day 338: what to do...

We ventured off to another park. Because that's what we do in Dayton. Go to various grocery stores and venture off to various parks.

Dayton is such an anomaly to me. On the one hand, we live in a very nice area, in an extremely nice apartment. There's a great pool, a cafe, a gym (which I have yet to go to), a common area with a billiards table, lovely landscaping and scenery, everything.

On the other hand, the mall, which is right down the street, is extremely small so there's not much in it. There is another open-air mall which is much better, so that must be the place where everyone goes. Really, what else is there to do? One would think there would be more entertainment options (as well as a much nicer mall) in such an upscale area.

Aaannnd, it turns out that the water is heavily contaminated. Awesome.

So yeah. The plan is to go to the salt water pool every other day or so, and venture to parks on the other days. Sigh.

Digital Field Guide: page 100

Images: the Moleskinerie group on Flickr

day 337.

Not much to tell today. My sweet hubby loves Red Robin.

And my little ones sing the "Reddddd, Robinnnn, yummmm" jingle.

And their Banzai burger is pretty darn good.

It doesn't beat Ted's Montana Grill (or even Five Guys) for me, but it is pretty darn good. It'll do.

For reading and images today, I hung out at the Nikon website.

day 336: wendy's.

Ack! The signage creeps up again!

It's been a while since I posted a sign though, so it's okay.

It has been a while, right?

Digital Field Guide: Well, whadaya know. I went through my entire day today and didn't touch it. I know. Slacker.

Images: the Mid Century, Modern Interiors group on Flickr

day 335.

The sunset was so nice today. But I decided to go with a not-so-literal "interpretation."

We chilled out today and didn't do much of anything. I just needed some rest. Sometimes you just have those days, you know?

Digital Field Guide: read an article on my Nikon School app.

Images: J. Trav on Flickr

a revisiting.

August 11. Exactly one month before the end of my first 365 project. Wow.

I've decided to take this last month and share some posts from the past year that I hold dear to my heart, for whatever reason. I will do this a couple of times a week.

I've always been a journaler. I wrote in my first diary when I was a little girl, and I've had countless journals since. It's always nice to go back and read some of the entries, because it gives a clear picture of just how much one has overcome, and just how profoundly one has been blessed. That is why I am revisiting some of my older posts.

Here is a post from last September. And, interestingly, it was published at 11:11.

homeschooling log 2010: chapter one.

So, I've decided that this school year I will try to record some highlights of our schooling each week.

Today my son started eighth grade. He is in Year Four at The Classical School, and his class meets every Tuesday. He spends the rest of the week getting all of his assignments completed and ready to turn in at the next class. For the first day of school, he needed to have three books read and two book reports written. The three books were "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis, and Mortimer Adler's "How to Read a Book." He was not impressed at all with the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but loved the other two books and did book reports for those. I remember reading Adler's book because it was listed in Susan Bauer's "The Well-Trained Mind," and it is definitely a keeper for the bookshelf. I was really happy that Bobby liked it too.

He had all of his assignments completed and had a pleasant first day of classes. He said that they spent the bulk of the day watching Francis Schaeffer's video "How Should We Then Live?" and he took the time to tell me all about it while we were on the road to Ohio. I loved hearing him recount all of the information they had discussed in class.

My son has become quite the model student. He got straight A's last school year, and now I don't have to constantly stay on him about doing his homework. He knows that he's going to have a Latin exam every week, so he gets on the ball and does his Latin homework and studies for the quizzes right away. He read all of the summer books online, and I did not have to remind him once. He takes the initiative now and gets his work done independently. That is a huge help now that I am schooling Ian and Natalie.

day 334: bueller? bueller?

When you're on the road for a while and you know you've got to get your "photo-of-the-day" at some point, just rest your camera on your arm and snap randomly out the window every now and then. That's what I do.

Most of what you'll end up with is duds, but not all of it.

Some of what you'll get will be really cool. Like this.

Digital Field Guide: tried to read something on my phone, but that darn connection goes in and out on the road.

Images: contacts on my Flickr app.

day 333.

Taken with my Iphone using Hipstamatic.

Today has been a whirlwind. I'm gonna tell you now, I didn't make it to any technical reading or image hunting today. I've been going and going. All day.

It turns out, there was not just one orientation that I had to go to today, but two. With play auditions in between, plus errand running to pick up my oldest's son's Latin book. Not to mention squeezing in Chick Fil A for dinner before the evening orientation.

I am beat.

I will need to muster up some energy for the drive back up to my Hubby tomorrow.

In other news, I really like that I caught the view in my side view mirror in this shot. It makes me happy.

day 332: rosebud queen.

We have this bath time ritual.

Once the little ones are done with their bath, my husband wraps my son in a towel and "presents" him as King. It's because with his hair wet, he looks very regal and important. He loves parading around for a few minutes as King Ian.

So, little sister has not wanted to be outdone. For the last couple of months, she has wanted to be "presented" as well. So she gets presented as Queen Natalie. This is the little Rosebud Queen in her royal regalia.

Regalia?

Well, just the robe.

Digital Field Guide: read an article on my Nikon School app.

Images: Alexei Vassiliev. Love the movement and ambiguity in these photos.

example.

Tomorrow is Orientation at Master's Academy in Marietta. Thankfully, all of my lesson plans and my parent letters are written. All I have to do now is go to the website and upload copies of my syllabi which are already written as well.

Sigh. Whew. Insert other expressions of relief here.

Now that the hard part is behind me, I can really look forward to starting the year. And I am looking forward to it. Last year was one of the best years I've ever had at Master's, in the sense that I feel like I built some real relationships with several of my students. I've always had students that loved me and enjoyed being in my classes, but this year I actually took the steps to begin mentoring some of my students outside of the classroom and thus building a relationship with them that continues beyond the school environment and regardless of whether they attend the school or not.

I did that last year by starting AGE, which stands for Awesome Girls Extraordinaire. I don't know why, but I had the "bright" idea of inviting some of my music students to accompany me on some of my photo walks. They jumped on it. We had fun. And took lots of pictures. And I was able to learn things about them that I would not have learned at school. They learned things about me too.

This year, I want to continue building this AGE group. I have some ideas for activities that I want to do with them, but also I want to be extra mindful of recognizing those moments when I can speak into their lives. Not that I don't usually recognize them or haven't spoken into their lives already. I have. But I feel like there's so much more that I could do, and I want to always be alert and aware of those opportunities.

I want to inspire them. Encourage them. Remind them that life is such an incredible gift, and that each of them is a gift. I want to pour myself into them in such a way that they are compelled to pour themselves into others. I hope that I can motivate them to settle for nothing less than walking in their destiny at all times. This is such a precious and tumultuous time for these girls, as the temptations to go down potentially harmful and even destructive paths seem to be so prevalent at this age. I made many mistakes when I was their age, and I realize that there weren't many people around me at the time that I could look up to. My mother is the exception, but she was working two jobs and I was left to my own devices most of the time. While I was responsible by most people's standards, I know that if I had had some sort of mentor in my life I might have fewer regrets now.

Maybe I can play a small part in helping these girls steer clear of those negative paths and thus help them go into adulthood with few regrets, even no regrets.

I know that sounds like a lofty goal, but I think the Lord is giving me the grace to do just that. Just as He has given me the grace to be a wife to my husband, and to raise my three children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, I feel like he is giving me grace to be an example for these girls.

day 331.

Woohoo! A box of Prismacolor Verithins managed to stow away and sneak themselves up here with the rest of our belongings. Awesome!

Wait... did I bring any of my art supplies with me? At the very least one of my journals?

No.

Digital Field Guide: page 100

Images: Gabrielle Kai Photography on Flickr

day 330.

I have discovered that Dayton has many nice parks.

We found one today, and it's more of a "walk-around-and-sit-on-a-nice-bench-and-look-at-all-the-pretty-scenery" park than a "great!-now-the-kids-can-run-around-on-the-playground-until-they-wear-themselves-slap-out" park. But the kids did run around for a little bit on this little patch of grass. And I was able to sit on the nice bench and admire all the pretty scenery, which included a large fountain in the middle of the (I guess it's Miami??) river.

Look at all my youngun's hair. It really is gorgeous. My oldest said he looks like Dragonball Z. I think he's right.

Digital Field Guide: page 99

Images: Kimiko Yoshida

day 329.

The lovely pool is open until Halloween. Yay.

My babies were a little more comfortable in it today than they were a couple of days ago. My little Rock Star even went underwater once, and did NOT freak out.

He also fell into the hot tub, and amazingly, did NOT freak out then either. I am glad I was not aware of that particular incident until after the fact, because I would have indeed freaked out.

There are many reasons why the lovely pool is so lovely. It's a salt water pool, and not chlorine.

It only goes to about 5 feet. The water is not cold. There are large steps that lead down into the pool, and the top step is more like a platform where the kids can play. And there's a nice hot tub.

My plan is to spend every other afternoon down at the pool when we're up here so that the little ones can get comfortable with it.

Digital Field Guide: read an article on my Nikon School app.

Images: Peter Bialobrzeski

day 328: homeschooling.

Back in 2006, I started three blogs: this one, a music one, and one called The Day School where I would share my homeschool adventures. I got bored with that one very quickly and left it alone, and focused on this one. That's not to say that I haven't had any homeschooling adventures; I just haven't felt so inclined to write about them. Every now and then I play around with the idea of journaling there again, but, ho hum...

I started school with my little ones this week. The first week of school is always so exciting. My oldest starts next week, and he'll be in eighth grade.

Meanwhile, my little Rock Star is doing Kindergarten. We are easing into everything, only doing reading instruction and picture study and reading lots of books this week. Next week we'll add math and other things. He is so excited! He wants to do more once we're finished.

And my little Ladybug is having a ball right alongside him, learning the letter sounds and recognizing them as fast as he does! I love it.

She still grabs her books and brings them to me to read to her every day. This one is one of her favorites. You can tell that we've read it a LOT.

Digital Field Guide: a page in Niki's manual

Images: Julia Fullerton-Batten

day 327: ohhhh...

I know. It's the sky again.

I can't help it, people! It's been looking so darned a MAY zing every day for the last SEVERAL days and well, I just can't help it.

It amazes me even more than flowers.

Don't get me wrong, I think flowers are absolutely gorgeous, but if you have read my blog for any period of time you know that I am not a HUGE flower photographer. Sometimes they really do get to me and I just have to do it, snapping away, like I did in the Springtime. But in general, I don't do flowers all that much.

But the sky. Ohhhhh the skyyyyyy.

It's reminding me of the song that's very popular right now by B.o.B. called "Airplanes."

"can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky

are like shooting stars

i could really use a wish right now, wish right now,

wish right now."

I have been singing that song a lot over the last couple of months. I want to do a cover of it with my son (who has been so busy with all of his OWN stuff he has precious little time for his dear mama and all of the projects SHEEEE wants to do) and maybe we'll get around to it next week. I'm itching to post another YouTube video. But anyway, back to the skyyyyyy...

Sigh.

It also makes me think of just how big God is. Which is, a lot bigger than I can imagine without my brain starting to hurt. And then THAT reminds me of a song that I wrote about six years ago...

"God is a mystery

I cannot wrap my mind around Him

I am so small

Life is so small

And He is so big

God of the universe

How can we begin to fathom Him

The pupil of his eye could be the size

of the Milky Way

He is so big

So let us breathe in the mystery

Of the Holy One, whoa

Let us breathe in the mystery

Of our Father God, whoa"

Yeah. That's pretty much what the sky does to me.

Digital Field Guide: another page in Niki's manual.

Images: Perou

i'm featured!

A couple of weeks ago, Tasra Dawson contacted me about being featured on her blog. That was so exciting! And humbling, since her blog is read by LOTS and LOTS of people. Feeling intimidated, I proceeded to write my photography story and share a few images.

Seeing the finished product on her Feature Friday really made my heart smile. I am so grateful to her for featuring me, not to mention inspiring me to follow her on this journey. I got the chance to assist her on a shoot a few months ago, and I tell you what, she is gold.

Thank you so much, Tasra!

day 326.

Ohhhh the skyyyyy.

We arrived at 12:30 in the morning, and I have spent most of the day being worn out. Definitely had to head out a few times, to stock up on groceries for the week among other things. It looks pretty nice up here. I'll be back to my regularly-scheduled 365-ing (with reading and image hunting) tomorrow.

day 325: on the road again.

Driving, driving, driving.

Now, I am used to driving several hours at a time. But I got tired pretty early on during this trip. This does not bode well for my future trips back and forth.

I am just working on psyching myself out and reminding myself that it is no longer than a regular day at work for the average person.

I am such a road trip girl. Being on the road always reminds me of the myriad of times that I was traveling on the road with my parents or other relatives. With my parents, we drove to Miami at least twice for family reunions, as well as to several lesser-known places in South Georgia. We drove to St. Louis. I traveled with my mother to Chicago, West Virginia, Detroit and Canada. Not to mention rides on the bus a couple of times to Chicago with my great aunt, and a trip with a bus-load of relatives to Dayton, Ohio, which happens to be where we're headed now.

I have driven a fourteen-passenger van, towing a 14 ft. trailer from Georgia to Florida to Alabama to Tennessee to South Carolina to Arkansas and back. I've driven to Tulsa, Oklahoma twice. And I've covered the whole of the East Coast, from as far north as Kittery, Maine all the way to Tampa Bay.

Not only that, but I have traipsed my happy butt all over southern Mexico on a bus, as well as large chunks of Italy and England. I've seen the Austrian and Slovenian countrysides, on a bus. Being on the road just seems to be in my blood. Give me a pair of headphones, some peanut M&M's, and enough batteries to keep my walkman going (or nowadays, just give me my iPhone charger), and I'm good to go.

It's relaxing for me, I think partly because the memories I have of traveling with my parents are such wonderful ones. We always had these great adventures, it seems. And discovering new places was always fun and kept me alert and interested. It's all the same for me now, as I explained last year.

I'm so thankful that I get to have these relaxing road trip moments again.

day 324.

I am getting ready for an eight-hour drive to Ohio.

My husband has a four-month stint up there, so we will be calling Dayton home.

I'm looking forward to the trip. I always love traveling with my family and discovering new cities together. We have lived in Nashville, Tennessee, Albany, New York, and Charlotte, North Carolina. We've also been able to travel to Chicago, which we did this exact time last year. That was an amazing trip.

I'm hoping there will be enough fun things to do in Dayton. I've only been there once, for a family reunion when I was nine or ten, maybe eleven. All I remember, besides being in the hotel watching my relatives playing cards and drinking Scotch, is the family picnic at some park. Other than that, I remember that there seemed to be a whole lot of nothing.

Perhaps that has changed in 25+ years. Perhaps.

Cincinnati is only an hour away, so there's a possibility that we could just head there on weekends if Dayton is a total dud. We'll see.

I am spending tonight cleaning and packing and preparing for the trip, so I won't be reading or image hunting today. I won't be doing it tomorrow either, since we'll be on the road.

day 323.

I call this one "Not So Cold Shoulder."

My stars; was it hot out there today.

I am NOT a fan of extreme heat. I think I slightly prefer unbearably cold weather over unbearably hot weather. One can always find a way to keep warm. However, one can only strip down to so much, before there's just nothing left to strip. Then what does one do?

Take pictures of oneself in tiny car vanity mirrors, I guess.