My Week of Photos

What did I capture this week with my DSLR camera?

ISO 400, f/2.0, 1/80 sec with 50mm lens

I love an excuse to bake! One day last week was National Chocolate Cake Day, so I baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes and sold most of them for my Bake for Brazil fundraiser. Pretty excited that I was able to raise $50 last week for Compassion kids in Brazil!

ISO 400, f/2.0, 1/500 sec with 50mm lens

Took advantage of a break in the rain, set up one of my favorite childhood books in the backyard to capture this one. What children's book is your favorite?

ISO 100, f/10, 1/640 sec

After we got home from church on Sunday, my daughter and I drove around a bit, looking for the perfect spot to take photos of the clouds moving in. 

ISO 100, f/5.3, 1/400 sec

This is not a very exciting photo. And I really should have brought all these quart size canning jars in for the winter. But this just shows that we have been receiving a lot of much needed rain out here in California!

ISO 400, f/2.5, 1/80 sec with 50 mm lens

Hard to believe we are in the second month of this new year already! Time to put away the winter decorations and bring out the Valentine decorations. Pages from an old, used copy of Persuasion were used to make this craft which hangs in our windows in February.

ISO 800, f/2.5, 1/80 sec with 50mm lens

A few more handmade Valentine decorations are out. Add a bit of paint to some glue and paint the outside of a couple of canning jars. Attach a paper heart doily and tie it with a bit of ribbon or twine, and you have a cute new candle holder for your tealight candles on these dark winter nights.

What did you capture this week?

Compassion Bloggers in Ecuador

Can I admit something?

I am a tiny (well, actually a lot!) jealous right now...

Why?

There is a group of bloggers in Ecuador right now!!

Before I had gone on a Compassion trip of my own, I followed along with these bloggers trip, reading every detail, soaking it all in, 'knowing' that I would never be able to do what they were doing.

God had other plans though.

I have walked the streets of poverty in neighborhoods unlike any other. I have held the hand of my Compassion child. I have been in homes smaller than my kitchen. I have been loved by children who I may never see again here on earth.

If you already sponsor a Compassion child, these trips give you an opportunity to 'experience' what you may never have the opportunity to experience on your own. 

If you do not sponsor a child with Compassion, you will be amazed at the work the local church is able to do to provide for these children and their families. In fact, you might even feel the need to sponsor your own Compassion child!

I invite you to join in this week, follow the Compassion bloggers. And if you have a tender heart, you might want to have a box of kleenex handy...

Bake for Brazil

I love to bake. In middle school, I took a whole year of home ec and learned to bake so many things. And I am thankful to have a kitchen, many tools, and access to lots of ingredients that allow me the pleasure of baking pretty much any time I want to.

My love of baking allowed me to use that talent as one way to raise funds for both of my Compassion sponsor tours. I would bake cupcakes, pies, cream puffs, and people would buy them to help me realize a dream of meeting our sponsored children.

In Brazil, there is a little boy who has a dream of being a pilot. His name is Jesus Gabriel. He lives with his single mother and seven siblings in one small brick home in a community where a large percentage of the population lives on less than $35 per month.

$35 per month.

We spend more than that when all four of us go out for dinner.

I want to help Jesus Gabriel and other children like him be able to realize their dreams.

And I am asking 20 of my friends to partner with me.

Do you like to bake?

Yes?

Here is how you can help...host a bake sale and donate the earnings to my Bake for Brazil fundraising campaign.

I have a goal, and it is a big one.

20 bake sales at $50 each equals $1000 

20 bake sales by March 20th

20 bake sales that will help more children be encouraged to dream

"Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them." - Lady Bird Johnson

Can I count on you to Bake for Brazil?

Compassion Share & Tell

A while back, here on my blog, I started sharing monthly what I was mailing to my Compassion kids. Then life just started getting a bit busy, and my little ole blog here was sorely neglected. 

So, here is to a new year and a new start to my Compassion Share & Tell posts!

This month, since I have been going through Kathi's Kickstart to Clutter Free eCourse, I found I have quite a few (okay, a lot!) of the stationary we receive from Compassion when they send us a letter from one of our kids. Rather than throw them all in the recycle bin, I want to make good use of this resource that Compassion has invested in and mailed to us.

Here is what I mailed to my kids this month:

• a simple letter answering some of their most recent questions
• the most recent photo of our family
• nativity stickers I found half off after Christmas

This year, I want to do a better job of responding to letters as I receive them. Then sending a more generic letter with stickers and other things I find which meet the mailing guidelines once a month.

Have you mailed a letter to your Compassion child this month? I would love to hear what you are mailing to them!

Planning ahead for next Christmas

For the first time in three years, I ordered prints of our most recent family photos, put together a quick recap of our year, and actually mailed out Christmas cards to family and friends. 

As much as I loved putting together this peek into our family, I actually started working on Christmas cards the day after Christmas last year.

What do you mean you started last Christmas??

The Christmas cards we started on last Christmas were not cards for family or friends.

The Christmas cards we started on last Christmas were for people we may never meet.

For the past few years, we have worked on Christmas cards for Compassion's unsponsored children. During the year, we get together with sponsors from our church family to work on adding Bible verses and signing lots of Christmas cards. Some of the kids like to make homemade cards and we love to send those along too.

Want to participate with your family next year?

Stock up on Christmas cards while they are on sale this week, or start collecting supplies to make cards through the year.

Set aside time to meet up with other sponsors to work on the cards through the year.

Collect the cards until next fall when we receive instructions on when and to whom to mail the Christmas cards.

Can I issue you a challenge?

In 2015, the Child Correspondence department at Compassion sent out 20,001 cards to unsponsored children for Christmas. This was a record breaking number!

20,001 Christmas Cards!!

You can help make next year another record breaking year!

By planning ahead for next Christmas, you can brighten a child's day with a special reminder that God loves them on Christmas Day.