More Chicken Adventures

Conner goes outside to gather eggs from the chickens.  Conner puts eggs in pockets.  Conner decides to practice catching chickens.  Chickens do not want to be caught today.  Conner slips and falls.  Conner returns to house. In the meantime,  Mommy is desperately trying to edit Daddy's final assignment so they can be finished with his accelerated Master's program FOREVER.  Conner wanders all over house trying to find Mommy in order to tell her that his shorts are covered in mud and dripping egg.   Daddy tries to intervene, but Mommy sees Conner's shorts before Daddy can hide Conner from Mommy.  Mommy decides to write story on blog instead of having nervous breakdown.

And here is the version I wrote first, which is a little more "embellished" (It's a little more "wishful thinking," although I do tease my hubby about "owing" me photo toys for every week's assignment that I've edited.  James always says that I've earned the Master's degree just as much as he has!):

Conner goes outside to gather eggs from the chickens.  Conner puts eggs in pockets.  Conner decides to practice catching chickens.  Chickens do not want to be caught today.  Conner slips and falls.  Conner returns to house. In the meantime,  Mommy is desperately trying to edit Daddy's final assignment so they can be finished with his accelerated Master's program FOREVER.  Conner wanders all over house trying to find Mommy in order to tell her that his shorts are covered in mud and dripping egg.   Daddy tries to intervene, but Mommy sees Conner's shorts before Daddy can hide Conner from Mommy.  Mommy has a nervous breakdown.  Daddy promises Mommy new tripod to make her feel better.  Mommy does feel better.  Mommy decides she will help Daddy with four more years of a Doctorate degree so she can have additional photography equipment to make her feel better.  Mommy gently reminds Conner that he will need to be more careful with eggs in the future, so the Hodson family can spend less money on food and more money on schooling and photography equipment.

Chicken-sitting the "peeps"

Yes, you heard right: we are chicken sitting for some friends while they are on vacation.  We have several chickens that we keep, so our friends asked us if their little "peeps" could run with ours for a few days.  "The more the merrier," our kids said--especially Conner--so here they are.  Of course we can't babysit a few chickens without a scrapbook page being made, right?  So I ran down to the coop yesterday to catch a few shots.  This is one of them.  Notice the "peepers" on that "peep" focused on me?  Well, about three seconds after I snapped this photo, she decided she didn't like being a subject and flew at me.  Luckily, the camera and I survived, and I still managed a few more shots, but this is probably the best of the bunch.  But it makes a great story, right?

Half of a photo shoot

Before we went to Oregon this year, my mom and I planned a "photo shoot" for her and my dad. I looked forward to it, as an amateur seeking practice (and as simply a time to take photos of my folks). Unfortunately, we never found the time. And that's okay. It was a busy time, and I ended up having the impromptu landscape shoots with my dad. But I did manage to catch my mom one day in between yard work and grandkids. We took the photos in her little bamboo grove. And I'm rather pleased with how they turned out.

So here is my mom. This is the woman who raised six children, never asking for recognition for herself. This is the woman who was always there at the end of the school day, or late at night if I needed to talk through my "teenage woes." This is the woman who never missed an opportunity to express her faith in God or her love for her children. This is the woman who showed generosity and compassion for others. This is the woman whose footsteps I follow, a woman who chose "homemaking" over a career, yet strove to improve and educate herself wherever she felt necessary. This is the woman who still stands by my father, in all times and all circumstances. This is my mom.