Slow Down

I really enjoy the album Our Darkest Days by the band Ignite. There is a song on that album titled Slow Down and one of the chorus lines is, "When the day is through all I want to do is slow down." This is kind of my theme for this post, or at least, I'm trying to make it so. Things have been terribly crazy lately in my life, and I haven't had the time or energy to post on the blog. I've been trying to make some choices where I can to slow myself down. Next Monday I should get some relief at work when the woman who will be reporting to me returns from maternity leave. I'm hoping that once she gets back and we're splitting the workload that I will have some energy left over to focus on my personal life once again.

My son's transition back to school after winter break was...bumpy. That has added another layer of complication to our already full lives as he's currently suspended from the bus. So we've had to rearrange schedules in order to get him to and from school each day. Luckily my current job is close enough that I can work from home in the mornings, drop him off, and still be at the office at a reasonable time. We're in the process of searching for a new counselor to try and get some additional help; as much for our parenting tool belts as for our son.

I've been using what little free-time I've been able to find to really catch up on my reading, especially the pile of physical books that have been sitting on my nightstand. I just finished reading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. I had picked this one out to read last summer and just hadn't ever gotten to it. It was a very interesting and unique story and I would highly recommend it. I think I'm going to try to finish The Story of Edgar Sawtelle next, although I did start that one previously and am almost halfway through, it's been a bit of a slog. But it's supposed to really take off soon I've been told!

I've also been trying to focus more on my photography, but in a different way. I learned how to take photos on a SLR camera, notice there is no D in front of that. But in the rush of my busy life, I'd become somewhat dependent on the automatic settings in my current DSLR camera. I would often use the aperture priority mode, but I was allowing the camera to pick some of the settings for me so I could quickly take the photos that I wanted to use. I decided that wasn't providing me with the control and satisfaction that I wanted, so I've slowed down and starting shooting only in manual mode again. Not every image is turning out exactly as I'd like, but it's quickly coming back to me and it's just more fun.

I took a couple of pictures that didn't turn out great, so I played with the Topaz plug-in that I have for Lightroom to turn the photos into "paintings".

This picture was of the moon getting ready to go down behind the mountains while surrounded by clouds. I didn't use a fast enough shutter speed to capture the detail on the moon, but the other elements showed up nicely so turned it into a black and white painting.

This picture is of the last light of the sunset one evening. I didn't get the focus as crisp as I would have liked, so I turned this one into a "watercolor" that ended up sort of looking like stained glass.

Frosty

I realize that for many people, frost isn't a big deal. But here in Denver, we rarely have the kind of frost that covers the trees. Last night we had a frozen fog, and this morning when it was 12 degrees outside, everything was covered in a layer of white. It was absolutely stunning.

Last night's frozen fog.

Frost on a tree right before sunrise this morning.

The field behind the college near our house.

Another shot of the field behind the college.

 

Bright blue morning sky behind a tree dressed in white this morning.

I just had to share a few photos of our lovely, rare frosty morning!

My Brain Hurts

I'm still really enjoying my new job, and I'm still totally consumed by everything going on there and at home. I'm counting down the days until my co-worker returns from maternity leave and I can (hopefully) focus on a more select number of things. Right now my days are flying by between trying to work on the projects that are ultimately my job, and fixing all of the urgent issues that arise each day that will go back to my employee when she returns from leave.

We've been very busy at home also. We had a wedding to attend on New Year's Day, for a young woman who my husband taught in fourth grade, and yes, I'm feeling kind of old these days. It was so much fun though as we were there with several of our friends and their children. I just wish it had started earlier than 6:30 at night, because after being up late on New Year's Eve, I just didn't have much stamina the next evening.

The kids started back to school this week and that's been a challenging transition. They're tired because they had allowed themselves to get on a later sleeping schedule, so they're kind of grumpy and emotional this week. But it'll pass...until spring break anyway.

I don't even have very many photos to share right now, just a couple that I've managed to take recently.

Moon and star this morning on my way to work.

From an evening walk with my husband the other night.

Quick walk at lunch time yesterday. There are some nice views around my office.

That's really all there is for the check-in right now. I'm mentally exhausted every day when I get home, so I've been doing a great deal of reading out of real books to give my eyes a rest from screens. I'm still hopeful that come February I'll have a little more time and energy to post more regularly.

Holiday Images

Last week I had Thursday and Friday off the Christmas holiday. This week I get Thursday and Friday off for the New Year's holiday, plus I took today off, so I have 5 days off this weekend! I've enjoyed a fairly lazy day today with a little work and lots of time with my family.

Everything is going really well right now. I've been enjoying the holidays and the extra time with family. My job is still great, if a bit busier than I'd like, but that will calm down in February once the woman who will be reporting to me returns from maternity leave. My boss is especially wonderful. She's calm, patient, and very reasonable. She let's me work and trusts me to get things done in my own way.

I thought I'd share a few of the photos from the last few days.

Christmas goose.

Christmas tree lights shining on decorations.

Snow on Christmas evening.

 

A couple of our stockings hung over the fireplace and a small tree (and a gift box).

Snow on Christmas evening; we got our White Christmas!

Snowy sky on Christmas night.

Christmas tree lights on the ceiling.

Fresh snow the morning after Christmas.

  

Sunrise through the clouds the morning after Christmas.

 

My son self-decorated with bows during gift sharing with my husband's extended family.

Moon shadows on the snow.

View out the window over the kitchen sink while I was doing dishes this past weekend.

Sunset this evening.

I know there are people who are already ready for summer (according to my Facebook feed), but I love winter. I love the snow we have right now, even if it is cold outside. I feel very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place and to be able to capture the beauty and share it with others. I hope you are enjoying nice weather and the holidays, and aren't in any of the places that have been hit with storms or flooding recently.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my readers out there who celebrate the holiday! We're enjoying a quiet, nuclear family holiday this year. My kids are both playing on electronics right now, and my husband is cooking our Christmas goose. We've never had goose before, but my husband loves to try cooking traditional items so we're going to give it a shot. He's also made Christmas pudding in the past, which was good but too rich for most of us. The biggest success has been sugar plums. We all love those and they're practically health food with all the nuts and dried fruit so he makes those every year.

Evolution of the Celebration
My parents moved to Colorado when I was 9 months old (so I'm not an actual native, but pretty darn close). Christmas for me growing up was always just the four of us (my parents, my brother, and me) and we always spent time relaxing and reading our new books.

My husband always lived near all of his family, so Christmas Eve was always with his mother's Italian parents celebrating the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Christmas day was always with his dad's parents, and when they lived in the area, his dad's sister's family.

After we first got married and had children, we continued to celebrate Christmas Eve each year with my husband's maternal grandparents. Before they had to quit hosting it, the event got pretty huge with all the grandchildren married and with kids of their own. My mother-in-law took over the event several years ago, and we actually broke into two celebrations with my husband's cousins starting their own.

Every Christmas day we'd go and see my parents and my husband's family. I finally put a stop to this one year when my brother-in-law was hosting Christmas and took his time with the meal so we didn't eat lunch until almost 4:00 in the afternoon, and I was practically screaming at my children to open their gifts faster after the meal since we were supposed to be at my parent's house at 5:00.

After that infamous year, we starting celebrating with only one family on Christmas, and the other family the weekend after, alternating years. Then my brother-in-law converted to Messianic Judaism a few years ago and stopped celebrating most holidays. They don't celebrate Hanukkah either, only the Jewish festivals found in the old testament. Once that change happened, we stopped seeing my husband's family on Christmas day and always see them the weekend after to celebrate with his paternal grandparents.

Since my brother and his wife still alternate Christmas celebrations with our family and his wife's family, that left Christmas every year other open with no family commitments or celebrations. My husband wasn't sure how he felt about that since he'd never celebrated Christmas that way, but I convinced him to give it a shot because that was how I had always celebrated it growing up. I think he was very skeptical about it until we tried it, and now I think even he enjoys the restful Christmas day every other year.

Christmas Eve at my in-laws

Christmas tree at my in-laws

Grilled grouper that my husband prepared for the feast.

Sibling love on Christmas Eve!

I hope that however you celebrate the day you are with people whose company you enjoy!

Snow Day!

Right after my morning workout (indoors) early this morning.

I'm fully aware that this doesn't look like much snow on the ground, but most everything is cancelled in Denver today. The snow started falling at about an inch per hour early this morning, and with a steady wind of about 15 mph and gusts over 30 mph, the roads are fairly treacherous. There have been all kinds of accidents already and all of the metro area schools are closed, which means my office is closed. Although the blessing, and the curse, of technology means that I can still work. I'm hoping to use the day to get caught up since all of my meetings are cancelled, and to enjoy extra time with my family.

Unintended Blogging Break

I hadn't planned on taking a break from blogging, but it happened nonetheless. I love my new job and am so happy with the decision to take this position. My days are flying by and I truly enjoy the work, the environment, and my coworkers. My workload is a bit intense right now because the woman who will be reporting to me went out on maternity leave three days before I started. Things are taking a little longer than they otherwise might have if she was here to help me understand how and why they set things up the way they did. She did come in when her baby was 4 days old to give me a quick orientation (I think managing her is going to consist of making sure she's not working too hard). I am figuring it all out and have received some kudos though, so I guess I'm managing without her for now. However, I am currently doing my work and some of hers, so I've been extremely busy at work.

Then I get home and I'm busy here preparing for the holidays. I am not ready for the holidays yet this year. I have got to get on it! We did get to watch my daughter's school band perform in the Denver Parade of Lights which was exciting. We also have both the inside and outside of our house decorated, with the exception of the tree which we'll get next Saturday. I'm definitely in the mood for the holidays, now I just need to get prepared.

I'm guessing that the time and energy to blog are going to hard to come by for the next couple of months. So I'll probably be posting pretty sporadically until late winter/early spring. I am going to try to put photos (good ones) up on Instagram, so if you're interested you can look for me there under darcylyndees.

We've had some lovely winter sunrises recently. The photos below are all from my phone camera, so they aren't great, but they're not terrible either. The colors were captured really nicely with no post-processing.