Jammin'

I totally forgot to take any photos today until a few minutes ago, and when I did finally remember, I found that my battery was in its death throes (though thankfully "not dead yet"--there was enough juice for a couple photos, but no flash) and there wasn't much going on around here to take pictures of. Good thing Ben was still up, practicing his saxophone--or at least that's what he was SUPPOSED to be doing. Turns out he was actually jammin' down to full-volume Young, Dumb and Ugly, getting in a few licks on the ole air guitar, with his sax standing in for the guitar.

Vegetable Segregation

Separate but definitely NOT equal. My kids all pick out every single lima bean for surruptitious removal to a more advantageous (to them!) location--like the trash or the plate of an unsuspecting family member. Before the end of a meal, a little pile like that will likely have disappeared somewhere, and it's usually not into the mouth of the one who did the piling.

Winter

Black and white, courtesy of the snow.

Winter color--snow on crab apples.

Guess Who?

It was oral presentation day in Ben's fifth grade history class. He had to talk for 5 minutes about "his" life and times. Can you guess who he was? A clue: his biggest challenge (besides explaining to his buddies the difference between movement-permitting armor and a skirt) was correctly pronouncing the word Bucephalus.

I think teachers come up with these projects just to get back at the moms.

Waiting

Sometimes living in the moment is not as easy as it sounds.

Catching Up

The tyranny of the urgent has left my camera lonely and unused lately. I did manage to take a few snaps every day, but the selection to choose from is pretty slim pickin's and the true nature of the days wasn't exactly captured. Oh, well, better to have lived and missed the photo op than never to have lived at all!

SATURDAYAaron sitting in our new used car. Hard to believe that in just a few short years this will probably be the car he learns to drive in.

FRIDAYAaron's prize-winning story displayed at Fine Arts Night.

THURSDAYThe Old Lady Mobile, beyond repair. I kept telling Steve the car was totalled, but he didn't quite believe me till he got a look at it for himself. I forgot to get the garage door opener out of the wrecked car, but I remembered to take the camera when we went out to retrieve it.

The Eyes Have It

How often do I look into another person's eyes and really see? These belong to Matthew and Elizabeth. I want to memorize them.

My Natural Habitat

Flannel jammies, my nice warm comfy bed, and a book--I'm a happy camper.

I thought my camera was broken

But it turns out I'm just an idiot. :-) Eventually I figured out the problem. So here are a couple of shots from the last few days.

MONDAY The Lady of the LawnIt was finally warm enough for the snow to stick together instead of blowing all over, so Liz made a mermaid snow sculpture in the front yard. By suppertime it had melted--we're having quite a heat wave.

SUNDAYOn Sunday we went to a matinee of Bridge to Terabithia. When we came out, night had fallen and Woodstock's winter decorations sparkled. We followed the stars down the street to where the car was parked.

Twenty-first century toys

Since Steve and I got new cell phones Saturday, the kids have been playing with them constantly. I don't mind; the more they figure out about ringtones, camera, speed dial, etc., the more they can explain to me. :-)








I was bored Friday sitting in the car waiting for Steve, so I killed time messing around with my cell phone and camera.

Good-bye, OldLadyMobile

At the time, I didn't have the presence of mind to snap a photo of the car, what with all the police cars and rescue vehicles everywhere and questions from paramedics to answer, so this photo of the police report is the only memento I have of today's biggest event. Just about the time I was expecting Liz home from school, she called. "Mom, I was in a car acccident." Gulp. As she was stopped to make a left turn, a car, traveling at 45-50 miles per hour, rear-ended her. Judging by her voice on the phone, I could tell she was okay, but still when I got to the accident site (a couple miles from home) and saw the back bumper of our Buick squashed all the way into the back seat, the fear rose in my throat. Thank God the younger kids weren't with her, as they usually are, filling up that back seat with chatter and bookbags and band instruments. What a relief to find Liz sitting in the ambulance, shaking with reaction but otherwise perfectly normal and healthy.The driver of the other car, a girl only a year or so older than Liz, was taken away in the ambulance, but I think she was only slightly injured--sore neck, a bitten tongue. The Buick, however, is a total loss. No way to fix a car whose hindmost part is no longer the bumper but a fully-exposed muffler. I'm going to miss that old gal--she's been good to us. But, considering that a similar accident Monday in the exact same spot gave a man a broken neck, I'd say our losses are trifling.

My Valentine to all of you

May love and beauty bloom in your lives.
(I don't think Steve will mind if I share my flowers with you.)

Drip Drop

The sun was shining today! The icicles melted all over me as I tried to take their picture.

A Helping Hand

The kids had a snow day today, so I put them to work scraping wallpaper. Thanks to them, more got done today than I had hoped--only three walls left! (Ben apparently found the newly-white walls too shockingly bright--hence the shades.)

Strength, stamina, and smarts.

I didn't take this picture (it was my camera, though!) but I'm using it anyway because it does two things:
1. It chronicles a happy moment for my family in 2007, which I especially want this photoblog to do.
2. It records the faces of some special people with whom we've had good times. I'll miss them next year!

This snapshot was taken at a meeting of the local school board, where the varsity girls' cross country team was honored for having the highest combined grade point average of all cross country girls' teams IN THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. Way to go, girls!

Dd Liz is in the back row, last girl on the right.

Geranium leaf

Friday and Saturday

Being singularly bereft of inspiration, I'm going to resort to every mom's default setting for "beauty"--her kids.




Here's Liz, fresh back from an overnight college visit--her first solo plane trip.












This is why you haven't seen much of Matthew's face here yet; EVERY time I try to take his photo, he gets goofy. I think he doesn't want to be on my blog. Well haHA, dear boy, you can't stop ME!













Aaron and Susannah playing a computer game. And who says video-based media aren't active? The energy just leaps from their eyes. Of course, it is hard to be lively when you're freezing. No matter what we do, this house has been darned COLD the past few weeks.

Another Daddy Moment

Steve reading Detectives in Togas aloud to Benjamin on a dreary winter night.

Daddy's Home!

Nothing like a Tickling/Wrestling/Goofing War to liven up the place. I think here Steve is giving Susannah a free chance to spank her brother's butt.

Home Snowy Home

This is my house and my oaks and my blue spruce--a beloved birthday gift from my in-laws last summer. In case you didn't know, I love trees. The snow is fresh, coming down like fuzzballs all day, a dry fluffy snow easily cleared away by the snowplow just in time for me to go get the kids from school.

Here I am at the front door. It wasn't too long before I put myself on the other side of that door; it was way too cold to stay outside long, but I sure enjoyed the fresh air.

I think I can...I think I can...I think I can

My poor van, huffing and puffing to overcome the inertia brought on by the coldest day in a decade. Twelve below zero; thirty below windchill. The old gal didn't disappoint me; five minutes to warm up, and off we went.

Sunday, February 4

It was a lazy day at home. Too cold to go outside. Nothing reached out to grab me visually, and I didn't feel like manufacturing something for the sake of a photo. But then I realized that seeing isn't everything. Smelling and tasting are mighty fine, too, and my kitchen was speaking both those languages loud and clear. Warm, cinnamon-scented air. Lemon/blueberry on my tongue. Not a feast for the eyes, maybe, but sensory beauty nonetheless.

Career Opportunity for Down-and-Out Hookers

This sign on the window of a local meat market cracks me up. I have no idea why "Ho" made bratwurst are any better than those made by butchers or bakers or candlestick makers, but apparently the owner considers it an advantage worth advertising.

Brag Alert!

Middle school kids have spelling and geography bees. High school kids in Illinois and Missouri have something called WYSE--Worldwide Youth Science and Engineering. It's an academic competition in which kids are tested in one or more of seven specialty fields--biology, chemistry, physics, English (don't ask me why that's in there with all that science!), mathematics, computers, and engineering graphics. Each school sends their top several kids in each subject to compete against the top kids from other comparably-sized schools. So Friday was WYSE day in McHenry County. Liz competed in chemistry and physics. She came home from school with a fake hangdog face--like I was going to buy that! She couldn't keep it up, though. A little grin snuck out as she reported that, yes, Kevin got third in chemistry and Alan got third in physics, and that helped their team earn their FIRST EVER trophy and a trip to sectionals. Like I was going to think that was the end of the story. "So what did you get?" I asked. That's when her grin got big and the whole story of her TWO FIRST PLACE medals came tumbling out--the test questions, her score, the tension as winners were announced, the bus ride home, getting in on the tail end of a pep rally back at school where one of her WYSE teammates grabbed the microphone, dragged her to the front of the auditorium in front of the whole school, and announced that their own Liz B. was the McHenry county champion in not one, but TWO subjects.

In this photo she's retelling the story on the phone to her dad. Shortly afterwards, she retold the story on the phone to her big brother at college. Awhile later, I retold the story to friends at the basketball game and Grandpa and Grandma on the phone. And now I'm telling it again. :-) Every kid should have such a fuss made at least once in life, right?

Winter moon rising

The road to town bisects this field. Tonight at dusk the sky was huge, the moon a pearl on pink velvet.

Hoop De Doo!

Sigh. Even with a flash and stationary subjects, I couldn't get a sharp picture. But I had to post this one anyhow as a memento of Ben's first basketball season and the guys who made it a great experience. Tonight was their last game--a win over one of the few teams that had beaten them earlier in the season! Ben is the handsome guy in the back row standing next to the coach.

Not quite black and white

This is the locust tree that shades my patio in summer and drops pods all over Steve's lawn. This almost looks like a black and white photo on which someone has colored in the red shed, but it's not--this is the real deal my camera caught. There's sort of a shaky quality to this picture that I think came from the fact that I shot it right into the sun, which was behind the tree, trying to shine through the clouds.