Maybe One Isn't So Lonely Afterall

After last weeks Instagram challenge, I decided to come up with my own Instagram challenge. This week I'm focusing on my marriage. It will be a whole lot of fun to spend some concentrated time thinking about my husband and how I can serve him better.

My husband and I are pretty unemotional people, for the most part, but last night we had some fantastic time reading the Bible and talking through some very important things. Let's just say he opened a can of worms with a few questions, but kindly and gently led me through my emotional strife. It's times like those that I am most grateful for him. He is smart, honest, and yet totally tender and gracious with me. 

When I thought about today's challenge, Just Two, I started wondering if *we* are really "Just Two". We both believe we're *one* in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12) and the Bible says we're one with each other (Ephesians 5:31-32), so maybe it's really "Just One". It's comforting to think that I'll never be alone and that *we* will never be alone. 

If you'd like to join my challenge on Instagram simply follow the below directives and hashtag #picturemarriage under your photo so that we can see your photos and be encouraged. Check back here for my daily challenge post and feel free to follow my Instagram feed!

Day 1 (Today) Directive: Just Two

Day 2 (Tuesday) Directive : Starts In The Kitchen

Embrace the Camera and a Challenge

My favorite photographer, blogger, and idol, Ashley, from Under the Sycamore, gave us Mommy's a good challenge this week. To include ourselves in our Instagram photos, to embrace the camera.

If you're a photographer and especially a Mommy one, you know how difficult getting into a picture can be. Especially if you're not asked to just take a bunch of stretched armed selfies, not that those are all bad. 

I love that women, and people in general, are encouraged these days to embrace themselves and not be afraid to stand in front of a camera, which can be a very vulnerable place. Giving our children photos of themselves and photos of us and them is a priceless gift, at least, that's how I feel. This challenge was just what I needed during a week of illness and little sleep. It allowed me to think creatively, have fun, and capture some precious moments even on some dreary days. 

These were all shot with my iPhone 5.

Day 1 (Monday): 

Smiles!

Despite my "rule" of not going out on Mondays, because my week never goes well if I don't clean up the tornado that happened over the weekend, we went out. My sister is off on Mondays and her daughter, the kids' only cousin, is their best friend. We decided to go to the nearby fall festival, which is loads of fun. It's easy to catch smiles when there are train rides, big bouncy pillows, and slides so slick they give you butterflies.

Day 2 (Tuesday):

Making Memories

The kids were just starting their colds and we were going through the "I'm sick", "Do you want to stay home from going to Grandma's house?", "Oh, no, I'm not sick anymore" bit. You know toddlers, so indecisive. ;) So, we went ahead to Gram's house and spent a lovely morning eating fruit, playing cards and cars, and chasing my very quick squirt around. I swear that my kids get smarter any time they're around my Grandma. Making Memories indeed.

Day 3 (Wednesday): 

Everyday Moment

I caught this beauty at about 3 am on Wednesday morning. It was the first night the kids felt really cruddy, and shouldn't there be Baby Breathe Right Strips already!? Needless to say, we got little sleep. 

When I crawled into bed, far too late in the evening, I prayed for just a couple hours of sleep before someone started crying. My prayers were answered, but instead of being awoken by my kids, my husband flicked on the bathroom light and started looking around the room warily. "I think something bit me", he said. After a quick scan with the blacklight we saw the culprit, a scorpion. Yay.

I nursed his wound and two of the three did wake up to join our couch party. This was out of the ordinary, praise God, but the sacrifice of sleep and frequent snuggles are a daily occurrence for me.

Day 4 (Thursday):

Creative

It just so happens my creative juices have been flowing like mad lately. Probably to my detriment, but I'm so excited to feel *excited* again, that I'm rolling with it. I was sitting at my computer contemplating the challenge and then I decided that I wanted to do something fun with the kids. We had a ton of cardboard laying on the floor in our dining room just waiting to be turned into something awesome. I gave the kids each a drawing tool and we scribbled, I cut, and eventually we came up with this. I must admit, it took me way too long, and I was nearing the exasperating your children point, but we got the picture and maybe someday my kids will thank me... I hope!

Day 5 (Friday):

Faces

The Original Instagram(eo)

Well, this seemed relatively easy. I could snap a picture of me and one, some, or all the kids. Nah. I could do a quick photo collage. Nah. This was the last day, I needed a finale piece. It wasn't until about 4 pm that I searched for a way to make a slideshow video in Instagram. Turns out there's an app for such a thing, of course! It's called Flipagram and it rocks! So easy to use and well worth the $1.99. You can even put music to it. 

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I had so much fun with this project, I decided to come up with my own challenge, for you/me/us!

How about this, #picturemarriage!?

Let's embrace our marriages and think outside the box this week when it comes to our very special spouse and Instagram. 

If you've been married for over 2 years or have any number of children, you may be lacking in photos of the two of you. I know we are! While there must be at least one photo of the two of you, not every day has to include your faces. Just be sure to tell a story with your photo!

I'll post my Instagram once a day (starting Monday) and give you direction for the following day. If you are so inclined, please join along and hashtag #picturemarriage so we can see your photos too!

Day 1 Directive (Monday): Just Two

See you Monday!

Faux Chalkboard Art

With Pinterest, Instagram, and the Internet in general, it's hard not to follow creative fads. Right now chalkboard art is *in*. I love typography and contrast, chalkboard art is the best of both those worlds. I haven't actually tried drawing on a chalkboard myself, though I intend to. What I have done is fake it on Photoshop.

Up until recently I've managed to snag the latest Student/Teacher Photoshop Creative Suites. Unfortunately I also switched from a Windows laptop to a Mac and Adobe's products aren't interchangeable. I would have had to spend at least $600 to get the Mac version of Photoshop on my new laptop. Bummer, I know.

After thinking it over, I decided to try out Photoshop Elements. It doesn't have as many bells and whistles, but digital art is a hobby and I thought I could handle less. It turns out I was right, for only $70 I can do pretty much everything I was able to do previously. In fact, I can do even more now because I'm still upgrading to a newer version.

All this to say, that you can do this tutorial, even if you have lesser software. I was actually surprised by how insanely easy it is to achieve this look!

In the past I have used fonts to do Photoshop chalkboard art. I still love fonts, it's a slight obsession of mine, but I found another way to get a more authentic look. I can't take credit either, Foolish Fire is where I found it first. 

Now, on to the tutorial. 

1. You need a chalkboard background. You can achieve this look anyway you like, taking a photo yourself, doing it on Photoshop, or the easiest way, which is to download one from somewhere like How to Nest for Less Blog.

2. Get out a good ol' piece of white paper, a pencil, an eraser (if you're like me), and draw to your hearts content. Sometimes I search through my font collection, browse www.dafont.com, or Pinterest to gather inspiration. 

3. Scan your image. 

 4. Open the scanned image into Photoshop.

5. Then simply invert the image by going to Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Invert. 

6. Click back to your main layer and make get ready to enhance it a bit. You can use layers or brightness/contrast by going to your Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Brightness/Contrast. In this case I used a brightness of -45 and contrast of +62. 

7. Now, you need to delete your solid black background. To do this you're going to use the magic eraser tool. Move the tolerance to 40 and *uncheck* sample all layers and contiguous. 

8. Flatten the image. Select your adjustment and main layers, then do Command + E. 

9. Drag your image to your chalkboard background. Annnd...

10. VOILA! Have fun! 

IKEA Tray Table "Unhack"

While I have the potential of being clever and am creative at times, it is not usual for me to come up with a good idea all on my own. That being said, I have to admit this one was all mine. 

I did not "hack" this table, it's not an invention, it's not even a twist, it's just a table I am giving a new purpose. And it has lived up to it's purpose so well that I thought I'd share. 

This...

via http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90174642/#/40193228

is Ikea's PS SANDSKÄR.

It's an outdoor tray table

that I repurposed into a...

Children's Bistro Table!

(Snapped with iPhone 5... to prove that I'm a normal mom with height issues and dirty counters...)

Best for 2-4 small children.

It's easy to put together, which is saying something, considering it's *Ikea*. Best part?! The tray top comes OFF! If they spill something, which is a regular occurrence around here, it doesn't go directly on the floor because the top has a lip on it. I can simply pull the top off and rinse it in the sink if the mess is bad.

It's lightweight and easy for me to move around, but not too easy for them to move. It's small and I love that you can get it in neutral black and white colors. When company comes over I can use it as a side table and fold up their chairs, making it appear there are no children living here. Until someone goes in the bathroom and sees jelly on the light switch...

The boys eat at this every day at least twice, I move it into the living room for snack times to set their drinks on. 

It's also the cheapest trendy kid's table I've ever seen at only $35. 

So, if you're in the market for a small, cheap, easy to clean, table for your little ones to use, this might be just the thing for you!

Wildflower

"Do 

You

Suppose

She's 

A 

Wildflower?"

-Alice in Wonderland

(iPhone 5)

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My husband's job has been a bit stressful lately, so I suggested that he plan a weekend to get away from everything. He was sweet enough to invite me along and my parents kindly watched our 3 gems while we were away. 

We journeyed to the White Mountains of Arizona, where we pitched a tent, then moved the tent, and got it up again just in time for it to hail. After a day and conflicting weather reports, we decided to move ourselves to a hotel room for the duration of the weekend getaway, to avoid packing up soggy gear. 

Thankfully, none of that really mattered, it wasn't our plan, but it was an adventure. We had a blast just being together and doing things other than sitting through pointless meetings or changing poopy diapers. 

I truly couldn't ask for a more perfect partner in life. We know how to read each other, when to sit in silence, and when to breath out the stresses of life to one another. Jacob is the kind of man who says "YOU are my bucket list" and stops for nearly 30 minutes while I walk down the highway to snap photos of a field of wildflowers. 

I'm definitely a mountain girl and wildflowers are like my happy drug. It was such a gift from above to be able to spend a weekend snapping pictures of something other than people. As much as I love people, my little people to be specific, sometimes it's nice to practice on subjects that don't throw tantrums. ;)

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Finding texture.

 

After a cold night with lots of rain, we woke up to the sun and this view. His mercies are surely new every morning!

I was in love with these diamonds, I mean dew drops.

It's especially wonderful to be surprised when looking back at your photos. Hello little spider web!

Lassoing Light.

The following are from my iPhone 5 >>

*Please do not copy unless you ask permission first 

The Good Fight

I've been following the journey of a young pastor, husband, and daddy, who is currently imprisoned in an Iranian prison. Maybe you've heard of him, Saeed Abedini? He's been beaten, mistreated, and refused a shorter sentence, which is currently 8 years. 

He was in Iran helping to build an orphanage when he was arrested and falsely accused of participating in illegal evangelism. If that isn't bad enough, he's an American citizen, but our government has not tried to save him yet.

My heart aches for him and his family. 

To further my sadness, his case has had little publicity. Even with social media booming there has been little attention to his name.

After reading this I almost lost it, two little girls wanted a puppy, their parents said "Sure, if you can get 1 million likes on Facebook (thinking it'd never happen)". Within 13 hours the girls had *two* million likes on Facebook for a photo stating the challenge. They were on the news hours after.

That, and yet, Saeed has a mere 620,000 online signatures on his petition for release, from a foreign and dangerous prison, and it's been nearly a year. This man needs more care from from his country and certainly more prayers.

Sharing this is just one small way I could help. I can't save him, but maybe together, by God's grace, *we* can. 
 If you'd like to sign the petition to save Saeed, go to http://savesaeed.org/.

Pray. Sign. Share. Save Saeed.

I Am Not A Camel

A little factoid about me, I have something called Medullary Sponge Kidneys, I won't go into detail, but it basically means that I have a greater tendency to collect kidney stones. I have fought with them, off and on, for the past 6+ years and it seems to be getting worse.

I've done many tests and the doctors have all told me to "just drink more water." *sigh* In an effort to get it under control, I committed to 3 weeks of a Camelback a day, which is two liters of water. First off, I failed the challenge, because after about 2 weeks I got tired of filling up the camelback every day and having half of it pour out the tube. I did have some success though, and have managed to get *at least* 64 oz (2 liters) a day, usually I try to be closer to 80 oz. I have to space it out, because the idea is to keep things diluted so that stones can't form in the first place. I have no idea if it's working, but I'm hoping I see improvements by my next appointment in 6 months. 

I'm not a camel, but I wish I were, drinking water is hard. Especially if it's a busy day with the kids, I so easily forget. However, I am deeply motivated by the intense pain of having a kidney stone pass. For me, it was more painful than labor and I usually have to call for help with the kids, as I curl up in a ball on the floor. Not fun. I'm ready to fight with lots of praying and lots and lots of water!

(iPhone 5)