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You are here: Home / Archives for Photo Challenge

Photo Challenge

Month in Pictures, Week 4

June 7, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

I finally have a chance to sit down and finish this up! I had a delightful weekend—filled with visiting people and sharing life with different ones for a while. That meant that I didn’t take time to actually do much writing, but oh well. Here we are now!

Note: At least one link in this post is an affiliate link. Your purchase through these links helps support this blog at no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Wednesday, May 22:

We’ve had a lot of rainy weather lately, but I loved seeing the sunrise early this morning as I got to work. So beautiful—and a great reminder of God’s goodness to us, even in dark times!

Thursday, May 23:

This is what happens when we run out of mayonnaise. My brother got home from work and discovered that his favorite ingredient for snacks had been used up, so he had to make more. (Have you ever made homemade mayonnaise before? It is delicious!)

image-235

Friday, May 24:

Somewhat of a rarity—I was home today! I loved getting to see the sunrise after a light frost last night. Light has just about got to be one of my most favorite wavelengths ever! (Wait…is that scientifically correct? I’d have to ask my brother.)

image-234

Saturday, May 25:

The reason for staying home from work yesterday was to prepare for our trip today. We took a trip to Kaikoura, about four hours away from home, to visit friends. About half-way there, we stopped to stretch at a little park, and the boys loved playing on the huge rocking horse that was there!

image-233

Bonus picture: This evening, we went out on Kaikoura Peninsula. We walked around the bottom for a while, then climbed a short track up to the walk along the top, and were able to enjoy the sunset from up there. There was a cool sea breeze blowing, but that didn’t take away from the experience at all. I had forgotten how much I love Kaikoura; we came here for church for the eight years before we moved, and it’s still a very dear place to me.

image-232

Sunday, May 26:

I loved being able to get up early enough to see the light on the mountains and autumn colors this morning! I miss these mountains. They’re so beautiful, but I do love the people that live under their shadow even more!

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Monday, May 27:

Home again! Got to listen to several podcasts today, and one of them, from Focus on the Family, really struck a chord with me. They were interviewing Abby Johnson (she has something to do with the Unplanned movie, I think), and she said something that struck me as carrying a lot of truth:

“When something is right, it doesn’t have to be justified. When something is true, it doesn’t have to be rationalized. When something is wrong, we have to justify it.”

I wrote it down in my Bullet Journal, but the first attempt was a flop—which allowed me to quote another of my favorite verses to cover the mistake, Psalm 139:17! Yay!

image-230

Tuesday, May 28:

Tonight, some of the family went out for a meeting, and several of us others stayed back. After getting the jobs done, we watched a couple videos. The first was Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution, Vol. 1—a great movie about different animals and some of the unique features the Lord has given them! They talked about at least one animal I’d never even heard of before seeing it here! We also watched ABC Say it With Me, which shares 26 verses, each starting with a letter of the alphabet, for children to memorize. They have great skits to go along with each one, and this movie has subsequently become a family favorite! I love the fact that we can put either of these two on without worrying about having to skip bad content!

image-229

Wednesday, May 29:

Did the last picking of tomatoes today! The plants are all dead now, but we have had a wonderful growing season. Now is about the equivalent of the Northern Hemisphere’s late November, so I’m very grateful for how long we have actually been able to have fresh tomatoes!

image-228

Thursday, May 30:

Today was a rainy day, but thankfully I had lots of inside jobs to do at work! I snapped this picture as I was ready to head home—this is where my brother and I work.

image-227

Friday, May 31:

One of the few things that brings together our entire family every single day: Family Bible time! I’m so thankful we can learn from God’s Word together, and have an opportunity to discuss that and our everyday life together. What a blessing!

image-226

And that’s a wrap! Overall, it has been a wonderful month. It hasn’t always been easy; there have been days when I wondered what the Lord was doing, and what would happen next, but God has been faithful. I’m so thankful that He is faithful, because without His love and guidance, we would live pretty miserable lives!

What was your favorite part of this past month? I think mine was being able to hang out with my family, and being able to see the sunrise several times—something unusual for this night owl!

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: My Family, Photo Challenge, Pictures

Month in Pictures, Week 3

May 24, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Wednesday, May 15:

A storm blew in, and I loved watching the clouds forming over the mountains that are visible from my room! The colors were spectacular, too, as different waves came through. It was sunny for a few moments, then I looked out and saw this!

Month in Pictures, Week 3 01

Thursday, May 16:

I was amused, this evening, as the boys did a quick tackling wrestle match right before our family Bible time. #2 brother pinned #3 brother down first (#3 is on the floor in picture 1), then #1 tackled #2, and in the end #2 and #3 ganged up to get #1 brother down! It’s a wonderful life—and I love watching my brothers!

Month in Pictures, Week 3 02

Friday, May 17:

Got a glimpse of the sunshine after a rainy day—I love seeing the rays peeking through over the mountains at work!

Month in Pictures, Week 3 03

Saturday, May 18:

I got a shipment in with the last of the pictures for my sister’s new photo album! Mom stopped making them about 10 years ago, I think, as life got busy, so she didn’t have any printed out for my sister yet. Now I have 524 pictures to sort (that’s what I’m working on here), then put into a scrapbook! I’m looking forward to working on this over the winter.

Month in Pictures, Week 3 04

Sunday, May 19:

It was a beautiful day for a walk—so that’s just what we did! I’ve been wanting to get a picture of this gravel pile that stretches along the local creek for a while, but the perspective of my brothers and a friend or two going along the top was too good to miss. I live in such a beautiful area!

Month in Pictures, Week 3 05

Monday, May 20—forgot about the challenge

Tuesday, May 21:

Had some prep work to do for my driving course today, and also got to work on the photo album a bit! The latter was fun, and the former informative! It’s interesting (albeit a bit disgusting) to learn about how drugs and alcohol affect driving, and what the results can be.

Month in Pictures, Week 3 06

This week turned out a bit different than expected, and it seems as if winter has moved in to stay. Today was nice and warm, but tonight there’s a chill in the air. I’m thankful for warm clothing and fires, and that our house hasn’t been too cold yet!

This weekend, we’re planning to be with some friends, which I’m really looking forward to. We’ll see how the challenge goes through that; I’m hoping I won’t forget like I tend to do when there are others around. Enjoy your last week of May, and I’ll see you next week!

 

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: My Family, Photo Challenge, Pictures

Month in Pictures, Week 2

May 16, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Wednesday, May 8:

One afternoon, all the younger ones were busy playing Lego—such fun! (And I couldn’t decide which picture to keep, so you get both.)

Month in Pictures, Week 2 02

Month in Pictures, Week 2 03

Thursday, May 9:

The table next to my desk showed remnants of the day’s work: Time spent on some studies on American History, and my first handwritten letter in ages! (So much fun to do! I hope you get it soon, Marlène!)

Month in Pictures, Week 2 04

Friday, May 10:

Our dishwashers. Such a fun bunch!

Month in Pictures, Week 2 05

Saturday, May 11:

Building a shelf in the lean-to garage (for holding a car engine?). My brothers are hard workers!

Month in Pictures, Week 2 01

Sunday, May 12—forgot about the challenge

Monday, May 13:

Our enthusiastic laundry sorter. I love this boy so much!

Month in Pictures, Week 2 06

Tuesday, May 14:

Cake- and pie-baking, little sister style. It’s a good use of time when you’ve finished school, but everyone else is still working!

Month in Pictures, Week 2 07

It’s been a fun challenge to try to remember to take pictures of each day—and it’s fun to look back on things that already are nearly forgotten! It’s the mundane and ordinary of life that makes up all those years we look back on…and how precious to have a few pictures to remember those moments by!

One interesting thing I noticed this week, as opposed to last week, is that it was a lot harder to remember to take pictures on the second week. Hence, several evening/nighttime pictures with not the greatest lighting. I remember noticing this before with other challenges—what is it about the second week that makes it so hard to keep up? During NaNoWriMo, if there’s one week where the going is especially hard, it’s the second week.

If there are any spiritual applications, they’re escaping me right now. I was away at work all day, and my brain is tired. It’s been very windy and rainy here today, with racing clouds overhead, and the sun peeking out for a few seconds or so now and then (“Look, guys, the sun is out! Look outside quick, because it might be the only sunshine you’ll see all day!”).

For now, keep pushing through those second weeks, and I’ll see you again next week.

What has your weather been like today?

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: My Family, Photo Challenge, Pictures

Month in Pictures, Week 1

May 9, 2019 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Well, my grandma has inspired me once again. Last month, she decided to do a photo-a-day challenge, and I had such fun seeing pictures of her normal life! I’ve done something similar before, but it’s been a few years. Somehow, I always got caught up taking flower or landscape pictures because I couldn’t find anything else worthy of photography (or so I thought). After seeing Grandma’s lineup, and especially enjoying the pictures she shared of parts of the family I don’t see very often, I thought it would be fun to try the challenge again.

So, without further ado, here goes:

May 1:

The strip canoe project my brothers have been working on for nearly a year now—ready for more epoxy coating! They brought it out in the sunshine one afternoon so the epoxy would harden faster.

Month in Pictures, Week 1 01

May 2—forgot about the challenge

May 3:

An impressive lump of coal a local miner gave my boss’ family! It burned for nearly 24 hours on their open fireplace.

Month in Pictures, Week 1 02

May 4:

Several years ago, I bought our first copy of a book in the Pleasant Valley Farm series, Shadow the Barn Cat. It quickly became a favorite—a great series of picture books! I’d be tempted to replace Shadow now, because our first copy has been so well-loved that it came apart last week! Mom just ordered the last two books, to finish off the series, and my two youngest siblings were thrilled! This is their first look at the new books.

Month in Pictures, Week 1 03

Bonus picture: Little sister helped me mix up a brine to soak a pork leg in. We’re looking forward to seeing how it turns out and if homemade ham is something we want to do again! I’m pretty excited about this project.

Month in Pictures, Week 1 04

May 5:

Sunday evening: Playing Skipbo Golf with Dad.

Month in Pictures, Week 1 05

May 6:

Monday evening schoolwork and reading. A fairly typical evening around here!

Month in Pictures, Week 1 06

May 7:

Making peanut butter while sitting in the chair he made (didn’t he do a great job on that?)—and fresh peanut butter can’t be beat!

Month in Pictures, Week 1 07

Have you ever done a photo-a-day challenge before? What has been happening in your normal life lately that might not be normal for some people?

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: My Family, Photo Challenge, Pictures

Photo Challenge Finale (days 6 and 7), Snow, and This Week’s Plans

August 7, 2016 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Whew! Busy, busy times. Between a full-on weekend last weekend (often not to bed until 11 or so), getting sick for the good part of last week, and a few other things that needed to be done, I decided to take a break. I’m sure I needed it, but in many ways I always hate taking breaks because it’s often really hard to get started again.

However, this time it hasn’t been that bad to get back in the groove. Yes, I did miss posting the last two posts of the photo challenge, even though I did take pictures each of those days. I finally have time today to get this post up—yay!

Day 6:

Birthday deserts
I even got a chocolate cake in the end—wished on me by a cousin, and given to me by a friend!

It was my birthday! I spent the whole day playing in the kitchen baking different things (pavlova, sugar-free pavlova, and sweet rolls), which was really fun. That evening, several friends came over to help us eat the turkey that had been butchered for the occasion. We had a great time.

Day 7:

Cook-out 01

The boys decided to burn a pile of sticks we had out in the paddock, and someone suggested a cookout for Saturday lunch. So that’s what we did. They got one of Mom’s cast iron skillets, fitted a long pole to the handle, and settled it in the middle of the coals after the fire had burned down. They then proceeded to roast precooked sausages. It was a delicious meal, finished off with a few marshmallows!

Cook-out 02

Cook-out 03

After lunch, most of us headed out to the ocean. Ross, one of the friends who had come Friday, was staying with us for the weekend and we wanted to show him around a bit. Since we were going to be near water, the boys inevitably wanted to bring their boats along. They had a great time for a little while—until it simply got too cold to be on the water any longer!

Boating 01

Boating 02

Boating 03

Boating 04

The two little boys got cold first. They ended up sharing a towel for a bit, until the older one was offered a quick boat ride. Then the youngest sat on my lap in an effort to warm up a little while we waited for the older boys to get ready to leave.

Boating 05

Flowers

Someone had the brilliant idea of giving me a few of the early daffodils right before we left the ocean—I loved it! And it was fun to be able to use my new vase for the first time, too. Lovely spot of color for my desk, especially these last few days as a winter storm has finally brought a little moisture to our part of the country.

And now today, a week later:

We got a little rain the last part of this week, and both yesterday morning and this morning we actually had a little snow on the ground! That doesn’t happen very often, because we’re only 50 meters or so above sea level—we do have a range of hills between us and the sea, but even so we generally only get rain. This morning on the way to church I got to take a couple pictures of the gorgeous hills and mountains surrounding us. There’s nothing like a touch of snow to make everything look bigger and even more beautiful than before!

Snow! 01
Kaikoura mountain range
Snow! 02
Taken as we crossed a river north of us—these are some of the hills between us and the sea.

Since it was snowy and very frosty (so much so, in fact, that early this morning we couldn’t get any of the van doors open—they were frozen shut!), we set off for church half an hour early. There’s a fairly high range of hills between us and church, and we’ve slipped a bit before on black ice, so Dad wanted to take it slow. Praise the Lord, we got through safely with plenty of time left, so we headed out to the ocean for a five-minute stretch break before going back into town for church.

Ocean

It’s been a gorgeous day, and the sun just set about half an hour ago behind the trees and hills to the west. It was one of those golden sunsets, the kind that you have to just stop and take in for a moment or two. God is so good to us!

Plans:

I posted a “planning” post two weeks ago, and although I would have done a new one last weekend, that didn’t work out due to more worthwhile activities. This past week ended up having plenty to keep me occupied with anyway, even without goals to meet, and I learned some valuable lessons through that. Even though it was a more difficult week, God has shown Himself faithful in innumerable ways and I think I’ve learned to rest even more on His guidance. It’s tough at times, but I know He holds the future and in that I can find complete peace. After all, “…the LORD thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (see Deuteronomy 31:6). What a promise!

For the most part, this week will probably be pretty normal, although next weekend is going to be busy. Lord willing, we’ll be attending a conference, so along with all the “normal” weekend stuff, that’ll be added in somewhere too. That means wonderful but FULL days! Even so, I’m looking forward to it. 🙂

To-do list from two weeks ago:

  1. Schedule reviews through the 31st
  2. Read The Destiny of a Galaxy
  3. Watch the DVD Fly Away Home (can’t watch this on my computer, so I’ll have to borrow Mom’s sometime)
  4. Read up/do practice tests for getting my learner’s driver license (nope, but I’m hoping to focus on that this week)
  5. Sign up for another affiliate program
  6. Work through the website to-do list
  7. Do some baking Friday!

This week’s to-do list:

  1. Write reviews of The Destiny of a Galaxy, Sacred Allegories, Capyboppy, and begin one for Coffee Cake Days (we’ve actaully almost run out of reviews, and I’ve read these lately so I ought to get the reviews written so I can post them!)
  2. Finish watching Ben-Hur and review
  3. Watch Fly Away Home
  4. Read Manuscript for Murder
  5. Upload reviews for the week
  6. Get this week’s newsletter out on time
  7. Study and practice for driving test

Overall, I’ve had a great couple weeks. I hope you have, too! Keep your eyes on Jesus this coming week and glorify His name!

Filed Under: Families, Life, Relationships, Siblings Tagged With: Brothers, My Family, Photo Challenge, Pictures, Planning

New Calf! (Photo Challenge day 5)

July 28, 2016 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Today, finally, the event we’ve all been waiting for happened: Our cow had her calf. Phew! Can’t wait for the real milk to come in in about three days, and hopefully it’ll taste good—the milk at the end of her last lactation had a bitter note to it. Of course, in the intervening three days we may try making colostrum Yorkshire pudding (which is delicious!), or that baked custard with cardamom in it that Mom discovered the second-to-last time the cow calved. For tonight, though, Mama and calf are staying together, and Mr. Calf has figured out pretty quickly where the yummy stuff to fill his tummy comes from!

New Calf 01
What Mama cow looked like 3 1/2 hours before giving birth—HUGE!

All of us were out there to see the calf born. Thankfully, Chessie didn’t seem to mind too much, and it provided a great “science-in-action” demonstration! I’ll spare you the pictures of the birth. 🙂

New Calf 02
Some of the observers climbed on the truck trailer!
New Calf 03
Only ten minutes old, and he’s already trying to stand up! Those annoying legs, though—so wobbly.

New Calf 04

New Calf 05
Trying to teach him to suck.
New Calf 06
Okay, he’s clearly an old hand at this already!

New Calf 07

New Calf 08
Welcome to the world, Speckles!
Hawthorne and clouds
Something beautiful I saw tonight (the picture does not do it justice): Red hawthorn berries against the backdrop of a threatening sky.
Farmer man
Something else I spotted tonight: Farmer man going out to fix the gate.

Thank you, God, that the calf is here!

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: Animals, Photo Challenge, Pictures

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Hi! I’m Esther, lover of the Lord Jesus Christ and brainstormer behind helping families find good books (read more about that here). My goal is to live a purposeful, fulfilling life—whether that is in what I read, write, cook, design, or do with my wonderful siblings. My life is full and often messy. But God is good. Welcome to the adventure!

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