Lest the title of this blog mislead readers, I should inform you that this week at Rocks in My Dryer, Shannon is hosting What DOESN’T Work for Me. Hearing the week’s theme, I hemmed and hawed, trying to think of something to post. Obviously my life is too full of glorious success stories to come up with something that doesn’t work. I was completely stumped.

Or maybe the list of possibilities was just too long.
And pathetic.

Dying houseplants, lawn full of weeds, eternally messy home (bless it’s heart and hearth), arguing children, jeans fitting a little too snugly, cereal for dinner (again).

It was all a bit depressing. Plus, who wants to read about those dreadful topics? I decided to forget the Works for Me Wednesday post and instead download the day’s pictures. As I scrolled through my shots, I immediately recognized the subject for the day’s post.

That fancy aperture setting didn’t quite capture the “look” I was going for.

Photography.

More specifically, self-taught photography. Tim bought me a wonderful camera for Christmas, the Nikon D40X. It’s a digital SLR, comes with two lenses and takes incredible pictures.

Great pictures unless you try to mess with the manual settings and end up in the dark.

If only I could figure out how to use it. Beyond my two favorite settings, that is - auto and flash off. Yep, I end up taking most of my pictures either in auto mode (which tends to mean “flash”) and flash off (for my outside, brighter lit pictures).

Today I pulled out my Nikon D40/D40x Digital Field Guide by David D. Busch. It’s a beautiful book with full-color illustrations, detailed instructions and chapters full of information.

I still don’t get it. I get lost in ISO settings, aperture and f/stops. Oh, I understand the concepts, it’s the application that trip me. Undeterred by past failures (I’m nothing if not an optimist - it usually Works For Me. Har, har.)

I went outside, book in one hand, tripod in the other and my camera around my neck. I tried, really I did, to change my settings and experiment with the manual features.

Even this picture taken on the Children setting looks a bit ‘off’ to me.

It wasn’t pretty. I guess, until I can get some professional help (HEY, I heard that snort!), I’ll stick to my basic settings and continue my study of Photoshop. A little photo-editing goes a LONG way.

If this exercise in voyeuristic failure viewing appealed to your dark sense of humor, please by all means, visit Rocks in My Dryer and check out what else doesn’t work for people.

Kathy
Project 366 - Day 127

After living in ‘the city’ for more than three years, we have finally arrived at an important milestone: we made our first visit to the local Urgent Care. You’d think with five children (some of whom view gravity as more of a guideline than a law), we’d be racking up “frequent-wounder” miles.

Don’t get me wrong — we have not neglected our responsibility to patronize the local health-care establishments. Both Joshua and Daniel have spent time in the hospital for appendicitis; indeed, Daniel spent 7 full days in the hospital, racking up huge medical bills (hooray for medical insurance!). Even little Sarah started us off in this community with a scary emergency and hospital stay. For some reason, though, we’ve never brought our custom to the local Urgent Care branch.

Daniel was very brave, and hardly said more than ‘ouch’ during the whole process.

“We’ve had a bit of an injury,” Kathy told me. Her voice was guarded as she called me from the van, sounding as though she was pretty worried but didn’t want to scare me.

“Really? How bad? Who was hurt?” For some reason I live in fear of dental injuries — I imagined some child with broken teeth, gushing blood from the mouth.

“It is Daniel. He was crawling through the bushes and poked himself with some kind of stick; there’s something weird sticking out of the wound.”

It is nice to have our boy all patched up.

We agreed that she should finish driving home from the play date, and that I would take Daniel to Urgent Care if the wound merited such attention. Looking at it in the driveway, my heart sank — although not a large wound, it seemed to stretch open rather stubbornly. I didn’t think I could get it to close with a butterfly bandaid (assuming we could find one). Besides, what was that yellowish stuff poking out of the wound? Our insurance copay is $100 for an emergency room visit, but only $30 for an Urgent Care visit. Now that we’re on the budget, there’s no point in being all snooty — off to Urgent Care we went.

David came along for the fun, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. Two hours later, they finally looked at Daniel’s leg.

“It’ll need stitches,” opined the nurse. She got out some supplies and we waited for the doctor to make his appearance. I must admit, I was worried. What kind of doctor works at this kind of clinic?

The problem with puncture wounds is that you’re never really sure how deep they are.

I guess I needn’t have worried. The doctor who finally stitched Daniel up was a kindly old gentleman with an excellent bedside manner. “That’s just subcutaneous fat,” he assured me, pointing at the extrusion in Daniel’s wound. He stuffed it all back in and applied 8 or 10 stitches with expert precision. We hobbled out to the car with a roll of surgical tape and some extra dressings, good value for our $30.

Tim
Project 366, Day 123

It’s May first!! I can breathe a sigh of relief and close out April’s obsessive detailed budget spreadsheet. Thank goodness that month is over. I was counting down the days there at the end.

“Must make it to the 30th. Don’t go to the store. Don’t buy anything. The new month is coming.”

It was rather intense there at the end. Ah, on to May.

Proving that I don’t learn from my mistakes, I managed to spend the kids’ entire clothing budget on two items.

On the first day of the month. And went over by $5.

Of course, checking out Daniel’s outfit, perhaps I should have spent a little more. Well, only 30 days left to go in May.

Sigh.

Kathy
Project 366 - Day 122

Daniel and Tim are in the tomato business.
Cherry tomatoes.
$1 a plant.

Nothing like a bright red van to complement the tomato business.

I’m pretty sure this new endeavor will put at least one of the five children through college.

Kathy
Project 366 - Day 121

Hooray - the semester (and year) of our homeschooling co-op has come to a lovely finish!! I love being a part of such an amazing group. The board members are dedicated, passionate women who love the students and believe whole-heartedly in making our co-op excellent. The other families are composed of some of our dearest friends. The kids thrive in their different classes - Rachel and Daniel both scored in the top of their spelling class. I am constantly delighted in the work the students produce for me in my classes.

We had a tea party in our kindergarten class this morning.

All of that said, I am thrilled to shed the responsibility, stress and work of another year at co-op. Whew! In the meantime, I will try hard not to think about the THREE classes I have committed to teaching next semester. There are so many fun ideas I like to explore with the kids, I have a difficult time pacing myself.

Ah, but fall is a long time away and I plan to thoroughly enjoy the spring and summer.

What’s a party without accessories?

Tim took over 300 pictures of our Friends and Family Night where the kindergarteners graduated, the choir performed, the older three took part in a mystery play, and the parents/teachers were honored.

First grade here we come!

Hopefully at least one or two of the pictures turned out.

Kathy
Project 366 - Day 116