photo challenge day twenty three: sunflare

let me tell you... sunflares are challenging!! especially if you are shooting in manual. i think it would be worth my time to study a bit up on them because i LOVE the look of them! this picture of jed was taken at mahoney state park and the only reason i got it was because i was trying to get the settings right for a family picture and i needed a subject to focus on! kids were getting crabby and i was going to just give up... then i just switched it to P and handed it to my mom! its weird that the family picture was taken after the sunflare picture of jed... the sun must have been behind the trees... anyway... i love the kids expressions... i wish ol' ma and pa looked just a bit more excited!!

i just love summer and love sunflares... i'm thankful they will both stick around for a couple more months!

photo challenge day twenty two: hands

these photos were oopsie's as i was trying to get my settings right before organizing everyone for a "look at the camera" photo! i kind of liked these oopsie's as they captured just what was happening at the time... my parents loving on their grandbabies! one of my favorite things! i know this isn't a picture of hands only but as i was looking through my pictures i thought about my parents hands and what they represent for me. those hands worked so incredibly hard to care and provide for me and my siblings... they were the hands that guided me through my growing up years, the hands that held me when i was hurting and the hands that gave lots and lots of hugs! i love that those same hands are open and willing to offer that some love to my children.

the poem mama's hands (click on the title to read the poem) is one i always think of when i think of my moms hands... that poem describes my mom almost to a tee! she has done everything from pull a calf in the cold to making christmas gifts by hand and everything in between! i love you for that mom!

photo challenge day twenty one: faceless self portrait

i don't know what this obsession with self portraits is in this photo challenge... at least with this one they let us leave out our face!! this was part of our day today... jed even brought me a couple books! this book that elli picked out was actually mine when i was her age! (mom.. do you remember rainy day kitten!?!) today was an appropriate day to read it as it is just kind of dreary out!

photo challenge day twenty: bokeh

i know for a fact that when miss elli see a flower she first admires it, "ooohh pretty flaaaauuur (flower)!" she would then gently smell it, then move on to the next one to admire it as well. here is what jed does when he sees a beautiful flower. naturally, you pick up a stick...
... and jam it as many times as you can into the center to see if you can dissect it into millions and million of little pieces! oh the differences between them!

i'm not sure if this counts as "bokeh" photography. i was told the background needed to be blurry... so it was pretty much as blurry as i could get it!

photo challenge day nineteen: something orange

a few "somethings" that are orange... great grandpa's popsicle, goldfish, an orange zinnia and the bottom of jed's sandal!

photo challenge day eighteen: your shoes

generally when i'm working around the house, chasing the kiddos or getting groceries i like to wear a little number like these...

bwhahahahah!! anyone who knows me is seriously laughing right along with me!! i NEVER wear anything like this... all shoes, boots, etc. with anyone sort of a heel were thrown to the side when i started having kids. i'm kind of a comfort at all cost type of person. if you are wondering just how comfortable, you can read my post on the UNIFORMS! anyway... i did wear these adorable peep toe heels for a very special occassion exactly one year ago tomorrow for my beautiful sister and hubby tom's wedding day! when will i wear adorable peep toe pumps again you ask??? when my sweet two year old daughter ties the knot in twenty some years... then you can bet this mother of the bride will be slipping on some flip flops for the dance!! so this is my reality... in the summer. i am usually wearing flips flops or comfy flat shoes! there you have it... my shoes!

happy 1st anniversary tessa & tom! we love you both so much!

photo challenge day seventeen: technology

this here blog is being hijacked by my smokin' hot hubby for this edition of the photo challenge. i was talking to him about technology and how i knew the obvious ones but i wanted to do something a little different and this is what he came up with:

how seed corn is technology

in order to get the corn that we see in the field today there is a long drawn out process of research and development in order to get the correct cross between two different germ plasms that will produce a hearty, vigorous plant that will yield to its greatest potential. encapsulated in all of this there are many genes that are bred into each kernel through years and years of research and test trials. the average seed corn hybrid today is in research and development for 7 -10 years before it is released into commercial production. thanks to this technology we do not have a food shortage in our country like many other countries do. i am personally grateful for agriculture in general as it provides for our family as well as the many generations before me.

it's me again: here are a few "bonus" pictures for you! do you see the long tower like thing in the background of the above picture? that is a pivot... a little piece of technology we are grateful for as it water the corn much for quickly and effectively than other methods.

can you believe those straight rows? i know jon is amazing and he has had lots of practice planting corn over the years and he is pretty close to a perfectionist, but i don't think anyone could get an entire field of corn perfectly straight. thanks to auto steer, he doesn't even need to steer the tractor. he just pokes a few buttons and off it goes. (he is convinced that it's so simple that i could do it... i'm not so sure about that!)

and last but not least... a little piece of technology that i thought was a bit "old school" at first. this spring we had two way radios installed in all of our equipment, vehicles, and in the house. i remember this technology as a little girl at my grandparents house. it kind of seemed to phase out for awhile and now its back!! i am very thankful for this technology when i am up in the hills and our modern technology fails (i.e. no cell service) and i need to figure out where in the world i'm going!

so there you have it... technology: red neck edition! ha! just kidding! maybe i should call it agriculture edition.. there, that sounds better!