sweet violet photography

Another What I Wore Wednesday

2012-05-30T09:17:00.000-04:00

I'm sick today so will most likely be in my jammies all day but here are my outfits for the last couple weeks:

I had one good outfit day that I caught on my camera phone. I even moved the mirror to a better place and look - even a made bed in the background! This is the outfit I wore on my kid's last day of school and my last morning of errands without all of the kids. I even fixed my hair and put on make up! That was a high point for the last couple of weeks. As you can tell I've been wearing this blue t-shirt and scarf a lot lately!

I bought this awesome color of nail polish! I wore it for about half the week last week. I noticed how many things in my house have this same color - especially when I was nursing in my green chair.

Here are a couple outfits from the last couple days. Taken by my big kids on my cell phone.

I still haven't made it out to buy a pair of jeans that actually fit so I've been wearing these old pre-pregnancy jeans that are a little worn at the knee but fit better at the waist. That Pepsi shirt is actually from the men's section at Target and I have two similar t-shirts. I wanted something big to wear after the baby - and 10 months later I'm still wearing it! But mostly just around the house. The black shirt has a cool scene on it with a moon and tree and birds but you can't see it in this photo.

I've had a lot more days that look more like this:

Linking up with:

Registration is still open for my Summer Mini-Sessions online photography e-classes. A laid-back low-key photography class for this busy time of year.

I am also wrapping up my May mentoring session and would love to line up some more photographers for June & July. If you've just started your photography business or are thinking about starting one up soon I have an option for pretty much any budget. I love helping other photographers find their niche and build their confidence. I cant't wait to hear from you!

Summer Survival: when things don't go as planned

2012-05-30T08:48:00.002-04:00

Ever since our first day of summer vacation we've been battling sickness in one form or another. Emma has had a cough, Katie-Abigail broke out with a poison ivy rash - again and she is severely allergic). Josiah caught Emma's cough and ran a low grade fever all weekend, Emma woke up Monday morning throwing up all over the living room carpet. I took Josiah to his doctor yesterday because I was worried about his cough. The strep test came back positive and he's on antibiotics today.

This morning I woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a truck and then it backed up and ran over my head again for extra measure. I was laying in bed this morning trying to get up for the day feeling frustrated. I wanted this summer to be super-organized and ultra-productive but it hasn't been either of those things so far.

I feel like so far this summer has been something of a train wreck, with day on top of day that are more stressful than sweet. I've been overwhelmed and generally resentful of being constantly interrupted and inconvenienced - which is selfish of me, but there it is - I want to do what I want to do and I want it to be amazing and perfect. When the kids make it hard, when the baby starts crying, the bigger kids start fighting and all I want to do is have an uninterrupted conversation or a trip to the grocery store that doesn't bring me to close to tears. It's hard.

So as I was getting my head together this morning a verse came to mind, which I realized is a verse that I studied during the last semester of small group from the James Bible Study by Beth Moore :

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God promised to those who love him. James 1:12 ESV

Steadfast means fixed, immovable, unchanging, steady, faithful and constant - this morning it means not giving up and letting the TV stay on all day, even though I don't feel well. It means not giving in to self-pity. It means taking a moment to step back and remember that even though the weight of these days sometimes feels unbearable and grate of my kid's neediness and immaturity feels like it will wear me down to the bone when I respond to them and the trial of sick kids, a sore throat and a massive pressure headache with grace God will bless me. I don't know exactly what this text means by "crown of life" it reminds me of other verses that talk about the crown God will give us on the last day and heavenly rewards but this verse also reminds me of those verses in Isaiah (especially in chapters 54-66 ) that talk about how God takes our sorrow and our ashes and turns them into beauty and glory and a crown, and God's glory and His delight in us and presence with us adorns our lives like a crown.

And let steadfastness have it's full effect that you may be mature... James 1:3

Our first trip to the pool this year

2012-05-29T17:25:00.004-04:00

We spent Saturday at the pool. The hubs' boss invited us to use his pool over the holiday weekend - it was a little cool, but we had lots of fun!! Even Eli enjoyed it - and he took an amazing nap while we were there. It was so much fun to see my little kids back in the water. We went swimming nearly every day at our old house and have missed having a pool at the end of the street and there is nothing like a day out in the sun away from all of the everyday ordinary distractions.

Movie Night Recap: This Means War

2012-05-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

I have noticed that a big part of how much I enjoy a movie depends on expectations. If I expect a movie to be lame and it surprises me I enjoy it twice as much whereas if I expect a movie to be awesome and it's just okay I find myself twice as disappointed.

I have been looking forward to watching This Means War for awhile now, so when the hubs offered to rent it I was definitely excited and spent most of the day anticipating snuggling up on the couch with the hubs, a bowl of ice cream and an awesome romantic comedy/action-light film. I expected a clever plot and great acting. I was hoping for some above-average cinematography and a killer sound track. I've seen the trailer a couple times so I expect there will be some clever use of spy-gadgets and a couple fight scenes. After all the basic plot of this movie is that there are two spies who accidentally start dating the same girl.

This should be good.

This pretty much sums up how I felt as the movie was starting...

...but this is how I felt when it was over

The action scenes in this movie are really long, unspectacular and confusing. There is supposed to be some witty banter and clever moments but because the spy characters were both so poorly defined I just kept waiting for the action scenes to be over and the hubs fell asleep. There were no "oh my goodness what is going to happen?!!" moments and there were too many "what just happened?!!" moments for me. Their spy awesomeness consisted almost entirely of video surveillance. Seriously - that's it. There was one scene near the end that was impressive, towards the end of the final car chase, with a split second of suspense. Beyond that it was very disappointing in the action/adventure department.

As we all know one of the most important elements of a good romantic comedy is the girlfriend.You know, the woman who allows the heroine to air her thoughts and usually is the strongest comedic element. But I really did not like this girlfriend. She is supposed to be some kind of a stay-at-home mom stereotype and she's just awful. She talks about sex all of the time and is practically an alcoholic. It's super annoying and pretty offensive and really not funny at all.

This Means War is not a total loss - the lighting in this movie is magical and there were a couple moments, especially at the beginning of the spies' relationship with Reece Witherspoon's character that I did enjoy. The clothes hair and makeup are all really well done. I just wish that the characters had been given a little more time and space to develop into something deeper - instead of diving into the cliche and predictable rivalry of these two immature characters.

For a very thorough plot summary you can read the This Means War Wikki
Me: frustrated & dissapointed
The Hubs: fell asleep

BOGO Photo book sale FYI

2012-05-24T08:45:00.000-04:00

My hubs loves to get photo gifts from me. You know how hard it is to buy presents for our dads and husbands but photo gifts are the one thing that they can not buy for themselves. MyPublisher is one of the photo book publishers I mentioned in my post about photo books and they are currently having a sale buy one hardcover photo book and get a free hardcover photo book from MyPublisher - so you can give one to your husband and another to your dad or print photo books for both of your grandpas but only have to pay the price for one. With prices starting at about $30 for two photo books this is going to make the perfect gift for my dad. Okay I've got to go download the MyPublisher book creator program and get started!

Pictured is the MyPublisher mini-book. The links in this post are affiliate links.

a few photos of my Beth

2012-05-24T08:15:00.000-04:00

Beth let me take some photos of her for a tutorial I'll have up (hopefully tomorrow) but I fell in love with the photos and edited some of them to post on their own today. I made some adjustments in photoshop CS5 and ran an action in Elements, I ended up choosing one from The Nodding Violet - an action set I finally figured out how to use properly in Elements and love to pieces. The last two are SOOC.

What I've been wearing lately

2012-05-23T01:33:00.000-04:00

This is my favorite outfit lately - I took the advice I got from y'all in my last post about what I've been wearing and embraced the shorter skirt. This is one of my favorite skirts that I bought from Old Navy a couple years back. I don't wear it as often as I should because it's a little shorter than I usually wear. This outfit feels so plain though. Got any advice on what to do to make it a little less drab? Or do you like it as-is? Here is one outfit I put together but didn't wear and here is another. I really am at a loss y'all. In the meantime here is what I've been wearing...

Have I mentioned lately how much I love that gray sweater? Most days it's been getting too hot to wear it, though. I also totally love wearing scarves - the two I bought the other week. Yep, it's just those two - and a purple knit scarf that is really only appropriate for wearing during the winter. I also really love wearing those flats - it's hard to see them in these pics but they are teal. I got them for almost nothing at Target a couple years back. I think they're just the cutest thing - but this is Georgia and the flip flops are coming out with a vengeance now!

I'm totally in love with this little dress I got from the Goodwill. It's just a little spaghetti strap ruffle top sundress. Not terribly figure flattering but so cute! I have no clue how to accessorize it (noticing a pattern here?! But I do love it. I wore it all the time during the first few months of my pregnancy with Eli and am glad I'm finally small enough to squeeze back into it.

Linking up with:

a blog post about nothing and everything

2012-05-23T00:59:00.001-04:00

We're nearly half-way through our first week of summer break. Half of us are sick with some kind of awful head cold thing and we've been stuck at home watching Disney movies all day long. I hate it when my kids are sick but I seem to hate it twice as much when we are sick during the summer, it just seems so unfair and just plain wrong. Apparently lots of awful stuff is going around, like a stomach bug. I am so glad that's not us.

Did you notice the photo at the top of this blog post? It's an instagram of a song I was listening to earlier this week. I didn't download it, so if you do and it's got something offensive in it, I apologize, but I love the preview of it on iTunes. I so feel like that right now. There is just only so much whining, demanding, complaining and general bellyaching that you can listen to in one day!

I've felt like that sometimes when the hubs comes home from his awful, stressful day at work. I listen and try to be supportive but you know there's days when I think "Did you have to do that with a baby on your hip and a whining preschooler in the backseat and on top of it all a raging hormonal headache? Okay then - please take the baby so I can go step in the shower for five minutes." That's one of the reasons why I love my women friends - we post status updates that let each other peek into our very un-Pintersting lives. We post Instagrams and I can see that your roller coaster of a day is about the same as mine and we sit in the un-silence of time-outs and know that we're not alone. Or we stand around at small group and share a little bit of life and we know that this is normal stuff we're experiencing right now.

The clouds were so beautiful on our walk this evening!

Tonight I drove to Wal-Mart at almost eleven because we're out of pretty much everything. I love staying up late at night, I love how my mind starts to come alive, running around in the quiet and stillness of the night time. I enjoy the drive with the windows down and the cool night air coming in...then I hear a big moth beat agains the side of the van and start to worry about bugs flying in through the open windows and possibly stinging the baby and so I shut them, and then I start to worry that a deer will come bursting through the trees on the side of the road so I slow down and then I turn the radio off and I start talking to myself. I talk about blogging, about parenting, about where my life is going and what I want to do and what perspective I choose to have about it all. I like to get my thoughts out in the open. I am so like my mother with this, sometimes I just need to think with my mouth. In the quiet night of the van with just the baby asleep in the backseat, it just feels so good to get it out with no one else to worry about boring or offending. It's my ten minute on-the-way-to-Wal-Mart therapy session.

Watching the siblings play outside

I had a nice little talk with myself tonight about how lucky I am to be able to stay at home with my kids. As much as I hate it some days and would like nothing better than to get into a cute outfit, with hair and makeup done and a job that paid a regular paycheck, with benefits if-you-please, and drive away from the laundry and the dishes and the bickering and the repetitiveness and disruptedness of life right now I also love that today I was able to laugh love fight fuss and just be with my kids, to sing with them, to admire their drawings and hopefully show how to be gentle when provoked and apologize when you're not. As hard as now is, as difficult and boring and emotionally overwhelming as all of this is, it's worth it.

I'll never forget something that was said to me during our first parent-teacher conference. She said "You spend a lot of time with your daughter, don't you. I can tell. It really shows." In that moment I had one of those mountain-top perspective-altering moments when I realized how much it had meant to her and all of the things that she'd learned just by being around me. Even in the middle of my mess, even though there had been times when I cried on her bedroom floor praying I wasn't doing everything wrong, praying she wouldn't remember this awful day we'd had, even though there were days I could barely get off the couch, somehow it had made a difference and had set her apart as an excellent student.

Don't get me wrong - please don't hear me say that I think that stay at home moms are the best in the world. I really hate that stereotype and I love the times I've been able to work and volunteer outside the home, sometimes it was what I needed to help me feel a little more sane. Right now I am working from home, teaching photography classes and mentoring budding professional photographers.

So, even though most days it feels like it doesn't matters all that much to anyone but me. Today I'm going to remember - it does.

Eli: 10 months

2012-05-22T13:08:00.000-04:00

I got my big girl camera out to take some photos of Eli yesterday. Can you believe he is 10 months already?! He can say Mama & Dada as well as a few other noises like "ba" and "ga" that don't mean much of anything, though sometimes I think he's saying "good". He can sign "eat" and kinda sign "drink" he loves sucking on crushed ice. I can see he really wants to eat our food but he hasn't liked much that I've given him. He spits out avocado, he puts his fingers in his mouth and picks out bananas, he likes over-ripe pear and he ate a bite of ripe peaches. He likes those little toddler puffs, especially the sweet potato flavor, and he eats lots of cheerios every day. He can clap his hands and snap his fingers, he can stand and step if he's holding something and he's taken one step one or two times. I am pretty confident he'll be walking around a year! Of course he puts everything in his mouth! His eyes have stayed beautiful blue. He is really expressive and affectionate.

A reminder about mentoring...

2012-05-21T13:18:00.003-04:00

If you've been thinking about taking your photography to the next level I would love to partner with you for my June mentoring session. I have been enjoying this month's session so very much and would like to line up the next month or two of mentoring sessions. I've been reviewing galleries and leaving loads of comments, helping my current student take her photography sessions to the next level. If you need an eye, or an ear - my "door" is open. A website review/portfolio review is only twenty-five dollars, if you haven't set up your site yet and need help setting up your photography blog or website I'm available to help with that as well.
Option 1 - full month of mentoring includes a full review of your website and a few of your sessions, up to four video chats (if you'd like) e-mails nearly every day plus I'll share tutorials that I've written for my classes and give assignments specific to what you need help with to help you grow your skills and confidence.

Option 2 - two weeks of mentoring, up to two video chats, website review, tutorials & assignments

Option 3 - one week of mentoring, website review, one video chat, tutorials, no assignments.

Option 4 - website review only.

Happy Weekend!!

2012-05-19T14:17:00.001-04:00

Photo books: the good, the great and the gorgeous

2012-05-19T08:43:00.000-04:00

Not all photo books are created equal. That is for sure. But not every photo book is printed for the same purpose. So here are some thoughts...

Shutterfly is cheap and easy. You can get a very similar product from WalMart, RitzPix and any pharmacy's 1 hour photo department. It is hard to customize these types of books but you can put them together quickly. One cool thing about shutterfly.com is that you can redeem Coke Rewards points to print your photo book. My MIL was given a book from Shutterfly and she loves it. If you want to quickly and cheaply put together some snapshots, this might be the best way to go. They are not my favorite, but they're not awful. As of 5/17 the price for an 8x11 photo book starts at $20 (a 5x7 book starts at $13)

MyPublisher is another economical photo book publisher. They have some great products and they almost always have an awesome promotion going on. I have used them and was delighted by how easy it was to create my photo book and for the price I paid I was more than happy with the results I got. As of 5/17 the price for a 8x11 starts at $30 (they sell a 2.75x3.5 with 20 pages for just $2.99!)

Blurb is pretty much my favorite photo book publisher. If you've been following my blog for awhile you will have seen my blog posts about my blurb photo books. They've got every kind of book for every type of budget. You can make a book of your Instagrams (which blurb will automatically grab from your Instagram feed) for about ten bucks or you can go big and print your photos in all their glory for fifty. I love the customization of the templates for blurb. It's very easy to make exactly the book you want and it's all printed extremely well. I can not say enough how much I love blurb. As of 5/17 the price of a "standard" size book starts at $20

There are two more book publishers who I have not used yet but some of my friends have and I can not wait to try them out.

Paper Coterie has adorable and unique designs and they feature some of my favorite photos on their site and blog. Meagan aka Madeline Bea, Angie Warren & Tracy Clark are all women who I love following on Instagram and it's so cool to see their photos and words on the Paper Coterie site. The books are beautifully designed, as I was browsing through their site I was struck again and again by the high quality of the designs. You really could not go wrong with these designs. Photo books from $20, "swatches" from $15 and premium kraft collection starting at $35 these books are beautiful, I can't wait to order one ASAP.

Pinhole Press is a brand I've been aware of for a while now but hadn't really seen anything much with which to form an opinion about them. Then I saw my friend Chelsey's (The Paper Mama) adorable baby book on the Pinhole Press blog and am totally in love. These books are little bit more pricey but look like they are high quality products with great design. A photo book starts at $44 for a book of iPhone pics, a mini cloth book is $70, a panoramic photo book is $85 and there are lots and lots of other high quality, gorgeously designed product there as well.

So that is my opinion anyway. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Have you printed a photo book lately? Who did you use? What did you like/dislike about it?

This is NOT an affiliate post, in fact I've gone out of my way to make sure that none of these links will benefit me in any way. I want to give you the truth about photo books and I want you to be 100% confident that my opinion is not being swayed by any possible ad revenue I might be able to generate from a post like this... I have always tried to speak my mind and only write about products I really love, but I thought I'd offer this as an attempt at a completely unbiased review of some of the top photo book publishers.

Summer Survival: TV series

2012-05-18T08:44:00.001-04:00

If this is the first time you have seen this series click here to get all of the posts tagged summer survival to see my posts on planning, books & movies. Next week I'll be writing about educational websites, iPad apps and start getting into lists of activities... but today is about TV.

It seems to me like it's feast or famine with TV during the summer - there's either so much on that I want to watch that there is no way that I could keep up, or there's nothing good on to watch at all. So this summer I'm not going to worry about TV schedules (with one or two exceptions that I'll mention a later) and just watch TV on demand. There are so many great ways to watch TV series no - you can watch them through Amazon.com, iTunes, Hulu, rent them from the video store, check them out from the Library I think you can even watch them on Netflix... when there's no money (or time) to go to the Movie theater, this is a great way to go.

I really enjoy watching TV series on DVD. The first time we ever did that was when we had a Blockbuster summer pass. Oh my goodness- the hubs and I stayed up until 2am watching every season of 24 we could get our hands on. Now that is the way to watch a series.

Here are a few recommendations of shows I've enjoyed that you can get on demand or on DVD but I'd LOVE to hear what you've been watching lately.

TV shows from a couple years ago...

Doll House: very cool plot, really good acting, well produced. I especially enjoyed Season 2. The plot - the plot! One of the best.
Damages: I only saw season 1 but it was spectacular. There were one or two episodes that I didn't care for but overall a really good show.
Terminator: such a well-done series. Loved it. So did the hubs.
Flash Forward: - I really wish this had gone into additional seasons. The cast is excellent, the plot is so cool. Really well done, engaging series.

TV shows that are currently running but have past seasons you could watch...

Fairly Legal - is currently in it's 2nd season, I believe and I have been really enjoying it. It's one of my favorite shows this year. The characters are stellar, the plots are pretty good, the relationships between the characters are evolving in a way that keep me coming back every week. One of the things I like about this show is that it has less offensive/mature material, for me that's a big plus.
Flashpoint - I think it's still running. It's one of those police style shows, this one has a lot of heart.
The Mentalist - Brilliant. And there's nothing left to say about that (it's police/crime as well).
Castle - really enjoy this mystery/crime/police show as well. The main character is a really good actor.
Hawaii Five-O - another police show, this one is one of the best (in my opinion) right up there with NCIS. I watch it with the hubs. This season hasn't been my favorite. The first season with this cast was amazing.
Bones - I've been a fan of this show for years not really into this season though. Past two or three seasons have been awesome.
House - if you're into medical shows this one is the best of that genre (at least I think so). Every season has something new to offer. I think this show is best watched on DVD because the past themes are the ones that run throughout the entire season. I was going to try to tell you which season was my favorite, but as I was thinking about it they have all been really good.

New Shows that I've enjoyed this season

Awake - this is a new show and it is brilliant. The guy goes to sleep in one reality and wakes up in another. I've loved it. There were one or two episodes in the middle that were a little boring but as this season is winding down it is getting really interesting.
Smash - the show is about a musical that is in the process of being produced. Really like the cast of this show. The finale was this week but I'm still catching up on demand so if you watched it don't tell me how it ended!!

Shows I'll be watching this summer

So You Think You Can Dance - I love love love this show!!! I can not wait for the premier.
America's Got Talent - I'll be watching this show with the hubs. I'm not a huge fan but there are epic moments like this one with William's Earth Harp that are just epic (and I just watched THIS clip from Tuesday's show we'll be watching on demand later.
I might also watch Hells Kitchen & Masterchef both with Gordon Ramsey.
I enjoyed watching the last few episodes of In plain Sight - I might go back and watch previous seasons of that. And I'll probably get sucked into Suits. I've been watching the re-runs on Friday nights and I'm kinda' hooked.

Confession: I will probably also be watching re-runs of How I Met Your Mother & Big Bang Theory because even though they are so dumb they are also just the thing you want to watch at the end of an awful day.

What about you? Got any suggestions? C'mon tell me honestly. What have you been watching?

Summer Survival: Books

2012-05-17T11:02:00.000-04:00

At our house we are pretty big on reading. We got to the Library every week. My husband always has a couple books that he's reading on his Kindle and while I don't read as much now as I used to I have always enjoyed a good book, whether it's a board book that I'm reading to the baby (I can read Goodnight Moon & Guess How Much I Love You without even looking at the pages) a picture book that I am reading to one of my littles or reading a chapter book at nap time. I love books. During the summer after they finish first grade my kids are allowed to bring a book to bed with them, since their bed-time is usually a half hour or so before the sun goes down. It's been a great way to encourage literacy in our home.

Books to Read Aloud

Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children this is one I read to my four year old at nap time. Such interesting stories! I I didn't want the book to end so that I could keep reading them to my little man. So glad this is a series now. I can't wait to read the rest of them.

The Poppy Series by Avi - I so enjoyed reading these to my Little Man during Naptime. The illustrations are simply beautiful. This would also be appropriate for a 3rd grade reader.

Classic Whinnie-the-Pooh - have you read the original books? They are nothing like most of the Disney-based books. I enjoy reading them so much.

Super Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold - my four year old son enjoys these books very much. I enjoy pretty much anything by Tedd Arnold, his books are easy to read and his illustrations are very creative and colorful.

Books for Young Readers

Ivy & Bean - my older girls have read all of these books! This is perfect for my 1st grader.

Clementine - a little more advanced then Ivy & Bean, Emma really enjoyed this as a 1st/2nd grader.

Judy Moody - how could you not love these books? Too fun. My 2nd grader loved these.

Bad Kitty - I have a confession to make - I sat down and read this to myself yesterday. I could not put it down. I checked out "Bad Kitty Gets a Bath" from the Library for my 1st grader.

Magic Treehouse series & Tales from the Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne - great material for your 1-3 grade independent reader. My kids enjoyed them and learned a little something along the way. The Tales from the Odyssey are for a slightly older crowd, my 4th grader really enjoyed them.

Books for 3rd Grade +

Fairies of Neverland series by Gail Carson Levine - honestly, my kids weren't terribly into them, but I think it's more a case of catching them in the right mood and the illustrations are divine!

Spiderwick by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi My 3rd grader is currently reading this series and is really enjoying it.

Series of Unfortunate Events - another 3/4th grade level series my 3rd grader is really enjoying.

Redwall Series by Brian Jaques - fun to read aloud or for your advanced 3-5th grade readers.

Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis I read this aloud to my girls when they were little, my 4th grader is reading them to herself now. It took my 3rd grader awhile to be able to read fast enough to really get into them. My favorites in this series are Caspian & Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The Ordinary Princess by M.M Kaye one of my favorite books as a little girl. I really need to find this for my girls. My mom read it to me in about a day.

This is Katie-Abigail "reading" to herself at nap time (about 2007)

Books for 5th Grade +

Kane Chronicles by Rick Roirdan my advanced 4th grade reader LOVED everything I could find for her by Rick Roirdan. Percy Jackson and the Olympians was a favorite, she really enjoyed the Kane Chronicles as well.

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein - my Dad used to read these aloud to us in the evenings. Great Middle-School level reading.

Inkheart series - so much better than the movie. My oldest and I listened to these on CD at night a couple years ago. REALLY enjoyed them, the first one especially.

Alpha Centauri by Robert Siegal another favorite read when I was a girl.

The Tower of Geburah and the Archives of Anthropos series by John White LOVED reading this series when I was younger. Still think about it sometimes now.

The Black Cauldron and The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander I enjoyed this series - if your kid is into knights etc. this is a good series. My kids haven't loved it as much as I did.

Princess and the Goblin series and other short stories by George MacDonald - I LOVED reading this series! The Light Princess is another favorite.

Books for Mom
Michael Phillips (I especially enjoyed the series on the Russian Revolution) this Historical Fiction series is really enjoyable. I'd recommend it for a Middle school/early high school student. I learned more from these books that I did in school! Same goes for Bodie Thane's Historical fiction (I remember enjoying the Shiloh Series).

Jan Karon - Mitford Series - My mom read these aloud to my sister and I the summer of 9th grade and I loved it!

The Help - just finished reading it and could not put it down!

Eat Pray Love - I read this book before it was a movie and enjoyed it a lot (though FYI - the worldview is not Christian, it's Yogi/Buddhist)

Ouch - this list is pitiful. Got any suggestions on what I could add to this list?

I had to share this oldie but goodie.
This is back from 2004, Beth is reading her favorite
Angelina Ballerina book with Daniel.

These are from around 2008:

Thoughts and late night ramblings

2012-05-17T00:16:00.000-04:00

It's pretty late.

I am really tired.

I'm waiting for Eli to wake up to nurse
so I can go to bed like everybody else.

It's been a loooooooooooong day

in the middle of a long week
in the middle of a month that has been hard
in the middle of a year that has been.... difficult, up and down, sweet and sour, amazing and awful
in this really complex, dynamic, intricate thing.

Sometimes,

honestly it's been a lot lately,

I feel frustrated.

Frustrated with how interrupted my life has been lately.

Constantly, incessantly, unremittingly interrupted.

How hard it is to follow through on a thought,

how difficult it is to finish even a simple conversation with my husband,

or even get a shower

or run the dishwasher.

How I feel constantly torn in a million different directions

and I feel like maybe I'm doing none of them well.

Frustrated with how boring my life is right now

sitting on the floor with my kids is awesome

for like ten minutes

but when it's several hours of every single freaking day

it gets old.

Then I get frustrated

with myself

for being frustrated

with my life.

I have been given an amazing gift.

Before Eli was born I used to look back to "the good old days" when it was just Beth & Emma in our little duplex, literally on the other side of the rail road tracks. I loved the simplicity of those days and I feel like I get to, in a way, re-live those days with the added blessings of big-sister helpers and perspective.

Sadly perspective is what I often lack. I get impatient with my life because it feel like there is nothing but dirty diapers and dirty dishes and dirty floors with no end in sight.

With no end in sight?

Eli's first birthday is right around the corner. When did that happen? This year has gone by so quickly. He is saying Mama (eep!) and he's been saying Dada for months, he's going to be walking soon and he already exceeds his brother's capacity for mischief. He is going to be a holy terror of a two year old. I just know it. I can see it in his eyes. How he manages to sass me when he has a vocabulary consisting entirely of onomatopoeia I don't know... it's certainly going to be interesting!

But I have to remind myself that even though this season is hard... that it's good for my character to go through this season with grace. To allow this season to do a good work in my heart. To become more patient with myself and others, to not be so insanely caught up with trying to live up to my impossible expectations of myself and my impossibly idealistic and romantic self-image.

Anyway, I just wanted to remind myself right here, right now. That the no end in sight bit is a lie that I choose to see for what it is. I choose to remind myself that this is hard but hard doesn't always equal bad. Hard isn't something we need to fight to get out of or get away from. Hard isn't something we need to feel sorry for ourselves about. Hard just is what it is.

Summer Survival: Movie Day

2012-05-16T08:34:00.000-04:00

my kids coming home from school

I've spent most of my summers in the Georgia heat and one of the things I've enjoyed during those long awful hot days is movie day, so I've been jotting down some movies that we've enjoyed over the last few years that I want to watch again or check out of the Library - I'd love to hear some of your favorites.

Younger Kids:
Happy Feet & Happy Feet Two
Despicable Me
Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2
Cars 1 & 2
Madigascar
Eloise
Backyardigans
Olivia
Wild Kratts
Kipper
Curious George (my Little Man LOVES the movie - with the Jack Johnson sound track. The TV series is good too!)
Where the Wild Things Are
Ice Age (all of them, but especially the Dawn of the Dinosaurs)

Slightly Older Kids:
We Bought a Zoo (LOVED this movie!!)
Hugo
Ramona & Beezus
Chronicles of Narnia - Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events

Peter Pan
Finding Neverland (with Johnny Depp & Kate Winslet) I wrote a review here
Miss Potter
Pride & Prejudice - there is nothing like spending all day watching one of those BritLit drama mini-series. I really like the BBC mini-series with Colin Firth, but like equally well the movie starting Kiera Knightly
Alice in Wonderland
Bright Star
Roger's & Hammerstein's Cinderella
Princess Diary (with Ann Hathaway)
Ella Enchanted
Penelope
August Rush

Older Kids:
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Bourne Trilogy
Spider Man Trilogy
Iron Man 1 & 2
Mr & Mrs Smith
The Painted Veil
Traitor (with Don Cheadle)
Eat Pray Love
Julie & Julia

Oldies:
Here are some of my favorite old movies, they aren't all considered "classics" but they're in that genre. I am so happy that I can check these out at my Public Library!
Only Angels Have Wings with Cary Grant
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with Jimmy Stewart
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town with with Jean Arthur
Philadelphia Story with Katherine Hepburn
Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn

Slightly less older but still pretty old:
I want to watch some of these movies again...
First Knight
While You Were Sleeping
Sabrina
Runaway Bride
Mona Lisa Smile
You've Got Mail
Fried Green Tomatoes

I've written more here with favorite movies of 2011
I'll write a post of favorite books tomorrow... and coming up I've got posts in the works for TV series to watch on demand, and iPad apps.

P.S. just thought you'd like to know- none of the links in this post are affiliate links, they are simply there for your convenience.

Summer survival: let the countdown begin!

2012-05-14T08:49:00.001-04:00

Today is the very last Monday of school.

The last week of spending the majority of my day with just the two boys. I can not wrap my mind around how quickly summer vacation is approaching. The kids are talking about it all the time now - they are excited about the homeschool activities I've been talking about. They are really excited about the idea of earning some money over the summer. To be honest, I'm terrified. Next week it's going to be a lot of disciplining, a lot of fighting, a lot of whining as we transition to summer schedule. It'll get better but first it will get worse. A lot worse. Because five whiney bored kids is pretty much hell.

So the plan this summer is to have a plan. I shared some printable planner pages to help with this and wrote about the importance of routine. The rest of this week I'll continue sharing tips & ideas for summer - I hope you'll leave a comment with some of your favorite activities too!

Instagrams lately

2012-05-09T15:15:00.000-04:00

I'm completely in love with Instagram. I take them all of the time, I check my friend's feed two or three times a day at least. It's been a wonderful way to share my life and connect with other photographers/bloggers.
So I thought I'd share a few favorites from the last few weeks...

My sleeping boys - beds are highly over-rated ;)

I use the app PicStitch to make collages on my iPhone

Playing board games with the neighbors

Found this guy in the parking lot at Food Lion

Pretending to be Iron Man

Lunch Time

Taking a walk

My boys

(can't wait for the girls to be home more over the summer!!)

I blogged this picture here... about how much I'm loving this month's mentoring session

The sky has been so pretty lately!

Out on a walk yesterday

My sweet baby

What I REALLY wore... um, recently

2012-05-09T08:45:00.000-04:00

I haven't purchased anything new since the last time I blogged about what I've worn. I wandered around Target for a little while with my boys on Friday but I didn't see anything worth getting. I wandered around Forever 21 at the mall while the kiddos got Dairy Queen soft serve with the hubs over the weekend but didn't feel like paying twenty bucks for one flimsy top, though I do love all the lace and pretty patterns and colors there. I'm thinking I'm going to need to try a different store.

I haven't done too well in actually getting dressed every day either... I took a couple snaps during the last week or so...

My jeans are getting too big - a nice problem to have (thanks to my baby still nursing), but I'm not a huge fan of shopping for jeans. It's always such an up-and-down feeling. So many don't fit right. WAY too long for my short little legs or way to tight on my, um... curvy parts. Thankfully there's a decent second-hand store nearby that I'll be able to go to and won't have to spend an arm and a leg to get a decent pair.

Photo below is courtesy of my four year old. Who thought it was very cool to be allowed to use Mama's iPhone. I like the rolled-jean with flip-flops look, as you can see... man, I am so short. Not sure these pants do anything to help that. I did wear a skirt a couple days last week - during the heat wave. But I forgot to take any pictures. What do you think would look good for a short person during the summer?

thinking out loud

2012-05-08T09:29:00.000-04:00

I got a message today, one of those strongly worded messages with the words "attorney" that make your heart beat fast and your stomach flip-flop. I was just sitting at the table with my sweet baby, drinking my coffee, checking my emails (and Instagram) on my phone and BAM! out of the blue, on top of everything else right now, I get this. My Facebook page's name is too close to hers, I'm interfering with her search results on Google, she's worked too hard for the last five years to have someone new come and interfere with her search rankings. Never mind that we offer completely different services at totally opposite ends of the country and that there is no possible way I can steal clients from her. Never mind that there are a bazillion photographers with the word Violet in their names.

I dropped "design" from the subtitle of my Facebook page and blog (and will change my header accordingly) I haven't been doing any designing lately anyway, not the way I'd hoped I would at the beginning of the year. I'm tempted to just go back to my old Simplicity blog with my 400 FB followers and 800 GFC fans - I'm not gonna lie to you, it feels nice to have a lot of followers and it's humbling to start back at square one with no time and less money. Or maybe I should move on to something else? I don't like the idea of changing names again and I really don't like the idea of migrating my business to my name but it seems like an inevitability.

I'm standing on the line between sad and mad. Sad because I have worked hard at blogging, photography and offering classes and it's tough balancing home and "work" and tough that work is just "work" at the moment and not the thing it was before I got pregnant. Mad because I feel like this other photographer is being petty and that a better way to resolve the conflict of someone having a similar name as yours is to just be better than they are and blow them out of the water with your awesomeness. Not send threatening messages to try to make them compete less for clients that aren't even in the same market. That is what I'm doing with the photographer who set up her website at pretty much the same time I did and has exactly the same name as I do but she has a different market, so I'm cool with it.

So this is just me... thinking out loud.

Good grief, I'm turning into my mother.

(Love you mom)

Eli (9 months)

2012-05-08T08:39:00.000-04:00

Bath time instagrams

2012-05-07T08:17:00.000-04:00

These are from a few weeks back... but I love them so much and had to share.

The Hydrangea outside my window

2012-05-05T11:35:00.000-04:00

Right outside the front windows is a big hydrangea bush. It took awhile for it to start blooming this spring, and during the heat of the day it gets to looking quite wilted but noticing it every morning as I send my girls off to school is one of my favorite moments of the morning. I've been photographing it with my iPhone nearly every day for the last month or so - I've posted maybe half a dozen to Instagram. The other morning I finally reached for my big girl camera to capture the beauty I'm enjoying every day.
These are all straight out of camera...

Black and whites of nature in my yard

2012-05-04T09:26:00.001-04:00

This is my submission for "shoot edit submit"

I finally got my "big girl" camera out and edited for the first time in nearly a month yesterday. They were shot using my Nikon D700 using my 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens with a 10x macro filter. All of these were edited in CS5 using Bumbles & Light's Poetic Winter Black and White Total Fade action for photoshop (an version for Elements is also available). You can see SOOC versions on my Flickr page.

Summer Survival Day 3: the Routine

2012-05-04T08:52:00.005-04:00

I don't want you to get the idea that I am this super organized person. My husband always says that Organization tools and books (and blog posts) are for the DISorganized. I certainly am among those who struggle with structure, routine and organization of every kind.

Today was one of those days. You know, the one that starts off with the kids fighting before the alarm even goes off. I had double-booked the day and found out that I had fines at the Library. Yeah. Thankfully this does't happen often - I

So why bother? Because as much as I don't like organization I REALLY don't like all the fights that bored kids tend to get into.

The routine for a typical summer day at our house requires a lot of turn-taking and tweaking. Here are some tips for crafting a routine that works for our family:

Stick to a basic routine every day
The "bare bones" of a schedule are sleeping and eating times. When these remain consistent then the kids know what to expect and are more compliant. During the summer we may make occasional exceptions but they still keep a pretty early bed time but then the older children are allowed to read in their beds. I'd also add to this that TV times are a good thing to consider part of your bare bones so that the TV is only on during the scheduled time of day and you don't have to constantly fight the battle of when and how much TV the kids can watch.

Know your kids trouble spots and plan your daily routine accordingly
Knowing my kids trouble spots or "triggers" are an essential part of helping me avoid bad behavior. For example one of my daughter's "triggers" is hunger - so for example if I take her out to the Library before lunch time without a snack I'm just asking for trouble. Another one of my children's trigger is tiredness so we make sure we have time in our day to be quiet and rest every day. Bad behavior is going to happen. If I can avoid a little of it by thoughtful planning and a routine that is considerate of their trouble spots it is worth it.

Group activities together
We have clusters of activities in our daily routine that we do pretty much every day. Our morning routine will get expanded to include a summer bridge skills review worksheet and journaling over the summer. Our evening routine will be a little more relaxed. I also try to group fun activities with the ones my kids try to avoid. For example, my four year old LOVES to play video games. He would play video games all day if I would let him. He only gets to play his video game after he has done a page in his reading book. He is much more willing to sit down with me and work on his school work when he knows that the next thing is one of his favorite activities. My oldest gets to play on the computer after she has emptied the dishwasher. By grouping activities together (and being consistent about it) reduces some forms of fighting to almost nothing.

Balance is all about rhythm
I get freaked out by this idea of balance - I want my kids to have a balanced home life. I want them to be challenged academically, I want them to develop good social skills, I want them to be responsible at home, I also want them to have down time. I'm tempted to try to plan out a carefully crafted schedule that has a little bit of everything and feel a ton of pressure to do it all but balance isn't about every day being perfectly even, it's about weeks and months having a rhythm to them. One day is a do-nothing beach bumming day and another is a field trip to the Egypt museum at the University. Right before my kids started school for the first time I took all day to play with them. I didn't worry about anything else. We played dress-up and I let them wear the glitter make-up that I kept on the very top shelf of the closet. We had tea parties and painted and I remember that day as being a perfect day with my girls. I also remember the next day. I thought "that was perfect. let's do it again" but we couldn't. My kids were all like "we did that yesterday - go check your email" I was mystified, but that's what balance is all about. Some days you spend all day (or week) doing something - balance is taking a break from it the next. Routine keeps you grounded.

I don't really have any photos of our daily routine - so here are some that I found on my camera from earlier this month!