Metaphors for Life

This past week's Focus52 prompt was nurture. I noticed it earlier this week and had the stereotypical inspiration to get a photo of me snuggling with one of my kids.  I'm rarely in photos so it seemed like a good opportunity to put myself in front of the camera. But I never got around to it. And then something else happened. Yesterday my son walked into the kitchen and said, "Mom, you should come take a picture."







My baby girl learned to ride her bike.  Not only was she riding her bike, she was effortlessly riding her bike. I watched my husband helping her and once again, I marveled at how easily he does this. He knows the right things to say and just how much support he needs to give.  He teaches them how to keep themselves balanced but what to do when they do start to fall. As I sat there watching him work his magic, I realized that *this* is nurture.







I think if we can somehow prepare them for life, as well as he prepared them to ride those bikes, we'll be in good shape.

Let It Be Me

Today's Focus52 prompt was essentially a carte blanche.  That worked out perfectly for me because this week's creative mojo took me down a new direction.  I made a music video.  Well, I did the video and editing and my husband and sister-in-law provided the talent.  It was a lot of fun - time consuming, but fun.



If you'd like to see the high res version, follow this link.

Mornings

I intend to start actively participating in Focus52.  Last year I did it for a couple of weeks and then fell behind in my uploads...and that was that.  There was a two-day window for uploading your weekly efforts.  Unfortunately that time frame just *didn't* fit into my schedule.  At the start of this year, once again I had great intentions...but as per usual, my follow-through was not so hot.  But I recently discovered that Jan has now opened it up so that you can upload your projects whenever you want.  I think that will work much better for me. So I'm back on board, baby!

I'm also planning to make a Project Life book this year.  A few months ago I bought the supplies but I could never get momentum to start with that either.  I'm great about taking the pictures but I'm terrible about the rest of the process.  They sit on my camera and then when I finally download them, I barely have time to look at them - and frequently don't.  Which means I never get around to selecting the photo of the day and I certainly don't get prints ordered.

But yesterday I sat down and got myself caught up for 2012. I've got prints ordered and I can't wait to assemble my book.  I know this would be much more enjoyable if I could stay on top of it a little better.  So I'm resolving to do a better job from here on it.  It's not that I feel a burden to "keep up" or to not miss a day, but this is something I really want to do. So I'm choosing to make it a priority. (Of course I'm realistic enough to know that this will still be a work in progress. ha!)

This morning I went back over to Jan's page to look at the prompt.  Morning. I sat here thinking about what morning means to me.  I pictured a steamy mug of tea...with a piece of toast...and my Kindle.  But then I had to quickly admit to myself that that's how I wish my mornings were.  Instead they tend to be an exercise in frustration.  I am much more of a night owl than an early bird. So getting my two oldest kids out the door and on to the bus by 7:19 am is the worst part of my day. Every morning it's a battle to get them ready and out that door on time. UGH.

And suddenly I realized that I already have my Focus52 photos for this week. I took these on Thursday morning. It was a little drizzly so I drove the kids to the bus.  But it wasn't wet enough to keep them in the car. I, on the other hand, felt no desire to get out of my comfortable place. So I played around my my phone and took pictures of them through my windshield...trying to capture the feel of the morning. About a week ago I downloaded Instagram for my droid so I've been a little obsessed ever since. 

Jan 27

20120127-HPE_0564, originally uploaded by hezro.

Today did not start well. We got off to a late start. I knew we were cutting it close with the school bus. The kids jumped in the car and sure enough, we saw the bus leaving as we pulled out of our driveway. Ugh. I missed the school bus...for the third time in as many months. Luckily for me, I can take a short cut and actually beat the bus to the next stop. 

After I dropped off the kids off, I pulled back out and followed the bus for a minute before returning to my short cut. (Note to self, if I'm ever really, super late, I actually have one more opportunity to catch the bus. And I would be lying if I tried to pretend that this wild idea didn't just race through my head: we could *always* drive to that stop and it would probably buy me an extra five...or maybe even ten minutes every morning.) Anyway, here I am, following the bus, after having safely deposited my children on it. And because I'm a sucker for wet pavement and big, brooding clouds, I just happened to have my camera with me.

When I got home, I got a lot done but before I knew it, it was time to rush to the gym for my masters swim class. I actually had a pretty good swim.  Right now I'm focused on improving my rotation.  Last week it was steep and deep.  The week before that it was a 2:3 breathing pattern.  Who knew swimming was this complicated?!  Ha!  Although, it's crazy how far I've come in a year and a half!  Wait...it's been a year and a half?!  Seriously?!  That's a pretty long time.  Hmm...well...still...today's swim felt good.  I think I was a little slower than usual but I think I was nailing the drills.  In fact, after the stun gun drill, the coach said my stroke looked perfect...for 25 meters.  *ahem*  Can we pretend that he didn't add that caveat?!  (After typing this paragraph, I went back and read this post from October 2010 and had to laugh.  Oh...how little I knew. Not to mention, I'm suddenly feeling less pleased with myself for my little compliment today.  Apparently I had a better stroke back then than I do now because I can assure you that none of the coaches since then have ever been as pleased with my stroke as that swim teacher was!)   

Anyway, when I left the gym I was feeling good. It was almost 60 degrees out. There was a beautiful blue sky with fluffy white clouds. What a pleasant day! Kardy and I went from the gym to Tysons Corner where we met up with an old friend of mine from way back when my family lived in Africa. And then I came straight back to coaching my Odyssey of the Mind kids.

A busy, full day - as per usual.



I've not been very good about linking up my Focus 52 posts but I have been doing it.  This week's prompt is leading lines.  I didn't actually know that when I took the school bus pic but...it's the best I've got.  (Sometimes I'm a little slow to get to the party but hey, better late than never!)  Last week was black and white.  The week before that was "I Am ___".  I was late with my "I Am ___" photo but I was pleased with myself for doing it all the same. For the first week of the year, I followed the "New" prompt but it was a conceptual leak.  I was determined to make a reNEWed effort to update my blog and recommit to Focus 52...and all that jazz.  So I actually sat down, wrote what was on my mind and even linked it up.  Although in general I'll be more Focus52ed on photos.

Jan 23

Jan 23, originally uploaded by hezro.

Grampy and Annika took a little midday nap.

Jan 21

Jan 21, originally uploaded by hezro.

So I'm going to be a little wordy, which I suppose is nothing new. But usually I sort of stumble onto being wordy and never actually intend to be. Oh my...now I'm being wordy about being wordy.

Anyway, I'm working on a web site for Heather Engen Photography and you may have noticed that I've rolled my blog into that.  So I wanted to make a new header, which reflected this change and made mention of Heather Engen Photography.

In the meantime, at the start of the month I decided to once again, try to participate in Jan's Focus 52 project over at Two Scoopz. I read the prompt for the second week, "I am ____", and I decided a new self-portrait would fit the bill.  Plus I wanted to redo my blog header anyway so I could kill two birds with one stone.

So there you go - that was my wordy way of introducing this photo. This shot was taken while I was still testing the light and actually, I decided that I would rather have two catch lights so I changed the lights around after this set up.  By the time I got everything set the way I wanted it, I'm holding a camera in every single on of those pictures.  In retrospect, I should have taken a few sans camera but I guess I was very focused on the task at hand.  (Look up at the new blog header and you can see one of the pictures from my final lighting scheme.)

Naturally I hated pretty much every single photo I took - including this one. It's strange because I used to be fine with photos of myself but it's been several years since I've had a picture that I like.  There's something in particular about this photo that I'm extremely self-conscious about. Perhaps (hopefully?) others wouldn't even notice it - because of course to others this is just how I look.  (Actually, most people would probably say this is a big improvement because my hair is actually combed and I'm wearing make-up!)  But I look at this photo and that one thing I don't like literally jumps out at me.  It's pretty much all I can see.  I don't want to tell you what it is, either, because I don't want to draw your attention to it...but I suspect it might not be the first "flaw" others would notice. Of course, I don't want to open it up for guessing either because then I might get self-conscious about some new thing(s). Yikes! Anyway, point is, I took quite a few photos and there were very few that I thought were even passable. So...this is a reminder to myself to be understanding when taking photos for other grown-ups because they might have similar peculiarities. :)  When it comes to pictures of ourselves, I think we care a lot less about technical proficiency than we do downplaying all of our "defects".

Moving on, we had an ice storm that day so while *I* was inside taking photos, the kids were out sledding on the ice.  My father-in-law gave us these great sleds which are perfect for these conditions. The kids had a lot of fun with them. (And clearly I did manage to sneak outside for a few minutes.)

May Flowers

Today I downloaded...*ahem*...a couple week's worth of photos off my camera, plus I perused about a month's worth of photos that I haven't really looked at.  I've been so stinking busy.  It's sad.  So going through these photos was just like the old days when you'd drop a roll of film off to get processed and then you'd have so much fun flipping through them when you'd get them back.  Fortunately for me, I rarely post process photos so I didn't have the anxiety of "being behind" that flipping through a month's worth of ignored photos might have caused some people.  I just enjoyed looking through them and seeing what we had been up to.  I uploaded a few to my Facebook photography page.

It was nice to look back through these photos because I think it helped rekindle a bit of my love affair with photography.  Lately I just haven't been feeling it.  I've not taken a lot of photos.  Of course, my version of not taking a lot of photos means I don't have two dozen photos every single day.  *hehe*  And there are even several days with no photo at all.  *GASP*  But looking back through these photos made me feel like pulling the camera out again.

While I perusing some more photos this evening, it occurred to me to go check out the Focus 52 prompt for this week and see if I had any that fit the bill.  And well...what do you know...the prompt was May flowers.  And probably my two favorite series of shots from this week actually had a flower connection.

Last weekend we did a bunch of landscaping so all this week we've been watering like crazy.  My kids like to help water. Well let's be real, they want access to the hose and if that means aiming it at some crazy plants their parents planted around the house, so be it.  So here's my daughter watering some of our new flowering shrubs.



(And then after I said that I don't post process, I went right to Photoshop and adjusted the curves on this.  *hehe*)

The second photo is actually of a cake...but there is a flower connection, I promise.  A few weeks ago my mom turned 60.  That's a pretty big deal, right?  I wanted to do something special for her so I started planning to present her with a birthday cake at a little soiree that I would be hosting.  Plus my brother and his wife and my husband and I DID take her out to dinner on her birthday but that actually turned into a big fiasco.  I got super light-headed and had to leave dinner early.  But anyway, back to her birthday.  I ordered a special cake for her and yesterday evening, at my little soiree, I presented her with the birthday/mother's day cake.  And then today I took the bottom layer to my mother-in-law's house and we got to enjoy the mother's day cake with her as well.



See, I told you there was a flower tie-in!

So there you go...my two flower photos for this week.

Busy

Yesterday I decided that I am FINALLY going to do another layout. As you may recall, I signed up to do Focus52, with the intent of doing one layout a week.  We're already thirteen weeks into the year so I should have about thirteen layouts, right?  Guess how many layouts I've done? Three. *shh*  Yes, that's right. I said three. I've finished three layouts.

So last night I sat down feeling all inspired to do a layout, with grand ideas about trying to get caught back up even.  I popped over to Jan's page and saw that the prompt for this week is silly.  However, I wasn't feeling the word silly.  So I started writing about something else. And to be frank, it wouldn't have mattered WHAT the prompt was, the thing on my mind was that I was ten weeks behind schedule...and WHY I was ten weeks behind schedule. I started writing about my crazy life and about how I'm getting my kids from one place to another all day long and my schedule changes from day-to-day which makes it even more confusing and complicated.

When I had finished my journaling and was starting to think about embellishing my page, it suddenly struck me that this all seemed a little familiar...very familiar, in fact.  So I looked back at those three completed layouts - and this is where silly DOES end up coming into play.  ahem I already did a layout about my crazy schedule. I've now completed four layouts this year, and half of them are about my crazy schedule.

But I think that's fitting.  That's where my life is at right now.

(But next I hope to do a layout that isn't about my schedule.)

Sweet Treats

I submitted this for my Focus52 project for the week. The prompt for this week was "cold". This might not seem like it has anything to do with cold but making these treats was how we entertained ourselves on a snow day so there you go...that fits, right?!  *hehe*  But actually I have to admit that my intentions ARE suspect. I did another layout today (see below) which fit better with my project objectives, but this is the one I submitted because....well...I liked the pictures.  Yep, vanity at its best.

To be honest, we're at week 3 and I'm hitting a wall.  Is that a good sign or a bad sign?  Here's the deal: I'm pretty sure I'm a better photographer than scrapbooker...and it's frustrating. I feel like my layouts are kind of dull and they're all the same. But if I try to get too "artsy" with them, it just doesn't feel authentic.  I dunno.  I tell myself that if nothing else, the story is getting told, and that's what matters, right?

Sweet Treats, originally uploaded by hezro.

Begin

Begin, originally uploaded by hezro.

I started working on this post on Thursday, per my previous post.

And typical for my life, that launched me onto a completely different project.  I was looking for photos to use and the only high-res photo I could find was this little gem from our first Halloween together.

 

So that launched me into a photo scanning project.  Now, three days and two boxes of photos later, I've scanned all of my prints until the middle of 2000.  The exciting thing is that by the end of 2000 I had a digital camera.  So only half a year of photos to go. Yipee!  (I do have two albums of prints from my wedding but still, the end is in sight.) 

It actually wasn't too bad.  I used the continuous scan function on VueScan and I watched about 30 episodes of Arrested Development courtesy of Netflix.com (before I finally switched to Monarch of the Glen, which I'm watching right now, as a matter of fact).  Honestly I would have kept going with the scanning but I was getting serious carpal tunnel in my wrist from switching out the photos...I'm not kidding.  But on the up side, I got to finish my first layout for my Focus52 project.  And I'm looking forward to fifty-one more layouts of the important...and unimportant things in my life.

Focus 52

A few days (weeks?) ago I signed up to be part of Focus 52.  Jan over at twoscoopz put me up to it and I'm glad she did.  But let me confess that I haven't actually started yet.  I knew it was something I wanted to do but I wasn't exactly sure WHAT I wanted to do.  The obvious thing would be for me to take photos.  But you know...I've taken photos most days since July 2003 so that's not really stretching my creativity.  I'm not saying I get fantastic photos every day but you know, I just wasn't feeling it on the photography front...or at least not JUST photography.  Because to be perfectly honest, I'm trying to learn to NOT take my camera with me everywhere I go.  So doing a POTW didn't feel particularly ambitious or helpful.

In that case, what to do?  At the rate I've been going, I probably could have settled for one blog post a week and that would have been an accomplishment.  *hehe*  Yes, I've been a bit of a slacker lately.  But I'm actually going to be even more ambitious than that.  Here's the plan:  I want to do one digiscrap layout a week AND I want them to be about the everyday things in our lives (my life?).  How awesome would it be - twenty years from now - to read up on what our current daily schedule is...or how I *really* feel about cooking...or even things from our family history like how Dwight and I came to be...or how I came to be driving a minivan.  Maybe those will be tales my kids can connect with when they're embarking on this adventure called Parenting.  So that's the plan.  At the end of the day...err...year, I think I'll walk away with something incredibly valuable to me.  And in the meantime, I think the weekly creative outlet will be good for me.  Perhaps I can even work in Jan's weekly prompts? 

So now that I've figured out what I'm doing, I have plans to get started TONIGHT...and I'd better hurry up and get two layouts done because week 3 is right around the corner!