Capture Your 365

February 27, 2013

Time for another week of photos!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/6 sec

Day 52 – Performance: Kelsey working on her least favorite subject, math. At least she likes the program we use: Teaching Textbooks! I love that all, and I do mean all, of the problems have a solution that is explained in easy to understand terms. The curriculum has made my life easier as a homeschool mom!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/50 sec

Day 53 – Sweet Treats: I have to say I am loving these excuses to bake! Made up a batch of my favorite sugar cookies for this photo prompt. Kelsey helped me with the icing and the sprinkles. Even though the icing turned out a little too pink for my liking, it was the perfect color for the photo.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.5, 1/13 sec

Day 54 – Framed: I am not one to usually take pictures tilted, but given the suggestion for this prompt, I thought I would give it a try on this photo. That wicked cough came back over the weekend, so hot tea with honey was my way to try to beat it, with one of my favorite mugs of course.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.5, 1/13 sec

Day 55 – For the Love Of Music: Kelsey has been diligently practicing a song with the hopes of playing it at church soon.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.2, 1/60 sec

Day 56 – A Cup Of ____ : For me in the morning, it is always orange juice! My favorite go-to breakfast most often is a bowl of cheerios and a cup of orange juice. Yum!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/13 sec

Day 57 – From The Side: This Bible sits on a table in the entry way of our home. It belonged to a set of great grandparents who I don’t believe I ever met. But it was special to my grandmother, and she gave it to me to keep, which makes it a special heirloom for me to cherish.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/2000 sec

Bonus photo!: On my way home from photography class last week, I just had to pull over to take this picture. The sun was starting to set and I had noticed on the way to class that some of the almond trees were starting to blossom. Sure is nice having that big girl camera with me at times like this one!

What did you photograph this past week?

Want to join in the fun? Visit Capture Your 365 and sign up for her mailing list. You get a daily e-mail with the photo prompt for the day. As you may have noticed, there are days that I have missed, but it sure is fun adding a little creativity to what I am able to capture each day. Hope you join me on this photo adventure!

Have ‘Just A Minute’?

February 25, 2013

If you do, you might just have a chance to win a book!

just a minute book cover

Over on the Compassion blog today, there are some details on how you can earn a chance to possibly win one of 50 copies of this book, Just A Minute by Wess Stafford. This book includes 68 stories, 68 moments that have changed the lives of children. If you love the mission of Compassion, you will want to have a copy of this book in your home library. Reading this book will inspire you to remember to take a minute, a moment to make the difference in the life of a child.

So go ahead and enter the contest! And if you do, let me know where you shared your picture. But hurry, you only have until February 28th!

You started blogging when?

February 22, 2013

So I took a peek back at my old blog to remember when I posted my first blog post…April 2006!! Almost 7 years ago! Yikes!

My kids were this little once!

One of my very first posts was about our cookie making activity from using the Mystery of History curriculum. I find this very interesting because Kelsey and I are going through Volume One again this year, although I don’t believe we made the Joseph coat cookies this time.

A lot has happened since that first set of blog posts: my kids are 7 years older (and so am I!), Matthew has graduated from our homeschool and is working full time now, and Kelsey is my only student. Over a year ago, I moved my blog to Blogger and just a couple of months ago, to WordPress.com. And over the last 2 years, not only do I blog about my family and some of our daily happenings in our little corner of the world, but our experiences with Compassion have taken a front seat on my blog.

My blogging goals are posted for this year on my About page. On that page, you can also find links to some of the posts that were popular on my Blogger blog before I moved it over to WordPress.com. There is also a link to the Compassion website and a link to a Pinterest board with letter writing ideas for your Compassion sponsored kids. If you haven’t taken a peek at my About page yet, you might just learn a little more about me with the random facts I have listed.

My friend, Kendra, over at Preschoolers and Peace has been helping me with some great tips and encouragement as I begin to be more intentional about my blogging. She has a lot of great information to share, so be sure to visit her blog today.

So, if you are a blogger, how long have you been blogging?

Capture Your 365

February 20, 2013

Out of the seven prompts for this week, I only took photos for four of them. Had trouble getting inspired with a couple of the prompts for this past week. But I hope you enjoy the photos I did take this week!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/80 sec

Day 45 – Love: It just made sense that the prompt fell on Valentine’s Day! We have made it a tradition to stay home on this day for and have a nice dinner with the kids. We bring out the china and crystal, and usually have a fancy dessert. Less pressure on us this way…

ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec

Day 48 – Color From The Garden: First of my bulbs to bloom! It is always a surprise in the spring to see what bulbs are going to bloom.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/5.6, 1/8 sec

Day 49 – A Favorite Snack: So I thought today would be the perfect day to bake my favorite chocolate chip cookies (it is worth the 14 day free trial to get this recipe!) and photograph them. However, I didn’t put the full amount of flour in these so they turned out rather flat (I can’t believe I did that!) To remedy this, I took another photo after dinner…

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/30 sec

…ice cream, another one of my favorite snacks!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/4000 sec

Day 50 – A Tree: a winter, leaf-less tree awaiting the coming storm

What did you photograph this last week?

Sending more than money

February 18, 2013

There are a few things you can do to make your relationship with your Compassion sponsored child just a little more special.

Lord willing, continue your financial sponsorship until the child has completed the program
Pray for your sponsored child and his family daily
Post a photo of your sponsored child in a special spot in your home
Write letters of encouragement to your sponsored child

If you do these four things, you will be making a huge difference in the life of a child living in extreme poverty. Your involvement in this child’s life could be what brings him/her and his/her family into a relationship with Christ. Isn’t that amazing that a relationship that is formed from another continent can be enough to make the difference in many lives? We may never know what the eternal impact of our involvement in these kid’s lives will be.

As a Compassion sponsor, we are not required to do more than the four things listed above, but I know that as a family, we like to send more than just a letter to our Compassion kids. On the Compassion website, they give tips for connecting with your sponsored child:

Another place you can find some great letter writing ideas is on Pinterest. Compassion has a Pinterest account and the fun thing is that I am a contributor to the Compassion Pinterest account! There is a board dedicated to Letter Writing Ideas which currently has just over 100 creative ideas to include with your letters.

One of my favorites projects that we have done so far is to trace our hands onto cardstock and write our favorite Bible verse. We sent these with extra cardstock with instructions for our sponsored kids to trace their hands and send them back to us with their favorite Bible verse written on it.

We have received 2 of these handprints back!

What creative item have you sent to your Compassion sponsored child lately?