Scavenger Hunt October 9

It's been quite a while since I've been able to find all 5 of the scavenger hunt items!  I've been unsuccessfully trying the past few weeks, and I think I've achieved it this time!

Landscape

On the way to pick up my children from my parents last Monday, I stopped at many farms along the way to take a photo from the side of the road.  {My apologies if you recognize your farm here}The bright blue sky is such a beautiful contrast to the horses and their Barn Red abode.

Color Wheel Complementary

I hunted for a scene that contained 2-3 colors from opposite sides of the color wheel.  While I shot these apples just because they're juicy and sweet and hanging heavy ripe from the branches this time of year, it fits the prompt:  red and green are from opposite sides of the color wheel.

Black & White

My beautiful First Born!  She's really growing up.  We spent the day yesterday doing a local Barn Tour.  We visited 4 farms, sampled local apples and cheeses and took a hay ride.  What beautiful weather~70s~and the colors are just gorgeous right now!

Food

My indoor food shots hardly ever turn out well...I need to work on my lighting and backdrops.  We went to a local apple orchard where we could pick our own apples.  The kids just loved it! {for a while, anyway}There's nothing like biting into a fresh, juicy apple.

White space

White space is blank space in a piece of art or photo.  I took this photo while stopping on the side of the road to take photos of barns.  American pride rings loud and clear in the Heartland.

Scavenger Hunt August 21

Brushstrokes

The girls LOVED the chance to paint their own nails for the first time.  They didn't do a half bad job! They always want their fingers painted and I really don't like to bother with it...I love this look of concentration on Kenna's face here!

On the Dotted Line

My husband's suggestion for the perfect shot for this prompt was to get a shot of roadkill on the yellow striped line...gross!  I didn't get any other inspiration, so I just added a photo of my gladiolas to this ready-made sheet that had stitches and splatters that reminded me of the dotted line.

Hanging by a Thread

This was another result of my Chasing the Sunlight.  It caught me by surprise and just knew it would make a great shot!  When I see this, I praise my Creator, who designed even something like a spider to weave such an intricate web for the purpose of catching his prey...

Geometry

This is a nearby Bed and Breakfast that has such grand columns and strong structure.  I love the round pillars with the curly-cues at the top and the rounded balcony.

Collage

I made this collage with one of my scrapbooking sets.  I even used photos from this week!  I saw a painted collage on a store front that would've been great, too, but couldn't get a shot of it without crashing or something like that!

Scavenger Hunt for August 8

Seeing Double

At the Rodeo for Ryan this week, these 2 little boys passed by, and I just knew I had to get their picture!  So adorable!

Bright

Fruit heavy on the tree is a beautiful sight!  Amidst the branches of green leaves, these apricots were hanging heavy and plentiful.  We picked plenty for eating and for canning.  My mom and I canned 18 quarts this week.  Hopefully, they turned out great!  We {I should say "mom" because she does all the processing} were having trouble with the pressure cooker.  Mushy fruit isn't great, and they were already quite soft by the time we got to canning.

Space

Wide open spaces!  My kids, even Maverick, love going to Nana and Papa's house to just be able to run around outside without many worries.  The house is far from the road and there is little traffic.  So many places to explore!  This is the first year this oat field has been here, and it was harvested just a few days after this picture was taken.

Sweet

Sweet Treats!  The bake sale of the rodeo was a sweet success!  Everything was packaged so cute and looked yummy!

Whatever

Many of the tables at the rodeo were decorated with these mason jars and flowers.  Looks simple, but adds so much!  I should do this for my own table at home!

There is so much to be thankful for this week! This past week was filled with rodeo details, and most other things were pushed aside for the time being...
Gifts 464-477

The rodeo was a success
much help and support
many attendees--over 1000
Much generosity--over $50,000
Rain held off--it rained all around the ranch, but not at the ranch
Many donors gave many gifts to auction off
Free babysitters
Hannah going with grandparents to horse show
Little boy who loves to throw sand
cold water on a hot day
Baked potatoes in my fridge
Free unity tickets to use with my family and friends
Cooler weather
Cousins & campouts & picnics & pools

I Have to seek God Beauty

"I have to seek God beauty.

 Because isn't my internal circuitry wired to seek out something worthy of worship?  

Every moment I live, I live bowed to something.  

And if I don't see God, I'll bow down before something else."  

Ann Voskamp

Before and After Photos

These sunset pictures were taken on our 11th anniversary date this weekend.  We had dinner out and then walked the pier to the beach and watched the sunset over Lake Michigan.  It seemed all the tourists made the evening trek out, something like a ritual, a worship of the sun-god.  What I witnessed, though, brought me to worship before the Son.  What a witness of God's glory!

We had a great time watching this sailboat get closer and closer, until the sun went down and all that was left was the sailboat on the horizon.

Walk on a Empty Street

We drove the big, black truck down an old railroad bed.  Sorry it's blurry.  I used the automatic timer and since the camera kept wanting to flash, I turned it off.  Because we were moving, it turned out blurry.

Repeating pattern

Fingertips

Me and my sweetie holding hands, waiting for dinner...afterwards, wished we had gone somewhere else.

Floor

I've still been counting the gifts from the Great Giver, but haven't been posting them here.  I'll just post this past week's list: #450-459

11 years ago today, I married the love of my life

Air conditioning

Random yard sale finds, like Pie Tins for the Rodeo for Ryan

Colaboration of friends and Christ followers produces God-Sized results

God is King and He is Glory and All creation Speaks his name.  Let me have ears to hear.

Using my gifts for Him.

Great novels that help me understand humanity better

Flower gardens

Fresh picked cucumbers

Lazy summer days

When Emotions Get the Best of Us

Emotion

Texture:  Kim Klassen's Subtly Yours (Darken blending mode) & Portrait 2x with layer mask ( Darken and  Soft Light)

Does it get any better than this?  This is the angry cry of a barefoot boy told not to continue into the deep grass.  He's angry.  Doesn't like to be told what to do.  His sisters still make this face.  I might still make this face.  We don't like to be told what to do.  Life-long lesson of submitting to the Great Authority.  At least 2, nope, make that 3, of our children are expressing emotions that needs to be mastered under self control.  It seems like when I'm just getting comfortable and relaxed in this parenting thing, something new comes along that we need to figure out how to discipline.

Natural Frame

 We love to go biking down the rail trail, and I just love the trees arching over the trail.  I obviously took this one last fall...the one's I've taken recently just don't compare!

Bliss

 Makenna and Hannah have riding lessons every other week.  Hannah's lesson is usually 55 minutes long, and Makenna gets to hop on at the end for a few trips around the arena.  This time, though, she got to have a mini lesson, just like Hannah.  She was so pleased to be telling the horse what to do with the reins and holding the riding crop.  "I had to whip him to tell him to go!"  Of course, it was just a little tap to make the horse pay attention to her.

Letters

 Who sends letters these days, anyway?  I didn't know what to do for this one until my daughter drew a picture for her grandma and sent it with her daddy to work.  Right away, Grandma wrote one back and sent it home with her daddy in that same evening!  How precious is this note!

From a Flowers Point of View

 These 2 are for the same prompt.  I took a few of these this week, and just wasn't happy with the trees and weeds and mess.  Right now, this yarrow is one of 2 flowers I have blooming and it's just not really exciting.  So, I decided to include the flowers in the photo to get a better perspective.  In the first one, the background is in focus, and in the 2nd one, the flowers are more focused.  This is our row of raspberry plants that you see, just planted last year.

Consider the Path

Childhood Memory

This is the path traveling from my childhood home to my grandparent's house...literally Through the Wood to Grandmother's house we go!  Now, it's such a sweet delight to see my girls trekking through the woods all on their own to visit Grandma.

Green

So much green right now, although with a lack of rainfall, it's got a lot of yellow spots!  Here's a field with and without texture...the 2nd shows a lot more of the green of the field.

And here's boy in green getting ready to be swallowed up in the green forest!  His shirt perfectly matches the ferns, and they're nearly as tall as he is!

Shapes

I went with the circle theme here...wagon wheels and hay bales.

Fruit

No actual ripe fruit shown here, but it's the PROMISE of fruit to come!  

We are looking forward to the bounty...

Share with me as we count the gifts of our Maker...
#341-
Beach days
Calling up friends at the last minute to play
Much needed connection with friends
Hauling laundry to my mom's to use her washing machine
Watching my kids splash and play in the frigid water
New washing machine
Clean clothes on the line
Ripening strawberries
Flowering berry bushes
Saturday night pizza
New library books
Used book sales
Visiting with grandma
Nana leading girls around on Sunny
Hunting for old barns
Spotting a new fawn at the edge of the woods
Getting up early for yard sales