Category Archives: Musings

Silly Pictures

I absolutely love my digital camera! It is small and portable and easy to use. Tim researched cameras for a long time and was determined to pick out one that I would actually use. He succeeded and lately I’ve gone picture crazy. I grab my camera throughout the day to capture the silly and fun things that the kids are doing or to try out something I’ve learned about picture taking.

Since we have this handy blog and it costs nothing to post picture after picture, I find myself with a lovely forum to express my photo mania. Enjoy or ignore as you wish.

David got some wonderful new Dover coloring books for Christmas. He was so excited to get his OWN History of Sword book (like his brother Joshua). Here he is, hard at work.
David colors David smiles and colorsworking hard

I’m still playing with the flash vs. natural light canera thing (could I be any less technical?). Whenever I notice the natural light appears to be strong, I grab a child, pose them and fire away. These are the black and white shots I took of Sarah.

B/W SarahB and W Sarah

One thing I read in the photography book by Nick Kelsh was to begin laughing, deep, silly belly laughs just as you are about to take a pictures (works best if you have a tripod for the obvious reasons). Most people will smile, laugh, or at least be amused at their rather odd photographer and you can get some good shots. The children know I’ve discovered this and so they try hard not to laugh. We’ve started having contests to see if they can resist my laughter.

Rachel doesn't laugh

Rachel laughs

Rachel tries but can’t make it. Daniel doesn’t fare much better.
Daniel resistsDaniel laughs

Joshua does the best (never quite breaking into laughter) but notice how stern he must compose his face to begin. Rachel and Daniel tried to help by laughing uproariously from the kitchen while I took these pictures.

Stern Joshua
Joshua smiles

Enough silliness–back to work.

back to work

I stayed up much too late last night so I need to get to bed at a decent hour tonight. My BSF lesson is all finished, Daniel did the dinner dishes, and the house is relatively picked up so I should be able to retire for the evening. The rest of the family is already in bed.

Night.
Kathy

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A few more Monday pictures

Some additional shots of our day.

–Sarah working on her school–
Sarah coloring

–Rachel doing math in her fuzzy, blue robe–
Rachel's fuzzy robe

–Daniel in the kitchen–
Daniel in the sink

–A slightly gloomy David, trying to smile–
David gloomy

–Rachel watching a movie in our new, cool IKEA swing–
Rachel swings

–A clean (if cluttered) kitchen as seen from my computer chair–
kitchen

We were blessed to have an unexpected visitor this evening. I forgot to take a picture for the blog (some would ask if EVERY moment must be captured on film?? Ha!) but do want to mention it as we enjoyed the time fellowshipping with C. He and Tim have the most fascinating conversations–from computers to theology and beyond. Thanks for coming by, C!

Kathy

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Taking down the lights

Unlike most Washington days, the heavens did NOT open forth and shower us with it’s rain today. There is word that another storm is on the horizon so, in a moment of unprecedented wisdom, we asked the kids to take down the Christmas lights. It certainly is nice to have such wonderful helpers in the family.

Joshua lightsDaniel and the lights

Joshua's lights

Rachel and Tim both voted to keep the Christmas tree up a little longer. The whole family is sad to see Christmas truly come to an end. So I guess the lights will come down but the tree will stay in place.

A bunch of tree huggers.

Rachel and the treeJoshua's tree

Sarah and David took a bath this evening. So nice to be all fresh and clean before church tomorrow. They are a silly twosome.

s and D

Silly S and DClean kiddos

Time to stop blogging and get some housework done before the day is over.

Kathy

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White board and new haircut

We had a fairly relaxing day today. I told the children this would be the last ‘easy’ day of school for a while. Next week we will be back on track, full speed ahead and all of that. Still, it was nice to have time to linger over e-mail, research digital scrapbooking, chat with friends, and still get in a little bit of school. We did math, Bible and reading. Definitely ‘light’ school.

Tim’s parents gave me a Home Depot gift card for Christmas. It was a perfect present as I am working on creating a homeschooling wall in our dining room. A friend told me about a way to use shower board to create a large whiteboard. I found more details online and decided to try it out. Shower board runs around $13 at Home Depot (or Lowes). We had them cut off a foot so it would fit on the wall (could have cut off more). We bought some molding to go around the board but haven’t installed it yet.

Tim’s parents happened to come by just as we were putting up the board and Tim’s father helped to get it into place. Tim was thankful for the extra pair of hands and the knowledgeable wisdom from his dad who has done much carpentry over the years. Today, while I was starting our Bible reading, the older kids, one by one, gravitated to the new whiteboard. At one point all three of them were writing/drawing on it. My main purpose in adding this to our homeschool is for teaching (math problems, vocabulary words, to do lists, etc) but today it was a drawing board for the children.

whiteboardmore whiteboard

A friend came over for a brief visit this morning. She mentioned her afternoon hair appointment and I decided to try and join her. I haven’t had a hair cut since July (I probably shouldn’t put that in writing). We called the salon and sure enough there was an opening. We planned to go together and have some visiting time as well. Alas, that was not to be. The hairdresser called me back and said the other stylist hadn’t shown up. Rats. Now I had this overwhelming desire to get my hair cut. Thankfully there was a cancellation for an evening spot and I could still get in today.

I wish I had taken a ‘before’ picture so I could more truly appreciate the difference. I have a photo from December which will have to do.

Christmas before hair shot

The kids were all very surprised with my new ‘look.’ Sarah hugged and petted me (literally) and admired it. She told me, “I know why you went to get your hair cut, it didn’t look very pretty today and you decided to go and be beautiful.” Sigh. Out of the mouths of babes and what not. David was the most shocked. He came into the room and literally stepped back a pace or two when he saw me. “Mommy, I didn’t even know that was you. I thought it was a different person.” Too funny.

I guess moms aren’t supposed to change very much.new haircutclose up

Thankfully I am still loved, new hair cut or old. Whew!

Sarah and mommyThree girls

Kathy

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tn_Kathandboys

Sisters

I came from a wonderful family, full of kids. I was not, however, blessed with any sisters. I remember blowing out the candles on my birthday cake and wishing for either a sister or a kitten. I wasn’t particular–either one would have sufficed. Sadly, I didn’t receive either.

I do, thankfully, have three fantastic brothers.

Kathy and the boys
William and Mary graduate and her handsome brothers.

And with brothers, often comes sisters (in law). I have one beautiful sister in law (who is truly an amazing aunt to my children) and with my baby brother’s upcoming wedding, another, soon to be, sister. I also have two sisters in law on Tim’s side. Neither of them have sisters so we stick together when possible. God is good and He gives us treasures in unexpected places.

Jenn and Kathy

family
The Edgren Girls at the Duckabush.

It’s a particular joy to me, to watch Sarah and Rachel enjoy each other. They are separated by 7 years but have two brothers in between them which seems to fill up the space. They share a room and, by extension, toys and books and what not. Rachel handles the sharing with much grace and long suffering. We joke that anything Rachel values will sure to be treasured by Sarah as well.

RJ and Ssistersmore sisterskissy pooh

I am thankful for my daughters who daily bring me joy, for my mother who taught me how to love unconditionally, for my mother in law who raised an amazing son and welcomed me completely into the family, for my aunts who love and accept me like their own daughter, for my sisters in law who teach me how to be a sister, and for all the precious Christian sisters God has brought into my life over the years.

I am truly blessed.

Kathy

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