{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

Hehehehehe!  Today's Challenge.... { Something Blue }

Okay, I will admit that I looked around for something blue and snapped a photo of a bucket and then the sit and spin and was on the hunt for my next blue subject when the Viagra pen on the kitchen counter caught my eye... and then I giggled - It is after all 'The Little Blue Pill' !  I simply could not resist.  Maybe that is my favorite part of this challenge, thinking out of the box and trying to be funny, creative and.... well.... Have fun. I've said it before "Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out of it alive"

Thanks must be given to my wicked step-mother, the Pfizer Pharmaceutical rep for today's photo...

{ The pen is mightier than the sword }

*insert giggles here*

{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

Today's Challenge {Someone I love} of course I love my kiddos ad my hubby and even if my hubby allowed me to photograph him, I wouldn't have been able to take a photo of all three for today's challenge since the Hub-bub is on the road again.  There were a ton of great photos of the girls in the bucket tonight, but.... very few were Internet appropriate and frankly just not for public consumption, although I will cherish them!  So here's tonight's photo

{ Rub-a-dub-dub }

Hi ! We're your Hillbilly neighbors...

Where should I start?  Should I start with; It's 108* at 8 o'clock at night? Should I say; This is a childhood memory of mine?  How about; I am a hippie at heart and love my planet?? I guess it doesn't really matter. It's my story and it makes me giggle. AND I have no shame about this what-so-ever, but I know this will give some of my besties a chuckle so... Laugh, cringe, judge, I still think it's both fun and funny!

Let's just go with it is 108* out today and I filled the girls backyard pool this morning. We have used it very little this summer. Not because of the oppressive heat but because, well.... The girls can swim. It is thoroughly enjoyable not only to go to the pool with the girls but to spend hours there with them. Gigi needs nothing more than a pair of eyes on her and a playmate these days; and Lula is not far behind her sister when it comes to swimming unassisted.  For some reason though I felt like today might be a stay at home, splash around in the backyard kiddie pool and lay low kind of a day. No sooner had I filled the girls play pool did the phone ring with an invitation from our neighborhood swimming pals, asking us if we wanted to hit the pool for the afternoon.  Of course I cannot turn down a chance to float in water deep enough for...well.. me to float in or the chance to get all of us out of the house. Not to mention the energy the girls would expend swimming all day {always a BIG bonus}! So bags and lunch were packed and off we went.

Three and a half hours at the pool and my thought that we'd return home and get some use of the play pool looked less and less likely. However, while I fixed dinner Gigi splashed around in the pool and excitedly exclaimed that it was "Hot like a bath tub!!" { light bulb } Honestly, we've done it here before more than once and when I was little my mother was a big fan.... A 'post dinner dip' when I was a kid involved the warmed by sunshine all day kiddie pool water, a bar of soap and a washcloth.  While I have done it after the kids have played all day in the pool  before, it seemed a better idea today. To actually make good use of the pool filled with water rather than just empty it on the grass, barely used. seemed, right. We do after all live in the desert and well.... It just feels wrong to blatantly waste water {That's the hippie in me}.

So armed with a wash cloth, nail brush and a bottle of shampoo, I donned my swim suit, stripped the girls down and I gave the girls their evening bath in the pool. They love it!  The three of us more than fit in the pool.  They get to swim and splash all they want, they even get to wash mommy's hair. What could be more fun than that??  We put the water to good use and the kids got clean without wasting any more water!

I'm sure if any of our neighbors could see us they'd wonder who let the Hillbillies into the suburbs. I wouldn't be surprised if my HOA has a rule against backyard bathing but.... Hey it's an adventure and an environmental lesson. I am simply teaching the girls good hygiene while also teaching them how to be good stewards of the planet!

{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

Uugh- Today's challenge is { A Bad habit } Well.... how about two??  Here is Hubby's occasional, take the edge off of a bad day, tin of dip {yup, gross} and..... here are his, get through everyother day without a dip, chewed nails. Let's just call this one...

{ Sigmund Freud }

My Friend Mel....

{ This is not a photo challenge photo }

{{ Oh and if you look closely enough and notice a misspelling...That was for my benefit - I am the queen of sloppy spelling!! }}

I don't really know where to start..... Last night was far and away the most challenging Body Back class to date. It was hot, humid and we'd just had an insane, record making, news breaking, dust storm the night before.  It was also a traveling class and my fellow mamas seemed to be dropping like flies. One mom even needed to hit the ER on her way home from extreme dehydration and overexertion. She was a "teammate" of mine last night, along with my friend Mel. The three of us made up "Team Pigtails". We are all three on our second session of Body Back and had deemed ourselves the Cheerleaders for the group. After this HOT and emotional and slightly scary evening, I did not sleep well.

I called out to Mel before I attempted to hit the sack last night for help. I was already unmotivated to go to Stroller Strides the following morning.  Even before I really knew Mel, in brief encounters at Stroller Strides, I knew that we were kindred spirits. That and she has this very Zen quality about her which my hyperactive, overly competitive personality needs more of.  The more I get to know Mel the funnier I find it that without every really spending time together I just knew we were meant to be friends!  I promised to make it to Stroller Strides in the morning and went to bed.

I tossed and turned all night. I had night sweats and leg cramps and a headache. I tried to make it all better with water and Gatorade, but it was a long and restless night. When Lula finally woke me up at 7:30 this morning I knew I only had an hour to get us all dress, fed and out the door if I was going to make it to Stroller Strides.  I was feeling very accountable to Mel, because I had promised I too would make it and I was also accountable to Wendy, who was following me today since she'd never been to our new indoor location before.  Here comes the perfect storm.....

If you're reading this and you are a mom you know that when you have all the time in the world, the children eat, drink, dress, and comply.  There are rarely any hiccups and you easily make it out the door, but when you are under pressure, no one wants to wear what you picked out - breakfast becomes World War III, shoes, and toys and sippy cup go missing. The phone rings, the toast burns, the blender explodes.... you catch my drift. I hate more than anything the stress of getting us out the door. I don't want to start the day yelling, frustrated or angry.  I knew at 7:30 that it would be one of those mornings, and I am sure that my starting the day knowing it was going to be a bad morning is precisely why it was a bad morning!

So I am dressed, I have breakfast on the table for the girls, I make my coffee, get my Thyroid Meds and My Adderall and set them next to my iced coffee. I run around looking for one of the girls shoes, I find my sneakers behind the couch, I get snacks and as I fly back and forth shout, "Eat! We are going to be late!"  Now keenly aware that Wendy is going to be sitting in front of my house any minute I get more and more frantic.... So.... Here is where actually taking the Adderall vs. setting it on the counter might have helped.

Now *knock*knock*knock* It's Sugar, Wendy's daughter. "Hi! My Mom's going to follow you today."

  "Okay sweetie, tell her I'll be right out!!"

Ahhhhhhh.............

Swoop down on the kids - LETS GO!  I get them in the car, gather a few last minute things, and hop in the car myself........barefoot. That's right, I didn't even stop to put my sneakers on.  It's about halfway to Stroller Strides when it dawns on me...I need coffee.....

SH*T! 

My Coffee and Thyroid medication and Adderall are on the kitchen counter.

Damn - this is going to be a LONG morning!

I text Mel because she will understand and get the humor that I forgot my medication, like need to take in order to function both physically and mentally medication. I forgot my coffee, again a "must have" to function both physically and mentally but.... I remembered the lollipops to appease the girls with at Stroller Strides.

Okay.... Here is just further proof that Mel and I are connected in some cosmic way.  Mel left me a Facebook message this morning that I "must" go to Stroller Strides today because she had a gift for me. She had a great laugh when she got my text about my coffee and meds. Upon arriving at Stroller Strides, she hands me this darling mason jar filled with iced coffee and a sweet note for my bucket. It was simply too perfect, right down to the mason jar.  Mel had no way of knowing that I drink my iced coffee from a mason jar every morning! 

I am so very fortunate to have friends like Mel. Stroller Strides might truly have saved my life. Before Stroller Strides I was isolated and somewhat alone. My girls and I didn't get out a whole lot. My entire world turned around when I joined this amazing group of women. Women like Mel who can, with this simplest act of kindness turn a bad, stressed out, angry mom into a happy smiling grateful mom.  I am so very lucky to have Mel and the mams like her. My life is better, fuller and richer because of each and everyone of them!

This little afternoon snack is exactly why my day is now 1000% better!

Thank You Mel. Some days I truly don't know what I'd do without you!

{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

Today's Challenge is { Fruit }

Initially I was excited because I had a windowsill full of Gigi and Lula's tomatoes! Fun, creative, tomatoes are fruit and I could showcase the girls bounty from their summer science project, since the tomato plant has not yielded all it's going to this year. Then it came down to photographing the darn tomatoes.

I must admit I had to snap more than a few shots of said tomatoes before I got the angle and lighting I wanted. Who would have thought you'd need to set up a shot of fruit.... Not I!  I had to lower the window shade to adjust the amount of light coming through the window...And even with a blurred background the distraction from the cozy-coup, sandbox and the rest of the kiddos toys just outside the kitchen window were too much for me to deal with. I did finally get a decent shot but I wasn't happy with it at all and I know the caliber of photographers I am up against, so in the end, I set up a few bananas, a ripe nectarine and a few blueberries. This too took a few shots to get the one I was happy with. Here is today's shot...

 { Fruitful }

~outtakes~

{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

Today's challenge {from a low angle} did not go as planned, and since I have Body Back and tonight and I have to run in triple digit heat plus humidity I am trying to keep it on a positive note. So.... here's today's photo

{ Inferiority Complex }

~outtakes~

{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

Today's challenge {From a High Angle} This. Was. Not. A. Happy. Challenge.

I don't want blindly compliant children. I mean would it be nice? Yes! Is it realistic? No!  But would it hurt for the girls to help me out just a little bit in the photography department?  Would it kill them to pose, well not just pose but hold a pose? Or follow a direction??  Apparently it might.  We have a loft and a 2 story entry I was sure that would be the scene for my { high angle photo } But..... NO!  I pulled out a ladder and tried to snap some candid high angle shots - The girls decided to wrestle instead. All they had to do was watch TV. Seriously??? I tried to be a reed, flexible, blowing int he wind, but I was getting frustrated. Really, really frustrated. Then it hit me.... This is supposed to be FUN. Not frustrating. This is for sh*ts and giggles not serious, photography.  Then I remembered a photograph that my Hubby's cousin {a brilliant photographer} took of herself from the hood of her car.  But I wanted to involve my girls.... After a handful of failed attempts to include Gigi and Lula the above shot is what I came up with. What did Woody Allen say?

If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans {to photograph your children}

So today's photo is titled...

{ God Complex }

~Outtakes~

{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

Today's challenge { Something Green }

I knew right away what I wanted to photograph today - I just had to find him!  We have been raising a Praying Mantis right along with our tomatoes!  He's been living on our tomato plant since he was a teeny-tiny little mantis.  Once finding the little guy, getting a picture of him proved more difficult than I anticipated. He did not want to stand still for one. He {or She I suppose} hid well on and behind tomato leaves, obscuring the shot and making it really hard to focus on him or her and not the surrounding leaves. Then of couse he moved to a shaded side of the plant and the lighting was horrible, but of course.... He was in an EXCELLENT position for photographing.... Finally after a good 30 minutes of chasing this little bugger {and yes that's 30 minutes in the scorching desert heat} I snapped this shot.....

 { It's not easy being green }

{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

Today's challenge is { Clouds } however...... I live in the desert. And athough Monsoon Season is upon us, and I pray daily for some spectacular thunder storms and soon - More often than not our skies are bright blue and cloudless - So..... *ahem* when I returned home from Body Back yesterday morning and there were clouds in the sky { big bright fluffy ones at that } I snapped a few photos....You know....just in case!!Today the sky is one big overcast grey mess so this photo is one that I took yesterday morning. Now if the sky would just open up and rain, I'd be on....

{ Cloud 9 }

{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

First.....

To My Dearest Friend Mel, 

I must extend a large and very public "Thank You!"

I am really enjoying this challenge, granted we're only 2 days in but.... So far, so fun!

xo

Shelbs

Okay ---- Today's Challenge is { What You Wore Today }

I knew right away that I was not going to photograph myself again. I truly love being behind my camera.  I have been in love with my Canon since.... well, truth be told and thanks to my father,  long before I owned my Canon Rebel XTi.  My profound love of spending time behind the camera however does not continue around to the other side. I am not happy or comfortable in front of the camera at all. I suppose I am simply far too critical of myself - But that's a whole other can of film, now isn't it?

Back to the topic at hand, my photo. Now .... I am feeling confident that I am being creative, artsy and original with today's challenge. Snapping a picture of my laundry....

 * pause to pat myself on the back * 

Well, I think I'm fairly brilliant - We shall see however if my idea is fresh or just plain......

{ Soiled } 

{ Project } m.b.r.a.c.e Mommyhood Photo Challenge

Our first challenge { Self-Portrait }

This one was not easy, especially since I do not have a tripod.... Thankfully I *love* the light in my master-bath. So I grabbed my camera and played around with the settings, ISO, ect... and then the angle. Sanpping a photo of yourself, in the mirror without photographing the camera....Well.... it takes some....finesse. 

After a few smiles, stuck out tongues, crossed-eyes, I finally got this one.  Sans-makeup....

{ Just me }