July Photo Challenge [Day 31]

Today's assignment (the LAST assignment!): LOOKING DOWN.

Wow, I can't believe it's over!  I can't believe JULY is over!!

I'll be honest, though, I'm not really sorry this challenge is over.  It was tough, posting daily ~ and I even missed two weeks due to our phone/Internet cable issues!!  But I found it hard to care about posting daily.  Some days it was easier, when a photo or subject immediately popped into mind, but other days I was tempted to skip.

But I soldiered on (at least the days we had Internet!) and while I'm glad I participated, I'm not sure I'll do another DAILY posting challenge!

Anyway, on to today's photo...

Looking down into our valley from the south range of hills as we came home from picking the girls up from camp on Saturday afternoon.  Sorry, the picture's not great quality, what with being taken through the windshield of a moving vehicle and all!

Click the button at the top of the post to visit the final entries of our hostess and other participants. Thanks for stopping by to check out my daily pictures and musings!  They will be a little less frequent now, but I have definitely decided to continue blogging, so there shouldn't be weeks and months in between posts anymore... I hope!  :)

 

July Photo Challenge [Day 30]

Today's assignment: SOMETHING YOU'RE GRATEFUL FOR.

Oh man, where do you START with this one??!

I could show you a picture of my Bible or the church we attend.
Or a picture of my husband and my two daughters.
I could show you a picture of the girls happily playing together hour after hour.
I could show you a picture of my parents or the family I married into.
I could show you yet another picture of my yard.
Or of the sunshine.
Or the fresh produce from our little garden The Man picked this morning.
I could show you a picture of "my" mile road.
Or a picture of the bags of generously given, beautiful hand-me-down clothing our girls get to enjoy.
I could show you a picture of the medication that keeps my blood pressure under control.
Or a picture of two girls who are feeling MUCH better today.
I could show you a picture of my programmable coffee maker.
Or my fridge,
my freezers,
my oven,
washing machine,
dryer,
computer,
piano,
breadmaker,
or microwave...

But with memories of a certain experience still very fresh in my mind, I'll show you this:

Because I'm SO GRATEFUL for ELECTRICITY!!

Final assignment: LOOKING DOWN.
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July Photo Challenge [Day 29]

Today's assignment: SOMETHING YOU DON'T LIKE.

I have some perfect examples today of stuff I don't like, but they were rather difficult things to photograph.  Or things NO ONE WANTS TO SEE.

I don't like going to church alone, but it would have been tough to take a picture of myself sitting alone on the pew without looking a little weird.  Although, now that I think of it, I was the first one at church today, so I totally could have.  Nuts.

I don't like the reason I went to church by myself ~ two sick kids.  I had to bring the bulletins and play piano, so we opted for The Man to stay home this time.  But NO ONE wants a picture of sick kids.

I don't really like how breakfast was still sitting on the table when I got home, either, but in order to not make a scene, I refrained from photographing that, too.

So we'll go with a couple pictures from Friday night's date night at the rodeo instead...

I don't like dropping,

spinning,

or being upside-down.

Sheesh, I can barely handle the girls' swingset in the back yard ~ there is NO WAY I'm goin' on these rides!!
Tomorrow's assignment: SOMETHING YOU'RE GRATEFUL FOR.
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July Photo Challenge [Day 28]

Today's assignment: VIEW FROM THE FRONT DOOR.

The girls were at camp this week and today, The Man and I drove to the camp this morning in time for the closing chapel service and lunch.  Oh, and to pick them up and bring them home!

It's funny ~ it didn't feel as weird this year without them at home as it did last year.  Maybe because now we've done it before; last year it was a new thing for all of us.  Or maybe it was because this year we didn't really do anything out of the ordinary; last year I had a big agenda (that I didn't really end up sticking to!) ~ big PLANS for a week with the house ALL to myself since The Man was still essentially living in the semi-truck all week long back in those days.

I don't know, but honestly, it didn't really feel very different without them at home.  Quieter, yes.  Less need for meals at specific times.  It was nice to be able to work a little later, eat a little later, and just be able to stay sitting after supper was over WITHOUT having the feeling that I really SHOULD be getting more done...

But it is SO GOOD to have them home again!!  I never realize how much I miss them until I see them again.

Especially seeing them hard at work.  ;)

Tomorrow's assignment: SOMETHING YOU DON'T LIKE.
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July Photo Challenge [Day 27]

Today's assignment: MAIL.

Ugh.

The ever-present pile at the far end of the dining room table.

Anyone else have trouble with this??

Tomorrow's assignment: VIEW FROM THE FRONT DOOR.
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July Photo Challenge [Day 26]

Today's assignment: YOUNGER YOU.

I don't have a lot of pictures of myself from when I was younger, other than school photos.  (and I'm too lazy to try and figure out where those are stashed.)

I grew up in a time when you still had to pay for film to put in your camera, could only take the number of pictures your length of film would allow (with one or two bonus frames, if you were lucky), had to pay to develop each and every picture, and you had to buy a photo album if you wanted other people to see your pictures.  Any one else remember those days?  Show of hands?

::crickets::

So anyways... my POINT is, I didn't waste a lot of frames on pictures of myself.

I did find a few, but in scanning the prints, none came out very clear.  It's tough to tell my age from these photos, but I'm obviously immature and have a thing for posing on beaches!

On the left, I am somewhere in the neighbourhood of 16-17 years old.  This photo was taken at one of my dad's family's annual summer gatherings.  A bunch of us female cousins decided we had what it took to be models.  You see the potential there, too, right?  RIGHT??!

::dang, more crickets::

On the right, I am precariously balancing on the southernmost tip of Canada at Point Pelee National Park in the summer of 1994, right around my 22nd birthday.  Incidentally, this trip to Ontario to visit a friend was my reason for missing the previously mentioned annual family gathering that year ~ the first of only three I've ever missed.

But it obviously doesn't matter if I'm in attendance or not, I WILL be posing on a beach somewhere while that family gathering is going on!

Tomorrow's assignment: MAIL.
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July Photo Challenge [Day 25]

Today's assignment: HOME.

There are so many things that mean home to me:  the home in which I lived with my parents most of my growing up and early adult years in The Big City; the smell of chlorinated tap water; the familiar streets, sights, and sounds of 30 years of living in the same area of the city ~ even squealing tires in the middle of the night.  They still feel like home.

I think, too, of my faith, and how over the last three years, it's finally become my own.  I've finally personalized it.  It is no longer just what my parents taught me or what I've heard for almost 40 years from various pulpits, but the result of those things combined with a lot of studying, thinking, and praying on my own.  It finally feels like home.

But mostly, I think of the massive, orange Pioneer grain elevator a few miles from our house; the wheat and canola fields that surround our yard; the bulrushes, tansies, and wild oats that grow in the ditches alongside my mile road; the people I share my home with; the yard I've loved since before we actually owned this place...

This is my home.

Tomorrow's assignment: YOUNGER YOU.
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July Photo Challenge [Day 24]

Today's assignment: ARTWORK.

We struggled for a while trying to figure out where we should display all the girls' drawings, paintings, and paper crafts.  For a while, they got displayed in the little 'craft corner' of the dining room... until one of them accidentally glued a couple of popsicle sticks to the wall.

Then we switched to the fridge ~ and we do still have some there ~ but it doesn't have room for a whole lot.

Each year, the girls' teachers have selected some of their work to submit to the local Ag Society's craft and art show, which is displayed and judged during rodeo weekend.  They've actually both won money for their art!!  So we really HAD to find a place to put these prize-winning drawings and whatnot.

We decided to turn the stairway leading up to their loft bedroom into our unofficial art "gallery." They don't ever like the idea of me taking stuff down, but I try to explain to them that this is how art galleries work ~ always showing things for a while and then moving them out for new things so that people will keep wanting to come and walk through the gallery.  It's no fun if the artwork never changes.

This year, for whatever reason, there seemed to be a bit of a shortage of artwork coming home from school and the girls didn't do a whole lot at home either, so what's on their wall has been there since last summer already.  This is their "rodeo art" as they call it:

On the other side of the stairs (which can be seen from the dining room), I have framed nature prints that they made with me at a family gathering last year, using special photo paper.

Oh, and I know my husband doesn't ever read my blog, but now that we have a laptop, he sees what I do here a little more often, and so I feel I should probably include this bit of his acquired "art:"

An auction sale score of his from many years ago, which graces the (thankfully) infrequently seen walls of the guestroom in the basement!  ;)

Tomorrow's assignment: HOME.
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July Photo Challenge [Day 23]

Today's assignment: ANIMAL.

Where do I begin?  We have a lot of animals.

We have a disgusting hamster with horrible hygiene and lifestyle habits. Ugh, you do NOT want to see HIM.

We also raise meat rabbits, but they just don't photograph well.  They're in a barn and they're white with pink eyes, so all photos of them come out lookin' a little creepy!!

The more photogenic of all our critters would have to be the cats. We have two adults (down from four ~ two of them recently disappeared quite suddenly within a couple days of each other) and four cute, fuzzy, 9-wk old kittens.  Their mother was one of the cats that disappeared, but fortunately, they were six weeks old already, so they could survive without her.  And fortunately, our "junior" female, Sassy, doesn't mind them occasionally suckling on her instead.  Cats are SO WEIRD.

Here are three of the four playing with their dad, Spike.  Awwwww...

We also have a large, black hound dog of unknown origin or breed named Shadow, who also doesn't photograph terribly well because he's just, well... ALL BLACK! But best dog ever.  The only thing we wish he would do differently is APPEAR aggressive!  He doesn't seem to be terribly protective or territorial, but of course, we don't know what he's like when we're not home.  We're positive he's quite vicious then!!  :P  But mostly, he's laid-back, sweet, and gentle.  He loves his walks with me or chasing the quad for miles and miles, and seems to enjoy babysitting kittens as well, constantly being used as their jungle gym, their fort, or their bed.

He even shares people food treats with them!  (While I'm standing and watching, anyway!  If I'm not, he'll either nose them all out of whatever dish they're cleaning up and then snarl a little to keep them at bay, or he'll just run off with the treat if it's something he can pick up.)

Tomorrow's assignment: ARTWORK. Click the button at the top of the post to visit the hostess and other participants!