Mosaic Monday and a Family Update

I spent some time yesterday playing with my camera. It seems that no matter how many pictures I take there is still more to learn about my camera and even what is appealing to the eye. So I read and practice trying to gain knowledge and skill.

The pie pumpkins above were accidentally grown in my compost pile from last year's pumpkins.


I found the sweet little nest on the ground in our neighborhood common area and I have been collecting acorns while on my walks.


I got this old weather worn desk drawer at a garage sale for a dollar; I loved the look of the aged wood. Do you see what is attached to the nest? It is the sack of a bagworm. I wonder what kind of bird made this soft little nest.



When I last blogged I mentioned that things were not going very well for my family. My husband had just been laid off for the fourth time in five years. The first three times was while he was working in the RV industry. He'd had a very successful career with one company for 15 years when the poor economy caused that company to file bankruptcy. He got jobs quickly but each one of the companies fell victim to the poor economy and had layoffs.

The last job he had was with a well-known company in medical sales. We thought that he finally might be safe from economic woes and have some job stability in a different field, but that wasn't the case.

It has been so difficult and heart breaking to see my sweet husband going through this again. There were so many people with this company who were hired during the same time frame as my husband, many of them were coming from layoff situations too. My husband has talked to quite a few of them and he feels so bad for them. It is almost as if companies hire people, use them for a while and then toss them aside with no care or thought for the people and how these job losses affect them and their families. The way this particular company handled this was absolutely horrible, thoughtless and corrupt. It was shocking!

I actually feel more sorry for those who remain than the ones that got laid off. They got their already low pay cut in half, their car allowance has ended and they are doing the additional work of those who were let go. They are also bound to a non-compete contract and can't look for jobs in their field. They are being used and abused.

For the last few weeks my time has been spent encouraging my husband and quite frankly it has been spent in earnest, fervent prayer. The only time I felt true peace was in my quiet time place reading and journaling through the Psalms and praying. I don't know what I would do were it not for the LORD to help me through these difficult days/months/years.

Thankfully God heard our prayers and my husband will start on his new job on Tuesday. How this job came about and the story behind it is amazing and we know it was God who provided.

The news gets even better! Our daughter recently finished college and was job searching too. She just got a great job and will start November 1. Her graduation ceremony is next Saturday and we just found out that she is Salutatorian for her class. That news made this homeschool mom very proud! It seems that when we homeschool we have more to prove and the success of our children is personal and very sweet!

After so many bad things have happened, we are very thankful for these wonderful blessings.



Now that we have that little business out of the way, I'll show you the next group of pictures.

I don't know why, but I love old things. I always have. I am happy that now with upcycling and recycling trends and the poor economy that old stuff is in style and very popular. I never follow decorating trends but this is one that suits me.



My home is filled with family treasures from my husband's parents and grandparents. I have also found things at garage sales and Goodwill.

The bowl with the eggs was passed down from my husband's grandparents. It is a set of three.

Here are some collages I created using different color techniques. The one above just has the colors desaturated to give it a bit of a vintage feel. One of these days I want to try my hand at some of the textures that are available. Like I said at the beginning of this post, there is always more to learn.


Here is the black and white version...



and lastly, the sepia tone.

Thank you all for reading this blog and for your sweet comments. I appreciate you all and thank you for your prayers and your encouragement during this time of trials. We are hoping that things will be calm for season, we have certainly had enough storms to last for a good long while!

I'll be linking this post to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

Gorgeous Cherry Tree Blooms-Mosaic Monday

The cherry trees at the nursing home are in bloom. This has to be my favorite tree. I know I said that about the crabapple tree down the street, but I forgot all about this beauty. Besides, it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind.


I actually took pictures of it two times this week. The first time was Wednesday evening. They took Mom to the shower and I had a few minutes to walk around outside. Thankfully I carry a small Panasonic Lumix camera with me in my purse so I spent several minutes standing under this tree soaking in this magnificent beauty and taking pictures.




I was back again on Saturday to feed her breakfast and brought my Canon EOS 50D SLR.

All of the pictures above were taken with the Canon.

These were taken with the Panasonic.

I want to tell you about that sweet visit to the nursing home on Saturday. Alzheimer's is a tragic disease. My Mother-in-law was diagnosed with it about 14 years ago. Weighing only 76.8 pounds, she is now in the end stages and hasn't known who we are for several years. She can no longer speak understandable words. Her language ability is like infant gibberish before they learn to speak. She still smiles and tries to talk, but most of the time she sits with a vacant stare. While I was feeding her breakfast Saturday morning, she began to stroke my hair, then she patted and rubbed my face and patted my arm. It has been a very long time since she has shown any affection. I had to fight the tears that were streaming down my face. It was so special to have that affection from her. It totally made my day and the beautiful cherry tree was the icing on the cake.

I'm linking this post to Mosaic Monday Hosted by Mary at the Little Red House.

My Favorite Spring Tree

Every spring I look forward to seeing one particular tree in bloom. It is a flowering crabapple tree that is on a street in our neighborhood. For some reason this tree blooms like none of the other crabapple trees I've ever seen.



I'm sure the neighbors must think I'm crazy because I stand there with my camera every spring , day after day, trying to capture the beauty of this tree in full bloom.




It is on the street of our entrance so there is a good bit of traffic. I do feel a little silly standing there with my camera in front of my neighbor's house trying to catch the light just right. Or especially if there are bees, I walk all around the tree trying to capture them in action. I'm kind of shy and don't really like drawing attention to myself...



but I'll risk a little embarrassment to get pictures of this gorgeous tree.



Have you ever seen so many blooms before? It is just covered with these gorgeous pink blooms. I love it!





A couple of years ago I purchased four lilac shrubs and all but one died. Today I found some for $5.97 and I bought two of them.



One of them had a few blooms and I cut them off to enjoy them inside the house. I love lilac blooms!



They smell wonderful!

I hope these will survive. I'd love to have large lilac shrubs full of blooms so that I could have lilac arrangements all over the house each spring, (not to mention all of the photo ops I could have).

A few days ago I mentioned that we were having Internet trouble. Every night, for nine straight nights, right about eight o'clock our Internet would go out. It would stay off until about eight o'clock the next morning. I called AT&T and they checked some things on their end but it still didn't correct our problem. They sent out a technician. I had been trying to figure out what the problem could be, and right before he arrived I remembered that my husband had added a new sensor to our outside light. Feeling rather silly I thought I'd mention this fact to him. At first he didn't think that was the problem and checked some other things. It was cold that day and he decided to put his stocking cap over the light post just to see what would happen. Sure enough, the Internet went down. He took the cap off and it came back on. We had dusk to dawn Internet service! We took the new sensor off and now our problem is solved. The outside light never turns off, (which is why we replaced the sensor), but at least we have Internet at night now.

It is even crazier, because my husband's work computer was never affected by this. Just our three home computers.

I'm linking this to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.

Mosaic Monday- Flowers From the Indy Garden Show

Here are a few flowers shots from the Indy Flower and Patio Show. I'm linking to Mary's Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Mosiac Monday- Colors of Autumn

The colorful leaves in autumn thrill me just about as much as any spring flower, well... that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's close. The colors are magnificent and often stop me in my tracks, especially during the "golden hour".

Photographers refer to the last hour before the sun sets, as the "golden hour". During this time the lighting is almost perfect and casts a beautiful golden glow. It is a wonderful time to photograph the rich, vibrant autumn colors.

Oh, did you notice the sweet little heart shaped leaf on the Kousa dogwood? I didn't even notice it until I was editing the pictures on the computer.

I'm linking today to the Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Mosiac Monday

It is a windy and cool 58 degrees at 1:00 PM. Definitely feels like autumn here in Indiana today. I'm joining Mary @ the Little Red House today for Mosaic Monday.

Mosiac Monday- The Farmer's Market

On Saturday, I finally made it to the Noblesville Farmer's Market again. I love taking pictures at the market, but I feel awkward doing so. People look at you funny when you take pictures of their peppers and puppies! I usually ask if it's OK to do so, but even asking makes me feel silly. I guess one day I'll get over the feeling of awkwardness when taking pictures in public places.

I bought Indiana sweet corn, green beans, onions, new potatoes, tomatoes, squash and zucchini. I cooked most of it over the weekend, and it was delicious! I hope to make some zucchini bread either today or tomorrow.

I'm participating in Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary at the Little Red house.

Mosaic Monday

Mary, from the Little Red House, has a meme called Mosaic Monday. Since I've become quite fond of collages this is a very easy one for me to participate in.

I'm glad I had my coffee on the patio early this morning, because just a short time later we had a much needed rain shower. As you can see, I'm still enjoying my peonies!

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day!