Scavenger Hunt Sunday : March 24

After skipping last week's Scavenger Hunt, I am back, and ready to get right to it.  Three of these weren't taken this week, but all were pretty recent.

Dylan always DRAWS a little smiley face on his practice spelling tests.

There were some WAVY branches on this rock, at the zoo.

Some bamboo (also at the zoo) fits the ASIAN theme.

The SOFT texture on a cat tail at sunset

The color and texture of an artichoke is interesting to me, so I took some shots of one this week.

Enjoy your Spring Break week everyone!

Spring Flowers

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's been a crazy busy month so far.  I decided to take a little time for myself and enjoy the spring flower show.  I discovered two things while there.   One, looking at flowers really does lift a person's spirits.  Two, photographers are chatty.  I only had a couple of hours to myself, so I was on a mission, but there were a lot of other photographers there and they kept stopping me to ask questions about my camera, my shots, etc.  I hate to say it, but I wasn't very friendly.  I had a job to do!

An Irish Blessing for you: "May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.  May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.  May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.  And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through".

Scavenger Hunt Sunday : March 10

The prompts this week for Scavenger Hunt Sunday were based on children's television.  A bit unfair for those people without children, wouldn't you say?  I mean, I have a child, and I still wasn't thrilled with the prompts.  I felt a bit boxed in by them.  Maybe we could do an adult theme sometime?  The prompts could be Bills, Laundry, Errands, Wine, and TGIF?!  Anyway, I got it done, and that's the important part, right?

Dylan and I SHARED some quality time at the zoo yesterday.  He SHARED a staring contest with this fish!  I was remembering how difficult and exhausting it used to be to take Dylan to the zoo myself.  Yesterday, he was a complete delight to be with, and we had the best time.

FIVE cents

If you're going to have a WORD OF THE DAY (Love), Dylan feels you must have a letter of the day also (M).

Caterpillars WIGGLE, right?

Milk and COOKIES, anyone?

Have a great week, and see you next time!

I'll Pray For You

My son (and my husband, cough, cough) can be a tad dramatic.  He (they) can overreact when things don't go their way.  He (they) tend to exaggerate!  As a matter of fact, I just explained the word "exaggerate" to Dylan this week.  "It's when you make something that is bad even worse than it really is, by what you say or how you act... like when Daddy said he would be back from work IN THE SPRING , or when you said your bum was going to hurt FOREVER(don't ask)".

For someone like myself, who usually hopes things will go my way, but is never that surprised when they don't, this personality trait can be a bit frustrating. (COUGH!)  When I'm at not at my best, I probably handle it with eye rolling and even yelling.  At my best, I try to handle it with humor.  Take this morning for example...

Dylan was upstairs getting dressed for school, while I cleaned up breakfast.  When I got upstairs and looked at my sweet 6 year old, I had to smile.  His buttons were all wrong, and his undershirt was on backwards.

Me:  "Hey, hon.  Let me help you with your shirt."

Dylan:  "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!  I BUTTONED MY SHIRT ALREADY!  IT'S GOOD!"

Me:  "Yes, you did good, but you missed the top hole, so we'll have to do it again".

Dylan:  (Fell on the floor, dramatically, as soon as I said "missed the top hole").  "OH, COME ON!!"

Me:  "Hey!  Get up!  It is not a big deal!  And, I hate to even tell you this, but your T-shirt in on backwards, too."

Dylan:  (Who now looks like he might cry over the complete inhumanity of not one mistake, but two!)  "AARRGGHH!"

Me:  "Dylan!  This really, really is not a big deal.  I promise you.  Do you want me to help?" (He nods).  (As I'm helping) "There are lots of bad things that can happen to a person.  Putting their shirt on backwards is not one of them.  Buttoning their shirt wrong is not one of them.  Do you think someone says, "You know, this morning I put my shirt on backwards!", and other people go "GASP!  OH MY GOSH!  YOU POOR THING! THAT'S TERRIBLE!  I'LL PRAY FOR YOU!"

Dylan:  (Laughing)  "No".

Me:  "Do you think if someone says, "You know, this morning I buttoned my shirt wrong!", that other people will go "WHAT?!  YOU'RE KIDDING ME?!  HOW AWFUL!  I'LL PRAY FOR YOU!"

Dylan:  (Really laughing hard now).  "No!... Mom!  Stop making me laugh! Stop being funny!"

Me: (Smiling) "I just can't help it.  Pray for me".

Dylan:  (Laughing as he goes down the hall, fully dressed and ready for school)  "Mom!"

I Heart Faces : Framed

This shot was taken at Ohiopyle State Park.  I love the fact that my fearless boy is leading his dad behind the big waterfall, and they are framed in the waterfall's light.  This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge - www.iheartfaces.com.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday : March 3

I was excited about this week's prompts for Scavenger Hunt Sunday, because I figured colors gives you a lot of options.  I had ideas.  I had plans.  Then Dylan got strep.  Then I got strep and all my plans flew out the window along with my energy.

On Friday, when I realized I hadn't tackled even one of the prompts, I recruited Dylan.  That's how I got my first BLUE shot...

He was not the least bit happy about the prospect of being my model, as you can see.  But, then I told him I had a "project" and I needed his help to find things to take pictures of that were red, orange, yellow, green, and blue, and suddenly he was very interested!

                             Is it just me, or does he look a whole year younger when he's sad?

First, we found some blueberries he was going to eat for lunch.

He thought his "Captain Bones" math would work well for GREEN.  If you never saw "Crashbox" on HBO, the idea is to move only one "bone" to make the equation a correct one.  Can you solve both of these? (I'll tell you the answers at the bottom of the post!)

He made this flower pot at school, complete with his school photo.  He pulled the flowers out that weren't YELLOW!

An ORANGE slingshot that I like playing with more than he does.

This is what Dylan wanted me to take a photo of for RED, but I liked this candle holder...

(Captain Bones answers:  For the first one, you move the top right stick in the nine to the bottom left, to make it a six, so that 2+4=6.  For the second one, you move the top left stick in the nine to change the minus to a plus, making it 2+1=3.  Who got them both right?)