Trombone no more

I haven't taken any photos yet today but wanted to share these with you.
I actually had them loaded up on yesterday's post but didn't want to share this moment with bananas.

You know I am not really up for sharing lots of personal moments about my kids, nor their photos. First of all I don't want this to be "that kind of blog" and second of all I just don't wanna.

But some days, moments come along that I feel like I just have to share, like this one.

Four years ago, I took my little graduated 4th grader to the band open house afternoon at the middle school.
He, with sincere tone told the band instructor that he wanted to play the flute.
I, as his mom knows it was because that was one of the smallest instruments to carry around and therefore the least taxing on his extremely physically fit self??!!
She had his number and asked him to stand, pointing out how tall he was...and what long arms he had!
She then gave him a bit of a sideways glance with a twinkle in her eye and asked if he had considered trombone.
He gave her that classic sheepish shrug which could mean anything from yes to you are crazy.
She wrangled him into trying that mouth piece and confidently let him know that this instrument was meant for him and that she would see him after the summer for a great first year in band.

Fast forward 4 years.
Tuesday evening I loaded my cumberbund and bow tied child into the van to drive him to his last concert.

His LAST concert!!!

He has decided to pursue other things which will need his time but still benefit him the way I had hoped band would. (think discipline and order and responsibility...oh and a phenomenal group of people to hang out with)
As I got farther along down the road, I got more and more melancholy about this event. He is an excellent musician and has always vacillated between first and second chair...mainly due to some lack of gusto on his part. I hate for this time in his life to end, but also know that he is making good choices that I agree with.
I had packed my camera, which has been a rarity for me these many years when it has come to concert pictures.
At each red light along the road I made an adjustment to the camera so that I would be ready to take this series of shots that I suddenly began to crave, like a woman is want to crave chocolate.

He got out of the van and adjusted his fancy duds, which gave me a chance to get out on my side and head around to set up for my shot.
He gave me a bit of a "mom you aren't really standing in the school parking lot with that big old camera" look and headed off.
I planted my feet firmly, adjusted my grip and gave a big holler!
He stopped his hurried walk and turned around to see what I needed.
He grinned and shrugged me off when he saw that all I wanted was a picture.
Then he started running.


And my heart felt like it was gonna burst or explode with pride at this man child who is slowly but surely heading out of my life and heading more and more into his.


I felt another glimmer of pride as he disappeared through that door, knowing he was fully ready to tackle the concert of the evening.
Then I got all weepy over again because there is still so much I have to teach him, and help him to understand before he leaves through that dark doorway leading into the "real world".
Sigh!!!

I turned around to head back to my van and caught sight of another mom sitting in her van, having just dropped of her little cupcake too.
She was clapping and grinning from ear to ear and then she gave me a double thumbs up, proud that I had taken to that craving and fulfilled it for myself.
She was so happy for me, and so was I.


I love my kids, and that is all.

Color Thursday!

Yellow!
Ughhhhh, so sorry for this picture.


I am in a huge rush and this was taken under duress.
As in, it is 4:45 and my husband will be home in 1 hour and will want a supper...not to mention those kids who are always hungry!
I threw in some ground beef to thaw for the pasta sauce now cooking and my pasta is boiling. That gives me about 12 minutes, only if I don't go stir the pasta cause it still takes me awhile to get up and down the stairs!! Ha ha ha!

I was carefully selecting these bananas today and my buddy said in a rather stunned way, "WHAT are you doing???"
People, these 40 years of my life I have always just picked up a bunch of bananas!

Is that what you do??
Just get a bunch of bananas all at the same ripeness and then you must either eat gross speckled brown bananas or make banana bread or throw bananas in the trash because you waited to long to make banana bread??
Well NO more my friends.
It is a new day around here!!
My cooking buddy Janice referred me to what I like to call the 1,2, 3 banana plan.

This is revolutionary and will change your life.
Hold on to your banana peels cause here it comes!!!

Choose a few bananas that are ready to eat tomorrow.
Choose a few bananas that will be ready to eat in 2 days.
And finally, choose a few bananas that will be ready to eat in 3-4 days!

Seriously!!???!!!
DUH!!!???!!!
Whoever said you had to only buy a bunch of bananas anyway??
Oh, the change my world has taken since this amazing plan has been put into place.

I wish this for you and yours as well.

Please, I beg you...try the banana plan and see for yourself what a difference it makes to your world.

I think I still have about 4 minutes!!! Just enough time to go throw some frozen broccoli in the microwave!

See ya back here tomorrow!!
Oh, and no time to scan for errors, so very sorry if you find some.

Learn something new

I headed out to conquer my watering duties this morning, quite bummed that we have total cloud cover without a single ray of sunshine.
I wondered how I was going to practice my metering.
I really feel like I need to seal it in my brain as well as my trigger finger as soon as possible.

Then I heard a distinct coo-coo, coo-coo from above me.
That is dove talk in case you didn't know.

I learned in my "Light" reading last night to always adjust as many camera settings as possible before heading out on a shoot so that you can be prepared to simply flick a switch and not miss a shot.
So when I heard the call of the dove, I was already set to go.

I swung my camera up, quickly attempted to adjust the meter to read the median gray and snapped.
Here is what I got.


Not too bad, not to good either.
So, like yesterday I tried again
and again, and again, and again.
Then the dove flew away!
Fine I thought, that was too much pressure anyway.

I lowered my ISO all the way down to 100, trying to correct a bit for the massive amounts of light coming in and got this.

I felt pretty good about this one. It captures the shadows (and unfortunate algae) on my house as well as the fun clouds passing by.

I decided that the composition needed a bit of a boost, so this one went to the crop board!
I felt like there was too much competition between the negative space (the sky) and the positive space (the house), leaving the picture a bit blah and bland.
Yes, I realize it is a picture of siding and indistinct clouds...what could be exciting about that anyway??
Well, I am just a crazy artist, but I say this gets pretty close.

The soft, lightness of the clouds up against the hard angles of the siding...does it for me!
I boosted the saturation as well, so we could enjoy the blue behind the clouds.

Okay, enough of that I have way more to cover today!
The first being assorted water droplets!




In the past I would have deleted this picture immediately, but am beginning to learn how to slow down and appreciate the beauty of blur.

My intention on this shot was to capture the droplet of water on the closest point of that tomato leaf,to catch it falling while balancing on my haunches trying not to get wet, while also hopefully getting a few of the incoming water drops as well.
This girl doesn't balance well.
But overall I gotta say I like the outcome.


The second thing I want to cover (if there is still anyone with me...anyone???) is a tidbit from scripture.
We are gonna head over to Exodus 3:1 where God is calling Moses and talking to him from the midst of the burning bush.
1.Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law , the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

I did a big ole search on the internet for Horeb the mountain of God, wanting just to see its specific location, and frankly there is not much out there in the form of a simple map.
Then I did a face-palm and searched for my colored pencils...remembering I could draw one just fine!!!
Ha ha, sometimes my greatest limiting factor is myself...ya ever feel that way?
Okay, so I drew a map AND colored it for you with the location marked on it!

See way up high is Jerusalem and where Canaan will eventually be, to the left is Egypt, and down at the bottom right is our Mt. Horeb nestled in Arabia, close to Midian.

Okey doke, now that we are all at the same map, let's move all the way down through the conversation to verse twelve.
But to keep us in context I will start with verse 11.
11. But Moses said to God, "Who am I , that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?"
12. And He said, "Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt you shall worship God at this mountain.

Hmmmm "this mountain" huh? This one here...in Arabia? This one here one past the Red Sea??
Isn't that the place where Moses first got water for the people through God? (Not "that" time, but the time before that. That other one is in Numbers 20)

Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Okay, so let me get this all straight in my brain.
Moses leads the people out of Israel(ch.13), they cross the Red Sea (ch 14), they sing a song of deliverance to celebrate (ch 15), they complained of hunger (ch 16) and then in 17 at Horeb God gives them water.
So I am just wondering, why does my Bible map have the Israelites there...between the two
forks of the Gulfs of the Red Sea.

My whole life I have been taught that Mt. Sinai is there, but I am not sure that it is!
Suffice it to say, this is not a salvation issue, which is why I am perfectly comfortable bringing it up here!

It is exciting to jump in with explorers who have the time and opportunity to discover a world I will likely never see, to judge with my own two eyes... and camera!
This mountain is now called Jebel al-Lawz.
This is a fun place to start when you have some time.
And if you have about 45 minutes to spare...this is intriguing to watch!!
And here is a nice review of that short film in case ya wanna read that too!

Just a little intrigue to stir the pot!

Practice makes you need more practice

Ohhhhhh, I got a new photography book in the mail last week and finally had a chance to give it a look see!!
It is called Chasing the Light by Ibarionex Perello...however you pronounce that!
Improving your photography with AVAILABLE LIGHT is the tagline on the cover.

He begins the book taking the reader through the basic trio of important settings on the camera. ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.
Though I know this information, it still feels like new to me. Every time I read about it from anothers perspective it takes on new light...and thankfully becomes a bit more clear with each explanation.

Pages 26 and 27 made a huge impact on me last night as I lay snuggled in my bed reading.
Are you wondering why?
Well, this could be helpful to anyone with a camera because it is just practical information.

The camera is measuring the light reflecting off of the subjects we aim at.
Our camera meters are calibrated for an average reflectance supposedly midway between white and black.
So as the camera "sees" it tries to convert (in its little mechanical brain) everything to a medium gray.
He makes the point that this is fine if you are photographing a man dressed in gray on a gray wall, but what to do for a man in white on a white wall??? The camera in its wisdom will want to render out the white as medium gray...in those extreme situations.

Is your head spinning??? That's okay, mine is too! Even though I think I understand this in theory, it is just gonna take some practice with my camera to make it work in my little non mechanical brain.
So, I set out to make this principle practical today.
The sun comes over my fence in the morning casting wonderful patches of very bright sunlight in my yard and upon my house.
It set up a perfect opportunity to practice this very thing.
I set my camera on full automatic and pressed the button.
This is what the camera saw.

It wasn't all out wrong, but it wasn't right either.

So I switched over to manual and tried to "meter" off of what seemed to be the median gray in our shot.

Whoa, too bright.

Try again!

Still a little bright, but closer to what I was seeing with my eyeballs!


I tried about 5 more times. Adjusting settings and aperture.
I think I should have tried about 12 more times 'cause it didn't get any better than that shot above!
So, after loading it my computer I took it through my program and adjusted the levels there.

And that is as close to what I saw as I could get.
The point though was to be able to do it with the camera "on sight" rather than adjusting.
Don't worry I am not being too hard on myself...just noting the need for lots more practice and more understanding of how this works.


I did shoot off some more pictures so as to not feel defeated!
I feel like this has got some good early morning sun qualities as the light and shadow play across these leaves.


And, I caught the Shelbster in action!
She heard the back yard neighbor dogs, got in a good huff....
...began barking to rile them up sufficiently...


...turned to jump on the fence (look at that action, frozen in midair)



...and clawed away in glee as she communicated with her buddies as she is want to do everyday.

This lasts all of about 8 seconds!
Just long enough to get the humans all worked up about the barking and make a move to cease it. Then they are done!
It is the exact same every. single. time.
Interesting, well to me anyway.


Then I turned to what I know I can do, and shot a close up of my cherry tomatoes.
They are freshly watered and oh so happy!


I look forward to more reading the very practical information in this book.
But for now...the buzzer of the dryer calls.
Tuesday is finish up the laundry I didn't finish yesterday day.
Make it a great one!

Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes

This Organic and Chic video by Design Sponge is where I first came across our cupcake must have recipe. She very specifically used all organic ingredients, which I am betting is her thing!

I zoomed through the video wondering what amazing thing she was doing to have this cupcake show up on so many of my searches for "moist, fluffy cupcakes".

I gotta tell you the secret is....
...nothing!!
There was nothing at all amazing about her technique or recipe.

Except for the fact that it just happens to be the perfect combination of simple ingredients mixed up and baked to make the "I will probably never again try another chocolate cupcake recipe because this one is so spectacular" best moist and fluffy chocolate cupcake!

I did not take pictures of this cupcake in process.
It just seemed so simple and boring.
So descriptions interspersed with shots of finished cupcakes will have to do!
And just so ya know, I am not real pleased with these pictures but really felt safer not taking more.
I can't even get within 12 feet of these cupcakes without wanting to devour another.



I am gonna call these:
Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes (by Sarah Magid)

Sift
2 1/4 cup flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Now I am not sure if you have ever tried to sift cocoa, but I am here to tell you it is a mess!!!
I chose to specifically sift my flour and baking soda, then I gently whisked in the other 3 ingredients until all of this was combined and looked like hot cocoa powder!

In a separate bowl whisk together
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
2/3 cup canola oil
2 tsp. white vinegar
2 cups cold water

Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry, just until combined. This is a fairly runny batter, so know that going into it.

In two days time I made 3 batches of this recipe. The third time around I got a little crazy and used 1 cup of cold coffee and 1 cup of water. I think it bumped up the flavor of the chocolate and made them even better!
Next time, I think I am gonna go for the full 2 cups of coffee, blink blink, grin grin!!!
I bet that means my kids won't like them as much, which could present some problems for my weight!
I will probably also try using half white wheat flour too! That will really get those kiddos!!!
This recipe was for a baby shower and I didn't want to mess it up experimenting!

Divide this batter into 24 cupcake liners and bake at 350* for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool before frosting.
That's it!!
So easy right????

I did some really wonky stuff with my icing that I was not pleased with texturally.
I combined what her recipe suggested (making a thickener with milk and flour) with a basic cream cheese icing (1 pkg cream cheese, 4 Tbs butter, dash of vanilla, powdered sugar to consistency).
I pretty much decided that I didn't like that outcome at all...aside from the flavor that is!!
I have a feeling in order to get that amazing not too sweet, but hearty frosting the ingredient needed is shortening. Well you know that is not gonna happen around here.
I am gonna do some more research on that topic!

My honest suggestion would be to use the chocolate frosting recipe found on the back of the Hershey's cocoa box with this and do the double chocolate thing!!

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Well that about wraps it up friends!
I hope you will file this away in your recipe index, no doubt under desserts!

Busier Sunday!

Recipe coming tomorrow!!!

Busy Saturday

With ninja like stealth I stalked this bird sitting on my fence.
Camera to my eye, feet rolling steadily through the grass.

I was waiting for that take off.

Looks like I need to work a bit on my hand eye coordination!!!


Not too bad though, at least I caught him before he disappeared this time!

It is possible that I will share a really yummy chocolate cupcake recipe with you tomorrow.
You know...on second thought... I wouldn't count on that.
Let's just amend that to say Monday!

I promise to have something for you tomorrow, just not sure what it will be yet.