I love it. So much. I have many favorites, but had all but forgotten about this one. And it is definitely a favorite.

the joy of love, day twenty-two.

Hello, everyone! For the past several days I have been having a blast, enjoying some needed down-time with my family, resting, and visiting with friends. I've got a few days' worth of blogging to catch up on, and am starting this evening.

Before I get on with my Joy of Love photo, a couple of updates...

I did make a crock pot meal last Wednesday. It was a fail for me. Not because my family didn't eat it or said that they hated it, but because I couldn't taste it.

Or smell it. Due to heavy sinus congestion.

I knew going into it that I wouldn't be able to gauge how good the meal was, and that, coupled with the fact that I was really just cleaning out my freezer and throwing stuff together with random spices out of my cabinet, meant that I wouldn't be able to tell you all anything about it really, except that my guys ate it and said it was fine. I might as well have been eating paper soup. So, I didn't write about it. I will tell you, it was pretty much chicken thighs, shrimp, large potatoes, and a heap of spices that I just randomly grabbed... cajun spice, basil (I think?), Old Bay seasoning... can't remember what all I did.

And I still don't know what I will be cooking this Wednesday.

Also, about the button above. My first entry into the I Heart Faces challenge yielded an honorable mention, meaning my shot was one of Angie and Amy's favorites! I'm psyched. I'll be putting that button in my sidebar.

And NOW, on to day 22 of The Joy of Love. The theme was, "face."

I almost scrapped getting a portrait of my husband altogether, because he was being rather difficult that night. He did not want me to take his photograph, and would not be still, or take it seriously for any extended amount of time. I did manage to get a couple of useable shots, thank goodness, and here is one of them.

phone photo challenge.

Ever since I got my first iPhone three years ago, I have fallen in love with iPhoneography and the convenience of having something handy to take quick snapshots when a DSLR might not be readily available or practical. I quickly grew fascinated with my phone's photographic potential due to the large number of apps available in the Apple App Store. And I have had some good fortune with some of my shots, as they have been featured on other sites in the past, including the CameraBag site.

Many of my images last year during my 365 photo project were iPhonearoids, and this year for my Project 52 I include a link to my iPhonearoid of the week each week. This is the first time this year that I am entering an iPhone shot in a photo challenge. It is the I Heart Faces weekly photo challenge. I have wanted to enter one of their challenges for over a year, and have always somehow forgotten or gotten sidetracked with other things. Hopefully this will be the first of many I Heart Faces challenges that I will enter.

The above photo is, to date, my most popular post on Instagram, and one of my many popular posts on Posterous. It's my five year old Fro Magnum, back in October when we were on our AWESOME family vacation in Chicago (see my posts here and here), at the Navy Pier. This, of course, was long before we cut his hair.

This image is my entry into the I Heart Faces Cell Phone Photo Challege. It was shot and edited entirely with my iPhone.

the joy of love, day twenty-one.

The theme for today is "hands." Self-explanatory.

I love my husband's hands. They work; they've even toiled at times. They make things and they fix things. They hold, caress, and comfort. They are strong, but have every capability of being as gentle as possible.

And I love that his hands always want to hold mine.

the joy of love, day twenty.

The theme for day twenty is "when they're home."

When my husband is home from work, there isn't really anything super-glamorous that goes on. What does go on, though, always gives me a sense of peace, that everything is right with the world.

Dishes get pulled out so that I can make dinner.

Laundry gets done.

He makes sweet tea.

Kidlets hang out, watching Mommy cook...

...and playing.

project 52, week seven.

I must say, this has been a banner week. No sarcasm this time. Just pleasant times all around. Lovely weather, and fun times spent with family and friends. And this is probably the most rewarding week (possibly even month) of blogging that I have ever had. Participating in The Joy of Love this month has definitely filled some voids in inspiration.

Snapshots for the week:

Self-portrait.

Family.

And what an awesome car. If I had the money, I would buy it.

My iPhonearoid of the week is lovely. You should see it.

And here is my weekly vlog.

Have a great week, folks.

the joy of love, day nineteen.

The theme for today is "when they're gone."

When my husband is at work, my little ones get a lot of playtime. My son studies. I also do schoolwork with my five year old. He and his little sister greatly enjoy it. They love to read.

the joy of love, day eighteen.

The theme for day eighteen of The Joy of Love is:

"going out."

We don't go out on date nights very often. As a matter of fact, I think in all of 2010 we went out on a date... I want to say four times, all of which happened to be in the last three months of the year. I wish we could do one every month, or once a week for that matter, but it's just difficult sometimes to make it happen. We have, however, seen some good fortune with date nights the last couple of months.

We didn't go out on our anniversary because I was sick with strep throat, so we rainchecked that until the last week of December. The next time we went out was actually in January (lucky us!), because the restaurant that we went to for our belated anniversary dinner (with a gift card) gave us our meal for free as compensation for the ultimate in bad service. With the gift card that we had for said restaurant still unused, we were able to go out AGAIN, and did so later on that same month.

We, of course, went out for Valentine's Day, although we had our two younger children with us (the oldest was at a high school dance). But we still have the opportunity to go out on another date soon, for another free meal, thanks to the above gift certificate.

Once we've used that one, we will have been out FOUR times since January. Score.

the joy of love, day seventeen.

Today's theme is "staying in."

Most evenings, we are chilling in the living room, watching TV indirectly. I say indirectly because I am usually on my computer (like I am right now, blogging) and my husband is buried in his iPhone. But we are in the same room!

This project is being hosted by Kelly Willette.