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!

photo challenge day sixteen: breaking the rules

today's challenge of the day was long exposure photography. who in the world knows what that is? well, probably professional photographers and people willing to research it a little further than googling it and then deciding i don't really want to figure it out. so... i'm breaking the rules. i looked at the total number of pictures i took in the month of june and the final count is 591!!! maybe that is normal for some of you but with this photo challenge, i have captured way more on camera than i ever would have without doing it. besides it's summer and there are just way more exciting things going on than in the dead of winter. so, i decided to do a little photo collage just highlighting the main events of the month of june. as i was trying to pick just a couple pictures it hit me how incredibly blessed i am. i just got done reading in a study that a friend and i are going through "becoming more than just a good bible study girl" by lysa terkeurst. She is talking about the importance of praise being on your lips. it is so easy to pick on the circumstances in my life that i just don't feel are right or how they could be different, or possessing a general ugly attitude. when i look at these photographs i don't see how anything but praise should be on my lips. no, life is far from perfect... and obviously i wouldn't take pictures of the negative circumstances that may surround me at times, but regardless of the situation i am in i need to praise Him and not my circumstances. so, right now, i am so thankful for an amazing family, sweet friends, the freedom to enjoy summer with two healthy kiddos, the precious memories that we are able to make while these little ones are little and so much more.
june, you were a fun one! bring on july!!

photo challenge day fifteen: a silhouette

i took this picture when we went to the lake last weekend. this was the kiddos first trip to a beach. so sand, lake water, it was all a new experience. let's just say that i don't think this is a beach we will be visiting often.. it was kinda icky. jed kinda thought so too, so he just stood on the sidelines and "observed"! i didn't blame him... i was good with observing also! photo tip: i attended a photo class with some other wonderful ladies this spring and one thing i learned is to try not to crop off "limbs" when you are taking a photo. if i could do something differently i would have stepped back farther and gotten his legs in the picture as well! i think an exception would be the photo below where the point of my picture was jed exploring the sand... if i would have gotten the rest of his body i think it would have taken the focus off of his exploration!