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Meet Jack and Simon. My sweet cats. I CAN NOT stand it when they choose freshly laundered clothing as a bed. Rewashing is not something I love to do. However, this was just too cute to disrupt them. Don’t you think?

More on my facebook…..

I took the pictures above at a local park.

For Facebook friends… I have uploaded new pictures here.

An adjustment to this experimental photo policy… I will not be posting groups of photos like I did before my Facebook friends only policy… However, on the occasion I will have a photo of the boys a long with a post. I figure this is an in between of both extremes. I miss having photos in my posts, but I also don’t need a publicly viewable photo album either!

I just posted new photos on Facebook If we’re facebook friends check them out! If we aren’t feel free to add me here! If I know you in real life or through this cyberspace I will add you.

This Works For Me Wednesday I’m featuring my love of label makers. I could go sickly insane labeling everything in the world if I had the time and got on a roll. I love to label. I love the idea that if we have a babysitter the will know which remote works for what. When we have family in town they will know where to put groceries. When someone is cleaning up the playroom they will know what bins get what toys. Our files look clean and professional with nicely printed labels on their tabs. There is no confusion over regular and decaffeinated coffee grinds in my house because it’s labeled!

I think it’s genetic. My dad never let us off to camp without writing our LAST NAME large on the inside collar of every shirt and every item we packed. My father and step-mother are ferociously organized. With multiple toddlers I could never keep the level of organization they do. However, I can strive and labeling is one step closer.

And yes, my husband laughs at me.

Just a few pictures (taken in less than stellar light.)

It is a little hard to see the labels in this one.

 

Other WFMW Posts:
Traveling With Small Children
Easy Cooking

The shop has disappeared but for good reason! Being that it was beta, I learned some valuable things from it!

1. Shops are fun to have.
2. I would rather have a shop where I’m more confident about the product offerings.
3. Finding out several of the products were made in China I realized I want to be able to verify the place of manufacturing before I offer a product.
4. When the shop comes back someday every item will be carefully selected to be stylish, useful, not MIC and Mommy Zabs approved

Also, I now have a developing book list. When I finish a book I will strike it out and write a review for you. If you are interested in reading more about a book click the link on the list and you will be able to read and even purchase if you would like to.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all the feedback on Am I Thinking Straight about whether or not parent bloggers, (specifically myself,) should post pictures of our children. I have come to some conclusions for now.

I say for now because I know that over time ideas evolve and mine have been known to do just that! The internet world is relatively new in the realm of history and as we learn more about internet safety opinions may continue to change.

I do think I have many appropriate safe guards in place to make it difficult to track our family. On top of that I have listed my domain as private so that it is not even possible to see who the domain belongs too. However, for the sake of extreme caution and not wanting any freaks to develop crushes on my children (even if they will never find them), I have a new plan.

I hate the idea of not posting pictures of them on my blog because for so long now I have enjoyed sharing them with you! Children are the most interesting photography subjects. The expressions on their faces, innocence in their eyes, and wonder at the world captivates me. BUT it will now be something only approved friends will see.

I have thought of several ways to do this and arrived on FACEBOOK. These are my reasons for choosing facebook:

1. Many people are already members- so it is one less user name and password to remember if you want to see my pictures.
2. It is easy to become a member and is user friendly.
3. It is a secure site that you can make as much or as little information about yourself available to different ‘friends’ in your network.
4. The advertising on it is minimal.
5. If someone is my friend I have information about them and this increases the chances of the person not being a random freak. After all if you are giving me access to see your families photos, you probably won’t be hurting mine? right?
6. iPhoto has a simple facebook exporter feature!

Of course, I will only approve friends that I either know IRL (in real life), or those of you I have developed friendships with online. If I don’t know you well enough yet, I won’t approve you. But that does not mean I can not get to know you and eventually we can be facebook pals. Gosh- that sounds so exclusive, but because of my family I suppose I need to sound snooty.

3 disclaimers:

1. I will continue to post pictures that do not involve my children.
2. I will not be taking down pictures I have already posted, with the exception of my ‘about’ page. Luckily children grow and change, so that won’t look that way long anyway!
3. I have ZERO judgment on parents that elect to post pictures of their children. For me, I am simply following the “when in doubt, don’t” theory

When I post a new photo album to facebook I will write a post with it to the link much like I used to do with my mac photo album (that was unfortunately not private and I therefore no longer have it.)
IF you are one of my friends that would like to continue seeing pictures of the boys please go ahead and add me on Facebook.

If you are not yet a member of facebook and would like to become one JOIN HERE.

PS- I have really grown an affection for lists Can you tell?

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the remainder of our Savannah pictures our now up on my Facebook.

Gosh this infection is kicking me in the seat I do feel improvement, but I’m so exhausted. If only I could sleep all day! But jj has work to do and the boys keep fighting… so life moves on. Don’t worry, I’m not too down about it, just tired. I’m *sorta* laughing about the humor of it all. After all, I’m sure my mom had to take care of me while she felt horrible on many occasions.

On a completely unrelated topic. I’m seriously thinking about no longer posting pictures of my children. It would be very difficult to go through 2.5 years of posts and take down all pictures, but moving forward I may stop. I have been on all sides of this issues at different times. I finally had arrived on it’s fine to post pictures for several reasons.

1. I don’t use my real name. Some of you know it because I have developed a relationship with you, or have replied to emails.
2. Even if you knew our last name, it is about as common as Smith.
3. I am never specific about where I live, and have lived many places throughout the course of my blog. The only thing that could lead you is the link I had to my church, which unfortunately I have taken down. That bums me out because there are incredible sermons there. I live a good distance from the church, but still… i figured I would take it down.
4. We are unlisted. We use Voice over IP and therefore have no land line phone number. That being the case we are in no published phone directory.
5. There are almost no moments where my children are not with me. Owen will do preschool 2 times a week next year but I will be walking him to class and back with me. When he is school-age, the plan is to probably homeschool. I don’t leave my children unless they are with my parents or a trusted sitter- and then almost never.

These are the reasons I have felt okay about posting pictures. I love them, love sharing them with you, I love photography, a big part of this blog is who I am… I invite you into my life and I have built great relationships with many of you… I feel like part of that is sharing my life visually with you.

That does leave me open to perverts getting on my page, and I am aware that this has happened before. I see what searches people use to end up on my page and some are obviously perverted. From what I can see those searchers get to my page, see it isn’t what they were looking for and bounce right off….

BUT I followed some links that led me to a post (I’m so sorry I’m not giving credits right now- it came from multiple blogs and I’m trying so hard to catch up I lost track of who all pointed me there…). Basically in this post the man is very concerned with parents who are posting their children’s pictures online. He goes as far as calling it pimping. He feels that if you put your child’s picture out there that any pervert can use it to masturbate. That is where I am not sure if I agree. Is he going too far? I know we have all the precautions in place so that no one can get a hold of them…. but obviously I can not protect what some sicko decides in their brain to do with the image of my child.

I am not sure if he is taking it too far? What do you think? Following that same line of thinking, your child should not ever model (I don’t want my children anyway, but those that do, or young actors?) Also, some sickos do that stuff in public when they see people. I know that sounds terrible- and it is! But once I was next to a sicko in a car and he started doing that! I was doing nothing inappropriate and was fully clothed etc… So how responsible for that am I?

I think we need to do what we can to ensure safety, but other people’s thought lives? I’m just not sure that is a standard I can maintain for life. Where do we draw the line? Am I pimping if I love sharing my life with you? If I am GOD KNOWS I will stop in a heartbeat! This guy seems like a really well-meaning great guy… And he may be right on, but I also thought he was somewhat judgmental of parents like me. Please share your thoughts and your own struggles on this issue. I really want to hear. I’m open to rebuke should it be the right thing. You can disagree with me. I won’t hate you for that

This batch of photos was taken on the 4th of July We went into Savannah with My sister-in-law and her husband for lunch while the kids all stayed together. It was nice to get out and go to a unique lunch place just 4 adults. We always get a ton of adult time when we visit them- its nice.

After that we returned home had dinner and headed out to the fireworks. We had a choice between catching the fireworks at Tim’s army base or downtown Savannah. Thankfully we chose Savannah because Ft. Stewart made national news for a flopped fireworks display. Apparently 4 minutes into the hour long show the remainder of the fireworks blew up on the ground causing fire to shoot everywhere. The crowd started picking up their chairs, blankets, and running! That’s a little too much drama for me.

Ours was uneventful, beautiful, bug-free and convenient. Loved them.

A picture of one of the many beautiful Savannah trees

JJ and I out on the town for lunch

Lukie making what I interpert to be fireworks gestures.

Owen ADORES his cousin Gabby… and I happen to think they look like brother and sister

Lukas and Jackson looking up.

Jackson and his pretty blues.

Gabby and Owen again looking like each other.

Janis holding Jackson.

Lukas and Jackson on their bellies.

Me and Jan.

Elizabeth and Jessica, “the twins”, and our wonderful babysitters

Sweet Maddie.

Elizabeth and Jess again.

My boys checking something out.

BOOM!

We did not end up leaving until 3:45pm. We decided to stop half way so that we did not have to drive too late into the night. We found a great hotel though, so I’m happy My teeth and sinuses still ache, but hopefully I can get to a dr. tomorrow afternoon. We’ll see.

We have internet here so I have been working on getting my photos together. I’m so behind (as in just about everything else!). I will probably post pictures everyday this week!

Today’s batch if from Lukas’s baby dedication. It took place on July 1. We didn’t get very clear pictures of the actual dedication and I have been waiting on my father’s before I posted this, but I thought I would just go ahead and post anyway

Owen dressed up for his brother’s big day.

Lu being good as he waited to be called up.

Its time! (very blurry!)

Our church likes to make some babies This was just one service!

Lu couldn’t make it through the whole service and had a yucky nose so I wouldn’t put it in the nursery. To the cafe we went!

Lukas and my dad.

Owen at after church dinner.

Owen and JJ outside of the restaurant.

Lukas and Paw Paw outside of the restaurant.

As always, when Jeff’s parents come in town we get a lot done around the house. They hung our curtains in JJ’s office. They also hung the curtains I had bought for our kitchen.

This is before:

This is after:

The Old Coke prints I have had since 8th grade will be moved to over our pantry. The red dish on our table came from a recent Southern Living at home party. Mimi and I thought it would be the perfect pop of color. We turned the table for a different perspective- I like it!

I also happened upon Crate & Barrel on the right day! FLOOR SAMPLE SALE DAY! nice. We found the perfect chair to put in the remaining corner of our living room. The ottoman is still on it’s way, but for now you can get the idea. It is the one on the right- we got a deal a steal on it! When the matching ottoman comes in and I get the room cleaned up nicely (aka. kids in bed,) I will take a shot from the 2nd floor so you can see the whole room.

I absolutely love Crate & Barrel’s Petri Chair. You may have noticed it as the red or orange chair in my living room. The display they have had in their store is white and I drool when I see it. Of course with my children and cats there is no way to keep a white chair clean in the living room so I had ordered it in the red/orange color to add pop to the room. However, when I walked into the store the other day to see the beautiful white chair and ottoman on sale for a mere fraction of the cost I couldn’t waste the opportunity. I have always wanted a white chair or chaise for the corner of our bedroom, but buying it just was not a priority. But when a chance like that comes up it only seemed prudent to buy it when I can get more for our money.

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