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OpenOurEyes Photography
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Lately
So excited about what God is doing lately! He is always faithful. Always on time. He has really been encouraging me lately about our Photography business. And yesterday I even hit one of my goals way early.....
I just finished making my very 1st website. Woot Woot! (I'm a bit excited, and more than a smidge proud of myself). Up till this point I have only done blogs. So this was a ginormous step form me....tech speaking :) lol. I used Wix.com. Found a starting point from another wix layout, then ended up changing just about everything about it. Even though I had a pre layout it was still extremely time consuming. I had to delete all the content, add my own....and did many other changes. Last night I thought I was good to go, got a little over zealous, published it, even shared on FB.....then my wonderful husband did some proofing and reviewing for me and found some little typo's, and also a BIG error on my part. I didn't realize that a couple elements on one page still linked to another page (showing info and pics of the original site.....fashion photography with a couple interesting pics and some writing I couldn't read b/c it was in French!) How thankful am I that my husband knows that when checking you need to try and click on EVERYTHING. Bahahaha.....oh my. Needless to say I removed the link from FB and Twitter. Then once I fixed it all I re-posted it this morning. It literally took me 8 hours to complete. Mind you I do have three 3 year olds to parent while doing this. So thankful for my wonderful kiddos who were so good during this time.
My goal is within the next 6-8 mos to have my own domain name. It costs $ to do that. Baby steps. If you would like to take a look at what I have currently (I'm sure I will keepadding and revising a bit to get it perfect before I get my domain, also need to add a Client page) here is the OpenOurEyes Photography Website! Exciting!
Please Please Please, give me some feedback on it!
Again, thank you Jesus for your faithfulness and leading me one baby step at a time.
"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin" Zechariah 4:10a
In other news....
I have revised my recipe for making laundry soap from the original I got. Each person has a different washer and probably has to revise a bit for their washing needs. I used the original recipe I was given a couple times. Liked it, but thought it needed to be a bit more soapy and could use more washing power. If you are interested in making your own Laundry Soap, it is super easy and crazy inexpensive. It has saved us about $60 these past 4 mos or so that we have been using it. And it really does a great job cleaning our clothes and doesn't have a strong smell or any ingredients that would cause allergies....unless your allergic to any of the below ingredients :)
Ingredients.....
1 Naptha Soap Bar
1 1/2 cups Borax
1 1/2 cups Super Washing Soda
1 5gal bucket
Grate soap and put it in a saucepan. Add 12 cups of water and heat until the soap completely melts.
Add the washing soda and Borax and stir until it is dissolved.
Remove from heat.
Pour 8 cups of water into your 5gal bucket
Add soap mixture and stir.
Then add 2 Gal of water plus 6 cups and stir
Cover bucket tightly with lid and let sit at least 24hrs.
After it has sat, open it and stir before each use. (it's gelish and just a bit sludgy)
use 1/2 cup to 1 cup per load - depending on size of load
That's it!
**picture below is b4 it sets.....**
Our kiddos have been doing good lately. It's been so crazy hot outside though. I usually LOVE summer, but this year it seems especially hot and humid. We have had to really limit our time outside, especially if they are not playing in water. So we have been doing more indoor activities.....painting, coloring, playing a bingo board game, trains, follow the leader, movies.....and did I mention they absolutely LOVE washing dishes. It's crazy! And I love it! Trinity will ask all day long, "Mommy, can I wash dishes?" lol They have done them twice this week already.
And here are some more random phone pics.....
makin' some cake
On a walk
Teamwork!!
sleepy little panda
She loves this kitty
At Amber and Matt's wedding!
My sexy stud of a husband
She's going through a cowgirl phase....I think it really looks cute on her!!!
decorating some cookies!
Playin' outside
Fun times! I love my life! Thanks Jesus for your crazy awesome blessings!
I just finished making my very 1st website. Woot Woot! (I'm a bit excited, and more than a smidge proud of myself). Up till this point I have only done blogs. So this was a ginormous step form me....tech speaking :) lol. I used Wix.com. Found a starting point from another wix layout, then ended up changing just about everything about it. Even though I had a pre layout it was still extremely time consuming. I had to delete all the content, add my own....and did many other changes. Last night I thought I was good to go, got a little over zealous, published it, even shared on FB.....then my wonderful husband did some proofing and reviewing for me and found some little typo's, and also a BIG error on my part. I didn't realize that a couple elements on one page still linked to another page (showing info and pics of the original site.....fashion photography with a couple interesting pics and some writing I couldn't read b/c it was in French!) How thankful am I that my husband knows that when checking you need to try and click on EVERYTHING. Bahahaha.....oh my. Needless to say I removed the link from FB and Twitter. Then once I fixed it all I re-posted it this morning. It literally took me 8 hours to complete. Mind you I do have three 3 year olds to parent while doing this. So thankful for my wonderful kiddos who were so good during this time.
My goal is within the next 6-8 mos to have my own domain name. It costs $ to do that. Baby steps. If you would like to take a look at what I have currently (I'm sure I will keepadding and revising a bit to get it perfect before I get my domain, also need to add a Client page) here is the OpenOurEyes Photography Website! Exciting!
Please Please Please, give me some feedback on it!
Again, thank you Jesus for your faithfulness and leading me one baby step at a time.
"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin" Zechariah 4:10a
In other news....
I have revised my recipe for making laundry soap from the original I got. Each person has a different washer and probably has to revise a bit for their washing needs. I used the original recipe I was given a couple times. Liked it, but thought it needed to be a bit more soapy and could use more washing power. If you are interested in making your own Laundry Soap, it is super easy and crazy inexpensive. It has saved us about $60 these past 4 mos or so that we have been using it. And it really does a great job cleaning our clothes and doesn't have a strong smell or any ingredients that would cause allergies....unless your allergic to any of the below ingredients :)
Ingredients.....
1 Naptha Soap Bar
1 1/2 cups Borax
1 1/2 cups Super Washing Soda
1 5gal bucket
Grate soap and put it in a saucepan. Add 12 cups of water and heat until the soap completely melts.
Add the washing soda and Borax and stir until it is dissolved.
Remove from heat.
Pour 8 cups of water into your 5gal bucket
Add soap mixture and stir.
Then add 2 Gal of water plus 6 cups and stir
Cover bucket tightly with lid and let sit at least 24hrs.
After it has sat, open it and stir before each use. (it's gelish and just a bit sludgy)
use 1/2 cup to 1 cup per load - depending on size of load
That's it!
**picture below is b4 it sets.....**
Our kiddos have been doing good lately. It's been so crazy hot outside though. I usually LOVE summer, but this year it seems especially hot and humid. We have had to really limit our time outside, especially if they are not playing in water. So we have been doing more indoor activities.....painting, coloring, playing a bingo board game, trains, follow the leader, movies.....and did I mention they absolutely LOVE washing dishes. It's crazy! And I love it! Trinity will ask all day long, "Mommy, can I wash dishes?" lol They have done them twice this week already.
makin' some cake
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Family, Fireworks, and just hangin' out (4th of July weekend)!
This was the BEST 4th of July weekend! We had so much fun and lots of family time, and some time with friends. The kiddos really liked having Daddy home. Chris took Friday and Tuesday off, so he had a 5 day weekend, and it was wonderful. We chilled at the house, went and got ice cream, walked the 'Nade and got some Lemonade from Antie Anne's. Monday evening we headed over to Orchard's Park for the fireworks show. I was so happy....we didn't get there till like 745pm, and we got a close parking space AND a great place to sit! Holler! Here are some pics....the kids LOVED the fireworks. Gabriel literally clapped at every firework that went off....so he clapped a lot!
Below is the baby frog that visited us on our blanket at the park...
Then on Tuesday we had another fun filled day....back to Orchard's park to see the ducks, toss rocks, and climb around!
After this we went to the cool gas station for lunch. Also found out that you can have peanut butter made their.....you do it yourself. It's the coolest thing! They have this machine with a whole bunch of peanuts. You press a lever, and the peanuts turn into fresh PB! It's awesome. We will def be trying that when we run out of what we have! For some reason we had never seen it b4.
Then we headed to Downtown Rogers and visited "Toby" :)
Then we headed to Downtown Rogers and visited "Toby" :)
And stopped by Meridienne (dessert salon/cafe) for some ice tea and a snack...ALL their desserts are totally fab. The kids had some of our Lemon Tarte and some homemade Chocolate Marshmallows. They make everything there fresh....and it's YUM
Then finished out our day and weekend playing some Tennis on the new courts out at Memorial Park! Chris and I played several games, let the kids get the balls (they loved that!). Then Chris gave the kids their 1st Tennis lesson! They had SOOOO much fun. And today (Wed) they have been constantly asking "more tennis mama?!!!!" lol! Now we know how much they will enjoy it, and will need to grab them some kid rackets! FUN times....and don't they look so cute?! It's like we have our own little Tennis club....
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
1Pet, noPet, 3Pet ,2Pet
At one of our favorite places to go....
The Compton Gardens is a great place to go with the family and just walk around, look at flowers and trees, and squash bugs :) That's our kiddos favorite part. They play the find the bug and squash it game every time we go there! And they love all the rocks to climb. I'm so happy our kiddos are so easily amused and just love to be out in God's creation. We love being out there.
This is Gabriel break dancing. We were listening to some Britt Nicole and Gabriel loves her upbeat music! Usually he just jumps around, but this time he decided to really break it down....
So, this past Thursday our one of our fence gates got opened while Jacque was outside. There were several in our neighborhood that got opened and several dogs that got out so we are thinking it was just a kid thinking it would be a fun to open people's gates. So Jacque was gone. We couldn't find him that night at all. But that evening we had this turtle that was in our driveway on it's way to the street, so I grabbed it and put it in our backyard....
Back to Jacque....On Friday afternoon Animal Control called me back and said they think they found our dog! Thankfully a friend of ours was able to help us out and go pick him up....
And last but not least, the new kitten "Belle"
Miss.Belle and I went for a ride Monday morning to get her nails clipped. In 3 weeks or so we will be able to get her de-clawed. And that will be SO nice! She has the loudest "meow" ever. She kept us up the other night more than a newborn baby. She did much better last night though. She just needs lots of attention and cuddles or she is not happy kitty :)
Having fun playing outside! Kiddos hadn't been out in the pool in almost a week so they were so happy to get out and play, and then they decided they wanted me to take their pics....
Look at this beefcake! he's like a mini Rocky Balboa!
Playing in the grass coloring their legs and feet :)
Like I said earlier. Easily amused :P Love it!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
teaching stewardhip to your children
So how do you teach your children how to be good stewards of themselves, their toys, clothes, their room, their relationships....etc?
Well, you start by being a good steward yourself. WOW, right?! Profound. Not rocket science, right? "You can't give away what you don't have"....If we aren't being a good steward of our body, our house, our relationship with our spouse or our friends and family, our finances....etc, how can we expect them to know how. People, especially kids, learn by example.
We have always taught our children to pick up their toys, take their dishes to the sink, pick up their mess when they make one, flush the toilet and put the lid down, wash hands, share, say please and thank you and excuse me...and use manners in general....etc. And all of this has been learned through us doing it and working with them on it.
Is our house in perfect condition 100% of the time? nope. Are our children perfect? nope. Are we perfect parents? far from it.
But being a good steward isn't about being perfect. And it's not about chores. And it's not even about a whole list of rules.
It IS about honoring God. Stewardship is a form of worship. When we are good stewards of what we have, God blesses us.
And we have to teach this to our children.
Teaching to clean (stewardship of home and belongings)
To be quite honest, they ask to do more that what we have asked. Lot's more. They have been emptying the dishwasher out since they could walk, they will just go grab a wipe or towel and start wiping the windows or tables or toys down, feed the dog, try to fold laundry, set the table. And non of those things are things that we have made them do as "chores". It's just part of life in our house. It's just what we do. To learn more on how to have children who love to clean and take care of their home, check out this post I wrote a while back. the pictures are no longer on it as I had to clean out my pics to upload more, but the story and tips are still there!
She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity) she will not eat.- Proverbs 31:27
Teaching to give (stewardship of our heart)
Teaching to be thankful (stewardship of our relationships, finances, and stuff)
Be thankful. Get excited about the "little things"! Use what you have wisely. Treat people with respect and love. Don't talk bad about people. Kids learn to show love, respect, generosity from YOU. So if you are negative and talk trash, disrespect your friends and you home and your things....your children will too.
Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Romans 12:10
Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air; common sense tells you it's a stupid way to live. - Proverbs 11:29
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. - Ephesians 4:32
Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. - Ephesians 4:29
Being a good steward of your children.
Just like the tittle of that book says "Your kids are your own fault".
Are we going to put blame on our children? .....OR we as parents just need to step up and take responsibility of our children. They have only been on this earth for a couple years...if that. We've been on this earth close to 30....give or take a few years for you....and we still don't have it all figured out. We can't go day to day....hour to hour without our Heavenly Father's help, direction, correction, love, discipline, forgiveness, mercy....so how can our children go without ours.
Discipline your children while you still have the chance; indulging them destroys them. Proverbs 19:18
Do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.- Ephesians 6:4
Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad.- Proverbs 29:17
Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. - Proverbs 22:6
Do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged. - Colossians 3:21
So train them up by first being. Teach them to be a good steward by being one yourself and by being one to them. For some or most of us that means allowing the Holy Spirit to first teach us. Because like we mentioned above..."we cannot give what we do not have."
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. - Ephesians 5:1
Well, you start by being a good steward yourself. WOW, right?! Profound. Not rocket science, right? "You can't give away what you don't have"....If we aren't being a good steward of our body, our house, our relationship with our spouse or our friends and family, our finances....etc, how can we expect them to know how. People, especially kids, learn by example.
We have always taught our children to pick up their toys, take their dishes to the sink, pick up their mess when they make one, flush the toilet and put the lid down, wash hands, share, say please and thank you and excuse me...and use manners in general....etc. And all of this has been learned through us doing it and working with them on it.
Is our house in perfect condition 100% of the time? nope. Are our children perfect? nope. Are we perfect parents? far from it.
But being a good steward isn't about being perfect. And it's not about chores. And it's not even about a whole list of rules.
It IS about honoring God. Stewardship is a form of worship. When we are good stewards of what we have, God blesses us.
And we have to teach this to our children.
Teaching to clean (stewardship of home and belongings)
To be quite honest, they ask to do more that what we have asked. Lot's more. They have been emptying the dishwasher out since they could walk, they will just go grab a wipe or towel and start wiping the windows or tables or toys down, feed the dog, try to fold laundry, set the table. And non of those things are things that we have made them do as "chores". It's just part of life in our house. It's just what we do. To learn more on how to have children who love to clean and take care of their home, check out this post I wrote a while back. the pictures are no longer on it as I had to clean out my pics to upload more, but the story and tips are still there!
She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity) she will not eat.- Proverbs 31:27
Teaching to give (stewardship of our heart)
- When I am handing out snacks that they each want, i will give it to one child to give to another.
- example: I will give Trinity a cup of snacks to give to Asher, then I will give Gabriel a cup to give to Trinity....
A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. - Proverbs 11:25
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. - 2 Corinthians 9:6
Be thankful. Get excited about the "little things"! Use what you have wisely. Treat people with respect and love. Don't talk bad about people. Kids learn to show love, respect, generosity from YOU. So if you are negative and talk trash, disrespect your friends and you home and your things....your children will too.
Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Romans 12:10
Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air; common sense tells you it's a stupid way to live. - Proverbs 11:29
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. - Ephesians 4:32
Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. - Ephesians 4:29
Being a good steward of your children.
Just like the tittle of that book says "Your kids are your own fault".
Are we going to put blame on our children? .....OR we as parents just need to step up and take responsibility of our children. They have only been on this earth for a couple years...if that. We've been on this earth close to 30....give or take a few years for you....and we still don't have it all figured out. We can't go day to day....hour to hour without our Heavenly Father's help, direction, correction, love, discipline, forgiveness, mercy....so how can our children go without ours.
Discipline your children while you still have the chance; indulging them destroys them. Proverbs 19:18
Do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.- Ephesians 6:4
Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad.- Proverbs 29:17
Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. - Proverbs 22:6
Do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged. - Colossians 3:21
So train them up by first being. Teach them to be a good steward by being one yourself and by being one to them. For some or most of us that means allowing the Holy Spirit to first teach us. Because like we mentioned above..."we cannot give what we do not have."
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. - Ephesians 5:1
Monday, June 13, 2011
Photo's & WORD
Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad. - Prov 29:17
We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. - 2 Cor 6:6
Discipline your children while you still have the chance; indulging them destroys them. - Prov 19:18
Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.- Prov 22:6
Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. - Psalm 127:3
Children are such a gift. God has blessed us something crazy with these three awesome kiddos. Definitely more amazing than we deserve. But isn't that what God does? He loves to wow us! And I am continually wow'd each and every day. I love being a Mommy. It's my fave.
To the faithful you show yourself faithful; to those with integrity you show integrity. Psalm 18:25
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."Gen. 12:3
Even children are known by the way they act, whether their conduct is pure, and whether it is right.- Prov 20:11
A refusal to correct is a refusal to love; love your children by disciplining them.- Prov 13:24
I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.- 3 John 1:4
But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.”- Matthew 19:14
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. - Psalm 42:7
My cup runeth over.
Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. - Romans 12:10
My cup runeth over.
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