About Me

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I love Jesus. I love my family. I love photography. I love books. I love thinking. Probably in that order. I have a wonderful husband, five beautiful daughters, a house, and a camera. I enjoy spending time talking to my husband, playing with my girls, redecorating my house and shooting things with my camera. In my spare time, I sleep.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Eden's First Day (and mine!)

Well...I began my homeschooling adventure today.  I got most of Eden's curriculum in the mail the last couple weeks.  (Still missing her Bible curriculum and a couple random books.)  I was planning to start next week but Eden's been anxious to begin and I just realized that next Monday is Labor day and therefore messes the week up some so rather than waiting and starting on an odd week, I just decided to go ahead and jump in and see what happened!

I am using the "Hideaways in History" kindergarten program from Winter Promise.  So far, I think I'm going to like it.  After breakfast I started with the history reading.  This week we are learning about early people and civilization.  Eden struggled to really sit & listen.  She kept interrupting me with demands to move on.  When I asked her questions about what we read she said she didn't know and we had to go back and read parts of it again.  I'm thinking maybe I should start the day with a sit down activity like math or phonics and then do the history & science readings in between busy work.

After that we sat at the table and did an activity in her "Mastering Kindergarten Skills" book.  It was basically just a coloring page about how we are suppose to treat books.  After that we did a little review about ancient writing and we got on the internet and looked at pictures of cave paintings and talked a bit about them.  While I fixed lunch she worked on her own "cave painting" mural on a large piece of brown paper with markers.  I gave Jasmine one to work on, also.  They seemed to have fun with that.

After lunch, we got to handwriting & phonics.  The assignment for today was working with pre-letter forms.  Eden found this boring since she thinks she already knows how to write.  But since she still struggles to write top to bottom, left to right and often gets letters backward I thought it was important to work through the foundation.

My teacher's guide book also requested I teach her how to spell her first name today and write it tomorrow but since she already knows how to spell and write her name, I taught her to spell & write her full name.  She had a bit of a breakdown in the middle of the phonics/writing portion because she didn't want to do all that repetitive work...but she recovered nicely.

We then read our science text (which basically just covers the 6 days of creation and we'll probably easily get though that before the end of September) and Eden memorized Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."   On to math...which is Horizon's K math text.  Also a text which she will probably breeze through.  We went through six lessons in about 5 minutes.  It was way too easy for her.  I didn't have to teach her anything because it was all stuff she already knew.  Jasmine could have breezed though the "math" we did today!  The most difficult part for her was in writing the number two.   Once we got through that, I said a closing prayer and called it a day at about three.  She called Russ to tell him the verse she learned and whatnot and he told her how proud he was of her.

It was a fine first day.
I think it's going to be a good year!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

I Heart faces: Photojournalism




This is a collage of my brother, father & cousin branding a calf on my parent's ranch in Nebraska.  I love the story it tells and how these photos display my dad in his element--living the life that suits him best and the emotions displayed on the faces of my brother & cousin as they get their hands dirty helping with a ranch job that is not where they are most at ease!  I like how they take us through the action & then the completion of a job well done.  I hope you like it,  too.  Feedback is appreciated!  :)

Friday, August 27, 2010

jzeena.photography blog

I recently started a blog specifically for displaying photos I've taken for others.  Please check it out and follow if you want to keep up with my 'work'.  :) 

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Before & After: Gull


Before:

After:

Thanks to OJPhoto for introducing me to this texture!
I edit with Paint Shop Pro.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Consider this...

As I've mentioned before, my bloggy friend, Tiffany and her husband Jim over at A Moment Cherished are in the process of adopting a baby from Ethiopia.  She is currently hosting a fundraiser-Ipod giveaway on her blog to help raise the much needed money to bring their child home.  I want to help them in any way I can so I am requesting that you please hop on over to Tiffany's blog, read their story and prayerfully consider donating to their adoption.


"What we do in life echoes in eternity"  
-Gladiator

Cute things my kids have said--Part V

July 8, 2010:  Eden told me that when she grows up she wants to do lots of things. She wants to be a writer and a musician. She wants to play soccer. She wants to ride her bike and throw papers at people's houses. Jasmine wants to work at a "Toast Poffice" where they make toast and she wants to swim at the ocean. :) 

July 10, 2010:  Eden told Jasmine's imaginary boyfriend to "Zip it!" and Jasmine got so mad and was standing in front of "him" and was yelling, "Arthur doesn't need zipped! He's being quiet!" Until Eden finally said okay & "unzipped" him! 

July 11, 2010:  Jasmine just pointed to her chest & said, "Look, Mom, my boobles." 

July 16, 2010:  While driving through the Black Hills Eden says, "There are lots of trees! There are gallons & gallons of them!"

July 20, 2010Acacia isn't much of a talker...only says "Daddy" & "hi" consistently...But *I swear!* when Jazzy came out with an icee, it sounded as if Acacia said, "Daddy, I wan popsicle."

July 20, 2010:  Eden said that she was going to eat her popsicle like Grandpa said because "He's an expert!"

July 29, 2010:  Russ & I were kissing and Eden says, "You're kissing! That's gross!" I said, "I like kissing Daddy. It's not gross." She says matter of factly, "It is to kids."

July 30, 2010:   Jasmine tattling on Eden: "Eden talked to me and ruined my day, Mommy!"

July 30, 2010:  Acacia said 'Mommy"

August 4, 2010Jasmine ran into our room and asked Russ, "Our house could be squished, could you build a new one?" He asked her how our house would get squished and she said, "A monster could squish it."

August 12, 2010According to Eden...If your socks smell really bad you call them 'gym socks'.

August 16, 2010:   Eden--"Mom do know what is my favorite animal? Squids! Squids are my favorite animal!"

August 22, 2010:  Acacia got her first tooth.  Front lower right.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Sunday, August 22, 2010

You know you spend too much time in bloggy land when...

...your dreams feature bloggers you've never met IRL.

Last night I dreamt that I ran into Mama M. while leaving a store in SD and I struck up a conversation with her. 

BTW...she was very nice.  :)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Before & After: Feet



Before:

After:

Edited with Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Monday, August 16, 2010

To my husband...

Russ—
Seven years ago,
I was giddy with joy at the prospect of being your wife.
And now today,
I marvel at how the years have made us more in sync.

Our love may be stronger
But our understanding has grown by leaps & bounds.
And what we may have lost in passion,
We have gained tenfold in appreciation & perceptiveness.

We are different in so many ways
But we share our lives in common
And our connection to each other is a bond that depends not on seeing eye-to-eye
But rather on caring enough about the other person to trust in spite of contrasting views.
I know we have the most significant things in common…
A love & commitment to each other & to family
and the same Heavenly Father guiding our lives for His greater purpose.

Jesus knew before we were even born that we would become a family together
And even in my fears & insecurities I can trust in that.
You have always been such a wonderful supporter of me
I pray that as we grow older & stronger together,
I will learn to cheer you on and be your greatest encourager as well.

You are indeed the “Love of my Life”
And though I may struggle & may fail…
I want you to know that I will stand with you when you need me most
And will follow your lead…wherever it may take us.

My love is unconditional…
Gina




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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Jasmine's first haircut

Today was the first time Jasmine has ever had her hair cut.  I know that most children have their first haircut sometime during their first year...my kids have to be three before they have enough hair to warrant a hair cut!  Anyway...I just evened it out in the back & trimmed up the bangs.  It was looking rather scraggly.  It needed done.  So I did it.

                        Before:                                      After:


And just for good measure...here is a picture of Jasmine looking cute last week at the Splash Pad!

Wordless Wednesday-- "Another reason to have children" *wink*