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I have been challenging myself with more natural lighting pictures.?? The trade off is noise because you have to shoot at a higher ISO.?? Been practicing to minimize this and I love the results of the above.?? I took this on Saturday when she was having a somewhat happy moment.?? I only took a few while she was sitting in her bumbo – she wasn’t up for a real photo shoot – trust me.?? Still though…holy cow she is gorgeous.??<\/p>\n
I just think blogging is the coolest thing in the world.?? I have had a website for about 10 years now and a blog for about 4 and a half years?? and I love the histories that I have been able to write doing this.?? It has taken a long time to catch on with my family but FINALLY many family members have joined the blog world and I love it.?? And….drumroll…after 4.5 years…my MOTHER and my AUNT KAREN…finally see my blog every day!?? Woooohoooo!?? My motherS (including MIL) in this comment, have complained that blogging is too impersonal for them and they want to hear and see everything first hand.?? I get that – I do – BUT I take so many pictures that there is no chance they would see all the pictures of their grandkids if they (break -?? Tori chewing on a huge piece of paper)??????didn’t see the pics that I post DAILY.?????? My Aunt Karen lives in CA and I feel like she has missed out on a lot and we have missed out on being with her.?? I am so glad??that we at least have this “window” to the family.?? (Love you Aunt Karen).?? Then there is the Kacalek side of the family too.?? My Dads sister and her five kids.?? We haven’t seen them in 7 years this month and these are my first cousins.?? Due in large part to blog communities, we are finally working on a reunion.?? (Note to family:?? Michelle and I are working on dates for next summer – thinking of a couple of beach houses in San Diego for a weekend!)?? In this crazy busy culture we are in, blogs can be such a tool for relationship building and maintaining.?? Some may argue that without them we would be in better touch personally but I disagree.???? I am WAY more connected as an SAHM mom in the internet community then I would have been otherwise.?? I am not a phone person (we don’t really need to comment on that do we hee hee?) so I think I would have lived an even quieter life.<\/p>\n
Truth is, I love people and I love to talk TO people.?? The thing I just can’t figure out though (hee hee), is people often don’t like to talk to me!?? I approach strangers all the time and start conversations and I think I actually frighten them.?? I get these wide eyed “you are talking to ME” looks all the time.?? Lately I pray everytime that I am in the grocery store that the Lord would give me someone to talk to and love if even for??a moment.?? Once in awhile I encounter someone who is very receptive and needing someone to talk to.?? Case in point, I was at the meat counter one day and started a conversation with the lady in line.?? She got a cell phone call while we were talking and actually told the caller she was busy and would have to call them back.?? :)?? That is unusual.?? She had some things to say and needed someone to listen.?? Yesterday though I had the more common experience (and I had to call my friend Kristi and comment on this because I knew she would appreciate it).<\/p>\n
I was standing in line at Walmart and the woman checking me out was wearing flare advertising a book series I just finished.?? I asked her how she liked the books and she told me she hadn’t read them (all said without making eye contact).?? Hmmmm…?? Where do I go from here??? So I try again.???? “So are you required to just wear the flare for advertisement?”?? She answered “yes” and remained quiet.?? I was giggling internally and couldn’t help but glance around and notice that none of the other Walmart checkers were wearing this “required” flare.?? Interesting.?? I decided not to push so I remained quiet a bit.?? My order was big so I stood there in silence packing my groceries.?? Finally she decided to open up a bit and chat and by the end of our conversation she was ready to go purchase the book she was advertising.?? Funny.<\/p>\n
This is the more familiar story to me…I try to initiate conversation and people want to run and hide.?? Going to keep trying though because the Lord keeps laying it on my heart that I am to be His hands and feet.?? How can I love people if I don’t take the time to know them and be interested??? We all get so busy that it’s hard to do sometimes isn’t it??? Something I have been praying about though and trying to just learn to keep looking for my opportunities and take every small window of opportunity.??????A little love goes a long way doesn’t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been challenging myself with more natural lighting pictures.?? The trade off is noise because you have to shoot at a higher ISO.?? Been practicing to minimize this and I love the results of the above.?? I took this on Saturday when she was having a somewhat happy moment.?? I only took a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mamas-diaries"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}