November 30, The Road Less Traveled

I think most people like to find their own way in life and take the one road that no one has been down before. I tried this path only to find that many people have been down that same road and that there is nothing at the end except – well, the end.

So now I choose the path set forth for me by Jesus Christ. Some people will say it’s been done before, it’s the establishment so therefore, not cool. But I’m past the point of caring.

I wish that all will follow – I’m certain that’s what He wishes too. This is my evangelical thought for today.

Photo by the husband. Editing by me.

November 29, Extended Cyber Monday

I did not venture out last weekend to shop. I did the last few years as an adventure and it was quite fun. However, this year, something changed for me. It seems like such a dichotomy -  the Thanksgiving Day so perfect with family and gratitude. Then the next day – heck – not even the next day, but THAT day, at midnight, people are out with their firearms and their cans of mace.

I know that these incidences are rare and isolated – I do. But seeing on the news did put a little bit of a damper on the entire Black Friday adventure for me. So instead, the family went to see a fight at the hockey game. It was so much more civilized -

But that’s another post.

I spent all of the day after Thanksgiving in my pajamas cyper shopping and eating. It was just as fun and I didn’t have to get up early. I am now about 87.5% of the way to completion with my Christmas shopping. I have a great sense of accomplishment and if I could pat myself on the back and not feel silly, I would do it.

The senseless part about finding deals online is that I can’t stop finding deals online, you know what I mean? I have put things in my cart and taken them out of my cart countless times.

As I sit to post, I found myself going back to the husband’s corporate account and seeing what other deals are out there. It’s like extended Black Friday at the mall without the sore feet.

In any case, here’s a few links that might help in your Christmas shopping today.

Ann Taylor Loft – 50% everything
Eddie Bauer - 50% sweaters
Aeropostale (I bug my kids by pronouncing it in the Italian accent a-reee-o-post-ta-lee) – 50-70% off everything
American Eagle - $20 off thermals (I love their belts)
JC Penny – you will not believe the deals in their jewelry section

I won’t go into how disappointed I am that I didn’t buy anything from my very, very, very favorite workout apparel store, athleta.com (subsidiary of the Gap store) because today, there are no deals there. I have two pairs of yoga pants from Athleta purchased three years ago that I wear at least twice a week and they are still holding up perfectly. Then I remind myself that I’m not purchasing anything for me – it’s gift giving time so that makes it all better.

I would sit here and shop some more but I should actually be productive, like wrapping the gifts I already purchased.

“Tis the season and Merry Christmas to you all!

p.s. Texture on the image by Kim Klassen whose “Poetic” texture is so gorgeous I think I will use it all week. This post is for Texture Tuesday with some shopping tips thrown in.

Lens Notes

I was asked by one of the boy’s friend’s mother (do you follow?) to take his senior portrait. This beautiful lady is not his mother by the way. She is a my friend’s mother who just turned 80 years old last weekend. She’s beautiful yes? I love this photo, it reflects my oldest memories of her. Ever since I was a young girl, this is how I remember her, smiling and happy, good-natured and laid-back.

I want to capture LCAT Steven the same way. I want the photos to reflect who he really is; focused, kind-hearted, handsome, hard-working and mature.

I was once asked to shoot a friend’s wedding and declined because I was afraid to ruin her wedding. I said yes to this request. It’s a lot less pressure. After all, I can always redo the session, I can’t ask someone to redo their wedding.

Wouldn’t be prudent.

I was just researching portrait lenses and since this is my blog/ramblings/diary, I thought I’d write my notes here. You can tell me if I’m off base and I promise to take your inputs and happily so.

- If LCAT Steven was standing up, I would use a 50-70 mm lens. The AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens gets great reviews.

- If LCAT Steven was sitting down, I would use the 70-105mm. I think I like the 85mm f/1.8D but seems slightly out of my range right now.

- Here’s a surprise – makes sense from my experience. If I were to take a head and shoulder shot, I would use my 300mm and stand 15 feet away. I will definitely do this for his head shot.

There’s some great tips from the pros who know exactly what they are doing. I’m happy to be a student! I’ll post the photos of our handsome Steven once the session is over.

November 28, Land Of Plenty

I was experiencing some technical difficulties this morning as I wrote this post so I called for help. People who sit around all day and solve technical problems are special people with an unfair geek stereotype.

I actually am a techno geek but only claim that mantle when it’s convenient. I was told by my hosting service that they couldn’t solve the problem for me. I’ve learned from my years in IT that there are no unsolvable problems. If a solution is out of reach, then there is always a work around, i.e., throw out the baby with the bathwater and start anew. It’s an awful idiom but it applies.

In this case, I didn’t have to throw out the bathwater and the baby was saved.

If you have a Wordpress blog on a shared server, and you get this error message “Failed to write file to disk” when you attempt to load a photo, let me save you two hours on the phone with your hosting service. After all, there are dishes, laundry and Christmas shopping yet to be accomplished.

After I spoke to tech support, I googled the problem and I found that you don’t have to -

- fiddle with your php.ini file
- increase your storage space
- delete a temp folder (that you can’t find)

Simply upgrade your Wordpress files. Yeah – it worked.

I hope this helps someone out there.

I hope you enjoy the photo because I literally went through hades to put it on this post.

Happy Monday.

November 26, Coffee Bean Bar

This bar was made for coffee service. The coffee cups stand in a row just waiting to be filled. It’s a little more sophisticated than a mom and pop diner, but yet, still quite inviting and warm. I can sit for hours -

Grateful For ….

We are at my parents’ home for Thanksgiving. My parents however, are not here. The circumference of the earth is approximately 25,000 miles so they are approximately 12,500 miles away, in Nakon Phanon, Thailand.

The kids were pretty disappointed, I admit. The girl said, “Who’s going to cook?” Well….

We decided that we didn’t really need to have my parents to actually be at their house when we celebrate Thanksgiving – at their house. My brother just underwent surgery yesterday so that was a good enough excuse to come and take over my mother’s kitchen and cook Thanksgiving dinner for him and his girlfriend.

So I packed all of Thanksgiving fixes, the kids, the husband, the cat and the dog and off we went.

Though I am somewhat familiar with my mother’s kitchen, I had to so some searching to find everything I needed. The challenging part now is to put everything back where they belong so she can find them when she returns. Amen!

I attempted to document the cooking while I went but found it hard to be a one woman show so therefore I have a bunch of photos out of sequence and without context. But such is life.

I do have some of the kids who decided to help with the mac n cheese after they (finally) got out of bed.

They grounded the bread sticks into crumbs and sprinkled them over the mac and cheese.

They ate some while they were at it.

Then they crumbled and sprinkled bacon over the top of the bread crumbs.

Looking pretty yummy.

Thanks for the help kids.

As much planning as I do to for Thanksgiving dinner, I find that there are just some things that are out of my control.

- I forgot to pack eggs. The husband drove 20 miles to get eggs this morning. Thanksgiving is saved.
- I turned on the oven in the little apartment adjacent to the house to for more oven space and a rank smell proceeded to fill both living areas. I thought there was a mouse in the oven. As it turns out, there wasn’t. The oven was turned off and the house was aired out but the source of the smell is still unidentified. Fills me with a little bit of unease it does…
- I should never check email on Thanksgiving day while I’m trying to make stuffing. Nuff said.
- All the males in the family are asleep again. And no turkey has been consumed yet.
- The girl is doing dishes as I type. She said, “This is a small sink.” I reminded her that she used to get bathed in that same sink.

See? It’s the perfect size.

- I am listening to Robbie Seay, JJ Heller, and Phil Wickham as I cook. The songs remind me I have so much to be grateful for.

The mac and cheese is in the oven so perhaps it’s time for a glass of wine.

Have a magnificent and restful Thanksgiving to everyone out there in blogland.

November 24, Giving Thanks For Today

I am counting my blessings today.

I wish all of you a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Grateful For Broken & Healing Hearts

I love it when the boy does chores. At times it’s hard to get him to do them. And at times he protests. But then he complies and I know that it’s character building. One of the things I like to see him do is wash the dog. He takes such care and talks to her the entire time she’s undergoing her perceived torture.

He takes the same care with his friends. That’s what makes me the most proud.

Last weekend, a good friend of the boy’s came over. He will remain an un-named LCAT but you know him from multiple appearances on my blog. He came over because his girlfriend broke up with him and he needed some company so he came to talk to the boy. It was dinner time so perhaps he didn’t intend to speak to us – his family -  as well, but as it turns out, it was unavoidable. We knew why he came by.

I could see the hurt in his eyes immediately, there was raw emotion and confusion. It was a look that I dread seeing in my own kids, it hurts enough to see it in the eyes of their friends.

How do I feel about kids dating in high school? I’m against it. That being said, I dated in high school – it’s why I’m against it. And now not one but both my kids have “boy/girlfriends.”

Many of their friends are dating also. They are so young. Their Youth Pastor told them over and over that if they date in high school, they are dating their next ex-boy/girlfriend. But it’s difficult to get that message across, our kids will hear but not really listen. And maybe it’s an unavoidable part of just living life.

I’ll see that same look in the eyes of my own kids one day. Ah me. I am dreading it, truly dreading it. This coming from someone who has been there and done it.

My only hope is that my kids and their friends have more confidence, more maturity and more “sense” than I did. It will help to buffer the inevitable blow on their tender and young egos.

So we talked to the LCAT for a while. The husband didn’t even give him a hard time when he told us that he was going to major in Liberal Arts when he goes to college next year. That would normally have warranted a comment or two on any other night. We watched some Monty Python – that will cheer anyone up – and then he and the boy then went downstairs as the rest of us prepared for bed. The next day the husband went to wake them up for church and found the lights on, the television blaring an infomercial over and over again while the two boys snored on the couch.

Heart break is heart breaking. I wanted to tell him that God is closest to those with broken hearts, but he’s doesn’t believe in God – yet. We all know life goes on and we all know that time heals all wounds – or most wounds. But at that moment, all I wanted to do was hug him. Poor boy.

Like northern stars, today, I’m even grateful for broken hearts and their inevitable healing.

Choices Giving Thanks Day Number 3

Today I have a choice.

Do I serve canned cranberry sauce or make fresh cranberry sauce for dinner tomorrow night?

For the record, I love canned cranberry sauce. As a matter of fact, I’ve been eating it as dessert for the last three days. I have a head start on Thanksgiving dinner. But I understand the health benefits of the fresh cranberries. So -

I will be serving both.

Grateful for choices today. What are you serving? Or do you hate cranberries?

School Daze – Giving Thanks #2

I am guilty of being a very proud mom. I think my girl is intelligent, athletic, beautiful and all of her friends are darlings. They never, ever will do anything to embarrass their parents, their school or their communities.

Humor me ok?

Here is a random list of what’s happenin’ in school.

- Yoga pants were just abolished – prohibited – outlawed in school last week. I say, good for them. Giving thanks for rules in school.
- The boy had his first Senior Skip Day last week and asked me if he could participate. I said yes. I had to go to school to drop off some paperwork to his guidance counselor who asked me if the boy was alright since he wasn’t in school. I admitted to him that I let him stay home. Giving thanks for breaking the rules but only with parental permission.
- There was a fight in school yesterday. These things always make my stomach turn. The boy said the Safety Advocate (code name for school bouncer) had to break it up and that a girl was hurt quite badly. Giving thanks for the Safety Advocate.
- The traffic pattern in the mornings will be changing so when the kids miss the bus, there may be a chance that I actually get them to school in time. Giving thanks for the Principal for making the right decision!

Finally, no matter how much high school days hurt me, I know that I will miss them when they’re gone.

Grateful for perspective this morning.

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