The Return of the Robins!

Am I the first one to see them? At RPI today, I was shocked to see at least 30 robins mulling around the courtyard on the way to teaching my 7th and 8th graders! It isn't even Februrary and yet, there they are, all plump and chirpy:) Is this a sign? Does that mean that spring is coming and it will be a toasty summer this year? Either way, I took it as a positive thing. I'm totally ready for the winter to be over and for my toes and fingers to be warm again! Here are my little robins:

Totally stole the idea

Okay, I actually saw a picture like this last week online, but it sort of represents how I am feeling at the moment. I love teaching, despite the fact that today was a really rough teaching day. Had to throw a kid out of class, which always stinks. I am also dealing with the stresses of the budget. Talks about cuts have been going on since the beginning of the year, but today, I really got the sense that people might lose their positions. I mean, it just suddenly became very real to me that I might be in danger of losing Fonda, a place I have treasured the past few years. And losing a job...well, of course there is always the possibility of teaching elsewhere. But I really don't want to be anywhere else. I love my school, my kids, the possibilities of their futures, and walking those halls so full of life each day. So I'm being a copycat in my picture, but not in my sentiments. I hope that I can stay where I am and have a future here and I hope that other people in our country that have lost their jobs can find some comfort with their loved ones and can find new jobs and new futures.

”‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. " Jeremiah 29:11

At eye level

Well, this isn't much, but I was thinking of this one a few days ago and then Steve's assignment gave me the much needed nudge. This is a lame picture of my heart medication. I've only been on it a week, but it is so wee-tiny! I thought I could use another object to show how small it is and thought of the ever useful penny. Sometimes I mistake the pill for a piece of lint; that's how tiny it is:)

I wish I had some macro lenses like Joel. His macros have been incredible this past week. Check my links to find his blog, The Photos I Take. Good assignment Steve. I'm definitely going to experiment more with this one!

The mysterious bottle makes its appearance again!

Trish reminded me of the bottle the other day...so here is another angle before I pass it on to the next person!

Remember the Light

When things are painful, sad, or tough...when life seems to throw you nothing but curveballs...when you think that it would be easier just to close your eyes and not exist...remember the light. For me, it is this verse: John 1:5: The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. Okay, beware! You are going to get preached at:) All I'm saying is that I can take comfort, even in the darkest days, in knowing that the light will never be conquered by the darkness (John is describing Jesus as the light). I have given up on myself more times than I can remember, but He will never give up on me, no matter how much I think I've messed up my life.

So remember the light!

And believe there's someone who will never give up on you!

The morning light

The sunlight was so wonderful this morning that I had to try to capture it. These two pictures are my attempts. The first is simply a shot while driving to a doctor's appointment. I know, dangerous to drive and shoot, but the results are always so interesting. Then, while driving along, I noticed that the salt and water stains on the windshield were glowing with orange beauty, so I snapped a shot of that too.

Is it sand or snow?

Experimenting with color today and the great lighting outside. The rock hard drifts of snow beside my grandparent's home were enticing to look at. The first one I used a sepia filter on and it kind of reminds me of a sand dune. Ah, those lovely days of walking on the Luquillo beach in San Juan...wish I was there now!

And the second one I didn't alter at all...it just had a beautiful blue hue from the shadows and lighting. If you stand far back, it sort of looks like it could be clouds in the sky!

Finally made it to a game!

Finally! I got to see some of my kids play this morning. I was really struggling with this type of photography though. Even though the camera has a motion preset, it didn't seem to make the players stop being blurry and I couldn't figure out how to change that. Oh well, here are some of my favorites:

The pre game huddle: always a good one!

Half time: I like how the opposing teams players are in focus with Fonda girls slightly out of focus. Fonda was struggling to stay ahead at this point in the game.

This is my favorite: each girl progressively gets sharper, first two blurry and Cassie almost perfectly in focus. Cool! I don't know how I did that!

Can you guess...

Which movie I am watching on my ipod and speaker system while blogging?

Hint #1:

Hint #2: Okay if you can't guess it by now, then you're in trouble!

Leah's blog

Reading Leah's blog reminded me of what it was like to call Africa "home" for the short time I did. It also reminded me that I slept on concrete or dirt and had one night in an actual bed. Here is a picture of where I slept in the orphanage. It was partially built when we got there and the kids you see are some of the 70+ we fed one day in Kalomo.

No pets and a busy S.O.

I never got the message about our assignment tonight, but luckily, Linda had already posted. What about those of us without pets and with an unavailable Significant Other? I guess I have to resort to a stuffed animal :) That's fine by me! I still have plenty of them, waiting to be able to give them to my own children someday. I chose the pink elephant because it is soft and fuzzy and was (yes, you guessed it!) a gift from my mother. As a child, I always pretended that stuffed animals were really alive and could hear you and talk to you...and that they would get lonely if you didn't pick them up and hug them once in awhile! This little guy definitely needed a hug and come to think of it, I could use one myself!

Fuzzy, cuddly goodness!

Each of these blankets means something special. The brown one is a ragged kitten covered blanket that was a present from my mother. I still have it because I remember the moment she gave it to me (my brother got one too) and how cool I thought the kittens were. The bright red, unpatterned one is a down blanket I got while spending some quality time with my boyfriend last year. The cream and burgendy blanket was a gift from my mother last year. I love blankets because I hate being cold! Out of ideas, I turned to my fuzzy cuddly goodness for comfort...and a picture or two!

An improvement in one thing

I'm getting much better at making omelets, but not so good about finding pictures to take during the week! This is actually my supper. Hoping for a peaceful night of school work before the dreaded BOOK 1 of the ELA test tomorrow. Actually, I'm glad that it is finally here.

Painting all day

...can tire you out quick! Oh well, I had fun, got speckled white and took this picture. I like that the shadows came out in the photo.

Sewing box

Mom came up with this idea weeks ago, but I'm usually only at her house on Sundays and I've had to pace myself. She even helped compose the picture of her sewing box. While I was shooting, I turned around and saw some beautiful flames in the pellet stove and snapped that picture as well!

Soothing oils

One of my favorite scents is lavender. I started using it in a oil difuser years ago at night when I had trouble sleeping. I'd put a few drops on my pillow or use the difuser and it really did help. Well today I picked up some oil and started to use it again. Lavender has great properties for soothing a stressful mind which is perfect to describe me right now. I didn't really have a picture in mind for today. In fact, I was too focused on other things, but here is a better attempt than last night's was:) I recently read that angling a picture is a good way to shake things up a bit when shooting a simple subject. So I gave it try:

I got nothing!

Just a weird picture of my empty hand...no good shots or ideas today! No comments necessary!

A walk in my shoes

"I was the world in which I walked"~Wallace Stevens.

I haven't worn these since I went to Africa, but there are still grains of sand from the journey(see picture 3). And how true is the quote above. I became Africa while I walked there among those villages.

Africa update

Today's picture is terrible, but I feel compelled to explain myself. Last night I got an email from a pastor I met while in Africa. He actually prophesied about me and the orphans in Kalomo, Zambia. Anyway, I raised some money before Christmas to send to them and I asked him to use it for the orphans' most important needs. In my classic, western civilized brain, I was thinking it would be used for clothing, shelter, or medication. In last night's email, he told me that all the money had to go for food. Wow, I was just blown away. I know how much people are starving in Africa, but I didn't know that food was such a problem for all those beautiful kids that I met. It truly broke my heart once more. As I was eating today, I decided to take a picture of my meager lunch, just some cheese and cold cuts. But I am so much more grateful for this lunch today after what I have realized...and so much more dedicated to my Zambian "children". I wish I could take care of everyone of them. I wish more people were aware of the problem and the statistics:

*Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.
*3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day.
*Every year 15 million children die of hunger.
*For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years

What will I be given?

The question echoes in my mind after listening to a inspirational photographer tonight. Not what picture will I take, but what will I be given? Not just being the best I can be IN the world, but the best I can be FOR the world. Not what do I like about this picture, but what am I falling in love with in this picture? Well, in this picture, I am falling in love with the strings and the deep darkness of the body of my guitar. My original idea had nothing to do with guitar, but after listening and watching Dewitt Jones's Extraordinary Visions tonight, I came home and caught sight of the guitar on its stand and fell in love with it all over again!

A teacher's work is never done!

Especially a crazy one like me! I caught this picture when, after a busy after school of running errands and correcting papers, I flung my glasses down on the sofa. !Viola! There was a thought provoking image right before my eyes. I'm too tired for any more witty banter so off I go to eat and breathe and just relax a bit:)

Another mom classic

I took these after noticing the nice light streaming through the windows at my mom's house this morning. After church, we get together, talk, have tea, and just enjoy each other's company for a while. Today, she was so animated! She actually helped me to compose these pictures adding 4 suitcases to her normal 2 in the dining room, flinging pieces of plant all over the place, rearranging her many pieces of furniture for me. It was a lot of fun and I like the results too! Thanks for the help Mom!

The door assignment

I had a plan for this assignment, but sleeping in sort of put the kybosh on that. So I found myself looking for a door picture and came across this:

These hinges are on the doors of my kitchen cupboards. I wish they were fancier, but I still like the way the picture turned out anyway. The wood looks rich and I like the diagonal line that is visible.