Our Week in Review 2014 ~ 11/2-11/8

Another week bites the dust.  Seriously, does time seem to be flying by?  Or it just me?

Doug worked looooooonnnnnnngggggggg days this week.  Starting on Sunday.  He hasn't worked on a Sunday in a long time.  I barely saw him all week.  :(

Keira's violin lesson got cancelled on Monday, which enabled me to stay in my yoga pants all day.  I love days like that.

Tuesday I finally got to release my last three butterflies.  I thought I would get to release them on Monday and even took the female outside a couple times but she agreed that it was too cold and windy, so they spent one more night with us.  The temperature was much warmer on Tuesday so the boys helped release them before school.  One of the males went first, then the female.  The last male was a bit more hesitant. I took him outside and he stuck around for a while.  I had left to run some errands and found that he was still here when I got home.  I kept telling him he had to go and finally he did.  Praying they are well on their way to Mexico by now.

Tuesday was also Election Day so I voted.  Except the one guy I voted for lost.  I hate when that happens.  :)

Wednesday I attended another school consolidation meeting.  The school board had a lot of questions and none of them have seemed to have made up their mind what to do yet.  I hope that is a good thing.

Thursday I had a PTO meeting, had to leave early to take the boys to Bible Quizzing practice, and then Keira had an orchestra concert.  Everything seems to happen on the same day.  But thanks to some friends helping out, it all worked out okay.  The boys got to go hang out at one of the quizzing teacher's homes and I picked them up after the concert.

Friday the kids had a half day of school.  I had conferences with both boys' teachers, which I wasn't really looking forward to.  However, I left informed and encouraged by all of them.  They really have awesome teachers.

Keira went away for the weekend on a Youth Group retreat.  She came home on Sunday "physically exhausted but spiritually refreshed".  (Her words)  

With Keira away, Doug working, and Nick grounded (don't ask), that left Alex and me.  We had a nice time together.  Just hanging out, reading and watching movies.  I edited all day Saturday while we watched movies together.  He said it was a really fun day.  And we didn't even do anything.  :)

As I have really been enjoying participating in Fat Mum Slim's photo a day challenge, I have decided to continue again this month.  Here's November's list in case you want to play along ...

And here are my interpretations ...

{November 2 - I saw this!}

Our last two Monarch butterflies emerged Saturday but it was (and still is) too cold to release them. So these two males and a female are going to hang out with us until the weather is nicer. The forecast looks good for tomorrow. In the meantime, I take them out of their little homes and feed them and let them fly around a little.

Today Nick was being silly with the boys. Letting them climb all over him. Next thing I know I look over and see this. He would have added the female too but she was being feisty and only wanted to fly around. She's more than ready to go free.

Tomorrow will be a bittersweet day. While I raise them in order to set them free so the circle of life can continue, I will miss having them to take care of. Hoping for an even better year next summer! (By the way, we successfully raised 172 Monarch butterflies this year. WOOT!)

{November 3:  Weather}

I thought the weather was going to be warm enough to release my last 3 babies today. However it is still chilly thanks to the wind. Tomorrow's forecast calls for even warmer temps so I promised them they would go free then. In the meantime, they will continue to eat from sugar-water-soaked cotton balls and hang out inside with us.

My female (on the right) is very anxious to be free. When I take her out of her home, she flies straight to the windows. So I took her outside to prove to her how chilly it is. She agreed and didn't even attempt to fly from where she was perched on my finger. She's a feisty one.   :)

{November 4:  Can't live without}

Today is such a bittersweet day here at the Vensel house. This morning I released my last 3 babies as the temperatures were finally warm enough to do so. One female and two males are hopefully now on their way to Mexico where they will stay for the winter. They have a long journey ahead of them and I pray they make it. Hoping I get to raise their great grandbabies next summer!

I'd say that I {can't live without} my Monarchs, but that's not completely true. I love raising them - taking care of them in order to release them to continue the circle of life - but I would still survive if I didn't. My life would go on. However, we as the human race do need pollinators such a butterflies and bees in order to live. They serve a very important purpose. I just hope that those that keep developing "new and improved" pesticides and insecticides come to that realization before it is too late.

{November 5:  8 o'clock}

We woke up to frost covering the ground one day last week so I threw on a coat, grabbed my camera, and tried my best to capture some of the beauty that was surrounding us.

As I said, this photo is from last week as I was just waking up at 8:00 this morning and was sitting in a school board meeting at 8:00 tonight. 

{November 6:  Made me smile today}

I try to find something positive in every day. Especially on rough days like today. And while I did have a few things that made me smile today, I don't have pictures of any of them. So I'm sharing something that happened a few days ago that made me smile. It's not a great picture - got a little motion blur going on there - but it warms my heart to see my boys and Honey having fun together. We took Honey to this park for the first time on Monday (we have been there many, many times but never with her) and she really enjoyed herself. We will be taking her back again soon to do some more exploring.

{November 7:  On the floor}

Our dog, Honey, often lays on the floor. Though I think she prefers the couch. I can't say that I blame her.  :)

{November 8:  A place}

A place I'd like to be right now since I bet it is much warmer there than it is here.  :)  (This was taken during a sunrise while we vacationed at Sandbridge, Virginia Beach, back in June).

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Our Week in Review 2014 ~ 10/26-11/1

November is here.

The falling back has occurred.

We had snow flurries on Saturday.

It gets dark really early now.

I can't wait for spring.

On a more positive note, last week was pretty good.  

~ We finally got to have our Pastor Appreciation celebration.  It got postponed because our Senior Pastor was sick.  It was fun.  We had pie and ice cream.  I ate too much.  Glad we don't do stuff like that often.

~ I had lunch with my friend, Amy.  It was great getting to know each other better and get caught up on each other's lives.  

~ Keira and I went to see my friend, Rainey, in an Edgar Allan Poe play on Friday night.  It was called Tales of the Grotesque.  It was very cool even if I didn't understand it all.  The most impressive thing was the man who played the part of Poe memorized The Raven in its entirety.  If you don't realize how impressive that is, check it out at this link.  The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.  See?
~ I went to a jewelry party at a friend's house on Saturday afternoon.  I don't get to see her often so it was fun to hang out for a while.  And play with jewelry.

~ Saturday night Doug and I took Keira and Alex to the symphony with us.  It was a Disney theme night.  Nick chose not to go.  He really missed out because it was wonderful.

As I still participate in Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day challenge, we finished up another month.  That makes seven months in a row for me.  I find this easier than the Project 365 challenge I did for three years a few years back.  Mainly because I have a prompt given to me that I need to interpret as opposed to me just snapping any picture and calling it my photo of the day.  I did a mixture of new and archived pics for October.  

So without further ado, here are last week's interpretations ...

{October 26:  Z is for ...}

Zirconia. Cubic Zirconia. Aka ... a fake diamond.  I received this Monarch wing pendant in the mail yesterday from a lady who makes them herself.  I need to get a chain for it, so in the meantime, I added it to the chain that contains my camera pendant - that has a cubic zirconia stone in it. My two loves together - photography and Monarchs. Aside from my family, of course.  :)

I do wish to note that no butterflies were intentionally harmed in order to make this necklace. I sent her two butterflies that I had found deceased. One found along the road - presumably killed from being hit by a car; the other was killed by a not-so-friendly bug and the carcass found in my garden. It goes without saying that I was upset to see two of my babies (I'm assuming) had been killed. But now I can keep one of them close to my heart thanks to Holli.

{October 27:  One}

Dew drop.  We woke up this morning to a frost. While that makes me sad that the warm weather is coming to an end and winter is imminent, as a photographer, I was excited to see the sparkles. So I bundled up and headed outside. I only lasted about 15 minutes before my fingers were freezing (need to dig out the gloves), but I was able to capture just a little of the beauty that was surrounding us.

{October 28:  Two}

Two of the nine Monarch butterflies that we had emerge yesterday. Six of them spent the night indoors and were just released this morning after fueling up on some sugar water. Praying for strong winds to carry them to Mexico where they will overwinter.

(This photo got chosen in the FAB photos of the day!  Woo hoo!)

{October 29:  Three}

From these {three} primary colors, a vast amount of colors can be made ... making the possibilities for this blank canvas endless.

{October 30:  Four}

Four baby goslings swimming with their mama. Or is it their papa? Either way, aren't they cute?  Obviously this is an archived picture. Most of the Canadian geese are flying south in search of warmer weather. However, in my travels Tuesday morning, I spotted about 100 in our neighbor's corn field. I wish I hadn't been running late and had time to stop and take a picture as it was quite a sight!

{October 31:  Five}

Our sweet Honey will only be FIVE for another five(ish) weeks.  :)  Her birthday is December 10.  She's such a wonderful dog.  We are blessed to have her as part of our family!

And that's a wrap on October.

{November 1:  Something Blue}

I spy something blue.  Do you?  :)  Yes, there was bribery involved in the making of this photo.  The blue Twizzler pictured along with the purple and green one that were in the fun size pack got to be eaten by my somewhat willing subject.  :)

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you have a fabulous week!

And just a little plug for my Facebook page ... since I don't always get around to sharing peeks from my sessions here ... if you are on Facebook and want to check it out and maybe even click on that little 'like' button, here's the link ... Kimberly Vensel Photography.  Thank you!

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Winter Science Experiment

For the past three days school has been cancelled due to severely cold weather.  My kids were pumped!  They love it when they get an unexpected day off.  They forget that these days need to be made up, probably when the weather is much nicer and they'd rather be outside playing.  :)

However, this mom knows that unless she keeps them busy - especially my boys - that they will start to get a little crazy and start fighting and probably end up in trouble.  So we did a little homeschooling.  They weren't thrilled with the idea at first but I stood my ground.  It turned out to be a really good thing.

Math, language arts, lots of reading, computer time, art, and a science experiment or two.  One of those science experiments was something I wanted to try for a while now ... frozen bubbles.

I knew I would need a helper so Nick agreed to be my assistant.  We went out early Tuesday morning, while the temperatures were still below zero.  We sat in my car because it was too windy in the open air.  And we blew bubbles.

At first nothing happened.  It was just a bubble.

So we tried opening the windows to let some of the frigid air in, but the windows were frozen shut.  Then Nick opened his door slightly, held the bubble near the cold air and viola!  Frozen bubbles!

We tried several times and had a few successes and many failures.  As far as photographing them anyway.  If we let them freeze too much, they would burst.  Or if he moved too quickly to get the bubble wand back to face me, it would burst.  Of if he closed the door too hard ... yep, you guessed it ... it would burst.  :)

By the time we were done and our fingers were on the verge of frostbite, there were bubbles burst all over my dashboard.  When the temps warm up to near freezing the next few days, I'll have to wipe my dash down.  :)

On a somewhat related note, ... if you haven't checked them out yet, I posted some close up photos of snowflakes yesterday.  Not to toot my own horn, but they are pretty incredible.  Making the best of my winter photo opportunities.  But looking forward to spring!


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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 01.27.13

Hello!  It is time for another Scavenger Hunt!  I missed last week due to lack of creativity.  Seriously, I just kept looking at the prompts and thinking what in the world am I going to photograph?!  And while I realize that is part of the challenge, I just wasn't into it.  So I skipped a week. 

Anyway, I'm back this week and that's really all that matters.  :)

This week's prompts are Lace, Bling, Wood, Fuzzy, and Fabric.  And here are my interpretations ...

{lace}

Some of the scrapbooking/card-making ribbon I have had forever.  A texture from SKC Photography added.

{bling}

Nature gave us lots of bling with a heavy frost.  It covered everything and was absolutely gorgeous!

{wood}

I never tire of this tree.  Especially covered in frost.  Gorgeous!

{fuzzy}

Honey is our fuzzy baby.  She went with Alex and me on a walk last week.

{fabric}

I bought some new bedding a while back and finally got around to putting it on our bed.  This is one of the pillows that came in the set.

That's it for me.  Now to get outside and do some tubing with the kids on this gorgeous winter day!

Have a great week!

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Week 50 in Pictures

My prayers go out to those affected by the tragedy in Connecticut on Friday.  And also to those affected by a similar tragedy in China.  My heart aches today.  I, however, am not fearful.  I took my boys to school today with no hesitation or fear.  My God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of self-discipline.  (2 Timothy 1:7)  He has given me a peace that I simply can't explain, but I am not anxious for my kids' safety today.  And I praise Him for it!

We met with a friend and her boys at the school and prayed for our kids, teachers, staff, the families affected by the horrific events that occurred, and for our nation.  

My friend read Psalm 121:  

I lift up my eyes to the hills -- 

where does my help come from?  

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip --

he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber or sleep.

The Lord watches over you --

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm --

he will watch over your life;

the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

I hope we can make this a regular occurrence.  It was a definite blessing.  To God be all the glory!

On another note, I started masking, priming, and painting  our living room this week.  Go ahead and call me crazy for starting to close to Christmas.  But I also have a peace about that.  Am I done shopping?  No.  Have I wrapped anything yet?  Nope.  Have I baked any cookies?  Not one.  Am I worried that it won't all get done?  Not at all.  My attitude this year is very different than in past years.  I'm looking forward to spending time with my loved ones.  If there are gifts to open, great.  If not, it really doesn't matter.  I just wish I could get my attitude to rub off on my kids.  :)

Keira and I attended the Toby Mac concert on Saturday night with our church's Youth Group.  It was a wonderful time!  That was my first Christian concert ... the first concert I have attended that was opened in prayer and spent in almost constant praise and worship throughout.  I didn't want it to end!  I can't wait for the next concert!  

Anyway, let's get to last week's photos ...

{Sunday}

One of Alex's birthday gifts was the game of Operation.  We had a good time playing it on Sunday afternoon.  It brought back memories of my childhood.

{Monday}

A friend asked me to take pictures of her three kids for Christmas.  I will probably post those later this week.  But while I had the background all set up, I coaxed Nathan (another friend's toddler) to let me take his picture.  Isn't he adorable?!

{Tuesday}

I bought my friend, Laura, a little housewarming gift a couple months ago.  But it has been sitting here since I kept forgetting to take it to her.  (She moved in in September!)  So I thought I'd get it wrapped so I could take it to her Thursday when I would be at her house.

{Wednesday}

We had a cold, frosty morning.

{Thursday}

Got to work on my Project Life album a little today.  I absolutely love this method of scrapbooking!  (This was going to be one of my "favorite things" for the Scavenger Hunt, but I ended up not participating this week.  Hoping to be back to it next week.)

{Friday}

Today was a bittersweet day.  On my birthday a senseless tragedy occurred.  Not exactly something you wish to happen on your birthday.  Or any other day for that matter.  But in the midst of our tears, we were able to find some joy.  Joy in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Keira helped by giving me this necklace for my birthday.  It will forever be a treasured gift.  (This was also going to be my "sparkley" for the Scavenger Hunt.)

{Saturday}

Doug brought dinner home last night so I didn't have to cook on my birthday.  Along with dinner, he brought some fresh cut flowers for me.

So that was my week.  I'm hoping to get the living room finished up this week so I can relax over the kids' Christmas break.

I hope you are blessed in all you do this week!

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Scavenger Hunt and Shoot & Edit - A Little Late

So I'm a few days late posting my Scavenger Hunt photos.  But better late than never, right?  :)  

{portrait}

I'm sure you've all seen the hanging Christmas lights trick for a pretty portrait background, right?  Well, it didn't quite work with my lens and set up.  You could still clearly see the strands, so I draped a white sheet over them and voila!  Still not perfect, but much better than what I started with.  :)


{nostalgic}

A former co-worker still makes me an ornament each year.  He is incredibly talented in woodworking.  This one reminds me of what things must have been like many years ago.


{time}

My baby, Alex, turned six yesterday.  It seems like I just brought him home from the Midwife Center!  Where did the time go?!?!  (On a side note, boy my dining room walls need a fresh coat of paint!)  :)


{full of light}

We had a gorgeous frosty morning recently.  The boys were up and asking for breakfast, but I had to make them wait so I could go outside and lay on the ground to get some frosty photos with the sun making everything sparkle.  :)


{motion}

Some jugglers at our town's Light Up Night.


Next week's Hunt items are: 

1. Less is More
2. Holiday Lights (Exploring with a Camera Prompt - click HERE for details)
3. Ornaments (Michelle's suggestion: 25 Days of Christmas)
4. Cup of Cheer (Michelle's suggestion: 25 Days of Christmas)
5. Nativity (Michelle's suggestion: 25 Days of Christmas)

While I'm trying to get caught up, I thought I'd include my SOOC shots for Shoot & Edit/Good to WOW! instead of bombarding you with a gazillion different posts.  :)  This week's theme is Holiday/Christmas.

I'm sure this is not an original idea ... our Christmas tree out of focus.  My kids always tell me I take blurry pictures when they see pics like this.  :)



We have colored lights on the outside of the house.  My husband surprised me one day and put them up while I was out.  He's so sweet.  These are strung on our deck.  The kids love having lights on the outside of the house.  This year we might even string some lights on the inside ... just need to figure out how to put them up.  :)

To see more great Holiday/Christmas SOOC shots, head over to Jill's.


Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to stop in again on Wednesday for Wild & Wonderful Wednesday!

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Shades of White

The first of all single colors is white ...

We shall set down white for the representative of light,

without which no color can be seen;

{Katie Lloyd's Vintage Polaroid frame/action used}

yellow for the earth;

green for water;

blue for air;

red for fire;

and black for total darkness.

{Photo of the day - November 17 - ISO 400,f /5.6, 1/640s, 18-105mm lens on Nikon D3100 - Kim Klassen's Silence texture added}

~ Leonardo Da Vinci

   

                                 Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

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