On Saturday I attended the out-of-town wedding of my sister-in-law. We drove home on Sunday, and I arrived just in time to witness the birth of a dear friend’s baby girl on Monday. It has been an exhausting and exhilarating week.
But now I have suitcases to unpack (still!), laundry to do, and week-old emails to answer. The adrenalin has drained away, and the days ahead seem downright dull.
These words from John Piper on the book of Ruth place my recent past and immediate future in proper perspective:
“God’s purposes for his people is to connect us to something far greater than ourselves. God wants us to know that when we follow him, our lives always mean more than we think they do. Naomi had no idea in the land of Moab that God was making her the ancestor of the Messiah. For the Christian there is always a connection between ordinary events of life and the stupendous work of God in history.
Everything we do in obedience to God, no matter how small, is significant. It is part of a cosmic mosaic that God is painting to display the greatness of his powers and kingdom to the world and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10). A deep satisfaction of the Christian life is that we are not given over to trifles. Serving a widowed mother in law, gleaning in a field, falling in love, having a baby—for the Christian these things are connected to eternity. They are part of something so much bigger than they seem” (p. 121).
Thank God—as Christians, “We are not given over to trifles!” The ordinary events of life and the extraordinary ones are all “part of something so much bigger than they seem.” And everything we do in obedience to God is significant.
Kind of changes how I think about unpacking my suitcases.
So it’s time for some photography talk! As I said in my first post, if you hear an expert contradict what I say, go with them.
At first I’m going to share ideas that everyone with a camera—point-and-shoot or slr—can apply. I might get to more technical aspects of photography later on.
My first suggestion is to overshoot. Take tons and tons of pictures. When I was in school my teachers would always tell us that film was the cheapest part of photography, so shoot lots and lots of it. And now that most of us shoot digital, we don’t even have to pay for film! It only costs a little time to delete bad pictures.
Realistically, I hope for one to three really good images for every hundred or so that I might shoot. I know that might sound a little silly, but I’m being serious. The best photographers out there aren’t getting that perfect shot with every click of the shutter. We just never see the dozens of images that they don’t use.
Take, for example, the image that I used for 52home yesterday, the one of the cousins eating ice cream together. I have forty-nine of those. I just showed you one. And after looking through them, I wish I would have taken one hundred and forty-nine! I didn’t love all the expressions in the one I chose, but it was the best of the forty-nine. Imagine if I had only taken ten shots. I would have regretted it later. I’m regretting only taking forty-nine right now!
So next time you go to take a picture, press that shutter a few extra times. When you think you might have nailed it, take 10 more. Deleting later is the easy part! But recreating that moment—probably impossible.
School is almost out and it’s time to make summer plans—swimming and biking, eating dinner on the back porch, and berry picking (I guess Janelle has already gone to the Strawberry patch).
But here’s an idea for you—in addition to the fun activities, do one thing this summer that you’ll be really glad you did come Fall.
Last summer, when we knew we were going to homeschool our oldest son Jack (at least for first grade), I ordered curriculum and got advice from other moms. But I also needed to prepare someone else—my (then) two year old Tori.
If I was going to teach Jack, I needed more than five minutes of peace at one time. And I didn’t want Tori to sit in front of the TV all morning! So, throughout the summer I eased Tori into a new daily rhythm.
Each day she had “kitchen time” and “puzzle time” and “coloring time.” She also had lots of breaks where she and Jack ate their snack and played together. I gradually increased these times from a few minutes to 30-45 minute blocks.
The strategy paid off and our transition into homeschooling—though not without its challenges—was smoother than I had expected.
Whether your kids (or you) are going to school this fall, or if you are homeschooling or teaching a class, think about one thing you can do in June that you’ll be glad you did come September.
“These people were always finding water all over their pool deck and furniture, every time they came home, after being away for a few hours. They thought the neighbourhood kids were watching for them to leave, and using the pool. However, they could never catch them doing it. So, they set up their video cam and left. This is what they found out…”
On Saturday I attended the out-of-town wedding of my sister-in-law. We drove home on Sunday, and I arrived just in time to witness the birth of a dear friend’s baby girl on Monday. It has been an exhausting and exhilarating week.
School is almost out and it’s time to make summer plans—swimming and biking, eating dinner on the back porch, and berry picking (I guess Janelle has already gone to the 
Hey, guess what? Me too!
