P52: Photo 7

Yeah, yeah, so I'm a week late.  I did actually take these photos last weekend, so in my book, it counts. :)

This is actually a series of detail photos that I took at a lunch out that I attended for my Aunt Patti's birthday.  I still just about totally stink at low indoor light photos, but some of them turned out well.  (And, of course, I'm only showing you the good ones!)

Terrible Photo, Beautiful Girl

Today

1. I realized this morning (or, rather, reminded myself) that it really does require my getting up at 6:00 in order to get us all to our destination by 9:00.  All the dressing, breakfasting, distracting, comforting (there's teething in the house), etc., just takes a long time when you have three kids under the age of seven.  Although the strange thing is that on school days, we do rush it a bit and leave very early.  I don't know why it takes so much longer on other days.  The only things that would alleviate this necessary-for-me early wake-up time would be if I took my shower and made lunches the night before, but I'm usually so busy doing other things (like trying to give some attention to one of the too many hobbies I have)--not to mention that at that time of day, I'm running out of energy--that lunches fall low on ye olde priority list.
2. That was a whole lot of punctuation right there.
3. It's kind of nice that Noah thinks that the best snack in the world is a big piece of homemade bread with "lots and LOTS of butter on top!"  Sometimes simple is best.
4. I explained to Noah that butter is not exactly good for you, and that lots of it (as I continued slathering it on) is not healthy.  He replied by telling me that butter makes you really fat, and that if you eat enough of it--say, one stick in a single day--that you will make a huge splash when you jump into the swimming pool.
5. On his own, Noah figured out how to count by fives to 100 today and how to count from 101 to 200.  He was pretty darn proud of himself.  He also used some triangle blocks to make a "new shape" with five sides.  I told him it was called a pentagon, and he was amazed and very impressed with himself.
6. We followed that with doing tally marks and learning to count by 5's.  I felt pretty brilliant when, for our tally mark assignment, we counted all of the stuffed animals which the kids had spread out all over the play room floor by putting them away.  I just do not have the gift of making my kids think working is fun, so to get Noah to clean up and think it was great was a victory!  Every time he tossed one into the toy box, he said, "Toss!" and I'd draw a tally mark.  At the end, we counted them--FIFTY-ONE stuffed animals.  WHAT IN THE WORLD??!?!  Time to give some stuff away!
7. Clara is teething.  The last time she was teething (was that only two weeks ago? yes, it was!), she got two molars and two smaller teeth.  Right now, she is cutting two more molars, and y'all, it is rough.  She is usually so easygoing and sweet, and she is actually pretty unkind when she's hurting and not medicated right now.  Give her some Ibuprofen (and some times even that just takes the edge off), and she is her regular old self.  But when it wears off, watch out.  She is a screaming, drooling, tantrumming mess.  I actually went back to 2009 on the blog today to look something up and discovered that Noah was the same way, only worse.  Between all three kids, he definitely had the worst time with teeth.
8. I've updated the Asian Dumpling Soup recipe here on the blog to be more specific about the type of broth and dumplings I use, which should make the recipe more user-friendly overall, since it's actually not always easy to find those items.  You can always make do with whatever you find at a HEB or Stop and Shop or whatnot, but this is what I've been making lately, so I thought I'd update it.  Also, the scallion pancakes at Trader Joe's are fantastic with the soup.
9. The end!  Good night!

A Family Session

Last weekend, I went to the park with some friends and took their family pictures.  I loved it.  And, as it turned out, they loved their pictures.  They'd never had a family photo done before, and when they asked me to do it, I said something to the effect of, "Well, I'm a very new photographer, and I can't guarantee they'll be awesome, but I'd love to do it."  And I think it's safe to say that we were all thrilled by how they turned out.  I sent them over 20 shots, and here are a couple of my favorites:

I was so happy that I was able to capture this family's joy and closeness.  And (bonus!) they are pretty awesome and treated us to dinner and a game night at their house.

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Before I showed up at the shoot, I made a list of poses to have them try, and most of them worked very well.  Here's a list, for my own future reference:

• Parents standing, touching, holding child
• Mom and Dad hug, child by legs
• Three pairs of feet
• Mom-child-Dad holding hands, crop Mom and Dad's upper body, shoot at child's level
• Each parent alone with child (snuggle, nuzzle, tickle, have Dad lie down and child piles on top)
•  All together, tickling (I believe that's what was happening in that first photo)
• Whisper to one another
• Reading together
• Child alone--"Do you see the butterfly in my camera?" (tried to elicit meaningful eye contact with viewer), look down (try to get lashes--this little lady was too quick!)
• Feed the ducks (particular to this location)

Although I didn't try for every single one of those poses, we did get 90% of them, and they were great.  I have been reading a lot about family photography and got lots of ideas from the Clickin' Moms blog (a great resource), among other places.

P52: Photo 6

This is my little boy, putting on his lab coat and safety glasses for his science lab.

So serious!

His favorite activity of the week is definitely science lab.  And the teacher told me this week that he is far more serious than the other kids his age--that he tries very hard to do well on his lab reports (which include writing, something at which he is new, of course).

In this photo, he's facing some large windows, which is what accounts for the very nice natural light.  And I like his serious face, because it's not an expression I see very often.  Ha!

P52: Photo 5

Y'all thought I forgot about this, didn't you?  Well, no, I didn't.  I'm just not on the ole blog all that often anymore, so I'm just running a tad bit late.

Last week, we had a snow day!  

Yes, in Houston, we consider twenty minutes of wintry mix to be snow.  We take what we can get.

Nathan was home that day (Houstonians also hunker down at home, close all their businesses, and do not drive in wintry mix), so the whole family flew outside to see the snow when it started.  I shot this picture of Janey's hand tentatively touching the ice on her play cottage.

I posted it on Facebook, and a FB friend said he was horrified--that it looked like a bloody hand reaching up for help on a bloody step.  Whaaaat?  

Public service announcement: if you never take any interest in one of your FB friends--never "like" anything, never leave any nice comments, and have no personal rapport with them--do not, then, leave a potentially insulting comment on your acquaintance's picture or status. 

I mean, yes, I do see the red cast on her hand, and I know I'm new at this and am still developing my eye, but even so, I don't think it's that bad.

Anyway, I also made a black and white version:

So, dear readers, I'd like your opinion.  Is that first one horrifyingly bloody, or was that just my middle-of-his-hospital-shift-doctor-friend talking?  Personally, I like it.  I like the B&W conversion, too, though.

Russian-ish Beef Soup

So a while back, I bought this seasoning from Penzeys called "Tsardust."  It smells a bit like cinnamon and a bit like garlic (both are ingredients), and the label calls for it to go with beef or pork.  I was a little fascinated by the idea of a savory item incorporating cinnamon, so I bought it.

Fast forward six months, and I have never used it.  (This is not the first time I've been guilty of buying a spice mix from them and completely forgetting about it for forever.)  But, lo and behold, I created a recipe today to go with it, and it was more or less a hit.

Now, what do I know about Russian cuisine?  Not much.  I don't know much more than potatoes and vodka.  I mean, you don't exactly see Russian cheese in the grocery store, or Russian tea or Russian honey or a Russian can of soup.  So I kind of made this up as I went along.  I'm sure it could use some tweaking (or maybe a lot), but since Nathan liked it, I wanted to have some reference to what I did so I can do it again.

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Russian-ish Beef Soup

1 tbsp. olive or canola oil
1 lb. ground beef
generous 1/2 tsp. Tsardust seasoning, divided
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. sliced mushrooms
3 red potatoes, cubed (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup celery, sliced
1 large onion, diced
1/3 head of cabbage, sliced into bite-sized strips
2 bay leaves
64 oz. (two boxes) beef broth
1/4 c. heavy cream

In a large stock pot, sprinkle the ground beef with 1/4 tsp. of seasoning and brown it.  Drain off the excess fat and set the beef aside on a plate.  Melt the butter in the pot, then add the mushrooms, potatoes, celery, and onion, and saute until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.  Add the cabbage.  Sprinkle the remaining generous 1/4 tsp. of seasoning over the veggies, then add the bay leaves and the broth.  Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.  Add the beef back in and simmer until warmed through and the cabbage and potatoes are soft, about 10-15 minutes more.  Turn off the heat, discard the bay leaves, and stir in the heavy cream.