Category Archives: Photography

Morning People

February 11, 2008 KME 8 Comments

The stop watch by Tim’s computer is beeping. I know what that means – 11 pm and time to go to bed. My house is quiet and still right now, it’s difficult to leave my cozy spot in front of the computer. Sleep is a good thing, but this house wakes up noisy and active in the morning.

These kids like to start the day with a loud bang!

I have to ask a few questions for you morning people (with children in the home):

Is your house quiet in the morning? How early do you have to get up in order to be ALONE?

My oldest two boys are early risers. In order to enjoy the stillness of a quiet house BEFORE they get up, I would have to be out of bed by 5:30 or 6 am. Ouch! That just doesn’t seem right.

Give me the hours between 10 and midnight anytime! We won’t even go into how often I am up PAST midnight.

Ahem. But not tonight. Not anymore because I’m a reformed Night Owl. I am a good mother who gets enough sleep and wakes up cheerful and ready for the day.

Lack of sleep = Depressed Kathy

I have found this to be true over and over again. When I get low on sleep life appears gloomier and gloomier. My perspective turns negative and I’m overwhelmed by life.

How can such a small thing as sleep be so important?

Sarah and David are buddies!

Has anybody noticed yet that this blog is really about nothing at all and the longer I sit around writing it, the more I am delaying actually going to bed.

Did I mention I am a Night Owl with serious Denial Issues?

Night!
Kathy
Project 366 – Day 40

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WFMW - Let's Talk QT

Love languages: by Rachel

Budgets and Blessings

Project 366, Works for Me Wednesday

WFMW – Amazon Prime

February 5, 2008 tje 7 Comments

This week, at Rocks in My Dryer, the discussion is centered around online shopping. The bloggers are gathering to list their favorite online stores, deals and ideas. Which brings us to Amazon.com.

I’ll admit, I’m biased. I used to work for Amazon and I enjoyed working there. Amazon hires a lot of bright, energetic people with good ideas, and they also hired me.

That said, I think Amazon’s fixed-price ($79) all-you-can-ship policy is the wave of the future. Back in 2001 (or so), Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had a great idea: to offer free shipping for purchases over $25. Most of his staff was against the idea, or so the story goes, but Jeff held firm, and was (eventually) proven right.

So when Bezos unveiled his idea for Amazon Prime in 2005, the opposition was more measured. I heard about the program not long after I left Amazon, and Kathy and I were quick to sign up. The way it works is that you pay $79 for a full year’s worth of free, two-day shipping, no matter how much you buy or how small your orders are. No more worrying about whether your order is $25, and no more paying extra for quick shipping. We can order a book on Tuesday afternoon and have it in our hot little hands on Friday, with no shipping charges (apart from the $79 we paid up-front). Overnight shipping is only $3.99 and you are able to share the membership with other members of your household.

Joshua works on his math.

In 2007, Kathy and I placed 45 individual Amazon orders, many of them for multiple items. By my calculations, we paid an average of $1.75 for shipping per order, and (in most cases) received the items within a few days. Comparing this with the rapacious shipping and handling charges common with eBay and other online merchants, I’d say we did pretty well.

There are a few caveats:

Amazon Prime only works for items that Amazon ships directly from their warehouses. Many items are only available through third-party merchants, who do not (currently) participate in the program.
$79 is a lot of money to pay for shipping, especially up-front. If you order fewer than 20 items over the course of the year, or if you are a careful planner and don’t need the two-day shipping, this is probably not for you.
Two-day shipping means exactly that — sometimes it takes Amazon a couple of days to fill your order. Also, UPS and FedEx are, in my experience, only about 80% reliable on the “two-day” part.

Even so, it is very cool. I remember needing a textbook for a class I was taking — I ordered it on a Monday afternoon, and it was delivered on Wednesday morning, and I paid nothing extra for shipping.

Stop by Rocks in My Dryer to find some other online faves.

Tim
Project 366 – Day 36

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WFMW--Travel Outfits

WFMW - A Girls Weekend Away

Daylight Savings Time

Musings, Project 366

Where Angels Fear to Jog

January 31, 2008 tje 5 Comments

In the late Summer of 2004, we moved to the suburbs; immediately Kathy signed us all up with a family membership to the local YMCA. I knew right away that we should have stayed in the country.

“It’ll be great,” Kathy enthused. “We’ll meet you at the Y on your way home from work, and we can all exercise as a family. What a good example to the children, to see us both taking our physical fitness so seriously.”

Who wouldn’t want to run, with such good company?

She painted a rosy picture. Healthy, smiling children and their thin (but muscular) parents, running effortlessly in single-file around the brightly-lit indoor track, or smoothly operating the gleaming exercise machines, to the envy and admiration of dozens of onlookers. Tired but laughing, we would drive home together, united as a family in this common goal.

After stalling for some months, I finally agreed to actually go to the YMCA and get my membership card. Inside, the rank smell of sweating bodies and the sensation of universal despair struck me like a blow to the face. Nervously, I let them take my picture, and immediately fled, before I was inadvertently sucked into this gloomy vortex of fitness. My worst fears were confirmed: joining the Y was like joining the Army, or at least it included many of the same odors.

Each week, my children go to the YMCA for Homeschool Physical Education, a program offered free to members, and the major reason we joined. They have taken classes in gymnastics, swimming, and a variety of sports and physical activities. Most of the time they really enjoy it, although they tend to dread the annual focus on Presidential Fitness testing. Cleverly remembering lessons from my Army days, I held aloof from such things, although I did unbend enough to drop the kids off at the Y when Kathy was at Bible Study Fellowship.

After more than eighteen months, Kathy convinced me to play Wally-Ball with the family after work, and I actually darkened the door of the YMCA for several weeks, trying to teach my children (and a few passing urchins) how to play this interesting game. It didn’t take, though, and I soon happily returned to my sedentary ways.

Today was a big day. After more than three long years of YMCA membership and not-so-subtle hints on the part of my wife, I finally went to the Y and actually used an exercise machine. Sadly, the paparazzi were not permitted inside, and there were no pictures taken of this momentous event. You’ll have to take my word for the fact that I logged a good 35 minutes in on a fiendish device my wife calls an ‘elliptical’.

We did, however, capture David and Sarah’s running-while-holding-hands act.

A man of my years and girth tends to take a philosophical view of life; hopefully this will prove to have been a passing phase, like many before it. As Mr. Bennett said in Pride and Prejudice, “Don’t worry, it will pass more quickly than it ought.”

Tim
Project 366, Day 31

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WFMW - Amazon Prime

A Haven of Order

and He Will Have an Abundance

Events, Kathy, Project 366

Not How I Want to Spend My Evening

January 31, 2008 KME 10 Comments

On the way home from church this evening, I was in a car accident.

Miraculously, this is the extent of the damage to our car.

We lost our hub cap (it was subsequently run over and destroyed) and have a small gash in the side.

I was passing through an intersection near home when the driver, waiting in the left turn lane, decided (misguidedly) that she had the right of way and turned directly into the back corner of my van. It was rather traumatic in a slow-motion sort of way. I was not speeding or rushing through the light. I could see the other car was making the turn and I swerved as far away from her, over to the right as I could.

Poor Daniel, who was with me in the van. He thought we were going to “… hit the lamp post, explode, and that would be the end of us.” A car accident lawyer can assist people in filing complaints against insurance companies for car accidents. They also represent people in car, as well as other vehicle, accident claims. It is very essential for an individual who becomes the victim of a car accident that they contact a skilled accident lawyer as early as they can after the accident happens. It is important to get the highest recompense that the victims deserve for their injury and harm due to the accident.

When a victim of any car accident is going to search for a lawyer, they should take into consideration certain points about the lawyer. For instance, the lawyer should be knowledgeable as well as experienced in car accident and relevant cases. The key issue is the lawyer must be endowed with a thorough knowledge about injury law. They should know the rights of any victim, the severity of the accident, as well as, achievable recompense for that and also other necessary relevant factors. Besides, the car injury lawyer should be experienced in dealing with car accident cases and related cases. Experienced car injury lawyers know best how to defend victims against insurance companies – they can ensure the victim gets the best possible recompense. So, if the lawyer has a good record of defending and winning related cases, it will be beneficial for the victim. You can also visit https://www.norrisinjurylawyers.com/auto-accident/ for more information.

A good and experienced car injury lawyer usually provides some idea to the client about how to claim and take further legal steps against the insurance company in order to protect the victim’s rights properly. The car injury lawyers aid the victims in doing all the necessary things – they help the clients to arrange medical assistance, to contact the insurance companies, along with other important steps. They are generally experienced in evaluating necessary things like medical or police reports; they also conduct interviews of the witnesses. After gathering all the necessary information related to the accident, they try to find out how and why the accident actually happened and who was responsible for it. The lawyers know best how to construct cases according to what really happened – they will obviously do their best so that the victim can receive a just settlement.

A knowledgeable and experienced lawyer may become very useful in related cases wherever discussions may be necessary to make sure that the injured victim gets the best settlement for the pain they have encountered. A superior car accident lawyer always considers the legal rights of the victim and takes steps in such a way so that the injured victim gets the best result.

Explode? Makes you wonder just what kind of movies he has been watching.

Unfortunately, the other driver received a harsher blow.

I can easily think of over 100 things I would rather be doing on a Wednesday evening than stand in a parking lot, surveying damage to vehicles that have collided on the road.

Praise God we were safe and no one was hurt!!

Kathy
Project 366 – Day 30

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P365 - Day 104

WFMW - Mesa Manna Bread

WFMW - 5 for $5

Daniel, Events, Project 366

Snowballs of Great Mightiness

January 28, 2008 KME 9 Comments

It’s really quite impossible to do school when there is snow, glorious snow, covering the yard. When I got up this morning, Daniel, David and Sarah were already dressed and pulling on snow pants.

It was 7:15 am.

Snow pants – before 9 or even 10 am. There’s just something wrong with that picture.

I convinced the kids they should wait until at least 8 am before venturing out into our little Winter Wonderland. I felt sympathetic for those souls still snuggled in bed (why wasn’t I one of them?) who probably didn’t want to hear shrieks, no matter how joyful, that early in the morning.

Literally at the stroke of 8 am, the Three Rascals charged out the door, into the back yard. The snow was perfect – think and dense – just right for making snowballs, snowmen and snow forts.

“I wonder if this would work as a snowball?”

“If I can just carry it over to the side of the road.”

It’s important to know what to do with a good pile of fresh snow. Inviting a friend over for a game of King/Queen of the Mountain is a good place to start.