Project 52 - Week 26 - Lightning!

After several weeks of little to no rain, we have been getting more than our fair share this past week or so.  Lots of thunderstorms.  And lightning!  The kids and I are getting a little antsy.  Hoping for nicer weather soon!

Saturday evening I spent some time trying to capture the lightning.  I stood on my porch, poised and ready.  Capturing lightning requires a great deal of time and patience.  And super fast reflexes.  I had many unsuccessful shots.  And then ...

I got it!  It isn't spectacular, but I still got it!

Funny story ... this was actually captured from safely inside my house ... out an upstairs window.  Because just before this, the loudest combination of lightning and thunder happened that scared the stuffins out of me and sent me running for the hills. Or at least inside the house.  :)  That was too close for me!

This morning is just rain.  Lots and lots of rain.  Looks like a good day to read a book.  If only ...  :)

     

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Week 44 in Pictures

Last week was probably the looooooongest week in the history of weeks!  The rain started on Saturday, October 27 and continued until Saturday, November 3.  Eight straight days of cold, miserable, windy rain.  We did get a break every now and then ... and the sun even tried to come out a few times on Friday and Saturday.  But overall, it was a very blah week.  We are blessed in the fact that Hurricane Sandy didn't leave much destruction in her path in our area.  Things were predicted to be much worse than they actually are.  I wish I could say the same for those east of us.  We are keeping those folks in our prayers.

I predicted that I would struggle to pick up my camera during the rainy weather and I did.  Several of these photos are "cheats".  I took all of these photos this week, but some were taken on the same day.  We'll just pretend they are from the day I say they are, okay?  :)

{Sunday}

Gross, rainy weather.  I even added a colorful gradient to make my original photo more appealing, but it didn't help much.  :)

{Monday}

The nuttiest Nuthatch that frequents my feeder.  I just love this little guy.  He's so fun to watch.

{Tuesday}

I decided to play around with some low-key photography since I don't do it often.  I'm not sure I did it right, but I like the way it turned out.

{Wednesday}

Despite the fact that my kids don't go trick or treating, we still seem to end up with a huge bowl of candy.

{Thursday}

Poor Blue Jay.  Soaking wet in all this rain.  I was pretty pumped to have gotten this photo of him though, since he is pretty elusive and usually flies away as soon as he sees me.

{Friday}

Very rare to have another photo of me so soon (just featured one last week).  Especially since I hate self-portraits.  :)

I set out with the intention of getting a much-needed haircut and ended up having my perm straightened.  It had grown out 5-6 inches anyway so it was either get another perm or go straight.  I thought I'd try straight for a while.  The girls at the salon kept asking me if I had colored my hair at all.  Strangely, no, I don't color my hair.  The light and dark streaks are all natural.

{Saturday}

Keira got invited to a costume party at a friend's house.  And they ended up going trick or treating.  Fourteen years old and she finally got to go.  :)  Anyway, after much costume searching and deciding, she went as a gypsy.  The clothes were found at Good Will and most of the accessories were borrowed from my MIL.  (And as you can tell, the sun was out for a bit.  But on our way to drop Keira off at the friend's house, it was raining and sunny and we got to see a gorgeous rainbow).

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Week 38 in Pictures

Another busy week checked off the list!  I keep saying that I hope things slow down soon ... and I'm saying it again this week!  I'm trying really hard to keep some open days/times on my calendar over the next month or so.  I need a break!  Too many books partially read, too  many photos left unedited, too many closets not cleaned out ... the list could go on and on.  In fact, it never seems to end.  :)  Oh, and my nine-year-old told me last week that I never spend any time with him unless it is doing homework.  That's not entirely true, but that doesn't really make me feel any better about the things that are keeping me busy.

I did manage to take a photo almost every day this week despite the busyness.  I only cheated on one.

{Sunday}

I'm not sure what kind of butterfly this is.  Some kind of fritillary perhaps?  Whatever it was, it was enjoying our garden.

{Monday}

My church bought a Silhouette Cameo die-cutting machine for our Children's Ministries (at my suggestion).  It will really help with some projects we have coming up.  It currently resides at my house - I'm the only one who knows how to use it and I'm using it for our Wednesday night kids' classes right now - but I have to keep reminding myself that it doesn't belong to me.  :)

{Tuesday}

This handsome fella picked a cold, rainy day to emerge from his chrysalis.  So I took him outside for some photos (notice the rain drops on the sunflower petals) then brought him back inside where he spent the night in our luxurious butterfly house.  :)  We set him free on Wednesday when the weather was much better.

{Wednesday}

This is my cheat day.  I was so busy preparing for Wednesday night kids' classes at church AND open house at the boys' school, that I don't think I even touched my camera.  So this photo is from Tuesday - the cold, rainy day of the week.  Keira noticed this rain-covered spiderweb for me.

{Thursday}

I had never tried to get any macro photos of the Monarch butterflies we raise until now.  This beautiful lady picked a gorgeous day to emerge, so I took some time to enjoy the sunshine with her before she flew away.

{Friday}

Today's photo should be of Keira, the birthday girl.  She's now 14.  Yikes!  How did that happen?  But we never got a chance to take her picture.  Hopefully one day this week we will.  Instead you get yet another butterfly.  This one is a clouded sulphur.  Nick caught it and brought it to me.  (Yes, my children are well-trained when it comes to stuff like this.  They know and often embrace my photography obsession.)  The colors in the palette are all from the butterfly.  Surprising, isn't it?

{Saturday}

One of the other things keeping me busy this week was preparing for a friend's baby shower.  She's actually having her fourth child, but it is her first girl.  So that's reason to celebrate.  I was so busy helping at the shower that I didn't even pick up my camera until it was over.  So I scrambled to try to get at least a few photos.  I got a few strange looks when I got down on the floor under the balloons to take this photo.

So that's what my week looked like.  I hope you have a wonderful last week of September!

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Week 34 in Pictures

Another week has flown by!  The kids go back to school on Wednesday.  And I'll be partying all day.  :) Ha!  Not quite.  I'll actually be working my way down my to-do list.  It is pretty long ... the list of things I want to accomplish now that I will have six glorious hours to myself every day.  This is the first year since I've been a SAHM that will happen.  I think it will probably be strange for a while, not having my little sidekick with me, but I'm sure I'll get over it quickly.  :)

We did lots of fun stuff this past week.  A trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo, dentist appointments (okay, so maybe those weren't so much fun but good reports all around), playing at a couple different local parks/playgrounds with some friends we haven't seen in a while, seeing the How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular, visiting the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, visiting the Erie Zoo, and relaxing on the beach at Lake Erie.  I might have to nap in the afternoons while the kids are in school to recoup from all our activities!

{Sunday}

I took this photo for last Sunday's Scavenger Hunt coffee/tea prompt.

{Monday}

A tortoise at the Pittsburgh Zoo.  Does he look like he's giving me an attitude face?

{Tuesday}

Rainy day until sunset.  Actually it was still raining when I took this.  Right around that time I realized I hadn't taken any photos yet so this is all I managed to get.

{Wednesday}

This is the kind of face I get when I try to take Nick's picture lately.  Actually he wanted me to see saw with him instead of photographing him.  But since I weigh more than him, I had him captive.  :)

{Thursday}

We are in the thick of raising Monarch caterpillars.  We currently have three in chrysalis and 14 caterpillars - three of which are now in J form ready to form their chrysalis.  This is just one of the ones we brought home to raise.

{Friday}

Doug took the day off and we surprised the kids by taking them to the the How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular show.  Loved it!  Afterwards we went to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to use the free tickets we got while in the hospital.  I took advantage of the mirrors in the hall of gems and made a self portrait.  Sometimes it is the only way to show that I've been there.  :)

    
We also had a Monarch butterfly emerge just as we were heading out the door in the morning to go to the show.  So I took the lid of the container it was in and wedged it in our maple tree (the trunk splits into a nice V shape), snapped a few photos before its wings were completely opened, and left it there.  I didn't want to leave it in the container all day while we were gone.  When we got home, of course, it had flown away.  I'm a little bummed that I didn't get better photos and that I don't know the gender since I've been recording all that stuff.  Oh well, I've got lots more caterpillars to raise so there will be plenty more photos.

{Saturday}

We spent the day at Erie.  First the zoo then the beach.  The kids had a blast.  Keira and Nick were in the water a lot.  Nick was looking for shells or cool rocks.  Keira was just enjoying the water.  Alex was covering himself with sand or running along the shore when he wasn't in the water.  Doug and I relaxed in the shade watching the kids.  It was a nice time. 

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Week 22 in Pictures

Another week done.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it is June ... and the kids are almost done with school (Alex tomorrow, Keira and Nick on Wednesday).

I attended the 7th grade Awards Ceremony for Keira this morning at her school.  She was presented with an Academic High Honor Award, which means her GPA for the year is 4.2 or higher.  I'm so proud of her!

Last week I photographed some kids at our school's 6th grade dance.  It went really well.  I really enjoyed helping set up for the dance and spending time taking the kids' pictures.  I delivered them to the school today so the kids can take them home tomorrow.  I hope they are pleased with them!  And I'm hoping to be able to do that again.

My husband was away for most of last week.  Something we're not used to.  We're used to him working long hours but he always comes home at night.  Tuesday he left, returned Saturday night to get some clean clothes and some parts at his home plant, left again Sunday morning, and returned Monday.  He was only about 2 hours away, but he was still away.  Oh and he informed me today that he is officially off of shift work.  Yay!  Five years of rotating shifts has paid off.  He is now steady daylight with most weekends off!  I'm not sure we're going to know how to act with him home every evening, but I'm sure we'll get used to it pretty quickly.

Anyway, last week was pretty uninspiring for me as far as photography goes.  Most days I had to force myself to pick up my camera to photograph something.  But I did, and here's what I found ...

{Sunday}

An interesting looking flower I came across.  Or is it a weed?  :)

{Monday}

On Memorial Day we always go to our local parade.  We met up with a group of friends this year which made it more fun.  Nick decided to wear Alex's hat to show his patriotism.  And, of course, his Angry Birds shirt.  :)

{Tuesday}

Finally some much needed rain!

{Wednesday}

This was one of those days my camera didn't get touched until late in the day.  But the sun setting was a pretty sight that we got to witness while waiting for Keira to get finished up at Youth Group.

{Thursday}

Alex and I took a much-needed walk/bike ride on the bike trail this morning and look what we found!  We actually found five Monarch caterpillars, who are all now happily munching milkweed leaves on my kitchen counter.

{Friday}

More rain.

{Saturday}

All our babies in their different stages.  The three smallest we hatched from eggs, and the other five are the ones we found along the bike trail on Thursday.  We have them in different bug habitats according to their sizes.  The biggest one has now stopped eating and looks like he will be in J form soon.  I can't wait to have butterflies again!

On a very sad note, the baby gorilla that was born at the Pittsburgh Zoo back in February died over the weekend.

They had recently given him the name Kito.  Their facebook update stated that they don't know the cause yet, but I'm sure they will be looking into it.

My heart goes out to his mama, Moka.  She was such a good, caring mother to him.

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Photo of the Day: October 12

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/50s, 18-105mm lens on Nikon D40, Kim Klassen's Love and Serendipity textures applied (mouse over to see non-textured version)

Quick!  What are two things you can tell from this picture?  I'll give $100 to the first person with the correct answer.

I'M KIDDING!  

Here are the two things ...

1.  It is a rainy, crappy day.  It was bound to happen.  We had so many gorgeous days in a row that the rain had to come back and visit again.  It looks like it will be sticking around a while.  :(

2.  The outside of my window needs cleaned badly.  In my defense, this is my big picture window in the living room.  It doesn't open and fold in like my other windows do for easy cleaning.  So it doesn't get cleaned unless I get a step ladder and go out and clean it.  Which I honestly have never done.  Nev-er.  In the 5+ years that it has been there.  It doesn't look that bad now that you know that, does it?  Although my husband may have pressure washed it once or twice.  Maybe.  I added texture to the photo to try to hide the dirt.  Didn't work though.  :)

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Photo of the Day: October 2

ISO 800, f/5, 1/60s, 18-55mm lens on Nikon D40 with 10X macro filter, Processed with Paint the Moon's Jubilee and Jubilee Tweak actions

A very cold, rainy day today has kept everyone inside most of the day.  Relaxing and watching movies.  The flowers don't seem to mind the rain though.  Hoping for sunny skies soon!

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Week 36 Summary

I must admit that my second year of Project 365 is wearing me out.  I think it is because of all the rain we've been having this week, but my inspiration is just not there.  Hoping that getting away next weekend with my husband will jump start my inspiration.

Anyway, here's what our week looked like ... in pictures ...

4 - Gerber daisy in B&W.  (You can click the link to see it in color also).  Tracey chose this as one of her Top 5 this week!  Thanks again, Tracey!

5 - Labor Day Parade

6 - My little cowboys remind me that they'll be back.

7 - Butterfly bush

8 - Baby squirrel

9 - Cosmos flower in the rain

10 - Pear tree

     

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