School began in our area today, which means summer is over.  Except the weather doesn’t know that.  We’re at the beginning of a 90+ week, while we’ve had about three 90+ days in the last year or so.  I’m not complaining about a lack of 90 degrees, because me and heat don’t really get along.  But it is a bummer when the weather gets hot and kids want to swim and instead they have to sit in classrooms while the community pool closes for its annual maintenance.

We went out into the heat of the day today and finally took some official 10-year-old-pics of Ethan (2 weeks late).  Ten. Years. Old.  Double-digits.  I just can’t think about it too much or…or I start feeling really old.  And we can’t have that, can we?!  I thought it might be fun to look back on some little Ethan…

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

I couldn’t procrastinate any longer on taking his photos because tomorrow he’s going to the dentist and getting a bottom tooth pulled.  It’s wedged in there and causing things to shift too much, so out it comes.  I’m hoping this experience does not cause too much trauma.  We’re not officially starting school until next week, and swim practice doesn’t start up until the 19th, so we’ve got time to recover.

Speaking of school…we are joining a local group of Classical Conversations this year.  CC is a nation-wide program that offers homeschoolers a structured, classical approach to homeschooling while meeting once a week with others who are using the same curriculum.  It should be a challenging, full year!

Fall baseball is back in swing, school starts next week, swimming starts the week after that…maybe it will feel more like fall by then.  As much as I like summer, fall is still my favorite!

Most people who know my husband and me know that Seth is the big reader in our household.  He has broken his previous record, having read 68 books already this year, including his annual trek through the Bible.  I’m ashamed to admit that I have yet to read the entire Bible in one year.  Maybe 2010 will be the year for that.  I do love to read, and have for as long as I remember.  Seth has often tried to encourage me to keep track of what I do read, thinking I may read more than I actually realize.  This year, maybe I’ll take him up on that idea.

One of my favorite blogs to frequent is Mt. Hope Chronicles, and she often provides lists and reviews of the books being read in her household.  (Love that!)  I liked her suggestion to be intentional with your reading plans, or else you find that time slips away and reading just doesn’t happen.  Before the end of the year, I hope to begin a list of would-like-to-reads.  I usually read something before falling asleep each night.  Sometimes that may be five-minutes worth, and sometimes it may be an hour.  But as I’ve been trying to get to bed at a more regular and reasonable hour, I’ve allowed the lure of the nightstand stack to beckon me away from other distractions and pull me into a relaxing, night-time ritual.  In other words, when there is still laundry to be folded at 10:30 pm (or dishes to do or even photos to edit), I can easily convince myself that reading at that time of night is a far more valuable investment of my time than the laundry ever will be!

I recently finished a four-book series by Michael Phillips called The Secret of the Rose.  They ranged from 486-602 pages, so they were quite substantial in my book (pun alert!).  This is a historical fiction series, taking place in Europe from just before WWII through the 1990s, after the Berlin Wall came down.  I have enjoyed historical fiction in the past, but it has been a number of years since I read an entire series of it.  While I enjoyed these books, there were times when my eyes glazed over and I found myself just pushing through.  Phillips can be quite verbose, and he likes to speak a message to the reader via the dialogues of his characters.  It’s all good, but sometimes I found myself questioning if people would really have conversations like that, and sometimes it just felt a bit much and I wanted to get back to the dramatic story-line.  But, it could also prove thought-provoking and encouraging, so…it was kinda a mixed bag for me.

Right now, I’m reading Children Who do Too Little, by Patricia Sprinkle.  “Why your kids need to work around the house (and how to get them to do it).”  I find I need encouragement and tips on how to maintain a good relationship with my child while teaching him the skills he will need later in life.  Especially as he’s an only child, it’s often easier to just do things myself, but that’s not good for either of us.  We’re also beginning to employ some money management techniques with Ethan by using the Financial Peace Jr. kit by Dave Ramsey.  These two concepts (work/chores and money management) pair nicely.

Also on my nightstand are a couple photography books:  On-Camera Flash by Neil van Niekerk and The Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally.  Obviously, I’m attempting to learn more about how to use my flash, which is a good winter project around here.

And if I need something quick to read, I also have the latest copy of Runner’s World available.  This is the only magazine for which I pay a subscription, and I have for years.  I find it especially encouraging to read the night before I plan to get up and run in 12 degree weather, as I did on Wednesday.  Wow, that was cold!  But kinda fun, too.

And just because every post is better with a photo, here’s a snap of Ethan, decorating the tree…and himself. 

Our first week in many that had a bit more of a sane schedule still moved along really fast.  We still had somewhere to go each day, but that was OK.  My laundry pile continues to be evidence that I am not caught up.  That’s a concept I’m realizing may not happen ’till I’m 73.

I have an odd assortment of photos to share from this week.  We began by making a couple loaves of banana bread.

A stapled-together, green chef’s hat that makes your ears stick out with an apron that isn’t cinched up high enough are essential when baking.  Essential!  In Bible this week, we were reading about Jesus being the Bread of Life.  Banana bread isn’t the best example of a bread staple, but it was still a good tie-in to our subject.

One of our science experiments involved mixing warm water, yeast and sugar in a jar and fitting a balloon on top to see what happened.

We also tried it with warm water, yeast and salt.  Of course, that didn’t work.  We learned the yeast needs the sugar to make the carbon dioxide.

We welcomed a new item to our school table this week.  A real pencil sharpener!

I don’t know why it took me so long to get one, but after the shavings from my little hand-held one were accidentally spread all over the table, I decided it was time for something more practical.  This is the old fashioned kind, but instead of attaching to the wall, it has one of those super-strong-suction thingies that attaches to smooth surfaces.  I had a granite tile laying around, so…voila!  It makes ridiculously sharp pencils.

Yesterday, we visited a pumpkin patch farm, and among other things, Ethan got to feed a calf!

Today, we made butter!

As an activity to go along with our look at colonial life, we put some whipping cream into a jar with a lid and proceeded to shake it for 10-15 minutes.  Ethan and I took turns shaking, and very soon we had butter.  Ethan was thrilled and amazed at our accomplishment!    We had to try some on toast right away.

For a long time while I grew up, we always made our own butter.  We bought milk from friends down the road who milked a cow or two, so we had cream to make butter and other goodies.  I remember the kids at school thinking that was really odd.  Today, I was reminded of what a simple process it really is, once the cream has been acquired, that is! 

And here I thought September was a slow blogging month for me…good grief!  I could use another month tucked in between October and November, I think.  A month to catch up.  Catchupter.

This week will be the third (and final!) week about which my calendar has been hyperventilating.  October has had three weeks of seemingly non-stop activity, but after this week, fall baseball will be over and I hope we have a little more breathing room. (Just in time for the holidays.  What am I thinking?)  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that in the midst of the last three weeks, all three of us have been sick.  Seth was hit first, and I was so thankful we seemed to escape what he had.  It was unpleasant enough to just witness.  But the next week, I was hit with something different, and as soon as I felt a bit better, Ethan got it.  So, we missed some of our obligations and instead were put to work with the job of recovering.  I admit, some of the forced rest was good, but it didn’t really amount to much getting done, and it took longer than I expected.

This last week, we finally were moving back towards “normal” on Wednesday.  And on Thursday we even tackled a school craft project!  We’ve been reading about Native Americans, so a wigwam was in order.

Cute, eh?

We also looked into our solar system and were wowed with this video:

We are so small.  God is so GREAT!

Ethan quote:  I wonder if the moon is actually the sun, but it’s getting reeeaallly sleepy and turns cold. 

Wow.  Here it is the 26th of September and I’ve written only three posts this month.  I feel crazy busy and there are definitely aspects to that I do not like.  I’ve dropped the ball more times than I would like to admit lately, especially when it comes to family and friends.  I’ve met more people in the last month than I have in probably at least the last five years.  And since I’m not an extrovert, that’s a big deal to me.  I truly hope that the next few months will begin to smooth out and I can do and be what I really need to do and be.  Meanwhile, we’ve started school around here, and I thought I’d share just a couple things I do like.

We’re using a curriculum called My Father’s World – Adventures this year.  It includes history (overview of US history and learning something about each state), Bible and science.

Last week, we had a discussion about density and how salt water makes things float better than fresh water does.

We’re continuing with Singapore Math, some Explode the Code and will begin Primary Language Lessons and Daily Grams.  We’re also continuing All About Spelling, which I really like.

This is our spelling board with the All About Spelling tiles.  Ethan is alphabetizing them (while on the couch) to get the board ready for the next lesson.  These high quality materials are so well organized and easy to use with lots of built-in review.  I feel that if he isn’t a reasonably good speller after working through this program, then he just wasn’t meant to be a speller!

Speaking of spelling…we used the Bananagrams tiles for a crossword puzzle the other day…and lo and behold if Ethan didn’t spell…TOOT.  (Please see my previous post.)

Something I kinda splurged on last week was a new timeline book for our history lessons.  This one will be used and added to throughout his learning years.  It’s called History Through the Ages – Record of Time, by Homeschool in the Woods.

It comes in a lovely 3-ring binder with the above cover.  Inside are lined and dated, ivory, cardstock pages.  I also got the CD collection of over 1200 timeline figures that can be printed off onto full-sheet labels (many on a page), cut out and placed in their correct spot in history.  I even got the placement guide which shows where to place each figure in order to fit everything on the pages.  Amy from Homeschool in the Woods has actually drawn all of the figures and maps.

Oh, the maps.  I do love maps.

And these are such pretty ones.  They have an old world quality to them.  And they have wonderful details.

Look at the delightful compass.  Yes, a compass can be delightful.

My favorite maps came as a purchased download, so I don’t have pictures of them yet as I haven’t printed any yet.  But we have each state in three forms:  fully detailed and labeled, labels removed, details and labels removed.  That way they can be studied and then filled in by the student.  The notebook pages to go with each state are so wonderful.  Beautiful drawings of the state bird and flower are included, as well as space to write down other state info.  I know these maps and the history timeline book will be some of my favorite materials this year.  Ethan likes maps, too, so I think he will also appreciate these.

Well, we have other materials and things we’re doing, and more that I’d like to add.  But I feel like we need to streamline what we’re currently doing before adding more.  Quite frankly, our days are full and I’ve let some things go.  Like keeping up with my Google Reader.    (I know!  That is SO important!  Hehehehe…)  I used to keep up fairly well, or at least mark things as read even if they weren’t but I knew I wouldn’t have time for them.  But for the past six weeks or so, my Google Reader has had 500-600+ unread items in it.  OK, so maybe I have too many things in my reader to begin with. 

Anywhoo…other than Ethan having a hate-affair with anything to do with writing, we’re off to a pretty good start for 2nd grade. 

It’s Fix-It Friday at I ♥ Faces again!  It’s been awhile since I’ve participated, so I felt a bit rusty.  But this shot of Little Miss Cutie-Pie sure was fun to play with.  I mean really, who can resist that much cuteness?!  Certainly not her mom, who submitted the photo.  Great catch, mom!!

This shot has a lot going for it.  Super cute kiddo with an adorable smile…check.  Natural light pouring in from a window and providing soft shadows and wonderful catch-lights in the eyes…check.  Focus on the face and the background blurred to reduce distraction from said face…check.  And there ya go!  Three of the best ingredients for a wonderful portrait. 

The one distracting element, for me anyway, is the white shelf on the right.  So, I immediately decided upon a square crop.  I felt this photo lent itself to this crop very well, as her slight head tilt put the right eye directly on intersecting rule-of -thirds lines.  In other words…I liked it square. 

I also decided to do as much as possible in Lightroom, and I felt like the light in the photo would work well with a contrasty treatment, both in color and black and white.  I always begin by adjusting white balance if necessary, and with one click of the dropper tool on the edge of the white shelf, it warmed up the shot nicely.  Then I tweaked the following tools to get a good base to work from:  exposure, recovery, blacks, clarity, vibrance, tone curve.  I played with the crop tool and made a virtual copy of what I had done so far.  This is a wonderful tool in Lightroom that allows you to make as many virtual copies of your photos as you like, without clogging up your computer or sacrificing performance, so you can make as many different edits as you like, and then compare them to choose your favorite.  Veeeery nice!

Then I began playing with presets, and I landed on a free one called A-Game 2.  Sometimes presets give you just what you want with one click, but sometimes, as with action layers in Photoshop, they need to be tweaked as well.  So, I played with exposure, recovery, blacks, clarity and tone curve again.  I also used the adjustment brush tool to bring up the exposure a bit, just on her hair that was deep in shadow.  The whites of her eyes were quite blue at this point, so I used the adjustment brush set to desaturate to remove that color.  I also brightened the exposure (just a smidge) on the catchlights.  The dust removal tool was handy to remove a couple spots on her chin.

At this point, I was pretty much done.  However, I was noticing quite a bit of “noise” (grain) in this photo, and I realized it was because it was shot at ISO 1600 on a Canon Rebel XT.  I am not in any way knocking the noise or the camera!  I just wanted to make the point that different cameras handle noise differently.  As a rule, however, the lower the ISO, the less noise.  The shutter speed for this shot was 1/640. If the ISO had been set lower to avoid the noise, the shutter speed would have been slower.  And it’s possible this shot could have turned out fine with a slower shutter speed. But toddlers move pretty fast, and it’s also possible that a slower shutter speed would have resulted in a blurry shot.  Boo!  I say, use that higher ISO setting to ensure you get a clear shot and then just embrace the noise!    Thank goodness our digital cameras have the ability to produce images with higher ISOs, or we would miss an awful lot of shots!  And it would have been a shame to miss this one.

For my color version, I did want to go for a smoother shot, so here’s where I brought it into CS3 and used Noiseware, a noise reduction program that can be purchased to work inside Photoshop.  You have to find the balance between getting rid of noise and not over-smoothing to retain detail in your shot.  So, I try not to use it in a heavy handed way.  While I was in Photoshop, I went ahead and used Pioneer Woman’s Sharpen THIS action on her eyes, and the healing brush on a couple little spots on her face.  Then it was back to Lightroom for exporting.  I was going for contrast and some pop, so the shadows are a bit deep, but I love the way her eyes just pull you in!

I knew I wanted to work up a somewhat vintage black and white version as well.  The natural light in this shot was just calling me to it!  So I went back to my very originally edited photo in Lightroom and made another virtual copy.  In fact, I made a number of virtual copies so I could try a bunch of different presets and see which one I wanted to work with.  I ended up using a free one called BW Dependable.  Then I tweaked the tone curve and used the split toning tool to give it a hint of vintage color.  I reduced the clarity to give it a softer appearance, used the adjustment brush tool to bring up the shadows on her hair and added some overall sharpening.  For this version, I decided to embrace the noise by actually adding a bit more!  So, I brought it into CS3 and used the noise filter to add a little bit of monochromatic grain to the whole photo.  I also used Sharpen THIS on the eyes.  At this size, it may be kinda hard to detect the extra grain, but it was a subtle addition. 

Thanks for letting me play today!  Let me know if you have any questions.

One of the blogs I enjoy following is called Blue Yonder. It’s written by a homeschooling mom of three boys, and I enjoy her style and the creativity her boys seem to be involved in on a regular basis. This week she unveiled a little project they’ve been working on…something to share with other families…and I swiped it right up! ‘Cause I could use all the help I can get!!
The Blue Yonder Book of Days is a PDF download that you can purchase each month (very reasonably!) that includes simple projects, an experiment, a recipe, and other things to help you enjoy the month and season. They are illustrated with sweet colored-pencil drawings and are meant to be kept in a notebook as a sort of breathing scrapbook. There is room for your own reflections, observations, drawings and photos, and a blank calendar is included to help with any planning you’d like to do. A guide for the parents is also part of the package, with suggested books and ideas to spur on imagination and thought. It’s a sort of simple, guided, creativity curriculum (it’s intended for any family, not just homeschoolers), and I feel very lacking in that department! So, I look forward to giving this a go!

A “just because” shot…Ethan watching a squirrel in one of our trees.