Bless This Mess

Whenever our schedule allows us, we spend Saturday morning doing a quick clean up.  In the past, we've called it "Saturday Morning and Everyone Pitches In and Cleans the House Day."  This is too long, so I'm going to change its name to "Bless This Mess" Day.  Today I got a glimpse into what it feels like to have a functioning routine and good helpers.

I made a list on my white board of things I didn't want to forget (let me go check it real quick to see if I missed anything...nope, got it all done) and got the kids started.  I also pulled out my camera:

Ian sweeps the floor and Fiona picks toys, dishes, and laundry out the piles

Shane burns the paper scraps that have accumulated throughout the week

Daniel hides until he realizes that if he helps me, he can play video games all afternoon

Captain Mark runs the show from the command center

I took care of the bathroom garbage, kept the kids on task, made sure the kids going to taekwondo were clean and fed, and vacuumed the floors.  Mark picked up all the messes Kai made (he likes to shred cardboard boxes), got the budget caught up, made sure all our computers were running smoothly now that he can remotely access them all from his office, and made his lesson plan for the YMCA. 

I have really enjoyed playing with my camera this week.  I'm experimenting with light levels indoors, which really means I'm trying to see how awful the light levels can be before the picture is terrible and blurry without a flash.  Pictures I couldn't take with my old camera are now possible.  The following three pictures would not have turned out at all:

Breakfast in focus!

Terrible backlighting!

More bad lighting, plus the action of food prep!

The next two shots show the amazing difference between the normal lens that came with the camera and the zoom.  Kai likes to jump for ashes, much like Mina used to jump for bubbles.  I took both pictures from my porch:

Regular Lens: Can you see Kai?

Zoom Lens: Now you can see him!

In both pictures, Kai is in midair.  I love continuous shooting! 

I also ventured out on the ten acres this morning with Mark while he inspected his trees for deer damage.  Those darn deer just knock the protective cages right off the baby trees and strip the bark right off.  As we rounded the corner by Mark's "Huxley Tree" I couldn't resist a raindrop picture:

My camera does have an auto focus setting, but I can also choose what point to focus on.  I was able to pick one raindrop out of all those hanging off the needles.  My old camera thought it was smarter than I am, so it would say, "No, you don't want to focus on raindrops, you actually mean to focus on the trees behind that tree, you silly person!"

I'm really, really enjoying the quality of these pictures!  Ian says, "Your pictures look like they could be on a legitimate blog, like Mrs. Bergeron's," and "That pictures is awesome!  It's almost as good as Mrs. Bergeron's."  Those are the two best compliments I've ever received!