do they see?

This summer I commented in a post that it's easy for me to get caught up in my work - my focus wanders, the details take over.  So I am encouraged when God shows me something through my pictures.  Tonight it was through pictures and a lovely song.

I had wonderful photo session this morning with an old friend and her family.  We went somewhere different, had gorgeous weather, had fun with a spunky babe.  And while I love taking pictures, meeting old friends and making new ones, that's not all I want my work to be about. 

This is what it should be about:

(excerpted from Joy Williams' "Do They See Jesus in Me")

Do they see Jesus In Me 
Do they recognize Your face 
Do I communicate Your love, and Your grace 
Do I reflect who You are 
In the way I choose to be 
Do they see Jesus In Me

It's amazing that you'd ever use me 
But use me the way You will 
Help me to hold out a heart of 
compassionate grace 
A heart that You're spirit fills 
May I show forgiveness and mercy 
The same way You've shown it to me

Now I want to show all the world who You are 
The reason I live and breathe 
So You'll be the One that they see 
When they see me

Do they see Jesus in me?  I hope so.  

MIA

My kids have all started school - so where has all my free time gone? Haven't had much time for blogging lately. I'm trying to get our house in order, doing some deep cleaning. Can I just mention how much I love my new little green machine? She's great. I heart her. We can all rest better now knowing that the under sides of my couch cushions are sparkling. :)

I want to decorate the living room for fall this morning, but I thought I'd play catch up a bit and post a few pictures of what we've been up to lately.

Here's Rella on her first day of preschool. Which she loves! School days are like Christmas for her. Once again, Ms. Jennifer is a rock star in our house.

Ready with her school bag. Decorating preschool bags has become my thing.

The family school bus is loaded and ready to go!

First day of school!

Empty school bus. So we went out for coffee. Yippee!

One of our favorite things to do is go to the park (not the playground, but the wooded walking trails that my kids call the forest. Which it is.) We took an evening walk the other night, and it started getting dark on us deep in the forest.

This stump proved to be great fun for climbing and jumping

She's just so little!

We also found a new park around here, which just might be one of my favorite places to go play. Lots of paths, fun old farm buildings to explore, a stage to play on, and trees to climb. We loved it!

proof that he is indeed super dad.

she tends to want to wear her minnie mouse dress everywhere. i was instructed to wash it for her today. instead I'm blogging. :)

What else...what else... Safety Day! I think this was our 4th year going. Rella actually hugged a dressed up dalmatian, which bodes very well for Disney in SIX WEEKS!!!!! woo-hoo.

family portrait.

one tired firefighter in training.

Being rescued from the fire safety house by an officer who had to be younger than my baby brother. craziness.

Oops - forgot that we had fun times over Labor Day weekend, too. We ended up at Busch Gardens on Labor Day, and Hi-Hat rode the Big Bad Wolf twice! Another woo-hoo! He's all about overcoming fears this year. Again, bodes well for Disney in (did I mention this before) SIX WEEKS! It rained, so Geof had to do the super dad thing and run my camera back to the car, so I just have a couple pictures from the carousel and the swings.

wild ride on the carousel.

swingin' in the rain...just swingin' in the rain

OK, back to adorning the living room with ceramic pumpkins and autumn garlands for the mantle. Happy fall y'all!

fix it friday!

Didn't I just say 2 posts ago that I'm now hooked on the i heart faces blog? Yep - it's true! Here's my take on this week's fix it friday. Fun exercise, stretching the old creative cells.

here's the original photo from Sarah:

Here's my fix #1:

Couldn't resist adding in a touch of sun flare to emphasize the great light coming in on here gorgeous eyes. And' I'm a bit partial to that red hair!!! My fixes were done in PS Elements. Here's the general skinny:

- Created 2 copies of the original background layer
- Applied screen to first layer copy
- Applied soft light (40% opacity) to second layer copy
- Desaturated the red in the photo just a bit (-5)
- Merged all layers
- Created a vignette layer around her hands, arms and face and and blurred the edges of the vignette
- Popped the background layer a bit using multiply and soft light
- Increased the saturation of yellow in her hair, used skin tone correction to warm up her face a bit, color corrected the whites of her eyes and teeth just a bit
- Popped her eyes a bit by enhancing the saturation, sharpness and lighting in the irises
- Applied lens flare, but reduced the opacity of the flare.

And here's my fix #2:

I love the green and oranges in the original, but I decided to try draining the color a little bit to see the effect. I was pleased with the warmth of this effect. Just did a few additional tweeks to my first edit:
- Desaturated first image about 45%
- Created a duplicate layer and applied soft light
- Applied slight warming filter

Please vote for us!

Every day - go back and vote again and again! Send us to Disney yet again! (I've entered EB in Disney's Fairest of them All contest)

I know it's a picture of the back of her head, but I promise she's cute! :)

You do have to create an account to log in and vote - but thanks!

i heart faces . . . contemplative & pets

join in on the fun!

Thanks, H, for introducing me to this photo blog. If you love great photos and love finding inspiration for your own photos, check it out. I did and I'm hooked. So I'm posting some pictures for this week's challenge - a contemplative photo and a pet entry. Here's the first - an oldie but goodie (well, not that old as it was just a few weeks ago, but old if you know the ridiculous quantity of photos that I take of my kids...).

Rella seemed to be debating the merits of my insisting that she needed a wipe for a little something on her face.

And here's my pet photo:

OK, OK, so not really a pet. But we all know how much Fancy loves all things creepy crawly (we are currently housing a lively beta fish next to a habitat full of developing lady bug larvae on our kitchen counter). I'm pretty sure he would have be a stow away on the ride home from the park had she pockets in her outfit!

Bon Bons, Anyone?

What a shame - I didn't make any. I think I made something one time that would qualify as a bon bon. It involved cream cheese, crushed oreos and cocoa powder. Heavenly. But I digress. I had a very nice morning! All three kids were occupied with school from 9:00 - 12:45 (yes, I send my 2 year old to preschool, and she LOVES it!). I am so in need of some down time these days, what with the mono recovery and all (pretty much over it by now, though still somewhat tired). I'm one of those people who just needs time to myself to recharge and refocus. Again, I'm digressing. So I dropped off the kids, then had a nice hour-long visit to the salon to have some stuff done to my hair. Got to read interesting magazines and sit in a comfy massaging chair and have my head rubbed. Then I went to the bath and body store and came out with two jars of mint sugar scrub. That stuff is amazing! Granted, we use it to clean our kids summer-sandal-brined feet that you can smell coming a mile away, but it does at least sound like a luxurious purchase. Then I went and bought myself a photog magazine, picked up the little one from preschool, and came home to find hubby here with pasta for lunch and a tidy little box full of delicious goodies from The Cupcake Shoppe.

and look - weren't we good? Geof and I shared one. (well, that just means there's one left over for later. maybe we'll share that one, too.)

AND, there was a package on the doorstep containing two stems of my beloved discontinued crystal pattern.
I mean is that a good morning or what? Definitely not the norm, but just the kind of day a mom needs now and then.

Then we got the mail. There was an interesting tube in the mailbox. Bubble has burst and back to my reality as a mom. A mom who mailed away for live insect larvae to be mailed to my house so that we can raise them in a nice little colorful plastic habitat in the kitchen.
That tube says open immediately, but I did not, and it gives me the hebejebes just thinking about it. I suppose I'd better go tend to that before Fancy finds it herself and tears into it and releases the larvae all over the house. I suspect said naughty little dog would have a field day with those.

For those who are dedicated

This post has the potential to be long, if you watch the video. All 8.26 minutes of it. Perhaps best suited for those who can be called grandparents, auntlies or uncles, long time friends, or those who want to be able to look back in about 15 years and say "I knew him when..." On Saturday afternoon Hi-Hat's "cover band" E.C.O. gave an hour-long concert/karoke session, covering such artists as Jars of Clay, Josh Wilson, Toby Mac, and Dave Matthews Band. An hour long. We just sat back on the couch and watched our kids dance and sing and play. For an hour. Awesome! It should be noted that Hi-Hat is a drummer - that's what he takes lessons for. He doesn't play guitar (yet), but he's had a guitar in hand since he was 2. I need to find an instructor for him, but that would also mean carving out more time in our week. It's fun to watch him play from the drumming perspective, though. I think if he knew a few chords he might be quite decent. At the very least, he's got the moves down. There's really no explanation for Fancy. She's just animated! Enjoy. 'Cause we did. For an hour. :)