midnight oil

here it comes?

We've been told that a very big storm is on its way over from England. It is starting to snow a bit...we shall see.

one guess

That's all you should need. What's missing and where did it go?

trying to get serious

The point of this whole 365 project is supposed to be to better your picture taking abilities. I really am trying to remember that. In that vein, I took a few photos while we were waiting for Jason to get his hair cut. (Didn't I tell you? Our life is absolutely fascinating!) There were several of Izzy hamming up for the camera (he's in that "see the camera, adopt cheesy grin" phase) and some of Zander giving me the "mo-om" look. But I liked the pictures of their feet the best.

I am a big fan of taking pictures of kids' feet. I'm sure we will see more than a few as the year rolls out. This is Izzy (obviously). I love his little shoes. I messed with the exposure, contrast, and color (just a little) and then put a little border around it. I usually use a black border when I do that but I thought it might be interesting to try to match the tiles a little. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it but it's different. And that was kind of the point today.

learning our letters

I have never done a lot of structured learning with the kids at home. Neither of the older two boys were ever all that interested in it; they preferred for us to just play with them. Zander has always marched to the beat of his own drum, though. He loves letters and has learned quite a few of them almost on his own. He desperately wants to go to school. Poor kid.

Today marked the start of a small change in our daily routine. Because he enjoys letters so much, I've decided to "teach" him about one letter every week. We'll incorporate other "lessons" into the week but the emphasis will be on what he likes most.

no longer sweating the small stuff

Okay, okay. So this picture is not any more interesting than yesterday's. Sorry! I changed Zander's sheets today (riveting, I know) and after I was done I realized something: I have come a long way.

Let me explain. Not all that long ago I had a thing about the boys' rooms. The toys had to be picked up (even if it was me that did it) and the bedding had to match. I was really rather particular about it. I even wanted the stuffed animals to coordinate. I think we can safely say this is no longer an issue.

exciting times in the calm crazy house

Well I wish I could tell you that I spent the day doing something awesome. Something like, I don't know, spinning and singing on some beautiful mountaintop somewhere. Or baking strudel. Or, well, anything interesting. I can't because I didn't. Here is what my day consisted of:

Piles upon piles of baby clothes. This is just about it, though. The grand total (have I said this already?) is 15 bags of donation clothing, four containers of clothes to sell, and that one little tub o' keepsakes. Not too bad, huh?

That was the first half of the day, anyway. The second was dedicated to college, college, and more college. I suspect that most of my tomorrow will consist of the same since I have a five page paper due tomorrow night. I'll try to come up with more interesting subject matter for the picture though, okay?

ringing in the new year

There are many reasons we are going to miss living in Germany. Fireworks, while not the top reason, are pretty high up on that list. There are fireworks at pretty much every fest you can imagine, birthdays, holidays (ahem...like New Years!), and did I mention fests? Yeah, Germans seem to feel that fireworks make everything better--and I think Izzy agrees!

and so we begin

One of my 101 projects is to complete a 365 project. And what better day to start a year of photos than on January 1st?! This is going to be a huge year for us so a daily photo will be a fun way to document the whole thing. I'm really excited about it! The year and the project! ;)