Happy 31st Birthday Zach

Happy Birthday to Zach who is 31 years old today.  There was never a dull moment when Zach was around.  He was a very busy little boy, but a good little boy, too.  A couple of things in particular stand out in my mind.  The first is that he talked very plainly and in complete sentences before the age of two.    He was  inquisitive about everything.  One time he was suppose to be taking his nap, only I did not know he was not.  He was playing around in his room.  We lived in an old house, so there were not many outlets, hence the need for extension cords.  I had a box fan plugged in with an extension cord.  Shortly after he was put down, I heard this horrible scream and loud crying coming from Zach.  I ran upstairs and found him crying with his lower lip swollen with two burn marks similar to slits in an outlet plug.  When asked what happened, he said he had unplugged the extension cord from the fan.  When he could not get it reconnected, he bit it to get it together and got quite an electrical shock.  Not knowing what to do, I took him to see Warren at his office just incase he needed to be treated medically.  Warren was not too shocked about the whole thing.  I guess he has seen just about everything in his medical career.

Zach 3 years

Zach today

So happy birthday to Zach.  May you have a great year.  We love you much.

Inspiration

After I posted yesterday, I went to several blog sites I check pretty regularly.  One of them was my daughter-in-law, Jordan's blog, http://lifethinking.livejournal.com/.  I love reading about what is going on in their lives and her writing is entertaining.  I think living with Luke automatically makes things entertaining.  I find out more there than in conversations, and old-fashioned letters which are out of style now and never get anyway.  I had to laugh at the comment Luke made about blogs: Jordan posted,
 Luke suggested last night that I need to start updating my blog again and when I mentioned that I wasn’t sure what to write about he said, “well, then, right about green beans.  That’s what blogs are for anyway, to write about piddley things like green beans and people love it.”  
Luke's statement does have an element of truth to it.  But most of all, I like to read about the relationship they have to each other and the Lord.  It does a mother's heart good to know someone loves your son as much as you do.  So even if it was about green beans I would like it.

This morning I was thinking about my picture for the 365 project, and what to write about on my blog, and decided what I was doing at that moment was perfect for both.  What was I doing...my quiet time and it was quite an appropriate scripture.  

We are called to worship the Lord.  Here the Psalmist says to ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.  He is worthy of all our praise and worship.  Then, I decided to set up a photo with all my stuff I use each morning for my time with God.  I use colored pencils to mark repeated words in my reading, a journal to write what God speaks to me, a daily devotion, my Bible,  my glasses because I cannot see anything without them, and the cross is just for fun.  

For added fun, I took a picture of the spot where Luke was practicing writing his name.  At the time he did it, I was not too thrilled that he chose my Bible for his paper, but now I treasure it.  This is my piddley rantings for today. Go and be blessed in the name of the Lord.

365 project

I decided I wanted to do a 365 project.  I sort of keep up with something similar on my shutter calendar. (http://www.shuttercal.com/calendar/robmck), but they are not always taken on that particular day.  The goal for the 365 project is to take a picture a day, and journal about it. I have had a hard time deciding the format I want to use, but I think I have found one for week three.  Now I am wondering if I should go back and redo the other two weeks.  Here is week three for me.

Photo experiment

I found some beautiful frames at http://ilafrancephoto.blogspot.com/ and textures at http://www.chasingdreamsphotography.blogspot.com/ and decided to try them out on a picture of Reid and his Winnie the Pooh.  The quote is from the book, Winnie the Pooh.  If you look closely in his eyes, you will see my image.  I was wearing a hot pink fleece.  I thought everything came together so beautifully.  Of course, I had a great subject, too.

Past few days

I take the pictures for our new membership class at church.  We choose a different theme for each class.  The last classes' theme was Hollywood stars.  We decorated the church with a red carpet, lights, and we all dressed up or came a "star".  I enjoy getting into our themes very much.  With this one, I found some big, loop earrings, a cubic zirconium necklace, and a hat.  I rarely get my picture taken, since I am doing the picture taking, but Warren took this one for me.

My "movie star" outfit

As usual, we had the grandkids on Thursday and had a great time. This time Warren took the pictures. It is kind of nice being in some pictures.

Reid and Mimi having fun

Now it is Erynn's turn.  

All of us.  We had a great time.

Today, I finished the Christmas stockings I was making for Mark and Amber. I know, I know, they are kind of late, but I wanted Amber to pick out the material. Since they came after Christmas, I wasn't able to complete them this year. So, they are actually very early for next year. I think they turned out very nice.

The stockings for next year.

Some favorite pictures

I am in the process of putting together a 2010 memory album, and boy, am I having trouble picking out pictures to include since I think all of them need to be in it.  As I do each page, I think "oh, I just love these."  Then I do the next page and I like it equally well.  It is very satisfying to have such joy well up inside me as I complete each page.  It is like I am birthing something very precious to me.  I thought I would post some of a few of my favorite ones I have done today.

In looking at some of the photo galleries on my favorite website, http://jessicasprague.com, I have seen a lot of postings for a "project 365" which is just a matter of taking a photo every day of the year, journaling, and making a photo book.  I do something like that on shuttercal.com, but thought it would be fun to actually try to do the project photo book.  I was really inspired when I went to this blog, http://jamie-solorio.blogspot.com, and saw the examples of some of the daily photos Jamie took.  Her photos are amazing.  Maybe I will get some posted, but only after  I get my 2010 album completed.

Warren at McDonald's.  He was letting me practice
my indoor photography while the grandkids played.

Adi when she was here in June.  

Warren "tickling" a patient's tummy
 during a physical exam.

Great Verses

I have finally gotten my house cleaned up. Whew! I did have some distracted days. Now all I have is some laundry to do. Maybe the reason I got so motivated was the anticipation of starting some of my self-paced photography classes. I decided I would not start them until I had certain things done. Now they are done, and I am going to start one of the classes today.

I found several scriptures I thought would be great for 2011. These will be my year verses:

Let your heart hold fast my words;

Keep my commandments and live. Proverbs 4:4

So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them with his skillful hands. Psalms 78:72

Since I am one who needs help with scripture memorization (my grandkids put me to shame), I am doing Beth Moore's scripture memorization for 2011. For information regarding this go to January 1, 2011 at this website: http://blog.lproof.org/ I did her first scripture memorization and was blessed by doing it. Well, aren't we always blessed when we get into the word and the word in us. We are to hold fast to his words, keep them, and LIVE. We are not truly living until we live in the word.

One more verse...I got this on Beth Moore's blog. She is right, it is a good one to start the New Year with.

Psalms 65:11 You crown the year with Your good blessings, and You leave abundance in Your wake. The NET Bible

Mark and Amber's wedding album

I have several blogs I visit. Most of them I find through my photo classes. Someone will mention a site they thought was fun, or worthy of passing along to others. One of the sites I visited had a lot of Shutterfly albums posted. I was so intrigued about being able to do something like this. I cannot believe what can be done through the web. Long story short, I asked the Shutterfly people how to post the whole album. And here it is. I am so excited I actually did this. Yeah!

Click here to view this photo book.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am trying to get caught up on my housework, photos, laundry, and paperwork, but I keep getting side tracked with things like this. Now I want to post more albums here, but I will refrain and try to stay focused. Well, I have to go do something more productive.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I did not make any New Year's resolutions and neither did Warren. We both braved the cold weather though. Warren bundled up and went for a bike ride, and I went for a walk. I tried to get my house a little bit in order from our Christmas company, but I kept getting side tracked with other things, so I did not get very far. I did get our stack of old mail sorted, and it is now a small stack. Jordan, my daughter-in-law, gave me a subscription to Better Homes & Garden magazine for Christmas. This issue focused on organizing your clutter. One of the suggestions was to start a box for old clothes and stuff to donate to Good Will. This box is to be used for a month, so you will have lots of time to sort. I now have a box in our closet for this very purpose. I am hoping it will inspire Warren to go through his stuff. He is accumulating quite a bit and he keeps mentioning that he needs to purge. So far he had not added anything to the box.

I, also, signed up for two more photo editing classes on my favorite website, jessicasprague.com. They are self-paced so I can take them at my leisure. Classes were 20% off. I can't wait to start them.

Warren is telling my our movie is starting so I will have to finish this post later.