Oh it is so hard to wait for something.  We are such an instantaneous society; we have instant
downloads, instant oatmeal, instant potatoes.  We want things now.  So waiting of course is hard in our society.  Even at 15 years old, waiting is hard.  If it wasn't we wouldn't have to hide Christmas presents and people wouldn't peak.  The other day we gave Isaac the go ahead to purchase a video game.  It was a tough decision on our part because it was an "M" game.  It is tough to be the experimental child.  You know that child that the parents try out a decision and by the last child that decision becomes refined and maybe more reasonable.  At this point that decision is an experimental decision.  Once he had the go ahead to purchase the game, he bugged us to order it and promptly paid us for it.  Then the waiting began.  It was pure torture.  There was a federal holiday so that extended the time it took to receive the game.  Then he received a notice via email that it was undeliverable because no one was home, except that we were home the whole time.  He then asked for it to be redelivered but it was then transferred to the US mail so it took another few days even though it was in Bellingham.  Finally the day it was to arrive, the FedEx truck showed up.  Isaac was beside himself.  He was starring out the window, looking through the door.  Both Job and I were teasing Isaac mercilessly.  He was almost shaking when I opened the door and took the package.  Funny thing, FedEx wasn't going to deliver his package.  It was for me not him.  He received his game later in the day and spent some time on it. 

I have been wanting and wanting to organize the recipes that I've collected.  The ones that we use over and over and over again but I always need my card or the book or the sheet of paper.  There are foods that we only eat in the fall and winter because they warm you up from the inside.  The foods we eat seasonally because we have 50 asparagus plants and I don't can asparagus and the kids hate it.  The foods that I loved but forgot about or the recipes that have been given to me by family members and friends.  I want to get it all organized and ordered neatly so I can easily find them.  I'm also on a little bit of a spending freeze - ok, a big spending freeze for a while.  I cut down my craftiness which meant my spending so I'm getting creative in what I do.  Since organizing my recipes has been on my list for a couple of years and I pinned this idea on pinterest, I decided to photograph the recipes that we (I and sometimes Lona) make and have a book printed. I have envisioned sending each kid out into the world with a book of our family favorites but who knows if that will happen. I do know that there will be more recipes to add later but that just means that we will have to have a volume 2.  Anyhow, I have really enjoyed taking the time to make the food, and then photographing it.  I found the best time to photograph the food is between 2 and 3:30 pm.  That's when the light comes in perfectly through my kitchen window.  It gives a rustic feel to the foods, at least it does for me.  Its a way I can be creative, practice my photography, and make dinner all at the same time.  So far the kids haven't complained too much.  At least I'm not pointing the camera in their direction, however that won't last long.

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

Soft Boiled Eggs and Toast



Chicken Corn Chowder

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Blueberry Tarte

Greek Salad

Mini Meat Pot Pie using left over stew

Peanut Butter Cookies

Raspberry White Chocolate Chip Scones

Smore Pie

White Bean and Sausage Stew

In September I participated in Shimelle's Learning Something New Everyday.  I've done this for the last four years.  You sign up once and are automatically enrolled each year.  The cool thing is that you only pay once.  You don't have to pay for it every year and it's not that expensive.  In years past I've done all sorts of things.  This year was my favorite.  My friend Marie was getting rid of some of her scrapbooking stuff and I was the recipient.  I altered the cover and then took photos everyday.  I slipped in a journaling card and called it good.  There was limited scrapbooking but just enough to feel crafty.  I like feeling crafty.  I worked on it up until I left for Europe and took all my supplies to France but didn't work on it again until I returned home.  I then looked over the photos that I took while there and thought about what I really did learn each day.  I have to say that I loved my album this year.  It was fun and I felt creative.  I'm trying something like this for "Thankful November".    Some of the lessons I learned dealt with myself, my style of learning, my home, and my family. 

The latest craze in our house is Futsal.  Actually Isaac, Job and John are all playing indoor soccer.  Lona's RDL team decided to play futsal instead of indoor soccer.  Her coach felt like it develops the foot skills of the players better.  They play it at the YMCA.  Lona has been going to the family drop in nights and then playing on other days with her team.  John has been doing the Adult futsal as well.  It's giving me another opportunity to practice my photography in a location and with an activity that I usually don't shoot.  Futsal is played on a basketball court with 5 players a side and it's quick like basketball, up and down the court.  One thing I don't like is the other teams like to park a kid in the goal box.  Usually there aren't goalies but placing a kid there isn't helping the player at all.  I think it's kind of cheap.  They also like to park a kid in front of the opponents goal.  Again I think that is kind of cheap.  With the drop - in games, they can't do that so I'm not sure why they are allowing during league games. 

I was asked to take photos of a friend's family at Hovander the other day.  To be truly honest with myself, I get so nervous about this.  I know that there is a lot of directing and there are just something intuitive about how to pose people so that they look natural.  I feel like I haven't learned that art yet.  Sometimes I just feel so inept with my camera.  I feel like I know enough to think I know something but I'm just fooling myself.  There are times that I feel insecure and that I'm just fooling myself with my camera.  Then something happens or I take some photos that I absolutely love.  I think the biggest thing is that I love taking photos and I want to help other's who want to learn more about it.  I was at the Sportsplex watching John play soccer when I noticed a fairly young girl taking photos.  I couldn't imagine that she was taking photos of a husband or boyfriend.  She looked 20 years younger than the over 40 guys.  So I asked her what was up.  Turns out she was practicing for an interview the next day.  She had an interview with the manager of the WSA Rapids manger to be their team photographer. She had to prove that she could take photos in that environment.  We talked a little about the lighting because it is so terrible in there.  She was frustrated that it wasn't turning out.  I suggested that she over exposed it and set a custom white balance.  Then we worked together to get it right.  She shoots Nikon, I shoot Canon.  If I had known about the job, I would have applied.  Maybe I can be a back up shooter.  I may have to call down there.

In September I wrote down something that I learned or reflected upon each day and made a scrapbook from it.  I signed up for this little class about 4 years ago and have participated to some degree every year but this year was my favorite.  I decided that I wanted to do something like it for November.  Since September's theme was Learning, I decided that November's theme would be gratefulness.  Every morning I ask everyone one thing they are thankful for.  After recording the answers I take a photo of just one thing from that list.  I want to make a thankful book for our coffee table when I'm done.  It's been interesting so far what we've listed.  Some of the things have been tangible, materialistic items and some I just can't take photos of.    Things have included:
slippers, wet wipes, blankets, cereal, PJs, dogs, hoodies, coffee, computer mouse, Xbox, books, Legos, socks, snare drum, pants, shin guards, camera, toy cars ....
Intangibles have been:  indoor soccer, sleep overs, sleep, Xbox live, forgiveness, wife cooking dinners, affection, a quiet house, friends, done with refereeing for the day, laughter during home family movies.
I am anxious to see what else we are thankful for.

Job is my thinker.  I swear he has Auto Cad in his head.  He's constantly designing things and thinking of how to build them.  I think he might be the 21st century stereotypical engineer.  This last summer while we hiked he spent the entire hike mulling over one project and it carried over to other hikes.  In fact on our back packing trip he could only talk about one thing, his latest project. We frequently tease him that it is invention #blahblahblah.  It often starts with, you know what people should invent?  And then he goes on and on and on.  Well the latest is the blow dart gun which he bought.  However he needs a target.  I mean how else could he practice for squirrels?  He needs a moving target and that does not mean siblings. In order to have a moving target he needs two pulleys, lots of string, a target, a trampoline and a swimming pool ladder. He assures me that he needs two pulleys.  I think that he needs to talk it over with John but no in his head he really knows how it all works.  Yep, I guess that he does.

Over the years we've gone back and forth with Halloween.  For the last 3 or 4 years, we've decided to go a head and celebrate Halloween American style.  When I mean American style, I mean costumes, trick or treating, candy, food, and friends.  Parenting is so hard.  We had convictions about Halloween that at this point in life we no longer have.  We've grown, matured, and learned.  Maybe one day we'll take a different direction but for us this year, we've decided that Halloween is ok.  We try to keep it light hearted and fun with out all the ghoulishness to it.  We invited a number of families over.  The dads take the kids out door to door while the moms answer the door, hand out candy, eat and talk.  I think that is a perfect scenario.  It's been the norm for the last few years. One great thing about our neighborhood is that it's a great place to trick or treat.  Our neighbor counted 170 trick or treaters before they turned off the light at 8:00pm.  We turned ours off at 9:00 pm. Being that it's a great place for trick or treating, we often see people we know come to our house so I have a hot cocoa bar set up and they can come in, grab something warm, visit and go back out.  Isaac decided that he was too old to dress up but when his friends showed up in costumes, he grabbed his reffing uniform, sunglass and a stick.  He was a "blind" referee.  Lona was the mad hatter this year and Job was back to being a Star Wars character.  He was Jobi-wan-Kenobi.