Capture Your 365

Time for another week of Capture Your 365 photos!

black and white

ISO 100, 18mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec

Day 250 – Black and White: If you know me and/or have been following my blog for some time, you know that I love to go on day trips to Yosemite. Having this amazing gem of a place within driving distance is such a blessing. There is so much beauty there, and each season has something special to offer its visitors. On this particular trip, my husband and I spent the day bike riding around the valley, something neither one of us had done before. We both enjoyed it so much!

simple

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/20 sec

Day 251 – Simple: My husband and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary this month. Anniversaries come and go, but it is the simple (and sometimes not so simple), day to day stuff that we each work on together that keeps a marriage together.

routine

ISO 800, 34mm, f/5.0, 1/8 sec

Day 252 – Routine: Welcome to Monday! Monday around here usually means laundry day. Not the most beautiful photo I have ever taken, but just a small part of my routine.

around the house

ISO 800, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/15 sec

Day 253 – Around the House: Most week day mornings, you will find my daughter in her room, up on her new loft bed, diligently working on her school work.

on the schedule

ISO 800, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec

Day 254 – On The Schedule: I know there are so many gadgets and apps to help you stay on task with your to-do list these days, but I seem to always fall back to a simple, written out, to-do list on a post it note. This helps me keep my to-do list somewhat reasonable for the day, and I don’t know about you, but there is satisfaction in actually checking items off of a list.

details of the day

ISO 800, 48mm, f/5.6, 1/20 sec

Day 255 – Details of the Day: We like to have breakfast for dinner around here every now and then. I had purchased some strawberries at the local farmer’s market the night before, so waffles with strawberries sounded like the perfect dinner for this night. And a little whipped cream just makes it all a little bit more special!

on the table

ISO 800, 52mm, f/5.6, 1/15 sec

Day 256 – On The Table: It is not my intent to have food related photos in almost every Capture Your 365 blog post, but when the prompt fits, you just have to go with it! Anyway, I do enjoy using our cloth napkins at dinner. It has been a simple way to make our dinner table just a little more special, and we don’t go through near as many paper napkins any more. There are plenty of tutorials out there to follow to make your own set or two.

So there you have it! A full week of Capture Your 365 photos! What photos are you capturing during your week? I would love to see them!

Capture Your 365

Another week…another week of Capture Your 365 photos!

bright background

ISO 800, 50mm, f/4.0, 1/40 sec

Day 243 – Bright Background: We have had a lot of overcast evenings lately and I thought I would try something different for this photo prompt. At first, I was going to photograph the pink clouds as the sun was setting, but them I saw this huge area of sunflowers. The breeze was blowing, so I had to hold the sunflower to keep it from blurring in the photo.

everywhere a sign

ISO 800, 50mm, f/5.0, 1/60 sec

Day 244 – Everywhere a Sign: Birthdays a pretty special days around here! I made this birthday banner a few years ago. We hang it up the night before the person’s birthday, and it usually stays up for days after the special day.

still life

ISO 800, 50mm, f/3.5, 1/125 sec

Day 245 – Still Life: Homemade chocolate chip cookies and homemade iced coffee…just because

back to school

ISO 800, 50mm, f/3.5, 1/80 sec

Day 246 – Back to School: Starting year 15 of homeschooling and my only student this year requested homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I thought I would add homemade smoothies to make breakfast just a little more healthy.

indulge yourself

ISO 200, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/800 sec

Day 247 – Indulge Yourself: One of my favorite places at home is our backyard beach retreat. After lunch on nice afternoons, I will head out there with a homemade iced coffee and a book. It is the perfect way for me to recharge after a busy morning.

on the left

ISO 1600, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/5 sec

Day 249 – On The Left: My son is one creative, musical young man. He was watching some videos from a band called Rend Collective Experiment one evening. After watching the videos, he decided to recreate one of the instruments they were using in the video. Doesn’t it make the perfect prop for this photo prompt?

Did you capture photos and share them on your blog this week? Be sure to let me know if the comments. I would love to visit your blog and see your week capture in photos!

Mommy Jammies Night

When I started homeschooling back in August of 1999, the internet was, what I consider, still in the infancy stages of what it has grown into being today. No Facebook, no Instagram, no Twitter, no Skype! Today, there are so many resources available to help each one of us grow in our faith, find resources to be better wives and moms, and to encourages us on days when things just don’t seem to be going the way we planned.

In fact, I am excited to let you know about a wonderful opportunity you can take part in right from your own home next week…and you can attend wearing your jammies!

My friend Kendra is going to be the guest speaker for the upcoming Mommy Jammies Night on Tuesday, September 10th. She is going to be talking about the topic of Homeschooling in Times of Crisis. Here is her description of the workshop:

“Homeschooling in Times of Crisis- Illness, job loss, moving, death... Life is messy and unpredictable but God is never surprised at the trials we find ourselves facing. If your path to homeschooling seems particularly burdensome this year, come hear a fresh word of hope and grace, and leave encouraged that even during the hardest times, our children can learn some of the best lessons ever while growing up in our homes.”

Are you feeling burdened about the tasks you feel God has called you to this year? Join in next week, Tuesday, September 10th, for the Mommy Jammies Night and hear about the Hope that only He can give.

Our Homeschool Plan 2013-2014

This past week has been our last week of summer vacation since we plan to start our homeschool year on Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. Many of our friends have already started school for this year, but neither one of us were ready to start quite yet.

Here is what we will be using this year:

• Exploring Creation with General Science – I was able to find an older edition for $10! Kelsey is looking forward to the many experiments in this book.
• What on Earth Can I Do? – I went through the previous three books in this series with both kids and have been waiting for this fourth book!
• Mystery of History II – This will be our second time through this one. I will be assigning different activities for Kelsey this time through.
• Artistic Pursuits – Matthew went through a couple of these and I still had them on hand, wondering if Kelsey might like to try them.
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child – These books fit well with our homeschool style
• Write with World – This is a new addition this year thanks to my friend Kendra for recommending it! I know we have been a little weak with creative writing, but I wanted something that wasn’t so structured and something that would challenge Kelsey in her writing. I am hoping this will be a good fit for us.
• Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra – Another saved from years ago when Matthew was at this point. Unfortunately we have the older version, but we have really enjoyed these books!
• PE – Kelsey really enjoys using our Wii Fit for her exercising, so she will be working in at least 3 mornings a week to her schedule.
• Drama – This is the big new addition to our schedule this year! From mid-September until almost the end of March, we will be driving out of town once a week for a 2-3 hour drama class. Kelsey is really exciting about this! The class will be learning the ins and outs of what it takes to put on a performance, as well as a Bible devotion at the beginning of each class and learning to stick to your Christian principles if they continue down this path. They will be performing ‘The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe’ in the spring.

At this point, the plan is for me to go through ‘What on Earth Can I Do?’ and ‘Mystery of History’ with Kelsey, the other subjects and books, she will be working through on her own. We will probably sit down together on Tuesday and ‘plan out’ how much work she should do each week. This is one of the benefits of having an older student, they start taking on more of the responsibilities of setting their schedule and making time to get their work done.

Are you ready for your homeschool year?

Guest Post: Kelsey’s App Review

My daughter, Kelsey, has a few educational games she likes to play on her iPod, so I asked her if she would like to share about them here on my blog:

So my mom wanted me to talk about some learning apps that I like. I only have a few so I will do my best to talk about them and tell you how much I have enjoyed them!

Presidents vs. Aliens

The Presidents vs. Aliens app is really fun if you want to know more about our Presidents and their nicknames, facts, quotes, and more. What I love about this game is that when I get a question right, I can use the circle picture to take down the aliens that are put in different places. It’s fun because it’s not just learning, you are doing something fun in between if you get the question right. Another thing I like about it is that you can change the settings on it. You can change the questions that it asks you. So if you want the game to ask you the nicknames that belong to a President or you can just do identifying. You can do more then one too. It has helped me learn a little more about my Presidents but I’m still learning. Another cool thing is that once you have gotten a certain amount of Presidents (after you have taken down all the aliens then you earn a President depending on how many questions you have gotten right), you can play some side games, which are still about the Presidents but they are really fun to play and I have been learning so much about all of our Presidents.

Stack the States

Stack The States is another really fun game that I really like to play. It is the same company that made Presidents vs. Aliens. The game will ask you a question about a state, like maybe where is Yellowstone Park located and it will give you options of which state to pick. If you get the question right, it will make the state as big as it would be and then you have to put it on a platform and well, stack them, hence the name. It has a ‘finish line’ a bit up away from the platform. What you have to do is stack the states up to the finish line and if you got a certain amount of questions right after you reached the finish line, it will give you a state to add to your map like the Presidents vs. Aliens game. This one also has side games for you to play once you have earned a certain amount of states. I really like it because again, you’re not just answering questions, you’re doing something fun in between. I have also ,been learning about the states and where things are located. I don’t believe you can change the questions on this one but it is still fun and you can learn a lot from it.

Another thing that is cool about these two games is that each player can have their own game. So maybe Tim and Bob want to play. Bob can have his own game and earn his own states while Tim can also do the same with his own game.

Duolingo

Duolingo is a cool language app that you can use when you, well, want to learn a new language. It has lots of different languages and you can learn more then one at a time. But for me that might be a bit confusing…. But it’s really cool and I have been learning quite a bit. It does get difficult sometimes just trying to learn all the verbs and things with Spanish, but that’s just Spanish. You can go back at any time to a lesson and review everything that you learned in that lesson. I think that’s really awesome. You have a certain amount of hearts in each lesson. When you answer a question wrong you will lose a heart and this will keep happening each time you answer a question wrong. If you run out of hearts you have to do the lesson all over again, which can be a good thing because then you can learn a lot more by doing the lesson over and over again. I like it better then Rosetta Stone because you know what the sentences are and what the words are because it switches between English and Spanish. Maybe one time you’ll have to write out a sentence in Spanish from English or an English sentence from looking at the Spanish sentence. Me and my mom both do it and love it. My mom and I have been learning a lot through it and hopefully we will be able to speak the language soon. Maybe when I am done learning Spanish I can learn a different one through it.

Well, that’s all I have for today and I hope that helped you learn a little bit more about three educational apps for your phone or other device. I have learned a lot about different things from these three apps and will hopefully continue using them. Thanks for reading and again I hope these helped you out.

-Kelsey