All taken w/ my Droid 2 using the retro camera app.
For week 12/05-12/11/10
I stole my husbands SD card so that I could play w/ my Droid camera app while I still have it!
Trees
Santa
Peace
Santa’s Key
J
Baking has Begun
Advent
Quacking
Bathtime
See more of my photos over at my flickr account.
That’s all for this week. Head on over to Lotus‘ digs to see more!!
December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)
I found a community right in my own backyard. Twice-over.
First was literally in my own yard. My neighborhood spent another summer outside. Nearly every night, definitely every weekend we could be found in each others yards. Chatting, (more than) sometimes drinking, laughing. Our kids played together. Our community deepened.
Then there’s the Indy Blogging community. I always knew there were a few, and all that I had met were nice…but I never felt enmeshed in the community. In the past few months I’ve gotten more involved, and have grown to absolutely love the blogging community here in Indy. I mean, with people like Cherie, Casey, Emily and Shireen (just to mention a few, believe me, there are a LOT more)…what’s NOT to love?
December 8 – Beautifully Different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful. (Author: Karen Walrond)
This question has taunted and teased me since I first read it yesterday. Any attribute I thought of as ‘different’ suddenly didn’t seem so different when I thought about it.
I’m creative – but so are many others.
I burn my creativity on everyone else, rarely making things for myself – but really, don’t we all know generous people?
Archie calls me the nurturer. I never dye my hair (I don’t even pluck my gray/whites). I never pluck my brows (my one feature I love as it is). I never take a compliment (i.e. I have a hard time believing them). I take on too much and then panic and rush to get it all done. I’ve been through things I never talk about…painful things that only 1 or 2 people know about (something I’m trying to change. Some things need to be addressed). I hate making phone calls (not sure why, just makes me uncomfortable), I prefer online communication – I’m better at writing words than speaking them aloud. I’m the first to admit that somewhere along the way I lost the ability to communicate and associate with my own family – and I have NO idea why (another thing I’m attempting to correct). I have a compulsion to lie, when there is no reason to, that I have to force myself to curb on a regular basis (and fear my son is adopting the same bad habit). I always have to get the mail, if I don’t, or I’m going to be late and have to think about someone else getting it, I get the shakes (weird, I know). I don’t have enough patience. I cling to the past (good times and bad) tighter than I should. My mind never stops running, to the point of annoying my husband with my apparent lack of focus (multi-taskers unite….no less than 3 things going at once – ever).
Not one of these things make me different.
But that makes me no less beautiful. I often forget how to feel beautiful…but my husband always reminds me.
December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)
(Video via the marvelous Emily.)
What isn’t amazing about that?! Casey had a Just Dance 2 Party last month, and it was SO much fun! I’m telling you, the Indy Bloggers are a hoot & a half! (That’s Hoosier-talk for, they are SO AWESOME)
Of course, there was also the Verizon Wireless party hosted by Cherie. That was another great party…great food, great company (hey, I figured out where I’d be getting my first ever tattoo…once I do another bucket list item crossed of!)…AND we all got Droid’s to try out for the holidays!! I do plan on telling you all about mine soon – I’m still trying to come to terms with how I’m going to let it go in a couple of weeks 🙁
After the past couple of months…I’m looking forward to more parties with these great women…2011 should be great!
Except on days that end in Y.
Ugly. Stupid. Shut up. Jerk. (B)Witch. Lazy.
We never judge.
Except when it’s our ‘perfect’ sensibilities that have been offended.
We would NEVER assume.
Except when we are facing something we believe to be a slight against us.
****
In recent weeks I’ve begun to face a hard fact about myself.
I claim to be the one always looking on the bright side. Finding the silver lining.
In some ways that might be true.
But in many others, it’s not. In many other ways I’m ugly. I’m bitter. I’m thrusting grudges that should have been released years ago off on innocent bystanders. I’m assuming looks mean one thing when they might have meant something else.
I assume that someone is a (B)Witch that instantly disliked me and felt herself better. That I was once again ‘not good enough’ for the ‘cool’ crowd.
Only to realize months or years later that I may have inadvertently hurt that person without fully thinking about what I said before I prattled on needlessly about a ‘funny’ story that wasn’t so funny to them.
I’ve judged others around me, been nasty and snarky when it’s likely I didn’t know them at all.
After years of being so ‘good’ with my speech around my eldest (‘We never say shut up’, bad language was never used)…my daughters use phrases like “What the hell?” and “Dammit” frequently.
****
When did I get so ugly and jaded? Just because the past few years have been hard, difficult for us? Because we have so many struggles?
That doesn’t give me a right to turn a blind eye to others struggles. To ignore the fact that they have difficulty too. To assume based on my own painful past that others are judging me…when my assumption of their judgement is a judgement in itself.
***
I want to be better.
I need to be better for my girls.
I don’t want them to feel ugly like I do.
I want them to be more beautiful than I could ever be. They’ve already got a great head start on me…
I stole my hubby’s SD card out of his phone so that I could goof off w/ my Droid’s camera apps (which I sort of had been dying to do). So I took a few goofy shots while playing with the retro cam…
Totally Goofy
*I look as sick as I felt at the time I took this photo (say hello to strep), but I still really like it for some strange reason.
It’s in the eyes
*I love that in this pic my eyes look almost as big as Angel’s (they aren’t, but they look it :D).
Silly ME
*I loved this one enough to make it my new site photo & twitter avatar.
**** Head on over to check out who else is flipping out:
December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)
If I’m to be cmpletely honest, I don’t think I did, or do, this enough. It’s something I need to work on.
But occasionally the wonder snuck in and took hold despite my lack of cultivation.
My kids are a wonderful source of wonder. All three of them manage to either give me a new way to look at something, or cause that sense of wonder themselves. From the way they look at the world – to the way they surprise me with their capabilities and actions.
Beyond that, I’m reaching the point where my camera has started to become such a part of me, that it helps me look at the world in a different way. Even when I don’t have it with me, I find myself looking for shots, and seeing everything in a different light.
My favorite time of year for having a sense of wonder, though…is right now. The holidays. The first snowfall, the way the tree looks lit up, the decorations, the sense of pure joy in every part of the season. It’s definitely a wondrous time of year – and I hope next year I can learn to carry it with me much longer.
December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why? (Author: Alice Bradley)
I let go of the only person I had to let go of. We lost my gramma this year. Suddenly, without much warning, she went to be with grampa.
We miss her still. Our loss is still affecting us.
Letting go is never easy. Whether the loss happens quick and unexpected – or over a period of time.
This loss has been even more difficult for me, it seems. I’ve lived away from Buffalo for so long, and I’m still not there. It’s like nothing in my every day changed…so when it hits again, it’s like a fresh wound.
So maybe I fool myself to say I’ve let go…
Just like with my grampa, I may never truly let go.
December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)
This one is easy. The last thing I made was a pair of gloves. It’s the thing I’m making right now. It’s something I’ll be making for another week or so. Of course, I’ll also be making cookies (in fact, literally I’ll be baking some today)…and pettiskirts and dresses.
I always need more time to make things – another 10 hours in the day would be GREAT so that I could get some of these things done that I absolutely must.
Sometimes having Crafter’s ADD is a bad, bad thing…
The first fall of snow is not only an event, it’s a magical event. ~Anonymous
All taken w/ Canon Rebel XTi.
For week 11/28-12/04/10
The first real snowfall found me out on a lovely peaceful photo walk. I had so many great pics I had a hard time narrowing them down!
Abandonment Revisited
*I took a pic of this silo back in the fall. Got another shot today!
Kindness is like snow, it beautifies everything it covers. ~Anonymous
Beginning to look a lot like Christmas
“There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.” ~William Sharp
True Love Heart
Seek Love in the pity of others’ woe,
In the gentle relief of another’s care,
In the darkness of night and winter’s snow,
In the naked and outcast, seek Love there!
~William Blake
Snow Hammock
So comes snow after fire, even dragons have their ending. ~J.R.R. Tolkien
Fences will not bind me
Nature chose for a tool, not the earthquake or lightning to rend and split asunder, not the stormy torrent or eroding rain, but the tender snow-flowers noiselessly falling through unnumbered centuries. ~John Muir
Shrouded Beauty
Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow. ~Alice M. Swaim
Contrast
The snow itself is lonely or, if you prefer, self-sufficient. There is no other time when the whole world seems composed of one thing and one thing only. ~Joseph Wood Krutch
Buried Playtime
Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says “I’m going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snow shoes, that’s tough. I am going to snow anyway.” ~Maya Angelou
Lines
There is still vitality under the winter snow, even though to the casual eye it seems to be dead. ~Agnes Sligh Turnbull
See more of my photos from my photo walk over at my flickr account.
That’s all for this week. Head on over to Lotus‘ digs to see more!!