The Bug is Back

Well, I guess you could say two bugs are back.

First, my photography bug has finally resurfaced. I had to take a break with all the pictures I had to take and edit for my class. I looked back at my picture folder for March, and I hardly took any pictures of my family. I didn’t even want to look at my photo files for a while. It just felt like work, homework to be precise. The end of the term combined with how sick I was left me rather reluctant to bring out my camera. So, when I forced myself to take some pictures while we made bread last Thursday, I remembered how much I enjoy it. And, I enjoy posting them on my blog. Even the ones that don’t turn out. Even when I can’t tell how they look to anyone else because I don’t trust my monitor. So, I hope to be posting plenty more pictures soon. I might not even take the time to edit some of them. Life is short, and not everything has to be perfect. I think I’ll also post some of the pictures I took for my class so I at least have something to show for all the time I spent. Don’t expect to be too wowed, though. I’m still learning.

The main thing keeping me from blogging right now is my blog book. I have finally made some real progress on it, and I feel like the end is in sight. I can’t give up now. But, I’ll try to keep posting current stuff, too. I just can’t wait to have to book done and in my hands!

The other bug is not as pleasant as photography. I finished my antibiotics over the weekend, and yesterday, I had a sore throat that steadily got worse during the day and into the night. I decided to catch things early this time, and I went to the doctor today. Apparently, I never had strep throat, just a really bad sinus infection that gave me a sore throat. The first round of antibiotics didn’t seem to do the trick, so they gave me a prescription for more. I hope to be better soon. I’m getting sick of this.

Braided Bread

I decided to try a new recipe last Thursday. I happened upon this tutorial for Braided Bread, and I decided it was the perfect project for the girls and me to try. I had plenty of helping hands. Phaedra loved patting and tapping the Kitchen Aid while it stirred the dough. Whenever I stopped it, she was reaching those little fingers up to the paddle saying, “Taste. Taste,” even when there was nothing but flour. Silly girl. I couldn’t get her to stop.

Once I got out the towel to go on top of the dough for it to rise, the girls both wanted ice. We use those same bread towels for ice when the girls get hurt or when they just want to munch on ice, which are one in the same. When the girls get hurt, the ice doesn’t spend much time on the injury before being eaten. Lately, I just put ice in the towel and smash it so I can put it in a cup. Otherwise, Phaedra gets frustrated with how big and cold it is and ends up crying. 

 

  

 

Here’s the result of our work. We made the cinnamon kind because I wanted a treat. The girls also helped while I was shaping the bread and putting in the cinnamon filling. They were so involved and eager to munch any bit of cinnamon filling that fell by the wayside that I didn’t dare leave them unattended long enough to grab my camera to document that part of the process. It was really yummy bread and easier than I thought it would be (and so pretty). We all liked it except Eleanor, who was leery about trying it once it was cooked. She eventually asked for bites that didn’t have the filling. She told me she liked the filling when it was out of the bread but not in it. Weirdo!

Huh? What did you say?

Photographer’s assistant.

I’m getting so tired of posting without pictures that I just grabbed the most recent photo I have of one of my kids. “Most recent” is equivalent to Feb. 28th in this case. How sad! This is Eleanor carrying my tripod back after we went to the park to get some landscape photos for my class. She was done carrying my tripod as soon as I was done taking pictures of her carrying it.

I was rather sick last week, and I’m still recovering. Rather sick seems like an understatement since it was the sickest I have been in a long time, but I know other people have been much worse. I had a sore throat Monday evening before we went to bed, and things just got worse from there. My sinuses plugged up with sludge, and by Tuesday evening, both my ears were plugged. Of course, Grant was going to Portland on Tuesday to take his final, so I was alone with the kids until after they went to bed. Wednesday was more of the same because Grant had registration for work. I wimp out when I’m sick –especially with a sore throat that won’t go away. I called my mom a lot to wallow in self-pity and cry. I told you I wimp out. I even tried arranging to pawn off my kids to give myself a break, but it didn’t work. Moms don’t get sick days. Oh, how I wish we got sick days. Grant is actually very good to stay home when I’m at my worst and help me out, but I always seem to get really sick right when he has something at work he absolutely cannot miss.

Thursday, Grant’s schedule wasn’t quite so brutal, but I had to get all my final photography stuff done and turned in. I went to class, turned things in, and left. By then, I was so tired of being in pain! That night, it occurred to me in the middle of the night that I could have strep throat. I had Grant look at my throat first thing in the morning, and he told me to call the doctor. The doctor took one look and said it surely looked like strep. I’ve been on antibiotics since Friday. Grant stayed home Friday, and I was finally able to rest. The sore throat only took about a day to leave me alone. My nose has cleared up, but now I have a pretty thick cough. My ears are still plugged; they have been plugged since last Tuesday. I feel like I’m under water. I can hardly hear, and some of the time, my ear has a ringing that makes it even harder. My cough has made it difficult to talk at times, which can be rather frustrating with little girls who require me to repeat myself several times before the message gets through.

Last week was difficult, but I don’t want to complain (even though that’s what I just got done doing). I am so grateful to no longer have that pain in my throat. Thank goodness for antibiotics! I am so glad my nose has cleared up, and I’m finally getting back my sense of taste. The other stuff is inconvenient and can be frustrating, but much more livable than my previous state. I’m hoping it will all clear up soon. Besides the blessing of modern medicine, my girls certainly are a blessing to me. While I was busy feeling awful and feeling sorry for myself because of it, I think they could sense that they needed to go easy on me. Overall, they were pretty well behaved and fairly low-maintenance last week. I didn’t know how I could take care of them when I felt so awful, and I really didn’t feel equal to the task, but it was as if they took care of me by getting along and keeping out of trouble (mostly). For that, I feel very blessed. I told my mother on the phone the other day how I felt like they sensed the difference in me and were taking care of me. My mother and I continued to talk for a bit, and when I got off the phone, Eleanor dropped what she was doing, came and put her arms around me, and said, “Yeah, we’re taking care of you, Mommy.”

Oh How I Miss You

“ . . . wish I could kiss you. Hug you, hold you. It would be bliss to . . .” –name that tune . . . or singer, since I named the tune.

I miss blogging. I’m pining away for my blog the whole time I’m working on all my homework.

Here’s a quick update so I can get my fix and go back to what I’m supposed to be doing:

Phaedra is still getting over her cold. Eleanor caught it over the weekend. She also had some conjunctivitis yesterday, so we didn’t go to church. It is slightly better today, so unless I see it suddenly gets worse, I don’t think we’ll go to the doctor.

Grant has a final tomorrow.

I’m working on finishing up all my assignments due Thursday.

Daylight savings makes me stay up way too late (even more than usual) and feel really tired during the day (even more than usual).

I came up with a new plan that we do family clean-up time 15 minutes before jammies and bedtime routine each night. We all work together and focus on one area (one room, one specific mess, or even something small depending on the night). It is working great! Grant has really supported me in implementing  the plan and getting the girls to cooperate. I feel like we’re finally teaching them to clean up after themselves, and my house cleaning burden is much lighter. Plus, since we’re all working in the same area at once, we aren’t doing our usual pattern of cleaning one room while the girls tear up another one. We have cleaned many of the rooms in the house, and so far, they have stayed that way. Hooray!

Phaedra is teething, working on her bottom canines right now. She already has her top ones. They came in last month, and I have no idea if I’ve already mentioned that. Her bottom-right one cut through the gums yesterday. They have been really slow coming in, and they’ve obviously caused her a lot of misery.

I’m still waiting for a new computer to arrive. We found one way to help adjust the saturation on our current monitor, but I’ve tried correcting things so many times, I don’t even know how things are supposed to look anymore! I think it’s slightly better now. I just hope the new laptop gets here soon and we can re-install things and go back to normal.

I have decided that I don’t think I care anymore how things look; this blog needs pictures! So, as soon as I can get out from under this pile of homework and mess of files, I’ll be posting pictures again whether or not they look right.

We’re not doing anything exciting for spring break. In fact, Grant is likely going to work on a weekend, and I’m going to be the only R.S. presidency member there for two Sundays. So, am I looking forward to being done with my class? Yes. Am I looking forward to spring break? Meh. Take lots of pictures if you go somewhere so I can live vicariously through you!

Okay, I’d better get back to runny nosed kids and homework.

Blogger’s Block

There are many things working against my ability to blog lately. I’m overwhelmed about just about everything but mostly getting all my assignments done by the end of my photography class. My computer is driving me crazy. I’m still waiting for a replacement that should hopefully be here in a week or two. Until then, I get to see everything over-saturated. I look at old baby pictures of Phaedra, and I just know her cheeks weren’t that rosy. It’s really frustrating with current pictures I’ve taken; since I haven’t seen them on a computer before, I’m not sure how they’re supposed to look. I don’t know if the picture looks bad because of my monitor or because of how I took the picture. Because of that, I’m really in no mood to post pictures. I don’t want to edit them until they look good to me only to have them look horrible to everyone else, and I don’t want to post them as they are and hope they don’t look awful on other screens. I’m picky like that.

Besides the appearance of the pictures, I have so many files I’m dealing with right now! I’m taking tons of pictures for my class, and not nearly as many around home (I’m all pictured-out lately). I need to sort through them, get rid of photos I never intend to keep, create back-ups for the ones I do want to keep, and figure out some sort of system for all my different file types I’m using now. Plus, since my computer keeps overheating, I think it has corrupted some of my programs. When I download photos using Bridge, it misses some. I have to go back and search for individual files that were missed. So, I’m kind of waiting for our new computer to get here so I can download pictures all over again and then start archiving. What a mess!

This week’s assignment is portraits. Any volunteers? I took a bunch of pictures of my brother-in-law on the weekend. We were fighting the clock, trying to get what we could before dark, but I think I got some good ones. Want to know what really breaks my heart? I didn’t realize it until we were home that night and the kids were in bed –yeah, it took me that long to catch on . . . The last time I used my camera before that was in class. We were doing studio portraits in a dark room with only studio lights. Long story short-ish, I knew the pictures on Sat. looked a bit off, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Finally, that night, I realized I never adjusted my ISO for the setting. It had been set at 1600 the whole time! So much for crisp detail without noise! You would think after this many weeks in a photography class, I would have remembered the FIRST thing you adjust is your ISO!! Can you say, “Do over?” I must have been a bit nervous. I was not only trying to get some photos for my class assignment but also for his senior photos since he’s graduating this year. That turned up the pressure a bit. But I must say, he was such a willing, cooperative subject compared to my wiggly little girls who never want to look at the camera. I’m sure I can still do something with the photos I got. I just haven’t looked at them again since my realization. I’ve been playing catch up instead, and maybe I can fix them up when I’m at the lab where I can actually view my photos as they actually appear. I just wish they were amazing to begin with instead of having to be touched up to make up for my mistakes.

I was going to take a few of the girls because I’m allowed to use more than one subject, but Phaedra is sick (again). The rainy weather is back, which puts a damper on outdoor shots –literally. I might not even try for more. I’m feeling especially fragile and wimpy this week.

I know I missed the girls’ monthly updates, and it’s driving me crazy. I’ve been so busy. Plus, there’s the picture issue. I hate to post those without pictures. I just keep thinking I can catch up on things when I don’t have to worry about this class or computer issues. I know it’s pitiful that one little class throws me off so much, but I’m such a perfectionist. I don’t want to do the bare minimum. It has to be something with which I can be satisfied before I feel okay about turning it in. I hate being behind. There’s a reason I’ve had college nightmares sporadically ever since I graduated. They’re always along the same theme: I’m way behind in a class, I’ve been enrolled in a class but never bothered to go until the end and realize I have no clue what it’s about, I’m about to take a final for which I haven’t studied or done the homework. Most of the dreams have me picking up in a class half way through when I didn’t even know I was supposed to be attending or doing homework, and I’m behind and clueless. I hate those dreams.

I have really enjoyed taking the class, and I’m so glad I’ve learned so much. I’m just ready to go back to life as usual. I’m a usual type of gal. Just ask Grant.