Wake Up and Smell the BLESSINGS!

Hello there, Sunshine!



I wonder what's in store for us today?!

(see that reflection?)

Nebraska Tidbits

I'm just posting two more news thingies for those interested:

First, most of you living in Nebraska probably already know this, but others don't: Our state made history during the presidential election this month. Nebraska is one of only two states (Maine is the other) that does not have to give all 5 of their electoral votes to the person who wins the majority in a presidential election. In all other states, if the state's popular vote is 51% to 49% then ALL of the electoral votes go to the person who got 51%. This year is apparently the first time that Nebraska's electoral votes were ever divided. You can read articles about this HERE, HERE and HERE and a lot of other places if you Google "electoral votes AND Nebraska".

Second, the horrible LB 157 that I blogged about a few weeks ago has continued to spiral downward. The most recent article, published just two hours ago, is: "NEBRASKA FEARS RUSH TO DROP OFF KIDS BEFORE HAVEN LAW CHANGE." A few interesting quotes from this latest article:

"Nebraska officials said they're concerned about an apparent rush by parents to drop their teenage children off at hospitals before lawmakers change the state's troubled "safe haven" law."

"Nebraska was the last state in the country to pass such a law. But every other state included an age limit."

"Of the 34 children who have been dropped off at hospitals, officials said not one has been an infant."

"All but six have been older than 10, according to a Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services analysis."

"Parents have traveled into Nebraska from Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Florida and Georgia."

"On Thursday, a boy, 14, and his 17-year-old sister were dropped off at an Omaha hospital; the girl ran away from the hospital, officials said. A 5-year-old boy was left by his mother at a different hospital, officials said. The day before, a father flew in from Miami, Florida, to leave his teenage son at a hospital, officials said."

"Please don't bring your teenager to Nebraska," Gov. Dave Heineman told CNN. "Think of what you are saying. You are saying you no longer support them. You no longer love them."

And finally, the understatement of the century:

"I think this has spurred some really healthy conversations about how do parents get the help that they need when they are struggling with some of these parenting issues..."

May God bless all these precious children, young and old.

First Snow

We had our very first snow of the season this last week. Scripture tells us there is a season for everything under Heaven. Life would certainly be boring if things were always the same. This snow was a welcomed event after a long, hot summer and a mild 70 to 80-degreed September and October. The soft blanket of white baptized our home in gorgeous refresh.

With our first snow comes our yearly tradition of preparing for some seriously fun indoor events to keep us from going stir-crazy this winter--starting with the coffee table to cushion jump. I love these first captured images:






We've also begun working on some major indoor cabins for holding secret meetings and reading adventurous books:


And, of course, we brought in some of our outdoor play toys (which apparently needed fixing):



Then there's always fun winter baking which has already commenced. Our neighbor gave us an Amish bread starter and it has continued to multiply crazily. Lee has experimented with whole wheat and even oatmeal. Maybe some of you will have a taste the next time you come to visit:





I snapped some lovely black & white images of the snow that I hope to get uploaded soon.

Other important matters of business:
1) Lee's father suffered a heart attack this week. He had a surgery immediately and apparently has more planned in the coming weeks. Last I heard, he was in ICU and waiting to find out when he could come home. We've been anxiously waiting by the phone for updates. It's so hard to be so far away from family. Please pray for a speedy recovery.
2) I just had a tooth removed yesterday. It was supposed to be a normal extraction, but it turned surgical in the middle. Unfortunately they couldn't get the roots of the tooth out so they were left behind. Please pray that this doesn't cause any problems or future surgeries. Ick!
3) My new laptop died last week. It was an unexpected event and I'm hopeful to be able to recover all of the images and video that was stored. We've shipped off the laptop to the company and hope to have it back within a couple weeks. Until then I'm sorta hit or miss.

Hope all is well your way. What are you all doing to prepare for winter?

Green Bag Lady

We were featured on the Green Bag Lady's blog today. YAY! You can read about it at http://greenbaglady.blogspot.com/2008/11/nebraska-bag-lady.html if you haven't seen it, yet. She has been featured in several national magazines and she was on CNN just last week. It's amazing what a difference she's making all from one little idea started not even a year ago. Pretty awesome! My original post about making these bags can be found HERE.

I also was one of the winners of the new produce bags she's making, so I'll have to blog about that once they come in. Can't wait!

November in Black & White

Some of you may be wondering why I'm doing pictures in black & white this month. So I'll tell ya. One of the blogs I enjoy reading is Springtree Road. Maya has challenged her readers to flip our cameras to black and white for the month of November. We're encouraged to actually take the picture IN black and white (and not change a color photo into black and white using a photo editor). Hence, all my black and white photos.

Let me say that taking pictures in black and white is not anything like I expected. It's like seeing everything anew. There are exciting treasures lurking around every corner. I hardly have a chance to put my camera away before seeing something else that needs to be captured in black and white. It's almost intoxicating.


When I was a very young child, my father was a photojournalist. I remember sitting and looking through photo albums and finding, sandwiched between family photos, all of these shots of flowers, trees, mountains and other totally "unimportant" things. In my childlike mind I would think: What a waste of film. But I think I'm slowly beginning to understand the delight found in capturing a single moment. Maybe your image will even capture the smells, sounds, temperature and emotions of the moment. You never know. But I can say that after I take a few fun shots, I can't wait to run back to my computer, download my new colorless images, and take it all in. It's fun and exciting.

My new (used) Easyshare Z740 camera has the option to add different lenses like wide angle, etc. (if you can afford to buy them). Right now I just have the regular point n' shoot lens which comes with a rockin' 10X optical zoom. For $58 on ebay, I'm not complaining at all. But after our traveling holidays are over, I'll look into saving up and seeing if I can pick up a lens or two off ebay and seriously figure out more of what I'm doing.

Here's a little bit of our first week of November in black & white:











To see all our images, go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/teachertools/NovBlackwhite#slideshow OR you can see all 31 images in a smaller format:

Sleep Baby Sleep...

Sleep, baby, sleep,

Thy father guards the sheep.

Thy mother shakes the dreamland tree,
And from it fall sweet dreams for thee.

Sleep, baby, sleep.