SomeGirlsWebsite

You Can’t Get the Time Back

2012-09-11T02:09:46Z

You can’t get the time back.

That is a thought that has run through my mind many times as a parent of young children…

You can’t get the time back.

When my oldest son was 5 and we had recently moved to a new city with a new baby, I kept him out of preschool and spent lots of long hours out in the yard exploring and rocking on the porch all because of those six little words…

You can’t get the time back.

Now that my youngest is 5, that last year of being a toddler (wearing 5T), and moving into elementary age on the edge of losing his first tooth, I find myself thinking the same thought…

You can’t get the time back.

And so, I find myself in the yard, on the floor, at the table, in the kitchen, at Target, on field trips, everywhere but on the computer lately, trying (but not always succeeding) at making the most of our moments together because…

You can’t get the time back.

I hope this explains a little of where I’ve been lately and why I don’t have plans to come back and blog for awhile. My little one won’t be little for long and I’ll have lots of time to share and receive thoughts here in the future. But for now I’m going to be focused on fraddling with my little guy and praying that God will use our time together to build great character in his life. I’m setting my heart and mind to be very intentional with the time we have because, as you know…

You can’t get the time back.

Lots of love to you all!

♥ Michelle (aka SomeGirl)

Can you hear me squealing with excitement??

2012-08-27T17:42:32Z

Can you hear me squealing with excitement?? I just came home from a live TV spot promoting our new e-book, Be Free: A 14-Day Challenge of Food Discovery. One of these days I’ll have to tell you what a God-thing this was… to have us newbie, nobody, just published two days ago, e-book authors appear on a huge show like Good Morning Texas! But, at the moment I’m spent (as I’m sure you can understand after pushing to finish our book, co-hosting the wonderful Mamas Write conference, teaching a photography class to dozens of bloggers, and getting up super early for this (watch our interview from GMT below):

I’ll come back soon to tell you more of what God is laying upon my heart…
Lots of love to you all!!

♥ Michelle

Can I interest you in a nice, cold glass of Lemon:Aid?

2012-08-20T01:52:18Z

Welcome to my virtual lemonade stand! I’m so glad that you are here!

Today is a very exciting day! Today, Jenny at The Southern Institute is raising money to help bring clean water to people who are in desperate need, and I am pitching in! Jenny is partnering with Blood:Water Mission, a non-profit that works hand in hand with African communities, providing clean water and hope. Today we can help by buying a glass of virtual lemonade (she makes the best), and donating the money to this wonderful organization. I’m so excited!

Jenny’s goal is to raise $1000, and I know that with your help we can help her do it. $1000 will bring clean water to 1000 people! Would you partner with me and Jenny to help the people of Africa… people like Semiya?

How can you say no?

Buy a glass of Lemon:Aid!

No donation is too small.

Whether you can donate $1 or $20,

each one of us can make a difference!

Click the button above to buy a glass of ice cold Lemon:Aid!

Thank you so much for making a difference in the life of someone who lives a world away from us… both literally and figuratively. Together we can make a difference! We can show them that we love them well, that we care about what they are going through, and that we are willing to put our words into action!

I’ll be back soon… I have a lot to fill you in on! ♥ Michelle

An Update and an Offer (for anyone who likes to tweet)

2012-07-24T05:44:51Z

It’s been awfully quiet here on the blog, but life’s been nothing like that. School starts for my oldest a week from tomorrow… in JULY, believe it or not!?

But, I’m so excited about his new project-based school that I don’t mind. (And it’s way too HOT here in August to do anything fun outside, so he might as well be in the air conditioning learning fun stuff.) ;)

So, here’s a bit of what’s new…

The e-book I told you about the other day (written by Michelle Acker, Heather Smith, and myself), BE FREE: A 14-Day Challenge of Food Discovery is set to be released the 1st week of August… which is right around the corner!

My oldest son’s last bit of sensory processing therapy (cognitive therapy with Learning RX) is past the halfway point!

And the Mamas Write mini-conference for bloggers (that I’m co-hosting with some other WONDERFUL gals on August 25th in Arlington, TX) is coming together quite well.

We actually had a planning meeting today and took a video to let you have a peek into the fun learning and inspiration that lies ahead of us.

Here’s Heather, Kristin, Eryn, Michelle, and Me to tell you what’s in store and…

why YOU would be so glad you came to Mamas Write (no matter where you live – it’s not just for DFW area bloggers, and it’s totally worth MUCH more than the $40 ticket price)!

Oh, let me add… I am going to be so busy at the conference that I’m not going to be able to tweet all of the great nuggets of wisdom from the conference like I normally do.

Would anyone like to volunteer to be my designated tweeter at the conference?

I have been given official permission to sponsor someone to come tweet for me… would YOU like to do that?

Ticket, breakfast, lunch, fellowship, and LOTS of great information included are FREE with the offer.

Just let me know in the comment area below and include your twitter handle.

You’d be tweeting from my account, btw. Thanks!

Love,

♥ Michelle (aka SomeGirl)

The Making of a Family Portrait with Natural Light

2012-07-16T17:20:19Z

Take advantage of any time you’re all going to be dressed up… a wedding, birthday party, or in this case, an adoption party for some dear friends.

Choose a well-lit spot

If outside, try to shoot in the early morning or late afternoon when the light isn’t so harsh. During the bright part of the day choose a shaded area. Shoot outside on concrete. The concrete will cause the light to reflect back onto your faces, grass will suck the light up. If it’s too hot (or cold) outside, find the best lit room in your house, make sure you’re shooting during a bright time of day.

Use a Tripod

If you’re not fortunate enough to have an extra person with you to take your family photo, set your camera up on a tripod. (Here’s an instagrammed shot of my husband setting up his tripod.)

Adjust Settings Beforehand

Have some of your models come in to sit while you adjust the position of your camera and your camera’s settings.

For our indoor space my husband started at ISO 1600, f-stop 2.8, shutter speed 100 and ended up with our final shot (below) at ISO 2000, f-stop 2.8, Shutter speed 80.

Arrange Family

Have the rest of your family come in to see where you’d like each member to sit or stand. I personally like portraits where our family is sitting… when we stand we never know what to do with our hands and bodies, but sitting seems to help with that.

Use Timer

Once you’ve adjusted your settings, tripod position, and you know where everyone is going to end up, you’re ready to set your timer and capture your family portrait. If you’ve done the work before hand well enough, you might even get lucky like we did and end up getting a good one on the first try! (That has NEVER happened before! It probably helped that we were late for our friends’ party and needed to go, so we didn’t have time to be nit-picky.) ;)

Styling

One last note here… It’s nice to have everyone color coordinated, but not too matchy. We may have gone a little overboard with the blue, but I like it. A big key is to choose clothes you all feel comfortable in, and to look like you normally do. These are some of our favorite clothes, so we all feel very good and I think it shows.

As far as positioning goes, a nice natural touch is good for a family photo. Nothing staged, just what you might normally do. It helps to just be yourself. If you don’t feel natural in your pose, you won’t look natural in your photo. If you feel comfortable, you’ll look comfortable (and usually much happier).

And, for the record, I wouldn’t recommend crossing your legs at the ankle and pressing them back against the sofa… It makes them a little wider looking than normal. (I’d really like to photoshop those down a notch, but I’m going to resist the urge.) ;)

Post Processing

FYI: Almost any professional photographer will take a little time to adjust their photos on the computer before sending it to a client, so feel free to do the same. Most photos can benefit from a slight exposure, contrast adjustment before being printed. (I probably over adjusted these photos, but I’ll go back and re-adjust the group one a little better before printing… just wanted to get them out and up here real fast for you guys.)

Hope you have fun and get some great family photos!

Btw, now is just the right time to start thinking about portraits for Christmas Cards… it’s not as busy as it will be once school and fall activities get underway. :)

Mmmmm…..

2012-07-03T05:57:17Z

Did I tell you I’m writing an e-book with two good friends?

It’s an easy to follow how-to guide for cutting gluten and dairy out of your diet.

Once I cut gluten and dairy (later, soy) out of my diet my years worth of migraines, tension headaches, and fibromyalgia pain disappeared. I’ve been so thankful for my new found freedom from pain that I wanted to share my story and how I did it with everyone. I had two friends making the same diet changes and seeing amazing results, so I asked them to join me in creating a how-to guide with a bonus cookbook.

We’ve been working SO hard the past month to get everything together to turn in to our e-book publisher (today!)…. we’re hoping he’s able to get everything together and ready to release by August 1st!!

It’s a little hard to believe my dream to write an e-book to help others BE FREE of pain (and several other ailments) through simple diet changes is about to come to fruition!

Since I’m sitting here (making myself terribly hungry) processing photos for our recipe portion of the book, I thought it would be fun to share some of the photos of the DELICIOUS recipes coming out in Be Free: A 14-Day Challenge of Food Discovery in just 4 weeks!!!

Look at these gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free goodies….

To be notified when Be Free: A 14-Day Challenge of Food Discovery (with BONUS gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free cookbook) is released simply enter your email below:

Attention DFW Area Bloggers! (Giveaway)

2012-06-30T02:37:33Z

Congratulations, Heather Cook of Cook Family Chronicles! You’re the winner of a FREE Mamas Write blogging conference ticket! You’ll receive an email soon to get your registration information completed. For everyone else, I hope to see you at the Mamas Write conference on 8/25. Early bird tickets are still available through Saturday 6/30 for the low cost of $30!

Are you a christian blogger in or near the DFW area?

Are you interested in learning more about blogging?

Would you LOVE to talk with and learn from great bloggers like Kat Lee of Inspired to Action, Eryn Hall of Mamahall.com, Amy Lynn Andrews of BloggingWithAmy.com, and more…

Would you like to learn more about photography composition and/or how to use your camera to take better pictures?

If so, I’ve got a great offer for you!!

This week I’m giving away a ticket to the upcoming Mamas Write blogger conference (held in Arlington, Texas at High Point Church on Saturday, August 25, 2012 from 9:00-5:00)!

I went to the Mamas Write conference last year and was BLOWN AWAY by the awesome speakers and wonderful information shared! So much so that I joined the planning team to help get the word out for this year’s conference! :)

I will also be offering a photography class during one of the breakout sessions and would love to get to sit and chat with you over our cameras in person!

Simply leave a comment below telling why you’d like to attend the Mamas Write conference to be entered to win!

It’s going to be a GREAT conference!!

Btw, if you don’t win. Tickets are on sale for the early bird price of $30 (after June 30th the regular ticket price of $40 will go into effect). Purchase tickets here.

The winner will be announced this Friday 6/29.

For extra (bonus) entries…

Tweet about this giveaway, saying something like:

I want to go to the #mamaswrite blogging conference on 8/25! I hope I win a ticket from somegirlswebsite.com

Share this post on FB, Twitter, Google+, etc, or email it to someone who might be interested in attending the Mamas Write conference.

Leave a separate comment for each bonus entry you complete.

I hope you win! I’d LOVE to see you there!!

For more information on the Mamas Write conference at mamaswrite.com. (Information is being added on an ongoing basis.)

Do You Struggle with Finding Your Value in Numbers?

2012-06-21T14:30:28Z

I don’t know about you, but I often get discouraged by numbers. Not only do I get discouraged by them, I tend to let them define me.

Here are some of the numbers I’ve let dominate my thoughts (in both pride-filled and shame-ridden ways) over the past few years, see if you can relate…

The numbers on:

The scale

The inside back label of my pants

The area code/zip code from where I live or came

The number of children I’ve had or not had (when struggling with infertility, as well as, in the homeschool world)

My savings account balance

My checking account balance

My salary/pay for a job

My husband’s salary/pay for a job

My age

My boys’ ages

The amount of time I allow my boys or self to __________

The number of “likes” something I’ve posted on FB receives

The number of subscribers to this blog

The number of followers/friends I have in real life or on social media

The list goes on and on…

I’ve often let my value or lack of value be derived by those numbers (numbers which go up and down daily). That’s some shaky ground to be basing value upon!

Lately, as I’ve mistakingly given and taken away my worth based upon some of these things, I’ve sensed God whispering to me, “The numbers don’t matter.”

I’ve pondered this quite a bit over the recent weeks and have decided that there’s only one number that really matters. Only one number to base my worth upon…

While the other numbers in life rise and fall without much given warning, one number remains constant.

I (and you) have been made 4 a purpose.

Created 4 God’s Glory.

Bought 4 a price… Paid 4 by Christ’s perfect blood.

Ransomed 4 a relationship with the One and Only Living God.

4given as we confess our sins and put our faith in Christ Jesus.

Gifted 4 Kingdom work.

Prayerfully, living 4 Him.

With that said, I pray that we who struggle with finding our value in numbers would take our thoughts captive, give our numbers to God and begin to look solely to Him 4 our worth. He provides the only constant number upon which to build our worth’s foundation.

Something to think about.

Linking up with:

If you’re just tuning in, our thought-provoking link up has moved locations. It’s now being hosted by my sweet friend, Michelle, at intentional.me. Read why here.

20 Easy Ways to Build Stronger Family Connections

2012-06-13T13:07:54Z

With summer here, I thought it would be a great time to share a few ideas for building stronger family connections.

1. Don’t let Facebook (or other online activities) become the main place you build connections, institute “Face-Look”… Look your children in the eyes (face-to-face) and exclaim , “Face-Look status time!” then share what you would “write” in your status bar. (We all giggle and have fun sharing our tidbits with each other when one of us does this, usually me.) ;)

2. Buy or make a Mad Lib story book. Leave it on your dinner table and fill a story or two out at dinner. It’s great fun and good grammar practice.

3. Go for a photo walk or drive. Let everyone have turns with the camera, or have everyone take their own camera and see what interesting things they can find. (If you use your iPhone, you can have the photos printed and mailed to you for around 39 cents each using the free app PostalPix.)

4. Make time to stop at a local snow cone stand and try out some new flavors. I recently tried a Pickadilly (cherry with shredded pickles on top) and LOVED it. It was quite the conversation piece. ;)

5. Take a pajama run to get breakfast through a drive-thru restaurant then drive around for awhile listening and singing to your family’s favorite station. (We LOVE Sirius Kid’s Place Live!)

6. Set up a card table and put a game or puzzle out for continual play.

7. Make it a dinner habit to ask each other, “What was the saddest part of your day?” “What was the happiest part of your day?” (I like to end with a positive emotion.)

8. Work together to create a secret family handshake. (I’d tell you ours, but then I’d have to… ya’ know.) ;)

9. Decide upon a sign that you can do to tell each other, “I love you,” without anyone else knowing – tugging your ear, winking, thumbs up…

10. Create family team jerseys. Any local sports store that sells soccer uniforms will most likely put vinyl letters on shirts you bring in for a relatively low cost.

11. Use storms to bond together over a special treat. At the first sound of thunder our family starts talking about whose stomach is grumbling the loudest for marshmallows and we each get one to enjoy. We only eat one marshmallow, but we have fun seeing who claims the loudest rumbles as their own.

12. Listen to each other. Stop what you’re doing and really listen when one of your family members speaks. (My husband is really good at this… I’m trying to be more like him.)

13. Have a picnic in your living room while you watch a movie or play video games/board games together… Do this on a fairly regular or frequent basis.

14. Go geo-caching. (We’ve never done this, but it sounds like fun!)

15. Play would you rather as you drive or wait somewhere together… Asking “Would you rather ___________ or ___________?” questions. (Ex: Would you rather have all the candy in the world or go to DisneyLand for a week?)

16. Take a road trip (even if it’s just a day trip).

17. Unplug the TV. (Ours has been in the garage for a few months now and we have thoroughly enjoyed not having it! We watch Hulu on the computer and Netflix on the iPad on occasion. Ok, my husband and I like to catch Psych, Fringe, and The Office whenever a new one is available.)

18. Get a dog. (They take some work, but really help draw everyone together.)

19. Play games where you work together… Blowing through straws to get a cotton all across a finish line, three-legged races, team scavenger hunt, etc.

20. Pick each member of your family, on different days, to do whatever their favorite activity is… Fraddle for them. :)

These are just a few ideas from our family activities… What special things does your family do to build stronger connections? I’d LOVE to hear!

Btw, feel free to share or Pin this post!

Would You Like to See?

2012-06-02T03:10:36Z

I know I’ve already shared some photos from our trip, but I just went through my camera and found some nice ones that I’d love to share with you guys… Would you like to see them?

I was hoping you’d say, “Yes.” :)

Here you go…

(I’ll be quiet and let the photos do the talking)

We had SO much fun! If you haven’t been to Disney World, Legoland, Pensacola Beach, or the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida I’d definitely recommend you go! We LOVED each one of them!

And, if you’d really like more photos, you can find more here under the instagram hashtag #DisneyWorldorBust.

SomeGirlsWebsite

You Can’t Get the Time Back

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Can you hear me squealing with excitement??

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Can I interest you in a nice, cold glass of Lemon:Aid?

Welcome to my virtual lemonade stand! I’m so glad that you are here!

How can you say no?

Buy a glass of Lemon:Aid!

No donation is too small.

Whether you can donate $1 or $20,

each one of us can make a difference!

Click the button above to buy a glass of ice cold Lemon:Aid!

Related posts

An Update and an Offer (for anyone who likes to tweet)

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The Making of a Family Portrait with Natural Light

Choose a well-lit spot

Use a Tripod

Adjust Settings Beforehand

Arrange Family

Use Timer

Styling

Post Processing

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Mmmmm…..

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Attention DFW Area Bloggers! (Giveaway)

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Do You Struggle with Finding Your Value in Numbers?

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20 Easy Ways to Build Stronger Family Connections

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Would You Like to See?

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