In the Storm

52gratitudes | 09

a day in the life...january

I know, January - right?

Yep!

I just put together the pages for my 'a day in the life...January' for my Project Life album. Ali Edwards is challenging anyone who wants to join in to 'a day in the life' the last day of each month in 2013. The 'day in the life' is a more indepth look at life in the Bowers household. To get down to the niddy-griddy. I'm still not very good at documenting this - or at least I document but sometimes I don't put it all in there. I'm gonna' try really hard to get better at this and start recording those intimate bits of life that make us - us.

The last day of the month of February is this week so I figured I'd better put together my January 'a day in the life'. I did a very simple two-page spread using multiple templates with just words + phots and Ali's 'a day in the life' brush as a bolder title.

As I said, this will go in our Project Life album along with our weekly pages, and my 52 Lists.

I think I'll use similiar pages for each month of our 'day in the life' so they stand out as such in the album.

I like the idea of just breaking the day up into morning, afternoon, and evening. It makes documenting easier and more me-friendly.

nine degrees of randomness...

1. Scrabble is probably my most favorite game to play, although I love Apples to Apples when we've got my daughter's Ashley and Elizabeth here and my Mom is a hoot to play with too. But, there is nothing like a game of Scrabble by camplight after a campfire meal of grilled hamburgers and sauteed green beans. When we were camping this past weekend we got in that game of Scrabble and logged it in our Family Game Logbook.

2. It is quite miserable having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night when you are camping and it is pouring down rain and the bathrooms are a good 1/8 mile up a slight incline and the water is gushing along, splashing up onto your pajama pants, soaking your feet - and it's cold outside. And it's a cold rain. And having to do this three times in one night.

3. I recently bought a card reader for all the smart cards that our various cameras use and it has been a Godsend. But, I hate the pronged thing-a-ma-doogies inside the reader that want to bend and you can't get the card in because those prong thing-a-ma-doogies have to match up with the holes on the card and they don't when the prong thing-a-ma-doogies are bent. But, I still love my card reader even so.

4. J.D. Robb's newset In Death book is out and I haven't picked it up yet. Such restraint!

5. I found the CD of the computer game Yahtzee the other day when I was going through some files on our desk that I hadn't played in - like - forever. It's back in the computers CD drive, after I cleaned it of it's many fingerprints and guck and it works fine and I play it now and again when I have a spare minute since all we have on our computer that I enjoy playing is Freecell and Solitaire. And, I refuse and I mean REFUSE to pay for games on Yahoo after we were able to play so long for free.

6. About grilled hamburgers. They're amazing by fire, when you're on a camp out. They taste better than when we have grilled hamburgers at home, by fire. It's just because we're on a campout. It makes them extra special and yummy. I'm serious.

7. When I came down off the hills of the High Falls State Park trail I cried. I was so relieved to have made it to the end.

8. I have a drawful of user names and passwords to various websites and other things and I have an idea what I want to do with them all because there is no way that I could possibly commit them all to memory.

9. I can't wait until my daughter and grandsons come for a visit.

52 lists | week 07

                                                                               brought to us by moorea-seal

I knew without a doubt that there would come a weekly prompt that would challenge my mind, body, and soul. But, mostly my heart. I know where I stand body-wise regarding health. I am overweight, obese and I don't like it. But there are without any doubt a few things that change my way of thinking and make my body feel healthy. With my plaguing knee and leg pains I feel I am not in the right frame of mind to find that place of seeing more things that make my body feel healthy.

Many on my list, then, reflect those things that make my mind and my soul feel healthy. And a few that serve to make my mind, my body, and my soul feel healthy. It is an interesting exercise, albeit difficult.

Just as my other lists will, I will include this list into my Project Life album - Week 7.

project life | week 08

Project Life...Week 8...and I can't believe I'm still lovin' this project. Still keeping up with the weeks. I'm so excited for how much of our lives are recorded.

This week was really all about our weekend camping trip. I did highlight the week leading up to it but the journaling and photos was all High Falls State Park. And so I stuck with black and white + photos. Heavy journaling about our weekend and I still didn't get it all documented. Like the little stories. The funny things that made us laugh.

Such a wonderful weekend.

I used some Cathy Z journal cards, some washi tape, a sterile lined card, and heavy Ali Edwards brushes.

Love, love, love, this!

hello monday | 09

hello monday.

hello high falls state park. we enjoyed our time immensely.

hello back to the grind of homeschool.

hello to being dry and warm even though it is wet and chilly outside.

hello to projects and lists and crafts that I am planning.

hello to eating simple this week.

hello to welcoming March

hello to the pool. I missed you last week altogether.

hello to another great week. We ended last week on an amazing note.

I am linking up with Lisa. Visit her amazing blog, life, and jewelry.

i'm going to write a book.

Hoosier Man and I had a financial planning meeting one evening this past week. Let me say for the record, "I hate financial planning meetings!" When Hoosier Man set the meeting for us he even forwarned me that he'd made 'my-least-favorite-appointments'. I ranted and raved and then we went to the meeting.

I really didn't rant and rave.

It really is my least favorite appointments. Even over mammagrams and pap smears.

Seriously.

You would think that someone with an MBA would not have such adverse reactions to financial planning appointments. I can't explain it.

So I guess you are wondering what all this has to do with the title of this post?

You're wondering aren't you?

When we were waiting to see our financial advisor (and I use the term loosely - not necessarily in a negative way either - but just loosely) I decided I was going to write a book.

There we were sitting in the open waiting area and I picked up this coffee table book. It drew my attention because it was titled God's Masterpieces or something like that. Actually I know it wasn't that I just don't remember the title. I just know that God was given credit for what I would find within the pages of the coffee table book.

I opened the book and was awestruck by the beautiful photos. But, what beheld my attention even more were the Bible verses that accompanied each photo. There were photos of clouds with Bible verses that reflected God's creation of the water or mist in the sky. There were photos of volcanos with molten lava erupting from the top and flowing freely down the mountain. And an accompanying Bible verse that speaks of the same.

I shared with Hoosier Man about all the Bible verses I found within the Word of God that reflect the world of meteorology. As a meteorologist whenever I come across a verse that speaks of God and the weather I always pause, and I am always amazed and awed! This year when I was preparing my high school meteorlogy class I added two Bible verses to each chapter study guide. All the Bible verses had something to do with meteorology: the clouds, tornadoes, the wind, fog (mist), snow, rain, hurricanes, thunder and lightning...it was a way of letting my students know that God is in the middle of the weather; that He is the Creator of weather.

So I said to Hoosier Man right there in the open waiting area, after looking at this coffee table book of pictures and Bible verses that I wanted to write a book too. Make a coffee table book of all my 'gazillion' cloud photos and precipitation and add all those amazing Bible verses and my own reflections.

I really don't have a 'gazillion' cloud photos.

But, I do have a bunch.

It has left me excited for the plan, the process, and taking more and more photos of clouds. And sunsets like the ones above that presented that beautiful sky for me (us) to see God in, see His glory, see His creation. And know He is God.

I began my book just the other day. And when I created that first page I wrote about how my love of meteorology, for the clouds, for the skies - began. I'm telling that story.

daydreaming.

Sometimes I catch John sitting at the dining room table, which happens to also be our homeschool desk, daydreaming. I usually tell him to get busy, stay on task, quit daydreamin' or some such monicker for what it is I think he is doing - except what he is supposed to be doing and that is school work.

A couple weeks ago, I had an early morning shift at the weather station at the airport. It would be one of my last over these next couple months. I was walking the fenced-in perimeter (I work in a secured, gated facility) and I caught myself daydreaming as I walked. Walking is two-fold: it is exercise, yes, but it is also an opportunity to look at the clouds. As a weather observer it is what I do. Sometimes, that walk around the perimeter allows time to daydream.

My daytime dreams sometimes are just that - where my mind dreams away into senseless wanderings. Other times they aren't so much dreams as they are conversations with myself: to do lists, crafts I want to make, blog posts I'm considering, recipes I want to make the next month, conversations I need to have, plans for homeschooling...and then even other times they aren't dreams either, or conversations with myself, but they become conversations with my God.

I realized someplace along the way that day dreams are fruitful not fanciful. I imagine they may be fanciful at the time but more often than not they spur on action, or imagination, or conversation, or quality-results.

Next time I catch John daydreaming I'm gonna' rethink interrupting those dreams. He may just be talking to God, or planning his next Lego war, or the battleplan he'll next put to paper through his art. And maybe they are just fanciful dreams but I think more often than not they've given him pleasure, as they have me.

around here

not us.

we are off on an adventure.

we might being seeing sights like these...

all photos courtesy of high falls state park website

we are headin' this weekend to high falls state park for a weekend of camping as a family. and i'm so excited! yes, it's gonna' rain. but, i'm excited anyway. yes, we're gonna' get wet! but, i'm excited anyway. it's been - like - forever since we've been camping together.

we have yummy meals planned, we have an awning we can put up to stay semi-dry, we have rain gear so we can still do some hiking and trail-walking and hopefully the rains will be intermittent and not continuous so we'll have breaks between showers. but, we're taking the hobbit with us to read aloud if need be, cards, scrabble, and probably another game too. i'm sure we'll each bring a book to read too. electronics will be left at home!!!

have a great weekend everyone. we will!

girls just wanna' have fun.

Sidnie or Mel, or even Madison, not sure which one, posted more pictures on facebook and I had to laugh at the girls' antics. Typical teenage girls! And gorgeous to boot. I quickly uploaded the photos to my little folder that is now keeping all of the Hurst's photos of their Europe adventures and life, and went to work creating a cutsie page just for girls wanting to have fun. I absolutely love this page! And there are a bunch of the photos - I hope some of their faves were included here. I'll finish the page with journaling as soon as I get it from Mel (or the girls).