Authored by a Girl Who Has a Brother

Jane drew a bunch of pictures the other day, declared it a book, and asked me to tie it together for her.  I then asked her to tell me what was happening on each page and just wrote down what she dictated.  The result is hilarious.  And I think it is quite clear that this is written by a girl who has a brother.

 The Princess and the Castle

by Jane Elisabeth Benesh

The fire is exploding on the castle!

The firemen put the fire out, and the princess is smiling.

The princess wears a pretty dress.  There is a fire in the fireplace, but it doesn't explode.

This is the imaginary prince in the princess's mind.

These are hearts made of letters that are exploding.

This is a person who is thinking in his brain about chewing 100 pieces of gum.  Actually, he is an alien.  With one leg.  Actually, he is a tadpole.

The End.

Tip of the Day

Hey guys,

I'm back!  Well, I'm back for the moment.  So much catching up to do!
But for now, I give you this gem:

I have discovered via firsthand experience that it is best to start a restrictive eating plan (like Whole 30) while you have a sinus infection.  Particularly if that eating plan restricts or eliminates sugar.  Why?  Because you can't taste anything and don't miss the sugar.  Even cravings are all but eliminated (for me, at least).

Who knows where I will be when my sinuses clear up and I actually taste my black coffee?  Ha!  How's that for an unexpected benefit? :)

PS 52: Photo 9

I just realized I had not posted this!  I wrote it a week ago but got busy with other posts in the meantime.
 ---
So this week, I challenged myself to get a good low light photo.  This is the one I took:

Oh, the grain!

Low light + high ISO = grain.

They say to embrace the grain, but I have some trouble with that.  If it were grainy and sharper, perhaps. . . . I don't know.  I'm just not there yet.  Plus, the color seems off.  And I even cooled it down a bit.

So I now know enough to know that a full frame camera would shoot in low light conditions far better than my camera does, but I am determined to figure out how to make the most of the camera I've got, at least for now.

Also, I'm going to try shooting in RAW and (finally) dealing with my avoidance of the white balance issue.

Janey Beth is FOUR

 Our Janey Beth is FOUR today.

She is too precious.

Before I had children, when I thought of what it would be like to have a little girl, it was Jane I was thinking of.  To a tee.  She is sweet, girly, and extraordinarily loving.  She loves ballet, frilly dresses, crafts of all sorts, beauty, and bedtime stories.  I tell her all the time that my favorite thing about her is how her heart is so full of love, and indeed, it is.  She is affectionate and loves physical affection, in return.  And she loves to care for things, whether it's by making a nest of all her bedding to sleep in (she is the mama bird, and all her stuffed animals and dolls are the baby birds), or dressing a doll or brushing its hair.

 But there are also things about Jane that I did not imagine in my little girl.  Like how zany she can be.

Or how she can be so emotional and unreasonable from time to time, or how she can work herself into a little snit and get in trouble for being rude and angry.  Or what an independent thinker she sometimes is.  But it makes me glad that she's got a touch of sauciness--I wouldn't want her to be so sweet she gets trampled on in life.  A little tang will help her along, I think . . . as long as she can hold it in check. :)

 This afternoon, she had her regular ballet lesson,

 and then after we went home and had dinner and cupcakes (she said that of all the dinners in the world, she wanted sandwiches--well, okay then, birthday girl!), we surprised her and took her to Build a Bear, where she's been longing to go for a long time.  This is the friend she built:

 Actually, I hate the My Little Pony cartoon.  It's inane, I don't think the animation is pretty, and the voices drive me up the wall.  But she loved this purple pony--in fact, she had eyes for nothing else--so purple pony, it is.

And we let Noah get something, too.  He chose a pretty basic bear, but he got a Yoda costume for it.  (He is REALLY into Star Wars.)  It is awesome.  I like Yoda way better than the purple pony, but don't tell Jane.

After we left Build a Bear, we dipped into the Disney store for what we all thought would be a quick look around.  But I ended up buying Jane some "glass" slippers, and my mom bought her a Merida dress.  Both are very awesome.

And so ended an epic day.  I have one wonderful four year old.  She is a blessing to our family, and we love her lots and lots and lots.

Banff: Early Morning Shots

 So one morning while we were there, I got up a bit early and headed outside, because I wanted to get some night shots of the lake and the surrounding mountains.  

The hotel was serene and quiet as I made my way towards the outside.

It is quite a wonderful sensation to walk outside in the frigid cold.  You inhale that crisp, freezing air and simply feel alive.  And at peace.  Because snow mutes the sounds of the world, except for the crunching under your feet.  Solitude, peace, life.  And beauty all around me.  I loved my few minutes outside that day.

Would you believe that this was at 7:00am?  Yet it was completely dark outside.  Lucky for me, I went out to take some night shots on the shortest day of the year.

Boy, did I wish I had a tripod after I looked closely at these shots.

 I do love this one, though: a puff of powdery snow being blown off the mountain, high above me.

Banff: Frozen Lake Ice Skating

"WHAT am I about to do?"

So I thought to myself.  Because ice skating is not my sport.

This beautiful lake freezes every winter, and the hotel clears part of it for the ice skating.

And they build this enchanting ice castle on the ice.  You can skate in and around it.

So we went skating one afternoon.  Nathan was much more of a natural than I was.

 Of course, I didn't get a shot the moment he fell. ;)

But, in his defense, the lake ice is not entirely smooth.

Another Lake Louise adventure.