Mamatography 2014 - Week 49

Day 334 - Sunday - November 30

Headed out to see the chickens.
And they're gathering up to see him, hoping for treats!

Shared Hobbies

Welcome to the October edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Enjoyment cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month, we write about what brings joy to our lives. Please check out the links to posts by our other participants at the end of this post.

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Hobbies seem to come and go. New things are always exciting, but can get less interesting with time. Shiny things get dusty, as it were. When I had my oldest, I found that I was spending zero time on myself. My father-in-law gave me cash for Christmas and insisted I not spend it on bills. He told me to spend it on myself. I'd been wanting to take up candy making, so that is where every cent went! I got some chocolate molds and melt-its, etc. I had a blast painting chocolates and making different shaped goodies to share. I made candies for some baby showers. It was just so nice to focus on something just for the fun of it! I have since passed along every bit of that equipment.

My ex-husband took up photography and had a very nice camera. Our wife joined him. I felt kind of left out and it looked like a nice hobby. A friend mailed me a nice camera to borrow and loved my photograph so much that she let me keep the camera! We even did a lot of photography-themed date nights. I got really into macro photography, which got me into the garden where I found spiders. Jumping spiders are so cool and cute! That somehow lead to my fascination with tarantulas and I became a "tarantula keeper." At the height of my collection (shared with my new husband), we had 20 tarantulas!

After having Sasha, I stayed up (usually breastfeeding) at night and read blogs, especially Hobo Mama. I originally created this blog mostly so I would have an icon when I commented there! But it took off and I really enjoy writing here. I even created a blog about our tarantulas! Alas, we have since moved into a space where we're not allowed to keep spiders. Most were sold to a breeder, but a friend is keeping a couple specimens for us.

I've wanted to take up geocaching for three years! I already wrote about this new hobby, but I will update to say that I'm still enjoying it. We go out every Sunday, as a family, and "Treasure Hunt." I also try to find at least one geocache every day.

I think the thing I love most about geocaching is sharing it with my family. There is a sense of accomplishment when I find a cache, but I especially love the time we're spending together (outside, away from home).

Do you have hobbies or other things you love? Tell me what you enjoy doing!

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Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are make their lives joyful. We hope you will join us next month!

• No, She Doesn't Sleep Through the Night - And It's Not So Bad! - This post on Partners in Kind is about our family sleep habits, how we tried CIO, and how our family learned to let go of the 'standard' in order to enjoy a good nights rest for all of us.
• Don't Do Anything That Isn't Play - Momma Bee at Raising a Revolution is inspired by Marshall Rosenberg's (nonviolent communication) advice "don't do anything that isn't pay" to find the enjoyment in doing even the most mundane and disliked tasks.
• Shared Hobbies - Jorje of Momma Jorje shares her progression of hobbies, since hobbies can wax and wane. She also explains why sharing a hobby makes it the best.
• The Joy - Relaxation Relation - At Authentic Parenting, Laura discovered how much enjoyment is related to relaxation.
• Finding and Defining Enjoyment - Anneli at Mamman i det gula huset shares what she enjoys, her thoughts on how she has found truly enjoyment through self-reflection and how to find enjoyment in every day tasks.
• Simply Enjoying Life - Mandy tries to focus on enjoying life at Living Peacefully with Children by cutting out some things and changing her perspective on others.

Mamatography - Week 6

Sometimes it is a pinch to get my Mamatography shot and I've even "cheated" on a day or two, but here we are... 6 weeks in! Please feel free to hop on board any time!

Day 36

(02/05/12)

Still fighting for milk supply, eating steel cut oats once daily.

Mamatography - Week 5

Day 29

(01/29/12)

Catchin' a cat nap with Spencer

Mamatography - Week 4

I am on a roll with my Mamatography project and enjoying the reminder to take lots of photos! I hope you are enjoying it, too. Please feel free to hop on board any time!

Day 22

(01/22/12)

Ronni finally gets to really meet Spencer, face to face!

Mamatography - Week 3

Mamatography now also has a Facebook page! I hope you're enjoying the project. Feel free to jump in at any time. I've made it through week 3, so I should be good to go, right? Lets hope I have gotten this habit well in hand.

Day 15

(01/15/12)

Beautiful January Day
Good swingin' weather!

Mamatography - Week 2

This is my second Mamatography post of the year! I'm already making some minor changes to how I write it up, now that I've seen some other Mamatography posts. I hope you are enjoying my take on the project. Please feel free to hop on board any time!

Day 8

(01/08/12)

I seriously love it when Elmo takes these shots!
How else are you going to capture the moment?

Mamatography - Week 1!

This is to be my first Mamatography post of the year! I may change the layout along the way, please bare with me. I plan to use my Mamatography project as my Wordless Wordful Wednesday format for the year, but wrote yesterday's post a month in advance! I hope you enjoy the project, please feel free to hop on board any time!

My Mamatography posts won't always be this long, but this was an eventful week!

January 1

I rang in the New Year with my new Little Man,
trying to keep him warm.

Wordless Wednesday: NICU

Bed sharing in the hospital, trying to maintain
some level of normalcy for Sasha.

Going 12 hours without seeing our baby...
then finding him with tubes and leads.

Only finding very rare opportunities
to visit the NICU as a family.

Breastfeeding on someone else's schedule, not to mention times when NICU is closed so our baby isn't available at all.

Treatments...

tests...

and booboos.

Running on sleep deprivation and trying to be an
attachment parent to 2 children that aren't
permitted in the same room together.

Sasha & Spencer, together at last!
This somehow makes all the rest melt away.

Tune in next week when my participation in the Mamatography project will officially start.

I'm taking photos now, but they'll start posting next week.

Wordless Wednesday: 100th Post!

Fuji FinePix Z20fd
My 31^st Wordless Wednesday Post!
My 100th Blog Post!

WW Macro Answers

Thank you all so much for guessing! I love seeing my macro shots from other viewpoints! And... without further ado...

1. Bread - Great job, Missy!
   
2. Carpet - Great job, Mama Whimsy!
   Lauren, you cracked me up with the Spider Bedding guess! You just know me so well!
   
3. Sunflower Seeds - Great job, Purple Dancing Dahlias!
   I love seeing them as rocks, though.
   
4. Bubble Wrap - too easy!
   
5. Lava Rock, actually a BIG one, at a cemetery. Great job, Lauren.
   Pumice stone could also be considered a correct answer.
   
6. One of my favorites! This is actually the lid to one of those plastic turtle sandboxes!
   
7. A light fixture outside Boston Avenue Church - you can see more great pictures of it by doing a Google Image Search: Boston Avenue Church Tulsa
   
8. A glass brick lit up from the inside as part of an Art Deco Mazzios in midtown Tulsa, OK - I couldn't find any good pictures of the location. I won a ribbon at the local fair for a similar photo highlighting a brick lit up with green and red.
   
9. No one ever gets this one! It is a rubber glove for doing dishes, etc!
   The answers on this one always amuse me.
   
10. Filter was close enough, I think. This is the outside of the A/C unit at my old house.
    
11. One weathered wooden plank of a park bench. :-)
    
12. A stack of ash trays on the bar in a restaurant at lunch time.

I hope you all enjoyed playing! I should take more macros (these are old) and play again some time. I love sharing these.

Wordless Wednesday: What is That? / Macro Fun

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