Pictures

My friend and I (Tina) went "shooting" yesterday at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. There was a lot of green, but we found a little pond with some variety. I have some kinks to work out with my camera - I can get a bit frustrated! I have lots of ideas, but my camera is still smarter than me! Anybody know anyone who can teach me?

It was a neat day to enjoy the creativity and diversity of God's creation.

The lonely daisy

Seriously, can't we have some privacy here?

This picture is a bit blurry, but it was quite an accomplishment to get this picture. We had to trudge through some thick mud and dense trees to get this close. Buff, you would have been proud. There were signs saying to stay on the trail - and I have a very strong conscience (jaywalking just riddles me with guilt). Getting a picture of a bullfrog for my 8 year old seemed very important at the time in spite of the mud and the signs! (By the way, when we got back there, there were many other human shoe prints . . . ) No trees, plants or even bugs (okay, maybe a mosquito) were injured in the taking of this picture.

There were lots of dragonflies. I was very excited to get one sitting still!
That was when I realized how many different ones there were.

It ain't easy being green.

The camera provides more detail than what we saw.
The black markings on his wings looked like broken flags.

Consider the lilies, how they grow:

they neither toil nor spin,
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass,
which is alive in the field today,
and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
how much more will he clothe you,
O you of little faith!
Luke 12:27-28

It's all about me

My friend Sarah tagged everyone she knows to share 8 facts about themselves. I am not an extremely interesting person, but I thought I would try to come up with a few unique things some of you may not know. (This is Tina writing for reader clarification).

1. I have a degree in Church Ministries. Yeah, I don't know what that means either.

2. I have NEVER gotten a speeding ticket. There. Now I have jinxed myself. (I did get a ticket for running a stop sign and hitting another car about a week after I got my drivers license. Yep, it was my fault - but my tears successfully manipulated the judge and he let me off easy.) (I am not proud of that).

3. I can wiggle the middle tendon on my right hand. (Make a fist - the tendon that stretches over the knuckle of your middle finger.) I consider myself not quite as freakish as my twin sister because she can do it on her left hand too.

4. I have a weakness for cheesecake and Milky Way candy bars.

5. I recently lived out my worst nightmare. As a child, I hated turning out all the lights downstairs at night before I went upstairs. I was sure someone had been hiding and would grab me as I darted up the stairs. I thought I had matured and had a true sense of reality, but one night a few months ago, I turned all the lights out and headed up the stairs and heard breathing behind me. Seriously. I turned around to find Brice standing behind me - half awake. (He had gotten out of bed and come down and fallen asleep on the couch and I didn't know it.) He was one very lucky child that his mother did not overreact in the moment. I could have sent him flying back into LaLa land!

6. I can pop nearly every joint on my body. I can pop my toes, ankle, knees, back, sternum, neck and knuckles. I am not sure it is a good thing. I do know that it is a great way to drive my husband nuts!

7. I have four children and I have been in labor a total of 10 hours! (I define labor as when contractions started to delivery). Please don't hate me.

8. I am prematurely gray. If I didn't color my hair, I would be solid gray in front with peppered gray over the rest of my head.

There, now you know more about me than you ever wanted to know. Anyone else want to share?

Carra!

I couldn't help but snap a few pictures... it was a rare moment where she actually let me!!

Carra, at her best!!

Carra got a sun kiss in these two pictures! We know how much she loves getting kisses, so the sun wanted to give her a kiss too!

Hot summer days at grandma's!

Carra wanted to get the 'dizzy' from her head and tummy, after spinning on the baby swing under the porch. So, she laid on the 'hotdog' to feel better!

This is how Brice chose to spend his hot summer day! Hanging upside down from the tramp looking for bugs, snakes, or whatever might be living in the grass....

Old World Wisconsin

Last week we went on a field trip to Old World Wisconsin. It is a fascinating place where they have taken real ethnic farms from the 1800s that were once located all over Wisconsin and put them all in one location. They are working farms that the public can tour to see how life was during that time period. They have livestock, (we learned the definition of an ox vs. a bull - now that was an education!), and crops as they would have had them back then. They turn on the stoves, make homemade soap and run the looms. Did I mention it was fascinating?

Here are some things we saw:

Interesting facts:

1. These oxen need the horns only to keep the yoke on.
2. An ox is simply a bull that has been neutered and taught to work.
3. These oxen weigh a lot - I forgot how much. See I didn't learn everything!
   

Brice is giggling - because the ox is peeing.

Interesting fact: The ox peed a trickle - and I swear it took him close to 5 minutes to pee. The guide swears the ox has a 30 gallon holding tank.

The ox is still peeing.
Who knew that such a simple fact of life could be so amusing?!

Brice helping to make linen from flax.

It went from here through 2 more steps then inside where it was spun and woven into fabric for clothing.

Learning about the German farm.
The family that owned this house had 11 children!

Quick! Look! - he's washing dishes!

(With homemade soap made from lard and ashes

- it has to be stirred for 4 hours by hand!)

The group
(No, that isn't Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Brice you make me so proud!

Making shingles!

Interesting facts:

1. If they wanted a shingled house, they generally had to make them by hand - each one cut from the wood. (The alternative was thatching)
   
2. The average building would have 2,000 - 5,000 shingles PER side.

Mikayla is wedging the shingle. Step 2 after cutting the strips.
You pulled the knife toward you - definitely a refined art. One slip and it wouldn't be pretty!

Brice and Nathaniel playing the games designed for the proper girls.
(the key is to not let your ankles show - that is VERY immodest!)
I never did get the hang of it.
Don't they look sweet?

Playing with hoops

It is harder than it looks!

It was a very fun day. We only got to visit 1 farm (German) and there are many others still to see. We are planning to go back.

Tip for locals: Check the website. In spring and fall they have 1/2 price admission seasons.

Vote

I did this picture for another class. The topic was to take a quote (he gave us a list) and take a photo that represents that quote. The quote I chose was:

"Let's go together hand in hand, not one before the other." (William Shakespeare)

I just don't know which tone I like better!!!! Let me know what you think! (1. glow, 2. original or 3. sepia)