Yes, I’m still alive.

 

 

Hey there!  Remember me?  I’m the person who used to write on this OD all the time….lol. 

Life has not been particularly busy or stressful lately, but all the same, I just haven’t felt like writing.  Must have needed a little OD break I guess.  That, and I think the extended winter weather is getting to me – I don’t do well when we go a long time without sunshine.  I’m noticeably more down and subdued in the winter.  Plus, I’ve been cooped up in the house a lot because of the snow and that makes me grouchy. 

I’m starting to look forward to spring, though, and planting my garden and building my clothesline so I can hang the clothes out to dry.  I’m also excited to do more photography sessions. 

And that reminds me! I just bought a bunch of new gear: two monolight slaves with shoot through umbrellas, a fullsize backdrop stand and white diamond cloth backdrop, a remote (finally!) and an omnibounce diffuser cap for my sb600.  I love working with natural light, but I really do need to buckle down and learn how to use EVERY kind of light.  So I ordered the entry level lighting kit, which will be good enough for learning purposes and for doing indoor portraits/fill light for outdoors.  Anyway…UPS should be delivering all of my goodies starting tomorrow, and I can’t wait!  It’s almost like Christmas!  😀

I got a suprise second check from my student grants this past week (a surprise in that I forgot it was coming and hadn’t mentally spent it yet), so it was pretty much fun money beyond what we needed to put down on some car repairs, etc.  So, even though I had expected to wait, I was able to go ahead and get my Cricut machine.  I’m SO in love with it!  It’s the best thing ever, and so easy to use.  It came with two cartridges, and I bought another two on eBay yesterday for super cheap. 

I’m already using the machine for so many things.  I’ve made some scrapbook pages, and just this morning I started making alphabet flash cards for Chloe.  We’re going to start working on letter sounds next week, and I realized I didn’t have letter flash cards.  I’m also going to pick up some big pieces of posterboard at work today so I can make her a large alphabet poster and a large numbers 1-10 poster for her bedroom walls. 

On the homeschooling front, I picked up a copy of "The Well-Trained Mind" the other day, and it has little changed my whole outlook on the schooling process and how I’m going to approach the kids’ education.  It sets down a clear method that’s easier to follow and, if done correctly, produces learners instead of just students.  I’m going to talk about the Trivium method more in depth in an upcoming blog post, so I’m not going to ramble on about it here. 

I did get our family blog up and running.  It’s here, if anyone wants to visit and/or follow.  I still have to tweak the layout a bit and redo the header AND figure out a posting schedule, but other than that, it’s good to go.  Lol!

Anyway, I’d better get back to the housework.  I’ve got to work this evening…oh, joy.  😛

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com