Project 365, Day 31

Today was one of those rare winter Saturdays with no swim meet, no blizzard-like snow, and no sub-zero temperatures. I made the boys go outside to play in the back yard, and then figured it was a good time to get a picture of the three of us. This is one of those extremely rare photos of me that I actually like!

Project 365, Day 30

This is one of my favorite pictures of Grant. We were living in our townhouse in Mass, and there was this little grassy area across the road. I remember that Grant hated grass. Couldn't stand the texture at all. But he didn't really fuss about it, he just sat there sucking on his fingers, looking up at me and my camera with those big blue eyes. I think this was the first picture that I took of him that made me realize just how gorgeous his eyes are.

This is also my favoite frame. My mother bought if for me on a trip to Italy. It looks lovely on top of our piano.

Project 365, Day 29

I looooove getting new business cards! But I always have a hard time deciding which image(s) to use on them. This time I got smart and ordered a set from moo.com, where they let you have a different image on each one! I've yet to be disappointed in a moo product. Love 'em!

Project 365, Day 28

I had my tripod out on our front porch taking pictures of the NEVER ENDING snow that we have had when I decided to play around with some longer exposures. Of course, as soon as I decided to do this, traffic on our normally busy road disappeared. Naturally. But persistence was eventually rewarded. :)

Project 365, Day 27

Well, we finally got this trial over with; guilty on some counts, not guilty on others. I was satisfied with the outcome.

And gee, look at this spiffy certificate I got! You'd think that after six days in the courtroom I would have at least earned one with my name on it. :P

Project 365, Day 26

Today was a very frustrating, irritating and generally miserable day for me. I spent the day in jury deliberations and then came home to argumentative children. I need something to help me relax. In good weather this would call for a trip out to my garden, to just sit and look at my flowers and wait for birds to come to my feeder. But with a few feet of snow covering the flowers and temperatures in the teens and single digits keeping the birds away, I had to make do with what I have around the house.

This is part of a little flower arrangement that we have in our living room. Fake? Absolutely. But it's pretty and makes me think that spring is just around the corner. Sort of.

Project 365, Day 25

It started out innocently enough. Griffin was looking for his Transformers DVD this morning. We looked through the video cabinet in the living room but it wasn't there. So we figured it had to be in his bedroom. I walked in and immediately realized the futility of this endeavor. Griffin's bedroom was, to put it mildly, a pigsty. It was beyond even my normally lax cleanliness standards.

So, we had ourselves a project.

We spent a good five hours purging all of the crap from his room. What you see here is Griffin atop the pile of stuff we took out. There are four bags of old clothes to be donated to our church, SEVEN bags of assorted old toys (mostly games and puzzles that were missing pieces, Happy Meal toys and what seemed to be a thousand Mr. Potato Head pieces) that are getting thrown away, along with one bag of toys that are in good enough shape to be donated.

If you could see how small his room is, you would be amazed that all of this stuff even fit in there in the first place. I know I am.

Oh, and we never did find that Transformers DVD.

Project 365, Day 24

Today my boys had a swim meet in Norwich. As we headed back home along Route 12, I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw this lovely sky over one of the many farms along that road. As if it were meant to be, right in front of me was a parking area, giving me a convenient place to pull off the road and snap a few pictures.

Project 365, Day 23

Grant and Griffin did a little "Super Smash Brothers Brawl"-ing on the Wii before bed this evening.

Project 365, Day 22

I snuck into Griffin's bedroom tonight to check on him and to take this picture of my sweet little guy. He looks so angelic when he's sleeping!

Project 365, Day 21

I was so glad to see the return of one of my favorite shows this evening!

Project 365, Day 20

While everyone else was either in Washington DC attending the inauguration or glued to their television sets watching the whole thing, I was in a courtroom. Yes, I had been called for jury duty.

And it gets worse. I got picked to serve on the jury. So now you can just refer to me as "Juror #7" for the next few days.

Project 365, Day 19

This is part of Grant's Cub Scout uniform. With the day off from school today we decided we would work on a few more requirements from his book. He's earned fourteen of these activity pins so far, and we completed two more today. There are four more that are at that "almost done" stage, and then that's it. He'll have earned almost every single pin, belt loop, recognition and award that Cub Scouts has to offer. And in two short months he will be up there on that stage, crossing over into that unknown world of Boy Scouts, and I will be sitting there wondering where my little baby went.

Project 365, Day 18

The glow from one of my favorite candles. It looks a little bit like a sunset, doesn't it?

Project 365, Day 17

I didn't have a chance to post this last night because I was at our swim team's annual parent party. I had a few of these and a really good time. :)

Project 365, Day 16

My sweet Grant. The gentle, sensitive one. Always thinking about something, it seems. He has a good heart, and he will forever be a mama's boy. And oh, those eyelashes! So long, so soft, and I'm so jealous. :)

Project 365, Day 15

Today I scoured my bookshelves for all of those (many) books that I have purchased but never read. I am determined to get through these books this year. There are also a few newer books on my shelves that I have bought recently at used books sales or that have been given to me by friends. This is the stack of books that will be keeping me company for the first part of 2009. I'm reading the top one right now. I've also updated my Goodreads account with the rest of the books that I read in 2008. If you have a Goodreads account, be sure to friend me!

Project 365, Day 14

For some reason I had a really hard time sleeping last night. I only managed a few short hours of sleep, and then today I had to trudge through work, the kids' piano lessons, and Cub Scouts. Not being a fan of coffee, I had to rely on my old friend Mountain Dew to get me through.

And now I'm heading to bed...

Project 365, Day 13

My boys had swim team practice this evening, and then the Scouts were having a swimming party at the pool, so we got to stay for that as well. Gotta love the goggle rings around Griffin's eyes! LOL

Project 365, Day 12

This was the view out our back window this morning. More snow. The snow seems like it will never end this year. Very pretty, but I think I've had enough for now. :)

Project 365, Day 11

I went grocery shopping this afternoon, and was ready for the onslaught of pink and red Valentine's Day candy displays. But I was surprised to see that this, my favorite candy in the whole world, was already on the shelves. That Easter staple, the Cadbury Creme Egg. Yum.

Project 365, Day 10

My boys have turned into complete YouTube addicts. Especially if the videos have anything at all to do with Super Mario Brothers (as is the case in this photo).

Whatever is a mother to do??

Project 365, Day 9

It's another cold day here, and this big icicle took the opportunity to spring up (down?) overnight and is now hanging from our front porch roof.

Project 365, Day 8

Today was another snowy day, and another day off from school. I ventured out into the back yard with the camera to snap a few pics of my favorite winter tree. I don't know what kind it is, but it puts out these lovely red berries all winter long.

And now they have hats. :)

Project 365, Day 7

We have a snow day today. Well, more of a freezing rain/sleet/ice day. But whatever you want to call it, the kids and I are home for the day. I thought this would be a good opportunity to bring out the Air Hogs Havoc Helis that the boys got for Christmas. They hadn't been played with yet because Santa forgot to include batteries (I finally got some the other day), and because I was hoping to have a few words with Jolly Old Saint Nick about indoor flying toys. I don't know quite what he was thinking. ;)

So here is Grant, owner of the red helicopter, trying to keep his aloft while his little brother steers his blue chopper straight for him. Ahhh, brotherly love.

Project 365, Day 6

Well, it's only Day 6 and already I'm running low on ideas. So I sent out a request for suggestions from my friends on Facebook, and here we are. One person requested a picture of my socks, while another asked for a picture of my favorite Christmas present. I present a compromise, of sorts. I am not currently wearing socks because I now only wear these wonderful slippers around the house. They were a Christmas gift from my mother and they are so warm and comfortable! And if you have any ideas for me on this project, feel free to leave them in comments!

Project 365, Day 5

One of the top reasons that I love being an educator: that long Christmas break.

One of the top reasons that I hate being an educator: coming back from that long Christmas break.

Yes, it was back to reality today.

I miss vacation.

Project 365, Day 4

This is our new (to us)/old (made in the 1940's or 50's) piano. It actually got played today for the first time in a couple of weeks. The boys realized that they have lessons coming up in three days and haven't practiced all vacation long. Oops!

Project 365, Day 3

We are starting to take down the tree and pack up the Christmas decorations. This is our pair of singing snowmen that we got from Hallmark this year - it's our fourth year of collecting these things, and you should hear it when my boys get all four going at the same time!

Project 365, Day 2

This is how exciting our little vacation is this week. I spent almost the entire day helping Griffin put together this Lego set. :)

But we got it done, and he is a happy little boy. And I am a happy Mom to have had the time off to play with him.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a happy, fun and safe New Year's Eve. The Marriner clan has never been much for going out and partying, so we just stayed home, stayed warm and watched the big ball drop on TV.

I try to avoid making resolutions each year, mostly because I believe that when you think of it in those terms, like "I must do this because it was my RESOLUTION!!" then you are setting yourself up for failure. So instead, each year I try to just think of a few small goals for myself. I usually don't share them with anyone, mostly because they would probably bore you, but there is one that I have decided to make public, mostly because you will be seeing my progress here. I've decided that I really want to make an effort to take more pictures that are just for me. The second half of last year I was so incredibly swamped with portrait work that I totally neglected taking pictures of the world around me - my kids, my flowers, the beauty of nature. So in order to motivate me to take a little time each day for myself, I have joined "Project 365." The goal of this project is to take at least one picture a day of something in your life that day. It doesn't matter what it is. Some people try to do a yearly theme, where they only shoot one type of subject, but for me, it's just going to be about getting out there and taking the pictures.

To kick off the year, I have this picture of Griffin, taken this afternoon. He got this guitar as a Christmas gift from my mother and her boyfriend Mike. They weren't able to come up to visit for Christmas last week (they live in PA), but are here today and tomorrow. We had a "second Christmas" today as we exchanged our gifts. Mike plays guitar, and when we visited my Mom for Thanksgiving Griffin was very interested in having Mike teach him to play. Griffin is our little budding musician, so of course he now is the proud owner of his own guitar. And not just some kid's play guitar - a real one! I love this picture because it looks like it could be on an album cover. Maybe someday it will be! :)