My friend Laura

Calling Laura "my friend Laura" is pretty much an inside joke stemming from conversations between my husband and me.

I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to photograph Laura and her family several times. She is one of my many friends who has had such faith in my photography business and the growth thereof.  I feel extremely blessed to call her my friend.  She is one of my prayer warriors that I call on and always know she will pray for whatever I request.  I do the same for her. How comforting...

I wanted to share some of her latest family shots.

When we first met, she only had Abbie and she was just a little fart. Now, there are three little rugrats with Ty and sweet Ms. Callie Sue. 

I love those kids, I tell you! When Abbie was little I taught her how to give the peace sign and say "peace out". I'm glad I could have a part in her proper raising! LOL

Can you imagine these little angels acting like this???  (Sorry, Laura)   hehehe

Let's just say, this photoshoot was quite interesting!  :)

I am so glad to have "my friend Laura" and her family in my life!

Menu planning

In order to hold myself accountable, AND to help me remember because my memory ain't so hot anymore, I am going to try to blog my menu plan each week.  I hope this process gets easier and more of a habit the more I do it.

I have been reading some blogs on menu planning, freezer and crock-pot cooking and one task I have in mind for my weekend is to do some ground beef freezer cooking. I decided that would be the easiest and most versatile ingredient to start.

I used this blog post as inspiration and I now have in my freezer:

3 pans of 3-cheese baked ziti
12 mini-meatloaves
1 lb. taco meat

and crock pot orange chicken ready to cook for supper tomorrow night. 
I also fixed a huge pot of veggie beef soup for lunch today and froze the leftovers.
AND, I plan to fix Mexican chicken and Spanish rice this week, so I will make an extra pan for the freezer while I'm making it.

Not bad for my first go at freezer cooking.

Week 1 | Resolution

I have talked about my resolutions already this year so I won't bore you with more of the same.
Instead I'll share my first week's photo for Project 52.

I have 3 different 365 photo apps on my iPhone right now, until I decide which one I will use. 
Anal, I know.
....and, yes, I am putting each day's photo onto each calendar.

Although I think a 365 photography project sounds next to impossible with my camera and posting/blogging each day, but with my mobile device, it's easy peasy!

I resolve...

I am not a huge resolution maker, but I do have a couple of goals this year.

First, is to try to be more aware of my budget and attempt to be a better saver.  I would like to work toward Dave Ramsey's baby steps to living a debt-free life.  That seems so unattainable to me, but I know anything is possible if one works hard.

In doing that and trying to be more "green" I have started by making my own laundry soap.  Super easy peasey and so far it seems to be working like a charm. :)  I did the simple Borax, A&H Washing Powder and Fals Naptha soap mixture.  There are several different ways to do it.

(Click photo for a link to the simple recipe I used or check Pinterest or Google if you are interested. Also, I would love any advice on other simple ways to save around the house in like ways.


I am going to work toward better menu planning again.  I am hot and cold with this one. {sort of like blog posting. ;-) } Along with that, I hope to do a better job with couponing and grabbing deals when grocery shopping; and I will try my hat at some freezer cooking. 


Of course, me, along with every other human being on the planet wants to try to be more fit.  We'll see how that goes. ugh


So, do I think these are attainable? 


Of course they are. It just takes a little work and a lot of willpower.

The rest of 522011

Oh my goodness, I cannot actually believe it's been over two months since I have posted anything!  I decided I definitely needed to post the remainder of my 52 week project for 2011 and report that I have decided not to do the self portraits again for 2012.  I need a break from myself! LOL  

I will be trying out a new 52 week photo project over at My 3 Boybarians using a prompt each week.  

Please feel free to join me. :)

I'm also going to attempt the 365 project using an app on my iPhone. I hope that will be pretty simple since I usually take at least one random photo each day anyway.  

So here are the last couple months of photos:

 5211-43

 5211-44

 5211-45

 5211-46

 5211-47

 5211-48

 5211-49

 5211-50

 5211-51

 5211-52