Happy ♥ Day!

So a bit of a confession: Neither Seth nor I did much special for each other for today. {gasp!} We agreed we could barely afford to attend the church banquet and that would be all the celebrating we did. Although between you and me, I have a hunkering there is a chai tea and maybe I'll even find a few clearance rack finds with my name of it for our weekly date tonight.... *wink* wink* And truly, we get to have weekly dates. As cheesy as I know it's gonna sound, we have Valentine's Day 365 days a year in this house. =)

The banquet was really nice and we enjoyed it a lot. First off, for any local friends, ya GOT to try the prime rib buffet at the Radisson. Seriously.... I have never seen a buffet like that in all my life. Pasta station, carving station with prime rib (obviously) and turkey breast, huge salad bar, shrimp cocktail, sushi, salmon, some sort of delicious baked chicken, haddock, clams, all sorts of other fried goodies that I didn't get to, and a big beautiful dessert spread. It was absurd!!! I brought back literally 5 plates!!! It was all soooo good, too. Ya know how sometimes buffet food, while plenteous, isn't always super tasty. Fine but not knock your socks off yummy. Well, this buffet was knock your socks AND shoes off good!!!

Did I just write that whole paragraph on nothing but food?

And the fellowship was also enjoyable too. I love getting together with other couples. It's just fun.

We also watched part of a DVD with some hilarious and yet still truthful marriage teaching. I just really love biblical teaching about marriage and child rearing. I guess some people really aren't that into it... and I certainly understand that everyone is different and what works for one person may work for another. But I really do love studying the subject of husband, wives, families in the Bible. The Bible principles are 100% right. And while one couple may implement the Bible principle in one way and another find a different way to utilize that same principle, I feel like we need to have more teaching and studying and focus on what the Bible has to say about our family relationships. The common philosophies most of our country holds to don't seem to be working out so well (hello, 50% divorce rate- even among Christians!).

It was really quite humorous because before we had even started the DVD, the couples at our table had been chit chatting about how hard it was for (I think all) the wives to fall asleep at night. We were talking about what supplements and drugs and things we use to help us finally doze off. I had said that I was usually jealous about how easily Seth feell asleep.... and his amazing ability to literally turn his brain off. He can actually sit and think about nothing. Nothing at all. I just can't even fathom that! I drive myself nuts with not being able to set my brain on cruise control for a while. And then, one of the first things the guy teaching on the DVD said was that men's brains are divided up into little boxes.... the work box, the car box, the home repair box, etc etc and one special box was the NOTHING box. ha ha! It made our table crack up because it's so true! The nothing box is where men go to de-stress. They are in their nothing box when they are zoned out in front of the TV, fishing, hunting, whatever it is that they do when they don't want to think about anything. Women (generally speaking) have brains like a big mass of wires all over-lapping and tangled up in each other. So one subject is connected to another and another and yet another. We de-stress but sorting through those wires, usually by talking. (Or blogging, anyone?)

Obviously, these are stereotypes and there are always some variation within individuals... but I think in my case, and by and large, it is true.

So the whole point is not to try to make your spouse de-stress the same way you do but to help them de stress by their own method.... husbands, let her talk it out with you listening or wives, let him vegetate for while without the dreaded "Whatcha thinkin' bout, hon?"

So none of that really had much Bible in it.... that little tid bit was more based on social study. =)

There is more on my mind on the subject and maybe I'll take the time to write it out later.

Until then, enjoy your Valentines Day. The girls and I were putting up a few hearts to prepare for our "special" Valentines' Day lunch of heart shaped pancakes. I was trying to explain what Valentine's day was, so I said that it was day all about love. To which Maddie replied, "So, it's about Jesus' birthday?" I said yes, but indirectly. And then had to explain what that meant!

♥

Love,

Week 6/52

Love,
 

Week 5/52

A little change of pace....

I've been participating in a Project 52 group that selects themes for each week. I enjoy the nudging to go out of my comfort zone and try new things. So here is what the themes have been and my resulting image.

Week 1: Texture



Week 2: Order/Chaos



Week 3: Home



Week 4: Storyboard


These exercises have been fun, and prompted me to experiment with still life and landscapes for the first time. I'm more convinced than ever, though, that portraiture is where my photography passion lies. I can appreciate landscape, still life, journalistic, macro... it's all fascinating. But I don't think those genres alone would have ever been enough motivation to buy a DSLR camera and learn this craft. I really really love taking pictures of people. Specifically, little people. Even though they are so very uncooperative at times. I'm thinking of putting duct tape to good use and just doing head shots.

I recently took some pictures at a friend's baby shower... when I unloaded my camera card at home, I had 6 pictures of the cake, a few of the adults ladies, a few of gifts and games and like 75 pictures of the guest of honor's adorable niece. =D

If you recall the storyboard of 5 of my nephews from a few posts ago, I had that printed big- 10 x 20 on nice standout foam. It was a gift for my father in law.... he LOVED it. He's not a "gusher". If he says "it's fine" that is equivalent to me saying "that's awesome! I love it!!!!!" But I knew... he really loves it. So that is why I enjoy this so much. Give someone a nicely made portrait of someone they love and step back and take in their reaction. ♥


Love,

The Ministry and Me

With all my recent photography posts, ya'll are probably thinking that is all I spend my every waking hours doing. {And just between you and me- sometimes I DO spend more time on my new hobby than I should!} But really, my photography endeavors are a little further down on my priority list.

Nearer to the top is "The Ministry", as we call it. =) I guess that's just an abbreviated term for the service for God that we feel called to do. We happen to get a pay check from a church, but I know lots of people "in the ministry" who are technically accountants, engineers, doctors, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers. Okay well I actually don't know any butchers or candlestick makers, But I do know a baker!

I don't post much about our ministry here or the ministry in general. I guess it's because I feel hesitant to influence any one's perspective on full time ministry, or being an APW - Assistant Pastor's Wife, thank you very much- based on something I say. I'm afraid the ministry is overflowing with servants in the ministry, particularly women in the ministry, who feel like they don't "measure up". There can be such stiff stereotypes about what exactly makes a "good" pastor's wife (or any other position title you want to insert there, but probably the biggest would be the pastor's wife). I know of several ministry wives who don't feel like they have the right personality, talents, skills, knowledge or spirituality to be in  the place that they are in. What's ironic is that one particular pastor's wife I know who really struggles with these feelings of inadequacy and lack of "what it takes" said to me that "she just isn't like Mrs. McCoy" - my late mother in law. And the kicker is that my mother in law never ever thought she was the quintessential pastor's wife at all! She felt like she never fit in at meetings for pastor's wives. She never enjoyed standing up and speaking in front of a group of women. She had to really muster up her courage to simply pray at a gathering like a baby shower. And there are many other specific areas that she was for sure not the "typical pastor's wife". But isn't it funny how to some, she represented everything a pastor's wife should be? When I told her how my struggling friend thought of her, she rolled her eyes and couldn't understand it.=)

As for me, I'm not much like my mother in law either. And I'm not too much like my home pastor's wife. But I do hope that I have little bits of pieces of them in me. I'll never be the ultra practical and mostly introvert that my mother in law was. But I hope I picked up some of incredible work ethic, and I hope that I learned from her to read the Bible for myself and let the Holy Spirit instruct me, instead of only living off of what someone tells me the Bible says. And I may not  have the wonderfully ability to diffuse personality conflicts like my home pastor's wife did- but I sure hope I can someday!! {really need to work on that one!} And I absolutely hope I learned how to love unlovely people who can offer nothing in return like she did... as I was a recipient of that love.

I don't know all there is to know about surviving and thriving in the ministry. I know it's weird life. =) Tax preparers don't even know where to start with us. We have zero flexibility and yet we have lots of flexibility. Make sense? =)  One thing I never like to say about ministry life is that we are busy. Look around you- who ISN'T busy!?! At least, we get to be busy together and doing for the Lord! It's actually a sweet deal.

Am I doing it "right"? I don't know.

My ministry consists of:
Loving Seth
Loving our girls
Helping Seth do ___________. {God fills in the blank.See? Told ya- weird, sweet life.}
Teaching SS, or helping others teach SS.
Nursery nursery nursery.

What I want to add:
Having a better attitude toward nursery. =)
Interacting more with the teen girls. In a way that doesn't involve them babysitting my children. =)
Being a  true friend to the ladies in our church.
Encouraging the members of our church
Reaching out more effectively to those not in church.{Winter + young children = me feeling like a very unfruitful witness. Would love anyone's ideas for improving in this area. One thing I've decided to do is when strangers approach me to compliment or talk to my girls, I'm going to give them tracts and invite them. It's something I should already do I know, but so often I just have friendly chit chat and then they walk away and I think- duh! Should've invited them to church!}

I loved college. LOVED it. I learned a lot. But I don't know if one can actually teach the ministry. It's kind of on the job training kind of thing. So this is my "in a nutshell" thoughts on it.

Love,

Week 4/52

The nephew photo shoot con't.




Love,

Week 3/52

My cutie pie nephew is now 3 months old. So my sister in law came over and we spent about 2 1/2 hrs. on a make-shift photo shoot, with my house turned upside down by a. me rearranging furniture to get the baby in nice light and b. the 7 other children (yes, that would 8 children in total!) running amuck while we tried to make the baby stop fussing (tummy issues) or sucking the life out of his hand. It was a fun, hectic afternoon! While shooting, I thought well, this isn't going well, I'll probably get 4 good ones from the whole thing. And then while editing them (all 88 of them!) I got excited about how many I liked. But, of course, by now I have stared at them and picked them apart and found all the flaws. But, still, I think I like them overall.















I think the above storyboard looks funny- like he's dancing or something! =)

Love,

The Crowded Bathtub

As I was getting these photos prepared for posting, it occured to me that Maddie may be reaching the age where bath photos shouldn't go online. So.... I'm going go ahead and declare that this are the last of them. =)


After many many attempts, I have finally figured out how to create storyboards. And truthfully, I actually downloaded the template here, and followed these instructions. Even which such great explanation, I'll be honest and tell ya: this was hard for me to learn! I *think* I can finally wrap my head around it now though. I am working on Photoshop Elements 8, the baby brother of the full Photoshop. I've had it a couple of years now and still have so much to learn. Of course, by now, Elements 9 and 10 have been released. Technology is a bit frustrating that way... you only have the latest for about 2 seconds.

But what is really giving me fits lately is my computer. It is a good 5 yrs. old which I guess in computer world is a grandfather. It originally only had 1 GB... after replacing the hard drive a couple of years ago, we figured we'd go ahead and put in another GB since Vista was taking that lonely GB all to itself. My Elements was more than it could handle. But about 354,986 photos, mostly saved in large files, later.... it's on it's death bed. =( I was given a lap top with 4 GB but it has some issues of it's own and can not connect to the interest. So now I'm debating what to do.... maybe put some money into the lap stop to fix it.... but I'm not sure about editing on a laptop. I'm so mouse accustomed. (I guess I could plug a mouse in a lap top, right?) Blach. This is not where I like to spend my time or money. But it's kind of necessary.

Love,