Father's Day 2013

I took a few days off. I didn't intend to do it but I ran out of things to write about. Or I lost motivation to write about things that were going on. I have several posts floating around in my head and another few in draft form, but haven't put the energy into writing them.

Anyway, until I find the motivation to write posts with substance (and a few without substance) you'll get a post about Father's Day. Because it was awesome.

It began with Batman jammie jams. Because that's how good days begin. Wesley also learned how to play peek a boo. Epic awesome.

After a walk and play time we went to church. First Sunday school and then to worship. Jarrod preached and made Wesley and I look really good. Which is awesome because Wesley was running around the room like a crazy person and not really making us look good.

After worship Wesley and I took Jarrod to sushi for Father's Day. Wesley didn't want any edamame, but he did eat soy sauce. Awesome. 

We had a wonderful time. It was short because we didn't get to lunch until after noon and Wesley hadn't had a nap... When we got home he went down for a nap and Jarrod put together my new dresser! I will write a post with the details and better pictures soon, but for now, she's amazing and gorgeous! 

After Wesley's nap, we decided to check out the splash park not far from our house. Wesley loves bath time so we thought he'd enjoy the park. 

Wrong. He hated every second of it. He wouldn't let me put him down and screamed the whole time. We'll probably try again sometime when it isn't so crowded, but this time was an incredible failure.

So instead we blew bubbles in the bath and that was a win! Ultimately we celebrated Jarrod as the best Daddy Wesley could ever have! It was a wonderful day!

How did you celebrate the dads in your life?

Coffee Date Friday

Well, it's time for another coffee date! I'm really tired this week and I think this video reflects that. Here's my tired coffee date! Happy Friday!

Memories and a world without (breast) cancer

My dad’s mom died just a couple of years before I was born. She was in her 50s, got breast cancer, and died. I’ve heard stories that she was an energetic and vibrant woman. It makes me so sad that I never met her. It makes me sad that she never knew her 8 grand children and 3 great-grandchildren. Her name was Shirley Adele. My sister is Courtney Adele and someday, God willing, I’ll have a baby girl with the middle name Adele as well. The ironic thing is that Grandma Shirley never liked her middle name. But I think it’s beautiful and a great way to honor her memory.

Jarrod’s grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer nearly the exact same time that Grandma Shirley was. Grandma Jo underwent treatment that was radical and innovative. She is now around to love on her five grandchildren and three great-grand boys. She has lovingly adopted her three grand daughters-in-love and is a beautiful model of God’s love in my life. I am so thankful that breast cancer didn’t get the last word in her life. I’m especially thankful for her in my life and in my son’s life because I never knew my grandmother.

It is because of these two women, and countless others, that I walk 60 miles over 3 days in November. Each year I commit to raising funds, awareness, and covering the DFW metroplex in pink. I do this because I want to be part of my grandchildren’s lives. I want them to know my hugs and not just hear stories about me.

 It is for this reason that I invite you to join me in fighting for a world without (breast) cancer. I hope that each of you reading this to take a virtual envelope. Imagine a wall of envelopes, each with a number on it from $6-$60 on them. I’d like you to consider taking an envelope and making a donation for that amount. That means 55 people making donations for $60 or less. Can’t donate much? Pick a low envelope and donate today! Want to make a big impact, pick a larger envelope or even choose to donate more than $60!

Just click on the envelope you'd like to take and enter that number in the box next to, "Enter an amount that's meaningful for you." Having trouble? Click here and that will take you directly to the donation page. I will update the image above each day so check back often to see what envelopes are left!

Thank you for believing in a world without breast cancer!

France in Photos

I've shared some photos from France that help tell the story, but for this post, I want to focus on the pictures that I took and how I was able to capture them. I've said before that I need to give all the credit to Better Mom Shots. This is not an endorsement that I give lightly. I've read hundreds of photography tutorials and nothing has ever influenced the quality of the photos I've taken. More than that, nothing has ever influenced my happiness in taking pictures. If you're looking to take your photography to the next level, stop shooting in Automatic, or turn off your flash, check this out!

Here are some of my favorite photos and what I did to achieve the shot.

This is my absolutely favorite shot that I took. I knew I wanted the back to be blurry and the front to be completely in focus. This is called bokeh. I have a nifty fifty that could help achieve this but did not bring more than one lens with me to France. Because of what Monica taught, I got really close to the flower, set my aperture as low as possible, and balanced the light. This photo is hanging in our room because I adore it. It looks absolutely fantastic as an 8x10 in our bedroom.

This photo is not perfect, but I am pretty excited about it. I took it on the street very quickly after we left the bakery where I purchased it. I did it as quickly as possible because I was ready to eat it! I used the same technique as I did with the flowers. That's the bakery in the background. The lighting is a little dark because I adjusted the settings very quickly before finishing that delicious macaroon in 2 bites.

The Church of Reconciliation in Taize has gorgeous stained glass. They are about 12"x12" set about 2 feet back in a dark cavern. The church was dark when I took the pictures and it was an overcast day outside. I hoped it was sunny when I could take the photos, but it wasn't. I had to set the ISO really high to capture as much light as possible. I also set the shutter speed a little slower and steadied my arms on the shelf under the stained glass. This one is my favorite because it's Mary and Elizabeth both pregnant with Jesus and John. It's a beautiful reminder of such a precious story.

This is another one that took a high ISO and slow shutter. It was in a beautiful church and I loved this light. I steadied myself and tried to take in as much of the detail as possible.

This photo was taken from the top of a hill at a church in Taize. The sky was so white and gray, which made it difficult to get the details in the hills. I wish the sky was blue, but you get what you get. :-) To capture all of the details in the landscape I set the aperture very high. I wanted to get as much detail as I could and that's the best way to do it! Thankfully, the light was good because it was overcast.

This is another favorite. Like the photo above, I set the aperture as high as possible. I wanted to get every detail of Notre Dame from up there that I could. It was very bright and the day was gorgeous. Because of the light, the shutter speed was still very quick. This is an awesome shot, I think.

 

The Eiffel Tower sparkles at night. Thankfully, the sky stays light for a while after the Eiffel Tower starts with the twinkle lights. I had to set the shutter really fast to capture the twinkling so I set the ISO high so it was bright enough to do that. It's not a perfect, but I like it!

This photo was taken quite a bit later so the sky was very dark. I had to set the shutter much slower in order to get any light at all, even with ISO set high. It looks slightly fuzzy, but I was drinking wine on a boat, so that's about the best I could do. It's interesting to see how different the photo can be with just a few hours in between!

There you have it - some of my favorite shots from France!

Leaving Our Boy

I found out that I'd be going to France when Wesley was just 2 weeks old. I remember receiving the text message that I'd been asked to go while I was still home caring for my tiny little man. The thought of leaving him for 20 minutes terrified me, but I thought that by the time he was 16 months old I'd be ready for a break.

Wrong. Leaving Wesley for nearly 2 weeks was harder than giving birth to him.

I cried whenever I thought about leaving him. Although the trip was a dream, I couldn't wrap my brain around leaving Wes. As the trip was planned, participants were selected, and details started coming together, I got even more anxious. I couldn't explain it to anyone and even Jarrod didn't understand. I knew he'd be fine and I'd be fine...but what if things we're fine?

I actually leave Wesley for work fairly frequently. It's not uncommon for me to have a night away each month and at least one full Saturday. But this was different. Not only was Jarrod going with me and we'd be gone a long time, but we would be mostly inaccessible. We were in a remote part of France for 7 days and weren't sure if we would have any cell service. Talking on the phone was $1.50/minute (which we did not use!) and texting was $.05 to receive and $.50 to send texts. The time different was 7 hours, making it even more challenging to communicate with our family.

To handle the anxiety, the 6 weeks or so leading up to the trip I spent my free time compiling lists and writing everything down. Couple this trip with a big move made me even more frantic! I made lists to tell family about our pediatrician, what to pack for school, what Wesley likes to eat, where all of his things are located, and several schedules, depending on the day. Once we moved, I marked everything, created a kitchen drawer for Wesley, and stocked the freezer with Wesley-friendly foods. I taped emergency contact numbers on the fridge, left the Tylenol dosage chart in a folder, and tried to be sure that everything in our house was child-proof. I also hoped that our animals would survive the chaos and left lots of notes about them. I even left my sister with instructions about how to handle Sophie, in case she got sick again. I left our will, copies of our life insurance (and other insurance), and other documents.

One night a week or so before I left, I woke up in the middle of the night completely panicked about leaving Wesley. I asked God to watch over my boy and remove the anxiety I had about leaving him. I had been doing this on and off over the months, but this was the first time I actually let go of my fears. A sense of peace washed over me. I was still worried, but the deep pain left and I was able to leave Wesley in the care of our family and go to France.

Overall, we did just fine. I cried a few times, worried a lot, and prayed for God's protection over my family. I sang to a sweet baby on the plane and showed pictures of Wesley to everyone I could get to look at my phone. He threw temper tantrums, refused to eat vegetables, and ran into a wall. But he had a wonderful time and I think everyone else did too!

If you're a mama or dad have you ever had to leave your children? Were you a mess like me? How did you manage?

Arlington, Texas Farmers Market Review

I'm excited to be linking up with Diana at Saving By Making this week. We're all sharing reviews of our local farmers markets. I'm really excited to share mine with you! We just signed up for our very first CSA and I'm so excited to share that experience with you too! Our first pick-up is the first week in July and I'll definitely be writing about our experiences!

We recently moved to a new community which means the opportunity to explore new Farmers Markets! We've explored the large market in Dallas and have begun to explore the smaller local markets in our area. Today I'm writing about the Arlington Farmers Market.

The website for the Farmers Market is helpful. From the website I was able to get the address and hours - two incredibly important pieces of information! The address is 215 Front Street Arlington, Texas 76011 and we open every Friday and Saturday from 8AM to 1PM.

The vendor information is incomplete and doesn't provide any details about the vendors. I was mostly interested to go, see what it was all about, and review some of the vendors. I don't know what I was expecting, but I will say this is a very small market with just a handful of vendors. Jarrod actually wanted to drive right by without getting out after seeing how small it was. I encouraged him to hang in there.

We arrived at the market around 8:30am on Saturday morning. We parked on the side street - there was plenty of parking. The front area of the Farmers Market was set up with fruit and vegetables. I can only assume these were local garden veggies and fruits. The only person working was busy and didn't speak with us.

They had a variety of berries, a few other fruits, and some vegetables. These pictures capture literally every inch of the produce available outside.

Those squash were absolutely beautiful! We actually just bought squash yesterday. Had we not, I these would definitely had come home with us! They were huge and bright.

After checking things outside, we went inside to see what was there. We first entered a small hallway full of local honey, salsa and vinegar.

Although the market was very quiet - I don't know that there were other customers - no one really spoke with us. I had a camera and was feverishly snapping away while Jarrod entertained Wesley. We were definitely conspicuous! We were interested in the honey because we all suffer from seasonal allergies and have heard that local honey can really help with that. We quickly lost interest when there was no one there to help us. We will definitely try to go back and get some though because the prices were incredibly reasonable! 

Our next stop was a large room that housed several vendors. The first was homemade tamales and meat. There was also a freezer with a variety of items - some for sale and some not. The homemade frozen pizzas looked delicious! 

The tamales looked incredible as well, but didn't photograph well at all. Frozen food usually looks and tastes better warm! We are big tamale fans and love that these are locally made. Again, no idea who was selling these, but we'll try again sometime soon! 

Next up was these soaps. There were several handmade shops, but this was the most pretty. 

These soaps were definitely organic and definitely gorgeous. Pretty soaps really appeal to me and especially because they are handmade and safe, but I didn't get any today.

Our final vendor stop was definitely the best! We first noticed all of the delicious baked goods...

All of these are homemade, organic, and looked incredible! Lindy of UnHinged Homestead immediately introduced herself and asked if I was from the newspaper. I was snapping pictures like a crazy person but was thrilled to talk to her! She shared samples, taught me about amaranth, and talked to us about recipes. She even sent us home with amaranth seeds to grow some in our yard! We talked about how amaranth is even more nutrient packed than kale!

Next to the baked goods, Lindy also had canned veggies from her garden and homemade pastas, including dessert pasta like cinnamon and chocolate! She also jars butters like apple butter. She was incredibly helpful and friendly. I love that she grows everything in her garden.

We bought a bag of amaranth chips with organic powdered cheddar baked with sunflower oil. They were delicious and Wesley ate them without any fuss at all. In fact, one day I sent them with him to school and on his report sheet they wrote, "leaf (?)" next to his snack. We're definitely the hippies in his class!

I'm sure that we'll be back and hopefully next time there will be more people. I'm already regretting that we didn't get organic honey. I'm hoping we can add some of that to our diet soon to help with allergies. Buying it, even in bulk and eating it by the spoonful, will be cheaper than Jarrod's allergy medicines!

Do you have a local farmers market near you? Do you live in the DFW area and have a good local farmers market for me to try? 

Coffee Date post-France edition

I'm vlogging again! Here's 10 minutes of random from me to you.