July Photo-a-Day Challenge EAT and SMELLS DELICIOUS

Doubling up here to get caught up....

EAT

During the summer a plate of tomatoes from the garden can be my breakfast, lunch, supper, elevensies, four o'clock tea, my 1:00 A.M. snack, or all of the above. When offered, I have never said, "No thank you--we have enough tomatoes."  If I can't eat them fast enough I freeze them and later make spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and soup base out of them. In my dream world, tomatoes grow even in the winter.

SMELLS DELICIOUS

I assume this category was meant more for food, but when I thought about which food smells the most delicious to me, well, then we are back at tomatoes again. My front entryway is graced by hot pink, blush, peach, crimson, white, and yellow roses. The accompanying scent is indeed delicious.

Even Chunk thinks so.

July Photo-a-Day Challenge STARTS WITH "T"

This is the track where I go walking almost every night with daughter Em and a few others. Well, actually, the others run and I walk. Em circles the track twice for every one of my laps.

As you can see, even though the city has us civilians on water restrictions (3x per week, only between the hours of 6 PM-10AM because "even though your grass is brown, it is not dead, only dormant" ) the grass at the high school track is a vivid green. The sprinkler on the far end waters only the track, not the grass. I guess since there is nothing going on at the track during summer vacation, they are keeping that grass green solely for the benefit of those who go for walks there.

T is also for a nostalgic look at boys and their toys in
Madonna Dries Christensen's anthology, Toys Remembered



This is a fun look at toys throughout past decades from the vantage point of actual users--boys! Reading this took me back to my childhood and caused me to reflect on toys that I had forgotten all about. From Thomas the Tank Engine to a Spyder bike to classic marbles, the authors of the stories bring these treasured toys to life, inspiring the reader to perhaps document the stories of their own toys before they are forgotten forever.









Mandatory Government Disclaimer: You read my blog.You see a link.The link takes you to a page where you can buy something if you want.You buy something.
I might get a commission.
There you have it.

July Photo-a-Day Challenge SHARE

Hoo boy, am I ever behind on the July Photo-a-Day Challenge. Totally not my fault, unless I somehow managed to intentionally cause mass chaos in the workings of my computer. And why would I do that when I HATE COMPUTER PROBLEMS SO MUCH?

After many days of working on my computer, trying to figure out why it suddenly decided that going into a constant reboot cycle was ever so entertaining, my precious Computer Geek decided to cannibalize a spare computer we had and rebuild a new computer for me. Just so you know, computer geeks always have spare computers hanging around.That is why my kitchen table frequently looks like this:

I need to decide, would I rather have a place to eat my dinner or would I rather have a functioning computer? I think you know the answer.

In the interim, I had to use Computer Geek's and Weston's computers. If you've ever had to use someone else's system, you know this was not a happy time for the Queen of Quang. Even though "all keyboards are the same" blah blah blah, I'll have you know that each keyboard is like an extension of its owner's fingers. It is part of you. When you have to use someone else's keyboard, it's like slipping into someone else's shoe and then going for a walk. Yeah, it's a shoe and it serves its purpose, but the whole time that shoe is uncomfortable and the world feels a little off-kilter. Plus, I have my computer set up the way I like it. My Excel spreadsheets are formatted so that when I enter a URL into a cell, then later click on that cell, it takes me immediately to proper website. Not so with Computer Geek's. His cells were formatted to do absolutely squat when I click on them. So then it's the tedium of copy and paste, copy and paste, copy and paste, ad nauseum.

But finally! I have a working new-ish computer that rocks! It's way faster than the old one, and now I can watch video on my computer! Score!  Plus there's that added benefit of having a computer that no longer spontaneously reboots--over and over and over. Once I had the new-ish computer though, I realized that uh-oh, I now had to reinstall all my software. Do you think for one minute I could find the software for downloading photos from camera to computer? No siree. At long last I found it, in the precise place where I last put it. Who knew? 

So, without further ado (don't you love it when someone writes "Without further adue/adieu..."?  Yeah, me neither) here is the photo challenge from...oh, someday last week. Share.

Grandson Avatar was told he could invite someone over to share his pizza. He chose Uncle Weston, without even knowing that I had a "share" assignment to fulfill. I love when my universe is in harmony.

July Photo-a-Day Challenge SOMETIMES I...and EMOTION

I'm combining two themes today because:
1. I'm behind and need to get caught up.
2. The pictures I want to use for both themes are from the same event.

Sometimes I...

...get a little freaked out when people that I knew as small children are now at the age when they get married. How did that happen?  

When did they go from little girls to beautiful young women?

One day they are patiently plodding through Silas Marner in my class.

Then they are falling in love and finding young men to marry.

How do they grow up before my eyes when I haven't aged a day?

Emotion

Joy and encouragement, on the face of the young bride.

Trepidation on the groom's face as he attempts dancing in front of a crowd.

Boredom on the face of the young man in the background. It's a wedding.

July Photo-a-Day Challenge BLACK & WHITE

Miss Baby Elephant

July Photo-a-Day Challenge MOTION

Weston

Free Trampoline

Motion

July Photo-a-Day Challenge TOY

Yesterday's theme was TOY.  Yes, I am a slacker blogger, thank you. The theme fit in perfectly with activities at our house yesterday.

May I introduce Mr. iPad Mini. He is the favorite toy of a certain fourteen year old who is very close to me, but who shall remain nameless, even though he goes by an alias anyway. Mr. iPad Mini allows Nameless Teenager to play his favorite game, shown above. (Nameless Teenager has Irish roots.)

The game allows NT to ignore his mother when she says, "Time for dinner."

"Just a minute," he says.

His mother says, "I need your help in the garden."

"As soon as I help the Druid attain the next level," he says.

His mother says, "Your laundry is done. Put it away now."

"I just need thirteen minutes for my elixir to finish," he says.

Yesterday, Mr. iPad Mini went on a vacation that didn't include Nameless Teenager.

In fact, all electronic devices in our home went on hiatus. 

Poor Nameless Teenager.

What was he to do?

Pick up a book?

The horror.

No, without his BFF, NT resorted to digging out a long-lost childhood friend.

Mr. Moon Sand

I cracked open NT's bedroom door to see if he had somehow found a way to subvert the lesson he was supposed to be learning. Instead, he was lying on the floor navigating Mr. Tonka Mini through the sand, and making vehicular noises.

While it's not quite a book, moon sand was an acceptable alternative to whining, "How many hours until I can have my iPad back?"

And he said, "Today is the most boring day of my life" only nineteen times.

July Photo-a-Day Challenge UP

On a normal day when I go outside and look up, the sky is laced with an intricate grid of chem trails.
Unfortunately, today must have been a day when our valley was relatively chemical-free so I had to find another subject for the word du jour.

 There shall be apples this year!

July Photo-a-Day Challenge ON MY SCREEN

The theme presented today was a real challenge for me. Throughout the day, I thought of taking photos of the things I was looking at on my computer screen. Yet each time I hesitated because the images on my computer screen were not photos taken by me. I didn't want to run into any copyright issues.

Then I thought I would take pictures of what was on my TV screen instead, but that presented the same problem.

So instead of seeing what I came across on my computer screen today-- images of a lost child, of a procession of nineteen white hearses, of a Monterey Chicken recipe I want to try, of a gift idea that I'm going to use on some lucky recipient, or of a cool trick using rubbing alcohol, a cotton swab and colored pencils, you're going to see this:

A dear friend died last night. She was an art teacher to my son and many other students at a home-school co-op. Many children under her tutelage went from proclaiming, "I can't draw," to creating beautiful pieces that left me in awe at end-of-year school art shows. I don't recall ever seeing her without a smile beaming from her face. She uplifted, encouraged, and inspired adults as well as children.

Two weeks ago, we got some of her former students together to create a poster board card that they could all sign with their names and special thoughts or memories. I asked one student to handle the cover of the card. The result was simple yet beautiful. Thinking of You.

I took the card to her house. She was lying in bed, being assisted in drinking cold water through a straw. I waited, then presented the card to her. Her smile cut through any misgivings I was having about bothering her. She immediately said of her students, "I need to do something for them."  In agony, she still thought of them. She held on to the card, touched at the sweet messages of love it contained. We spoke briefly, then I could see she was exhausted so I kissed her on the forehead and said goodbye. That was the last time I saw her.

At 8:45 last night Utahna's smile left this earth. She showed us how to create true beauty, not only through paintings or sculpture, but in treating people as Godly works of art.

July Photo-a-Day Challenge CLOSE-UP

Pumpkin on Windowsill

Backstory: I have a black thumb. I laugh when people say, "Make sure you contain mint when you plant it or it will take over your entire garden."  I have yet to keep any type of mint alive long enough for it to take over anything. I planted several pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelons, and cantaloupe from starts that a friend gave us. They died. 

I was watering the garden a couple of weeks ago and heard the next door neighbor said to his wife, "Honey, these watermelons are twice the size that they were the last time I was out here. Same with the pumpkins."  I was tempted to accidentally water the neighbor, but then I remembered that he's a really nice guy. Let him have his melons. I will start new ones.

So say "hello" to my cute little pumpkin. It will act as a houseplant until it is too big for its container. I will then gradually introduce it to the elements and when I think it is strong enough to plant in the garden, I will lovingly place it in its new home.

And it will die.

I am a herbicide.

July Photo-a-Day Challenge SWEET

 

I'll let you decide whether it's the ice cream bar or the boy that's sweet

Helpful hint: the boy is 14 and the ice cream bar is chocolate

July Photo-a-Day Challenge CELEBRATE

Independence

July Photo-a-Day Challenge RED

My apron, hanging on the clothesline

(The brown you see in the background is crunchy Utah grass. The green you see in the background is drought-resistant Utah weed, that cares not that we are under lawn-watering restrictions.)

Tomorrow's theme: celebration

If you would like to participate in the photo-a-day challenge please head to The Idea Room

July Photo a Day Challenge REFLECTION

Pixie, brushing her hair

If you want to participate in The Idea Room's July photo challenge, check out the list of suggested prompts.

Tomorrow's theme is "red."

July Photo a Day Challenge OUT MY WINDOW

This month I am playing along with a challenge issued by Amy at The Idea Room. She encourages her readers to take a photo based on a theme that she selected, one for each day in July. Since I'm a notorious slacker-blogger, I thought a daily prompt would be the kick in the tushie inspiration I need. If you want to participate you can see her July list HERE.

When I look out my window, my brain sweetly overlooks the fact that I am peering through a screen or a dirty (shocker!) glass. The camera is not so merciful.  I toyed with the idea of stepping outside to take these shots but dang it! I AM A BLOGGER WITH INTEGRITY!  Even though it means my photos may look blurred or un-focused, I want to show you what I see when I look out my window, not what I see when I go outside and stand in front of my window. And although the challenge is to take a photo a day, you can bet your sweet bippy [name that TV show!] I will run on endlessly with commentary every day. That's how I roll.

The rose bush I see from my living room window. I can smell it from there too.

The red roses I can see from my bedroom window.

The view out my back door window; my little oasis of serenity under the plum tree.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's challenge: Reflection