"Cover Shot!"

Above is my image entitled, "Indian Creek Reflections", as it currently appears on the cover of the 2008 fall issue of CHOIS CONNECTION magazine. This magazine is the first statewide magazine for home educators and is published quarterly by Christian Home Educators of Idaho State.

It is truly an honor to have my image grace the cover of a publication that is so close to my heart. I'm so glad that my first cover was for a magazine that supports my ideals of raising a family and teaching & training my children up in the Lord.

I praise the Lord for this wonderful opportunity and pray that I will have more occasions to use my images in ways that bring Him honor and glory, whether it's in this magazine or in any number of other ways. After all, my ultimate goal is to honor and glorify Him through my photography. Oh, and maybe bring in a little money while I'm at it. LOL

To God Be the Glory!

For more about CHOIS, CLICK HERE

"Welcome, Fall!"

Welcome, fall!

I took this image near the end of the fall 2006 season in Ridgecrest, North Carolina. It was my first visit of which I hope are many to this beautiful state!

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year...the long, hot days of summer are over and the air is now crisp and clean. Breezes blow and leaves turn. Ah welcome, fall, my friend.

"Long Time No Post"

Summer is a busy time for me personally, making blogging a challenge.

In June we are very busy as a family with church events in our community. I took over 1,000 photos of our VBS and our big community event and then had to post process those. I only finished those this past week and still have CD's to burn.

In July, I scored my first magazine cover! I had to ready the file for the cover and make sure it was to the magazine's publisher/printer's specs. I also made an ad for my business, to be included in the same magazine. The magazine should be arriving in my mailbox any day now and I'm very excited. We were also gone for three weeks of July as we drove to and from San Diego to visit family. I took so many photos! (I didn't count, but several thousand, no doubt) I haven't even gotten to post processing of those, yet.

August and September are extremely busy months for me as a homeschooling mother. This year I have a freshman and a senior. August is my school planning month. I create our girls' elective courses from scratch and tailor them to their own interests. This takes quite a bit of time and planning on my part, but it is well worth it. Of course, there are also the transcripts to do and graduation to prepare for. Oh, and don't forget the all important school pictures. As usual, we had to start school before I was actually finished preparing, so now I have the daily teaching things to do, as well as finishing up the planning.

August also means the county fair and photo contest entries to choose, (only 3) print, mount and enter. I will post one of my photos. It took 3rd. place out of approximately 68 entries in the category. I don't remember the exact number at the moment.

I have also continued to do some shooting in the field and have those photos to work on. I'm way behind on my photography, but that's the way it goes. I was able to do a quick process of the photos from the Wildlife Refuge I visited. See those HERE. I have been able to do at least a few from the different events and shoots. Mostly for family, though.

As you can see, the activities of summer have pretty much brought my blogging to a screeching hault! I can imagine I may be just as busy or more so when I go into full time photography, but until my kids are grown and gone, blogging, post-processing and photography will often be put on the back burner. Such is the life of a homeschooling mom...I love it and wouldn't have it any other way!