While walking around the yard, these Redbud leaves caught my eye. I had been playing around with the black and white setting on my camera and was surprised how neat they looked.
Author: Joyce
Cosmos
One of my favorite flowers.
Experimenting
While roaming in the woods, I decided to look at the trees a little differently.
Future Flower Girl
Esther would like for Megan to be her flower girl next year. Megan will love the pretty dress and being a princess for the day.
While exploring the park where Esther plans to have her wedding, she requested a few pictures with Megan showing off her ring. We then roamed around trying to imagine how the wedding was going to look.
Engaged!
My niece Esther is engaged!
Please pray for her and Alan as they seek out what a healthy marriage is and how they need God to be part of it.
Please also pray as she tries to plan a beautiful outdoor fall wedding. She has many great ideas and is working hard on finding needs at a reasonable price.
Congratulations Esther and Alan. We are praying for you as you get ready!
Falling Leaf
While at the mill the other day, we decided to experiment with new picture ideas. I loved how the water was reflecting, so I asked Andrea to drop leaves into the water while I tried to photograph them as they fell.
Autumn Waterfall
We started a photography class this fall. My Dad bought us a DVD that has many neat ideas that we will work on. Right now, we are traveling to different locations attempting to capture some colorful fall pictures.
The kids realize that each camera has its own strengths, but they all prefer mine. When I see that someone has found a really neat picture idea, I let them borrow my good camera. I would love to see each child develop their own photographic style and be able to start a portfolio to use to encourage others.
Imagination
This afternoon, Megan came outside all dressed up. Using two metal bars, she was playing a “violin”, humming a song only she knew. She also was imaging some story that was inside her head. As she roamed around the yard, she seemed oblivious to the other kids playing. Watching her, it was obvious that she was mimicking Lindsey Stirling.
We discovered Lindsey Stirling by accident on YouTube. She plays violin and has very creative videos; they are all very imaginative! When we turn on her music, 
Megan will turn it up louder. She will watch the video and ask for more.
Being a day shy of three, it is wonderful to see how God has created her imagination for us to enjoy!
Rainworks
It has been raining on and off most of the morning today. Thunderstorms have been rumbling through too. The house is dark, but everyone is enjoying it.
Adrian and Megan have forts in the living room to do school work under. Mark is trying to finish his math because he was bribed with hot chocolate and candy cane straws. Andrea is watching apples simmer while working on English. Audrey has changed clothes a few times already because she is playing in the rain between lessons.
I am helping with school work, monitoring apples cooking, doing chores and taking time to experiment with rain pictures. This afternoon, once school work is done, everyone will have more time to work on individual interests.
Dragonfly
The nights are turning cooler and we are starting to wear sweaters. While Mark was roaming, he came running and told me to get my camera quick!
He had discovered a huge dragonfly resting in the woods. It was just chilly enough that it was not moving much. We both admired it before moving it so the rest of the kids could see it.
The branch it was sitting on vibrated for a little while, like the dragonfly was shivering. Then, just after all the kids got to see it, the dragonfly took off and flew around the back yard for all of us to admire before disappearing back into the woods.