Journey...... Life

This weeks challenge for {life through a lens} is Journey! I really enjoyed this... I can't wait for the next challenge!

When I think of Journey I think of every day life.... We are all living are own individual journey. We live our journey with the ones that we love. We help people with their journey. People reach out and help us in our own journeys. A journey is not always easy but its what we make out of it. Life is a Journey. I thought of many things when I thought of Journey but, the first thing that I thought of with the word Journey is my sister.... She is the most amazing person. She just recently started her Journey by going back to school. Some days are hard, real hard. Some days are extremely rewarding... Like getting 100% on a math final!! I am so proud of her and her ambition to get an education. What a wonderful rewarding journey it will be for her. Go Sister go.... I am so excited and proud of you.. Don't ever give up!

diptych Fresh

The picture on the left is kphotog.blogspot.com and the picture on the right is mine:)

This weeks diptych was fresh! With the season of fresh produce and all the farmers markets, I could only think of produce. We picked up a local watermellon from stirling farms for my little boys birthday party. After cutting it I took the momment to capture the yummy, FRESH, juicy, and colorful picture. I am still so excited for this weekly challenge because it really gets me practicing my picture taking skills. I am so proud of myself... The camera functions "clicked" with me... literally. I have figured out how to take pictures in manual. Its not as hard and as intimidating as I thought. I hope to continue getting better everyday!!! I love photography

Next weeks challenge is "something Round"
Feel free to join us and post your website in my comments

The Praying Mantis

We are not the only ones praying and helping our garden grow. I have a big family of praying mantis's living and watching over our garden. My little boy has prayed for our garden every night at bedtime and this has been the best year for us so far. We don't have a lot of space but all of our plants have done very well, except the strawberries. There are not a lot of bugs that I

admire but I have to say I have found one.... The praying mantis. I see one every time I water the garden. I found one eating a tomato bug and one eating a fly. They love ants too. I sat and watched one for about 30 minutes as it was sneaking on a bug and it caught it so fast. I felt like a little kids just amazed as I admired it. I have to give these little creatures a gold star. They make me so excited and happy. Our tomato plants love them too. I have only sprayed for bugs once but then decided to let these wonderful insects do their job and keep my garden safe. A big thanks to the Praying Mantis!

Diptych #1 "soft"

My sister- in- law Kourtney with 318photography http://kphotog.blogspot.com/ ,(She is an amazing photographer that inspires me and keeps me super motivated), invited me to join her in a Diptych every week.

Now your thinking... What is a diptych? Well, I just learned myself. Its a painting or drawing in two parts, but it may also be composed of separate, closely related images. Doesn't that sound so fun! We will choose a word, phrase, quote, a setting or something unique and take a photograph of our individual idea. We will then post our pictures side by side on our blogs. I am super excited. It will get me outside of the box and get the creativity flowing. We started out with the word "SOFT" There are so many different soft things and I really like how our pics collaborated so very nicely. They fit perfectly. It will be fun to see what we come up with every week. Its a fun game in a way that will keep us thinking and practicing our abilities to perfect our art in photography. I can't wait for next week. Thank you Kourtney for inviting me to join you!

Little Lilly

Lilly's scheduled day of arrival is in approx 6 weeks. This cute mother to be is so small and such a beautiful person inside and out. She also has 3 other adorable little kiddos that are so excited about lilly coming. Meghan was so easy to take pictures of. Thank you Meghan for letting me take your picture! It was the first maternity pics for me and it was a blast! I will be posting more!

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Zinnias

This is the 3rd year that I have planted Zinnias from seed. I just love them. They grow so tall and are so colorful. Every flower is unique in style and color. They grow so fast and stay looking great even threw these hot summer months. When a flower fades and dies you clip it off and another one grows right back. Easy gardening. I plan on planting them every year. A package of seeds is only like a dollar and worth every penny. Plant these and everyone compliments them too:D