Around here...New lens

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." -Albert Einstein

I follow tinathelen on instagram, and love her simple photos.  The lighting is always amazing and I like how she stages everything.  One day I asked her what lens she used in a particular photo.  She told me a 100mm macro lens.  I decided I was going to buy me one of these lenses.  I did.  I have had fun trying it out of things around here.  Walk with me as I show you around... to the many faces of spring.

Nearby and always around for me to photography is my cat, Maggie.  She was the first subject of my new lens... she's not too excited about it.

Doesn't she look like she's praying here?  "Oh please let her go photograph something else, and leave me alone!"

Next were flowers... these are from some of my indoor plants.

Tulips are some of my favorite flowers.  I love having pots of them around.

I bought these for Easter.

This is my orchid.  I bought it last year.  This is my second bloom.  I have 16 flowers on it.

Now let's go outside...

This is our phlox.  We have it here and on the other side.  It is gorgeous ground cover.

The dandelions are NOT in our yard.  Warren pulls them out with vengeance.  These are from a yard down the street.  I find them a nice weed flower...as long as they are in someone else's yard.

Getting ready to go to seed...

The seeds...Make a wish...

May all your wishes come true!

Happy Spring!

Easter...Family

"Forever He is glorified...forever He is lifted high...forever He is risen.  He is alive, He is alive." -Forever, Kari Jobe

This post will be short, and sweet because I do not have a lot of time.
Our sanctuary was decorated so beautifully at our church this morning.  I took the photo then edited it  to my liking, then added the doves.  I quite like how it turned out.

After church we went to lunch at Luke's which was very delicious.  I especially liked the keto cheesecake.

These two did all the cooking...lamb, chicken, biscuits, crab cakes, cauliflower salad, okra.  Yum.

These guys relaxed...

Yesterday was baseball practice, so I have to throw in a couple of the pictures from that.

It was a great weekend all around.  I love the Lord, and I love my family.  Happy Easter to all.

Grandkids finish reading program...

"The more you read, the more things you know.  The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." -Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with my Eyes Shut

I started teaching my grandkids, Tate and Sawyer, to read this past summer using the book,  Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  (Note: Luke, their dad did about 35% of the lessons as well)

I highly recommend this book.  The lessons take about 15-20 minutes each day.  Not only do they focus on reading, but writing and reading comprehension as well.  There are pictures with each story that my grandkids could not wait to see. (The pictures are to remain covered until after they read the story).  I wanted to get the lessons done before they started kindergarten, but that did not happen due to several issues.  The boys are not on the same reading level.  Tate finished with lesson 100 on March 13, while Sawyer has a few more lessons before he is done.  We had our reading party for both anyway.  Both of them could hardly wait to celebrate.  I decorated the table in Dr. Seuss fashion.

 I made a cake shaped like a book with a bookmarked similar to the one we used in our real book.

 I let them each pick out a gift for completing their lessons, and I wrote and illustrated a book about them that they could read themselves.  Each book had 20 pages...they loved their books.

Before they got to open any gifts, they had to read a lesson...the last one (100) for Tate, and Sawyer lesson 80.

Lesson 100

Lesson 100

Some fun, and gifts...

This is what Tate picked for his gift

It was a fun celebration for all.  We are a reading family.  We want our grandkids to enjoy reading as much as we do...after all, my philosophy is that "if you can read, you can do anything."  I am so proud of these boys.

Cat's day...

Today is my Maggie's (my cat) 6th birthday.  According to a cat-age calculator, she is 40 in human years.  Age 2 is equivalent to 24 in human years, then for each year after you add 4 years.  An indoor cat ages slower than an outdoor cat.  Maggie is an indoor cat because there are lots of predators that would like to have her for their lunch.  

Since I have been taking an online calligraphy class, I decided to practice my writing by making her a birthday card.  

Here's how we celebrated her birthday... I took photos of her.  She was not impressed...

Wow...look at that wicked claw...

This cupcake sings Happy Birthday when you squeeze it. Then the candle goes out...and you can hear someone trying to blow out the candle.  Maggie is not sure what to make of this item.

Finally, she got bored with it all, and just ignored the cupcake.  I guess photo time is pretty much over. 

Wow...this picture makes her look very fat... well she is fat, but this makes her look ji-gundo fat.  She is just fat.  What can I say, she's an indoor cat...and we love her anyway.  Happy birthday.  But no cake for you.  You're too fat!

Just for fun...

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination." -Henry David Thoreau

My grandkids seem to think I can do anything.  One of their favorite things to do is make silly photos on the computer...with my help, of course.  I don't mind because, eventually, they will learn some pretty awesome skills using photoshop.  So here are some of their recent creations.  This grandson wanted to be climbing his birthday cake...then he wanted to add the moon (in the upper left), and a galaxy (in orange at the bottom left), and red stars scattered about.

Why they like to be turned into "little" people I do not know, but it is kind of fun.
Here's another one...he had some help with this one...

And now just some fun photos... Always with silly faces...

I have to say, I was inspired, so I did my own spin on a couple of photos to make a collage.

And yes, Life is good.  

Hugs to you.