August

So I'm proud to say that since my Bloggy Bloggerson post in June, that I have blogged 10 times! (counting this very blog, but not counting my photo project blog that I post to daily!) I'd say this is pretty good and well on to my hopeful title especially considering I had only blogged twice in the preceding 12 months before that.

We have just finished our first week of a planned preschool week. I've always had an idea of what I want to teach Josh next, but I'm realizing there is SO much that I want to pack in. And of course the only way to get it done efficiently is to have a plan.

I found this cute, affordable and very useful Teacher's planner at Target in the $1 bin. I've looked at a few planners and many (as you would expect) have lots of pages dealing with the class as a whole including pages for students' grades contact info etc. I hate to waste, so these extra pages drove me away from the purchase (dorky I know). But I was very happy with this one, only one or two pages of classroom stuff which I have already taped over with some specific notes of my own.

So anyway, if you know me and my need for structure, this planner (like most calendars) satisfies a craving in me - to plan. It's been great for our first week. It's helped me to map out what Josh needs to learn and how to best incorporate subjects based on knowledge level (prior knowledge and what he's already learned) and time of year (holidays/events). Again, dorky I know. But I enjoy it, and he's learning lots, so it's a win win! This week he even sounded out and read "frog" all on his own! I'm a proud mom. :)

If you're on facebook, then you've seen my post about Cal and his Mickey. If not, here's the mini story - We're in Target. He sees a stuffed Mickey. I hand it to him with the intention of letting him hold it throughout the store and expecting him to lose interest by the time we leave. It was $15. I don't spend that kind of money on a stuffed toy. Just saying. When I handed it to him, it was the cutest thing ever. His bright blue eyes, and his huge toofy smile that made his nose scrunch up all the while squeezing Mickey's neck like he is his bff. But again, he'd lose interest by the time we were ready to leave. Not. He hugged that Mickey the whole time with that sweet smile on his face. So yeah, I guess I do pay $15 for a stuffed toy! :)

This is a picture of him today holding on tight while they watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse together. And because I'm such a sucker (apparently) and want my kids to be happy, I bought a second (identical) stuffed Mickey today to stop all the fighting. Now there shall be peace among the Mickey lovers. :)

This week has also been the beginning of something new - me going to the gym! There could be a whole separate blog about that Ha! But I'll just say I've been trying to figure out what's going to work best for me (and the kids) and I think this may be it. I got a 5-day pass at Mountainside Fitness and have gone the last 2 days. The kids area is super, and both boys have been giving me attitude when leaving. They love it. Which, that alone may be motivation enough for me to be faithful to go - they can have a blast and I can spend an hour sweating with my iPod.

Yesterday marked 13 years since Scott and I have been together, our first date. I remember we had dinner and saw There's Something About Mary at the Metrocenter Mall. If I remember correctly, that was the same day I learned what "ornery" meant since I didn't know what my roommate was trying to say about me. Haha! A lot has happened in the last 1.3 decades, and I know our future will only be better. <3

Thanks for keeping up with us. It's nice to know when people are actually reading my ramblings. :) Follow my blogs and I'll get to know for sure that you've been here.

http://thehierfamily.blogspot.com/

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Amazing Lightning Storm

This picture makes me teary-eyed at how much God loves us.

I pulled over on the way home tonight because the lightning was beautiful, bright, and constant. And even though there was plenty of lightning to photograph, it's hard to capture it. Have you ever tried? It's so quick of course, so it makes it near impossible to get a photo. But not for me tonight. After taking 100+ photos (probably closer to 200), I said a short and simple prayer. "Lord this is so beautiful. Please let me have just 1 awesome photo." Within another minute or so, voila! I love that such a small, otherwise unimportant thing, is still important to Him because it's important to me. <3 I actually ended up with about 10 great photos, 2 very bright and I narrowed it down to this one to post for today's 365 photo. And it was too awesome not to post on our family blog too, and make sure I reach all my blog followers with this one! For more, just look at my facebook album.

Baby Powder

I should have suspected something when Josh came running in from the other room saying "smell me!" But I just thought it was part of his other random sillyness (like when he drew a picture of himself today holding a toy and told me he was holding God and he wears a belt). Anyway, it was a good 10 minutes later that he came back saying "I'm stinky!" and a curious light bulb went off.

You see they were supposed to be watching Mickey Mouse in the other room while Scott and I finished our movie, Source Code (pretty good movie by the way). So I asked suspiciously and firmly "WHY are you stinky Josh" to which I received the reply "becuz Cal got that white baby stuff on me." AAaahhh man! I knew exactly what he meant. I jumped up to find Cal in front of the TV, all the while displaying his favorite Disney character, shaking a bottle of baby powder every.where. He was laughing and having a blast. To his dismay I grabbed the bottle from him, but really. It was too late. It was empty. There was a white film all over the room, and him. . .

Guilty. How could you not love that face? Big blue eyes.

We had a dog 3 years before we had kids, so the house has long since been "proofed." But I guess there was a lingering something a little person could find and get into. I'm just thankful it wasn't harmful or staining. :)

Change it a little and make it your own!

Change an ingredient or two and suddenly the recipe is YOURS! Who is with me? I'm a pretty crafty person [scrapbook/baking/etc-crafty, not like underhanded and deceptive ;)]. I've got a good bit of creativity. But to be completely honest, most of my ideas start with someone else's idea, then I just mold it a little to my liking.

One of my current endeavors is learning to become a great photographer because I love photos, and I love photos of my family! And something I've been doing to help me along this process is a 365 project. Today's picture was inspired by something I saw in a recent People magazine. A friend asked about it, so I thought it would be fun to blog about.

In my workshop, it suggests to cut out pictures that you like. This picture of Jim Carrey caught my eye LOL.



I'm really attracted to picture-in-picture type of photos. So I immediately cut this one out and added to my book of fav photos. Most that I save are because I like the composition of the photo, but this one was more of a fun idea to attempt myself.

Here's the simple explanation (more details below):
- While looking in the mirror, I took a picture of one eye with my smart phone.
- I then held the picture displayed on the phone back up to my face while taking a picture with my good camera. (This took about 10 tries.)
- In the middle of adjusting sharpness and levels on the computer, I decided to try it black & white with only the camera picture left in color.
- And the end result. . .



If you'd like to try it yourself, here are some better instructions:
- While looking in the mirror, take a picture of one eye with your smart phone, cell phone, or another camera with a display screen. Be sure to move in/out to make the picture size as close as possible to match the actual size of your face. I held my phone out from my eye about 4 or 5 inches.
- Set up another camera on something steady if you don't have a tripod and set it up for the self-timer. I used my dslr with a 50mm f/1.8 lens because I hugely HEART shallow depth of field (focused subject, blurry background). I set the aperature to the lowest, f/1.8. If you have a regular point-and-shoot camera, just forget everything I just said after self-timer. You can still do this. :)
- Pull up the 1st picture on the screen of whatever you took it on, and practice holding it up to your eye (I took a minute in the mirror so I could remember where to hold the phone). It may take a few tries unless you can get a mirror in front of you to do this step, but behind the camera of course. Focus (half-push of the shutter button on most cameras) and press all the way down to take the picture. The self-time will give you a second to get your hand back down so it doesn't look like a cheesy self pic.
- Upload it to your computer to edit in whatever photo software you have. I shot the picture in RAW format and edited it in Photoshop Elements. Simply adjust where needed, select everything but the phone picture to convert to black and white, adjust lighting, etc. In the RAW editing stage, I increased the blacks slightly and the clarity. The rest was done in the jpeg editing. I sharpened and also used the unsharp mask to make the phone picture more crisp.

I usually adjust as I go, not always remember every single step. So if you have specific questions, just let me know.

Hope you like it!

ABC's & Chore Charts

On a lighter note (from the last post), Josh has been learning his alphabet and the lessons of responsibilities and rewards via a chore chart. By the way, I think we've settled the bad word problem. The non-chalant approach evolved into, firm warnings, and eventually a spanking. The spanking did it. :( At least he'll remember now.

Josh is majorly into role playing, mostly superheroes but he's not partial. Sometimes you'll see him as a pirate or a soldier. Each day he takes on a new persona and most days there are multiple. Today for example, he's already been Batman and Green Lantern, and it's only lunch time. He's watching Superman right now, so I'm sure that's to follow. I love his imagination.

One day while looking at the big A on his Captain America helmet a light bulb went off.



I had just read my friend's blog about environmental print and the wheels started turning when I saw the letter A. I knew that in order to keep Josh's interest I had to make learning fun and make it something he can relate too. Thus was born "Joshua's book of ABC's." I've been craving some crafty scrapbooking time but haven't been able to make the time, so this was a perfect compromise - a little crafty, and productive!



This picture is an example of how detailed or simple you can go, if you'd like to make your own. Many of the more detailed letters were made with layers of cardstock and scrapbook paper. However, when I knew what I wanted the R to look like, I didn't want to cut out a million pieces of Robin's costume. So I drew in the details and colored it with Stampin Write Markers (from Stampin' Up!). On the flip side, S was much easier. I just pasted an ACU pattern in a Word document (google) and then an S outline, printed & cut. So far, so good. He's been enjoying it, and of course learning his alphabet!

As with most 4-year-olds (or at least I'm hoping :)) chores are a battle, including the chores that should just be everyday maintenance like brushing your teeth. I've been eager to start a rewards system with Josh, waiting until I knew he'd respond. His very first chart was back when he was potty training. He loved putting stickers in the squares after using the potty and washing his hands, but he'd also sometimes get bored of it. Recently, I realized it was time again. I started off small with an app on my iPod touch. It was the free version, so it would only let me make a chart for 1 child (fine) and 4 chores (not fine). He enjoyed pushing the button and seeing the check mark by his chores. He was loving it, and I needed to keep track of more. I found a chore chart at Staples that I really like. It's dry-erase and has magnetic stars.



It's been working wonderfully! Josh has been encouraged to do what I need him to do, and if he doesn't I don't push it. I just make sure he understands that it's his choice and his choice to not do a chore means it's his choice to not get a star. And better than any other avenue of discipline, taking away a star is almost magic. Ha! I'm sure the threat of losing a star works so well because he so badly wants the reward. Which leads me to another point, making it all something he can relate to again, something he really wants. So I give him the choice. For example, after earning 10 stars he can choose to play a new game (like a board game with us, or the Wii which he is just learning to play), 20 stars is a new toy (I keep a budget in my head and guide him to a few choices), and 30 stars is a "big movie" aka a movie in the theatre. So far he has earned an Ironman mask, which was something he had his mind set on (another great factor, having him set goals and work for it) and a movie in the theatre.

I adjust the system as we go, as needed. In the future, I'll take "brushing teeth" off the chart because I believe he should learn to do that without being rewarded for it. A successful visit to the dentist (which usually includes a little toy) should be enough. Funny, but it reminds me of dog training. You start off with giving them a treat every time they sit along with the command, but eventually dwindle off so they sit by command only.

I'm so proud of Josh. Thanks for reading, and hopefully it'll provide ideas for some in the same stage. :)

That train said "What the f***!"

You can imagine my horror as Josh says to me (in very plain and clear English I might add, despite his many other words he is still mastering), "That train fall down and he said 'What the f***!'"



We (Josh and Cal and I) were playing trains today. Made the biggest track we could put together with the pieces we had, added lifts, and bridges, and tunnels, even put fresh batteries in 2 of the trains so everyone was up to speed. Cal was doing exceptionally well as he sat back and enjoyed watching 2 engines go along the track while holding 1 in his hand. He usually likes to see them go, but also can't stop himself from grabbing one or breaking the track, etc. But today, he was doing great. The track we made today had lots of curves and turns. And Josh's newest engine is sort of heavy and square. I can't figure out who he is. Anyway, around the curve, he got derailed and fell off the track. And Josh, who personifies most toys :), says to me "That train fall down and he said 'What the f***!'"

When he says the word "jet" it sounds just like "sh*t" so I didn't really think his sweet face and innocent lips just dropped the f-bomb. So I asked him again what he said. And it really couldn't get any clearer. I didn't want to freak out and make a big deal of it because you know, that just makes them want to say it more - we're born with that sinful, rebellious nature. So I just didn't say anything for a few minutes as my head was about to explode with all the emotion + trying to figure out what's the effective thing to do.

After a minute or two, I just told him that the word he said the train said was very very bad and we shouldn't say that. He said the sentence again but in question form, and I said "Yes, that one. Don't say it again okay?" And he was fine with that. I asked him where he heard that and who taught him to say that. His answer? Get this . . . Cal. Haha! What a character.

I know he doesn't use this phrase when I'm not around (Ha! what a thought) and he doesn't even know what it means. But man, it hurts my heart to hear it from my sweet boy. Seriously, makes me want to cry. For the last 4+ years, I've told Scott that the day my kids say their first curse word (and in correct context no doubt) that we are going to have a huge fight. I don't feel like fighting though. I just feel sad. It's strange how much I want to cry. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I got the cell phone out and recorded a video to send to Scott at work. Made him sad too.

Workshop from a book

As many of you know, I love photography but am very amateur. (Is that a correct use of that word? Anyway - ) I got my first DSLR a year and a half ago. It's exponentially better than my point-and-shoot for a gazillion reasons. And to date, I've learned a lot. But of course there is so much more to learn.

Being a SAHM, my time to do anything outside of taking care of my little men is very limited. So I read when I can and play with my camera as much as possible. They are also the best subjects, because seriously, they are the cutest boys - ever. And in pulling out another one of my photography books, I decided this time to really use it. It's called Visual Poetry, and it's been a great resource. But it's also a workshop in a book. There are different assignments at the end of each chapter from photo challenges (of course) to other reading and actions like consulting a local professional photographer. There's also a very helpful website that goes along with the book www.visual-poet.com.

I'm super excited about some structured instruction and challenges. So get ready for my photography journey along with some subject requests! Yes, I need people to photograph. :) So don't be shy when I come a'knockin'.

First assignment, watch the film Annie Leibovitz, Life Through a Lens.