Tackle It on Tuesday: Books

April 30, 2014

I know, I know...today is Wednesday, not Tuesday. But sometimes, you just have busy days and don't have a chance to type out a blog post. So this one is a day late...anyway...last week, I started to tackle just one book case in our home.

Now you have to know, it is very hard for me to part with books. I am not your typical girl. I really hate to shop for clothes, make-up, shoes, jewelry, etc. But let me spend hours in a bookstore, and I am in heaven!! I love the look of books, the feel of books, the stories you can learn from books. I have been known to read well-loved stories over and over again.

Because we have book cases in almost every room in our home, I thought it was about time to start selling at least some of the reference books we have referred to over the years when my children were younger in our homeschool journey. Not only that, by selling some of these, I can add some cash to my Compassion Colombia fund!

I am so happy that I made some good progress on clearing out this one book case. Now to try to sell what I have! If you are interested, I would be happy to send you a list if you are searching for some great reference books for your home library.

So in addition to finding homes for quite a few books, my new task for this week is to try a new laundry soap recipe.

For a couple of years now, I have been making a homemade liquid laundry detergent recipe, but you know what? There are times when I really don't feel like making 5 gallons of laundry detergent!! So I was excited to see this recipe for a powder laundry detergent and uses all the same ingredients! I will be putting this together and giving it a try over the next week.

Do you use homemade laundry detergent? What project are you tackling this week?

Tackle It on Tuesday: Civil War Event Photos

April 22, 2014

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie, a sweet little film camera that I took to Outdoor Education Camp in the fifth grade. Since that time, I have owned many other cameras and have learned a lot about photography. A couple of weekends ago, our family attended a Civil War event at my favorite location just west of Yosemite. The location is absolutely beautiful!

On Saturday, one of the battles took place during twilight when the light was amazing. Since we are members of the group, I was able to gain access to hang out by a tree on the battlefield during this twilight battle to take pictures. I won't bombard you with a lot of photos, but I will share a few of my favorites:

See what I mean? So incredibly beautiful here!

I had to include this photo because my son is in this one. He is the fourth one from the left.

I haven't finished editing all of the photos I took that weekend, since I did take over 300 pictures. This is one reason why I take quite a few photos, so I might capture one like this...

...or like this one...

...and like this one.

So I didn't quite finish tackling all of the photos I intended to edit, but I did delete over 200 pictures. After editing about 20 pictures, I have another 50 to edit to finish this project. And I really need to finish editing these photos since I am going to be paid for some of them! Yay!

For this next week, I want to start going through some of our bookcases. This is just one of many full bookcases we have in our home.

It has been a while since I have homeschooled little ones, so it is probably time for me to clear out some of my younger age books. But it is so hard for me to get rid of books! So I wonder how many books from this bookcase I can let go of? Be sure to check back next week...

My Empty Shelf Challenge Update #1

March 19, 2014

When I was a kid, I loved to read (and actually, I still love to read!) In our home library, I have my battered, well-loved paperback copies of the Little House series of books that were read many times as I was growing up. During high school though, reading became a chore as we were 'forced' to read what I considered dry literature and then write about it. To this day, I find it hard to write reviews about books. Sometimes, it is just simply hard to put into words how a book has affected my thinking and my outlook on life.

But like I said, I still love to read and can devour many books over the course of a year. At the end of last year, Jon Acuff announced a challenge on his website, The Empty Shelf Challenge. Basically, start with an empty shelf on your bookcase, and as you finish reading books through the year, you add them to this empty shelf. At the end of the year, you can see all the books that you have read!

Now, I have never been one to make book lists before. It would have been really great if I kept a list of books we have read during our homeschool years, but we haven't (and I do really regret this, but anyway...) But, I do have a Goodreads account which makes it very easy to now keep track of books that I want to read, as well as books that I have finished reading.

I set myself a goal that I would like to read 24 books this year, which easily breaks down to two books per month. So, how have I done so far with the challenge?

Well, since the challenge was announced at the end of December, I have completed 12 books! You won't see all of the books on my shelf, since I am working my way through books on my Kindle also. If you didn't click the previous link, here is the list of books I have finished so far:

The Reluctant Prophet by Nancy Rue
Unexpected Dismounts by Nancy Rue
Too Far to Say Enough by Nancy Rue
My One Word by Mike Ashcraft
Notes from a Blue Bike by Tsh Oxenreider
Whispers of Hope by Beth Moore
The Warrior by Joyce Swann
Understanding God's Heart for Children by Jennifer Orona
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
Working with the Poor by Bryant Myers
The Hole in the Gospel by Richard Stearns
Sycamore Row by John Grisham

It is never too late to start a reading challenge. There is even a Pinterest board you can join to share the books you are completing this year.

Four Photos, Different Settings

March 6, 2014

One of my goals for this year is to work through a couple of photography books, continuing to educate myself on how to be a better photographer. Right now, I am reading through 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson. The first section of the book covers 'Defining Exposure'. Since my freesia bulbs have started blooming, I took my camera out to the backyard and took these four photos:

I had my camera (Nikon D3100) set to manual mode so I could control the aperture and the shutter speed. You can see a big difference between the first photo and the last photo.

In the first photo, you can see more details in the whole photo (including the weeds that are now growing with all of the rain that we have had!)

In the last photo, the center flowers are in focus and the surrounding area is blurred. This last photo would be a great one to add a Bible verse to along the top (hmm, just might have to do that!)

Do you typically shoot in manual mode? Which photo is visually appealing to you?

Tackle It on Tuesday: Understanding Exposure

March 4, 2014

Time for Tackle It on Tuesday! Last week, I shared that I was hoping to make it through the first chapter of 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson.

Understanding Exposure Table of Contents

Between everyday rehearsals for the play, a full day conference on Saturday, and taking my daughter to two of her performances over the weekend, I only read the Introduction and the section on 'What Is Meant by Exposure'.

Even though I didn't read very far into the book yet, I did actually pick up my camera last week and try one of the assignments! I hope to share what I learned a little later on this week.

So for the upcoming week, my house has been poorly neglected over the past few weeks with our very busy schedule. I haven't taken the time to put things away when we get back home because there has been so many other things that need to get done.

Junk mail and paid bills that need to be organized

I think this stuff multiplies while we sleep!!

There was a lot going on around here over the last couple of weeks!! So now that our schedule is slowing down a little bit, I really need to take some time this week and clean up a little bit of the clutter. I know this won't take very long to clean up, probably just 15 to 20 minutes a day. I may even set the timer and put on some music while I clean up these clutter piles!

How do you tackle clutter in your home?

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Love my family, flip flops, baking, reading, photography, traveling, and Compassion International