My Thing

I keep telling myself someday. Now is not the time. Right now I am being a mom. Not just a mom. Not just a stay at home mom (which has only been the case since the end of July). I am the mom. The best mom I know how to be. It is by far and away exactly my current "sweetspot".

I finished Max Lucado's book "Cure for the Common Life" a couple of weeks ago. Before that book reading was like a mission. Since that book I have read nothing. I really took it to heart. What is Autumn's sweetspot? What is my purpose? What is the one thing my Creator endowed me with that He did no one else?  Right now I am laughing. I have worried about it. Laughed about it. Almost cried about it one night.  I cannot think of one thing. I am not kidding. I was trying to do the study guide at the end of the book. This "question and think" area.

N-O-T-H-I-N-G

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pathetic. I know. Someday. Yes. It (my thing) will fall and gently soak me like a warm summer rain. Or maybe it already has and I dismissed it. Or it scared me too much so I wrapped it up and put it away. I surely hope not. Until then I will be what I am. A wife. A mother. A homemaker. A pursuer. To the best of my abilities. I will be satisfied. No, I will be more than satisfied. I will drink it in. All of the it. The good. The bad. The wanted. The unwanted. All of it. With a big smile on my face and more grace than I could possibly deserve. All knowing that "my thing" and I will meet. 

Someday.

Somewhere.

Somehow.

Could You Have At Least Freshened Up?

It has been wonderful this week. The weather. My motivation. The little women. Shannon will hopefully (fingers crossed) be finishing up with something at work that has basically had him living there. We are "living the dream." (Shannonism).

Yesterday I was buttoning up a couple of loose ends here around the house.  I was in the cleaning mood, but also in the mood to take my picture with my little women. I have been hanging a ton of the pictures up that I ordered and Ainzli made the comment, "Are there any of just you and us?". Looking around there are not many. Not many at all (2).

We can surely remedy that. So I did. In my cleaning clothes. Greasy hair. Unmentionables showing (didn't realize that till after the fact, oh well!). Face looking red and splotchy. Farm girl arms.
Honestly, that is how my family sees me. Most days. So when they look back at this they will see who they always saw.

Scary, greasy, tousled. Me!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Autumn:)

Handy Photo Tuesday: A Template

Instagram is so much fun. I am loving the new update. It is much easier and seems to be a little faster (the shutter speed). There would be times I would get frustrated with "missing" the shot.
I have a little over 600 pictures/videos on my phone. It is my camera for most of the day to day shots. A "Handy" little point and shoot.
The other day I was going through some old pictures that Shannon's mom gave him. There have been quite a few different sizes of standard prints over the years. There was the 3x3 inch square. The 3x3 inch square with rounded edges. These two are from the late 70's and 80's. I do like the square. Now there is the standard 4x6 or 3.5x5, these have been the standard for quite sometime. Then there is the Polaroid. The lovely Polariod. The picture that comes directly out of your camera. Instantly. With an ok product. The best part for me is the cool size and border it produces.

The entire Polaroid print is 3.5 x 4.25. The white border on the three sides is about an 1/8 of an inch. The bottom is about 3/4 of an inch. The actual picture is about 3.15x3.15 inches.  I realize this is really boring information, but there is a point.
I am going to convert my Instagram photos into Polaroid like photos!!!! How totally cool. I am super excited. It is going to be kind of time consuming, but I just know that it will be worth it.

Below is my template. It will be a 3.5x5 inch print. Here I can get a print for .19! In Photoshop, I am  dragging my Instagram shot onto this template. Adjusting it with free transform. I put the edges of the file inside the red lines. In Photoshop the red lines are just guides. Here, for the example, I actually painted them in. If you would be interested in the "real" template just let me know. I would be more than happy to email it to you. The bottom black rectangle is the part I will have to cut off once I have the prints. I then save it. And poof, a Polaroid in the making. It will be time consuming. I am sure I could look hard enough and find a print place that would do it all for me. But here's the thing: I have to do it on the budget. You know? Maybe you don't know. Lucky you!:)

Here are a couple of examples. The top and two sides are nicely inside the invisible guides. So the white around the edge will be perfect. The bottom will need to be trimmed. I will do this with my slide cutter. Not sure if that is the correct name, but that's what I call it.

When all is said and done they will be up on a shelf in a little wooden crate like box. Easily accessed by growing little women. Just another little way to have our day to day's on hand for years to come.
Oh yes. And by the way. If you know of somewhere on the far edges of the beautiful world wide web of a Polaroid making place please let me know. I would check it out in a heartbeat.!

Autumn:)

You Wouldn't Even Know It

If you walked through my house you would not even know that photography is something that is in my blood. That I love it. That it makes me so very very very happy.
All of that is about to change. :) I received a free shelving unit that matches our TV stand. Nothing spectacular, but nice. Once I started getting it in its place it was like a kick to my motivation bum!

I starting going through pictures. Choosing. Editting. Ordering (hardest one for me to do!). 89 prints in all. Mostly 4x6's. A couple of 5x7's. About 10 8x10's.

I have frames here I am going to "modify". I will purchase a few. I also have a few that have never had a Grismore picture in them. Sad!!  But, Big Plans. I am excited. I have well laid plans for myself this fall in my house.
A transformation in the making. Yah!!!


I am going to share a few pictures with you that I took of the girls last week.

All of the Black and Whites are in an 8x10 size.

After looking back through her pictures. 

This little head tilt/side eye look in pictures 

started about age 3.

I would not trade her saucyness for anything.

A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G

She went from little girl to little lady in no time flat.

It is amazing watching your children really come into their own. 

Just amazing.  

See.

Don't you see it.

I know you do.

She is......... I don't know how to explain her.

She is..............Saucy:) 

(This will be a 5x7)

She is now taller than my shoulders.

She is "leggy".

Her new shoes are a size 4.

They are Sperry's.

She has wanted them forever!

(This will be a 5x7)

I am bias. I know that.

But.

She has the most beautiful profile. 

Mom told me that when she was just a tiny baby.

Your right Mom.

Beautiful.

(4x6)

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Autumn:)

Defeat & Disappointment

Ms. Ainzli is not going to be a student council member, at least in the third grade. Although, if you want to know my honest opinion, it wouldn't bother me if she doesn't ever run again. It hurt my heart so much for her. I didn't realize how I would feel about her defeat. And not in the crazy parent way, like the pride thing. Just how does SHE feel. 
They got off the bus (my little women are now riding the bus home, they LOVE it), and they both come running upon the front porch. I am sitting in my wicker chair, anxiously awaiting their return. Ms. Ainzli has this huge smile on her face. I didn't know if they would get the results the same day or not. She tells me that two other kids are the representatives from her class. She is not sad. She is her same old happy-go-lucky self. I LOVE this about her. Ainzli really doesn't show much expression. She never has. She can be hard to read sometimes. I just know that this will be a huge asset for her later in life. Guaranteed. Anyway. I am so proud of her. I told her over and over and over...........:)

So fast forward to late evening. She is in the bathtub. We are talking about people, books, events of the day.... just stuff.
I get down on the floor right beside the bathtub. She is looking at me. I at her. Her beautiful dark brown eyes. Her long light brown hair. Her cute little button nose. Soaking her all in.
She tells me that when she heard she didn't win her stomach hurt for a little bit. I told her I understood. I do. I told her that she can't always win. I told her that she did her best and she should be more than proud of that. I told her that SHE did her project. I also told her that she is beautifully and wonderfully made.
I realize there are great lessons in defeat. I know this. I understand this. It does not make it much easier for me to swallow. There are so many bigger obstacles and trials in our future. I am only skimming the surface. These are the roads ahead of me. Walking these winding roads with my children. Always being there for them. Being their confidant. Being their sounding board. Watching them. Holding their hand. Not holding their hand. Learning with them. Learning from them.

I am proud of you, Sis. So very proud.:)

Elect Ainzli

Politics just might be in our future here at the Grismore abode. Ainzli came home last week (or the week before, can't remember) and told me she wanted to run for student council. I am thinking, "student council in third grade. Rubbish!". So of course, I say ok.
Last weekend we made her campaign poster. That was fun. She knew just what she wanted and I only helped a little. I did come up with a pretty cool acronym for her name. Very political.!:) She was very authoritative with the poster. I have no clue where she could have gotten that! heehee. She did inform me last night that there were a couple of posters that were better than hers. I told her not too worry. The speech is where it is.

Her eyes are a little puffy here. 

She had just gotten done crying.

She can be overly passionate.

It all worked out and was over pretty quickly.

She worked feverishly on her speech.

She did it all on her own. 

She would read it to us and we would tell her whether we thought it sounded correct.

She has awesome ideas.

Blow me away ideas.

She is amazing :) 

The speeches were today. I prayed for her. We (Shannon, Ainzli and me) had a talk about all being well if she does not get elected. She looked at us like we were Bozo's. She has a peace about her sometimes that can set us all at ease.

Elect Ainzli. She is Always Intouch, Naturally Zealous, Lives Intently

Autumn:)

Is There a Fence In Our Backyard?

I love it when a plan comes together. No matter if that plan has been years in the making. The results are a little sweeter. As long as we have lived in our humble abode, I have known that I wanted a quiet little backyard oasis. We have added and subtracted so many things from it to start to widdle away at what we ultimately want.

This was our biggest DIY project to date. I am not going to say ever. I have bigger plans for us. (If you are reading this Shannon, don't freak out. No big plans for the near future.). This was just one that I really thought out. I planned for. I am sure the ladies at the library thought I was mad. On more than one occasion I maxed out our book limit with only landscaping books. I leafed through every page. I wanted to be sure that what we were about to take on was exactly what I/we wanted.

He worked so hard. 

He gets me. 

He gets that I can be more than anal retentive. 

He understands how much things mean to me.

I love him more for that "getting me" thing.

We are quite a team.

We did it all. We dug every hole. We leveled every post. We hung every board. Shannon's Dad and Step-mom were more than a tremendous help. Thank you!


Autumn:)