Weekly Wrap Up 11/8 to 11/12

THE 3 READS ~
Me ~ Pride and Prejudice
La ~ Finished Shiloh Season & Started Percy Jackson ~ The Sea of Monsters
Morning Read Aloud ~ Finished The Silver Chair & Started The Last Battle

Learning & Living at Home ~
Lots of reading and math games this week. La finished one book and is halfway through another. This is amazing to me considering that she only started reading beyond “cat, mat, sat” a little over a year ago. When it clicks, it clicks!

The math games are really helping La get her facts down. One game we play involves adding and subtracting negative numbers. She uses a number line, but is really getting this concept down! It’s funny because I never intended to teach this. It makes me wonder what other things she is learning incidentally. You just can’t stop kids from learning! Why would you want to?

We are enjoying The Last Battle. So, far it is a pretty dark book for the Narnia Series. It is reminding me of thing going on on our society today.

I tried my hand at making fabric flowers. My sister in law directed me to some  great tutorials at Snazzie Drawers. This is my first attempt. If I can get good at it & faster, I am going to open a shop on Etsy.com.

Out & About ~
Our Firefly Corps meeting was on Monday. It was our first meeting on Israel. We learned about kosher food, Hanukkah, and the Uzi submachine gun (which was invented by an Israeli man).  Lots of fun & matzo ball soup!

My Journey ~
This week we I had my book club meeting on Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto.  It was a great discussion. It made me think about what a real education is and question all my assumptions. I hope to write about that soon. Now we are reading Pride & Prejudice for our December meeting. I have been looking forward to a novel! I am enjoying it so far.

3 Onesie Dresses

3 dresses for a one year olds birthday.  The tutu is a separate piece from the onsie. The purple is my favorite!

A Bit of Fall Color

This is my favorite Autumn hillside. I stopped to capture it on Monday. It's so pretty, I just had to share. There are not a lot of places out West that get this kind of color. We are blessed on the Wasatch Back!

 

Makes me want a cup of tea & a slice of pumpkin pie!

Camera Play

I am not a photographer by any definition of the word, but I love to play with my camera. About a 2 months ago I got a new one and I love it. It's a Nikon Coolpix L110. It's just right for me. The technology is a little beyond a point & shoot, but not as complicated (or as big & bulky) as a Digital SLR.  I am having fun with it. 

What I try to do when I play with my camera is get details. I am fascinated at how some photographers take these incredible pictures of details that most would overlook. In these details is the flavor & essence of the moment. For me, those types of pictures are better than video for transporting you to that time & place. My sister in-law is an expert at this. You can see some of her work here.  She is a great portrait photographer, but I think she does her best work when she is recording events like weddings & parties. She is another person I want to be when I grow up! Maybe someday I'll get a real big girl camera & learn how to use it, but right now that seems so overwhelming! Not to mention expensive. 

So here are a few pictures I took when I went to Red Butte Gardens with my friend Rhea & her girls. Her baby has the best feet! I just love them! Her middle girl couldn't get enough of playing in the fountain! It was so much fun!

Feet in the Fountain - Love it!

 Don't you just want to bite those feet!

I really like this one. The curve of her lips, cheek & nose and the way she is holding her hands is so perfect baby to me. The grass gives a great contrast to her skin.

Well, hope you enjoy these little camera experiments. It was fun trying it out. What would be great is to have a camera hooked up to my brain so I could capture exactly what my eyes see. Someday that technology will probably be available, but that idea is a little scary too. I don't want to be a cyborg!  Til next time ~