Home for Sale

Well, we put our home on the market last week. We've had two showings, and the family that looked at it today are very interested. I will have a hard time letting this place go if it comes to that.

Today, the Lord blessed us when our Panasonic wide angle telephoto lens arrived. We've been waiting for it for over a year, but just this week I started praying that it would arrive before our vacation trip to Michigan. I just really wanted to capture some scenery with it.

Anyway, turns out it comes in handy when taking photos of your house, too. You can fit so much more in the shots.

Here are a few photos I took inside this evening with the new lens:

I love our kitchen (and how you can see the fort through the window):

From 155 Lake Meadows Drive

The master bedroom with the huge headboard I got at a garage sale:

From 155 Lake Meadows Drive

The newly painted dining room (finally replaced that pea green):

From 155 Lake Meadows Drive

The den:

From 155 Lake Meadows Drive

The newly-decluttered classroom/office:

From 155 Lake Meadows Drive

While the potential buyers were looking at the house, we walked down to the lake to hang out:

From New Lens

This one I'm going to entitle "Jingle discovers a body":

From New Lens

Curiosities of the Civil War

I got this book for review this spring just after concluded a Civil War unit in our homeschool. It is full of interesting trivia, and the author has attempted to organize this trivia in a way that makes sense (I'm not quite sure he succeeded in that because I have tried in vain to relocate the snippet I read about Lincoln comparing his height to other tall soldiers when visiting the troops). Unlike many books on war, it comes in small bite-size portions that are easy to digest.

This is not a book to use to learn about the war, but it would add great flavor to other books about this pivotal event in history. I think Civil War buffs would really enjoy it. It's not the kind of book you sit down and read cover-to-cover but the kind to enjoy bits of over a long period of time.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

The Whole Bible Story

Having grown up with a Bible, I don't experience the "intimidation factor" that some people have when they pick it up for the first time. Many paraphrases of the Bible are available that help with some of the archaic language, and there is even a chronological version available. And of course, there are children's versions which are usually illustrated and leave out the seedier stories and violence.

Dr. William Marty put this book together so that someone could just pick up the Bible the way they would pick up a novel and read it from cover to cover. It's not meant to replace a Bible but to give a reader a hunger to know more. I was anxious to review it because I thought my teenage sons might be more likely to read a Bible in this format.

I was disappointed. Have you ever seen a movie after just finishing the epic novel that the movie was based on? That's the feeling I got. If I had never picked up a Bible before, I might have been satisfied. I would be interested to know what someone who had never read the Bible before thinks upon reading this book.

The author also interjects opinion into the text. For instance, in the flood account the author explains that some think this flood was universal and others believe it was localized. While I didn't find a lot to disagree with, I generally think it's better to separate theological opinions from the text of Scripture.

365 - Fireworks and Family

We had a fun and low-key fourth of July. Actually, our celebrating was done on the 3rd because that's when the fireworks were scheduled in our lake front neighborhood. There's a guy with an empty lot down by the lake, and he hires a fireworks company and sets off an insane amount of fireworks. We usually watch the show from the neighborhood pool, and I love seeing all the lights of the boats on the lake that are parked to watch the show. You can see them in the bottom right of this photo:

From Fireworks 2011

Below are some more fireworks shots. I feel a little guilty because Rebecca fixed the settings on the camera and just handed the tripod to me. I only cropped these and did nothing to enhance the color. Hey, I didn't choose the watermark "Lazy Susan Photography" for nothing!

From Fireworks 2011

From Fireworks 2011

From Fireworks 2011

From Fireworks 2011

I took a few shots of the kids decorating cookies:

From Barns

From Barns

And last, but not least, we did a little photo shoot in our patriotic colors right after church. Disclaimer: Rebecca took most of these. I only took the one of the four kids. It was Terry's idea to do the "Iwo Jima" pose.

From Fourth of July

From Fourth of July

From Fourth of July

From Fourth of July - 2011

From Fourth of July - 2011

From Fourth of July - 2011