Nature Day

One Friday in November we went to the Dunwoody Nature Center. Meg and Nate took their nature study notebooks and water colors and I packed paint and paper for Kate and Caleb. We spent some time collecting and painting specimens and playing around in the beautiful woods. The outing was even more fun since Erik took the morning off to join us.

Photo opportunities like this always make me wish I knew how to really use a camera. It seems nearly impossible to get the composition and lighting correct at the same time that all my subjects are cooperating. Maybe I could start by reading the manual that came with my camera and experimenting with something beyond the "auto "setting... Anyway, we enjoyed a gorgeous day together and I think it generally comes across in the pictures.

We're not trying to be artistic or pensive or romantic or anything here. We just weren't quite ready when the camera woman snapped the shot.

photo credit: Meg

Since our last visit (which was during the drought) I had forgotten about the stream. A little too cold to get wet this time, but we can't wait to go back in the spring to wade and build dams and see things in bloom!

Mommy and Nate Time

A few weeks ago Nate and I went to the Georgia Aquarium together. We started in the glass viewing tunnel under the big tank and then made our way around to each exhibit. What strange and amazing creatures God has made!

electric eels

beluga whale

albino alligator

lion fish

It wouldn't be mommy and Nate time without dessert.

My buddy!

Trick or Treat

Lisping His Praise

Little Bubby still has such a cute toddler quality to his singing. Usually he is more pensive when we sing at bedtime, but in this case a sibling was off camera trying to make him giggle. See below for the lyrics written phonetically in his dialect.

Jethuth, name avub awl nameth; Beautiful Thavior, Gworiuth Wohrd.
(Jesus, name above all names; Beautiful Saviour, Glorious Lord;)

Emmanuewl, God ith wif uth; Blethed Redeemer, Living Word.
(Emmanuel, God is with us; Blessed Redeemer, Living Word.)

Laundry Tip: ALWAYS check the pockets.

Especially when your husband has just come home from a pheasant hunting trip and you are washing his blaze orange vest. And especially when one of the birds survived the pellet spray and had to have its neck wrung, and some feathery remnant went into a pocket...?
I decided that finding a raw chunk of pheasant in my washer was better than finding a cooked chunk of pheasant in my dryer. I thought about posting a close up, but I know you don't really want to see it. (And, by the way, let's pretend that grayish ring around the washer basin is a shadow.)

Apple Picking

For our last October field trip we picked apples and enjoyed fall in the North Georgia Mtns.

Amicalola Falls.

Rome Beauties

Apple Fritters

Meg baking pies for her friends.

Downing Family Reunion

In October the kids and I attended a family reunion in French Camp. This was one of many photos on display: my dad with his parents and two sisters.


This is where my dad grew up. No one lives there now, but it was renovated about ten years ago to facilitate family visits. The best addition was the screened porch all the way around. My cousin Maria had the whole place looking beautiful for the weekend.



This is the best "reunion" photo I took, unfortunately. These are the descendants of Richard Alexander Downing, my dad's paternal grandfather. The reunion also included descendants of Richard Alexander's three siblings.

My favorite Downing descendants

Over the years my extended family has grown very close to the family next door to the "screen house" (as my kids call it). This visit was the first opportunity the kids and I had to meet the Edwards. Caleb was especially drawn to the chickens.

Everything about the Edwards' place is comfortably, rustically beautiful. The little building in the background is the guest house, which they kindly let us use when we have an overflow crowd in town.

Meg and Dabney really hit it off!

What's a family reunion in Mississippi without a few

barefoot kids playing on a rope swing over the ditch?

This old sorghum mill is part of the historic preservation area. Every Saturday in October you can watch the mill in action (complete with a mule) and buy the sorghum. I took this picture on Friday afternoon. On Saturday evening I was so disappointed to realize that in the busyness of the reunion I had forgotten to take the kids back to watch! Maybe next year.