Pictures of my babies!
Just after Christmas, Mr. H bought himself the same digital SLR camera as I have, which I love because now we can teach each other things about the camera that we know and/or learn. The other day he was reading in a photography book about taking pictures with flash and about bouncing the light off the ceiling instead of the flash going directly at the subject, and he experimented with just holding a soft CD case at an angle in front of the flash and his pictures taken like that of his dogs came out amazingly well!!!
So I told Emmalove that she was going to be my little model and she posed so cutely and perfectly and expertly for me! And I love how they turned out - crisp because I'm using flash, but without the way-too-bright look of flash and bright yellow kitten eyes that the flash normally gives. I'm so excited by this wonderful do-it-yourself discovery that Mr. H made, so I can take wonderful pictures of my babies even without getting an external flash that can rotate (which I still do want to get sometime though).
I think this picture was from yesterday morning - I was getting ready and saw little James sleeping with his head on my pillow, and I just LOVE when I see him sleeping that way, like a little person, he's so cute! So I ran to get my camera and used the reflected flash and it turned out pretty good - at least so you can see my sweet little baby in good light and not blurred from no flash or overpowered with bright flash!
And then one more - this isn't a great picture but my babies don't usually cuddle together when they sleep so seeing Emmalove cuddled against James here makes my heart just constrict with love for my babies and how cute and sweet they are!!! Little Emmalove is just now learning to come up on the couch with us, so hopefully I'll be able to get more cuddly sleeping pictures in the future as well. And the blanket - my little cousins made it for me maybe three years ago and it's the blanket that I sit under all the time on my couch because it's James's favorite - very knead-worthy! :)
I need to clean my apartment. Desperately. It's so cluttered and so dirty and so needs a complete cleaning from top to bottom. That's my goal for today and tonight. And I say "today" because I'm at home instead of at work. I got my period yesterday and the cramps weren't bad at all, but then this morning I just couldn't wake up and was so exhausted and slept until noon - when James woke me up by pawing my face and biting my hair and pulling on it - he seriously cracks me up! And now I'm waiting for Tylenol to take effect so the the cramps go away and I can start cleaning while it's light and sunny and beautiful outside. I always feel SO SO SO good when my place is clean and tidy and looking beautiful - it seriously makes me feel that my life is in some kind of order and that I can do anything then. I feel empowered when it's clean and straightened. I need to get better with cleaning more regularly and not just when it gets really bad. I should make a little chart and set certain chores for each day. But then there's that big problem with me having no self-discipline. I know that's the biggest current thing I need to work on - discipline with almost everything in my life.
I think I'll make the chore schedule and try to hold myself to it. It would just be one thing each day so that's very doable, and much easier than having to clean the whole place at a time! One day will be cleaning the bathroom, that's easy. One day will be swiffering the whole apartment - that's easy too, and then there won't be little litter pieces scattered all around everywhere. One day I'll vacuum the area rug in my living room and do my best to de-cat-hair the couch and chair - that's easy and won't take too much time.
Then there are the three things I'm the worst at: doing laundry (because I have to get organized and take it downstairs), doing my dishes (because I don't have a dishwasher and never want to start the dishes even though once I do start I don't mind it at all and actually enjoy listening to music and getting in a zone and thinking about all kinds of things while I'm cleaning), and straightening up after myself each night (so the coffee table doesn't end up being loaded with crap after a few days, like it is now). Those three things are what is the hardest for me. But maybe if I stick to the other chores, then straightening up and doing dishes every couple days won't seem like such big thing anymore. And even though I'm lazy when I get home from work, and it's dark and I'm tired and I just want to sit on the couch and do my stuff - I just need to Do It. As The Meat always tells me, a little saying that some bigwig had when he was in the Army: "Do It Now. Do It Right Now. Do It Right Now This Minute." In other words, if I procrastinate and find excuses then I'll never do it, and I'll end up again so frustrated because I live in a pigsty. And I don't like living like that. And I really want to get better disciplined before Mr. H and I are living together so I already have developed good habits!
So - I just took a third Tylenol, and I'll give it twenty minutes and then I'll start my cleaning and play happy music and once I get into it then I don't stop because I love the transformation of each room becoming clean and beautiful!!! And then I'll be so happy and can work on Mr. H's website to my heart's content this weekend and not feel guilty and gross because my place is a pigsty!!! :) So that's my plan!!!
So I told Emmalove that she was going to be my little model and she posed so cutely and perfectly and expertly for me! And I love how they turned out - crisp because I'm using flash, but without the way-too-bright look of flash and bright yellow kitten eyes that the flash normally gives. I'm so excited by this wonderful do-it-yourself discovery that Mr. H made, so I can take wonderful pictures of my babies even without getting an external flash that can rotate (which I still do want to get sometime though).
I think this picture was from yesterday morning - I was getting ready and saw little James sleeping with his head on my pillow, and I just LOVE when I see him sleeping that way, like a little person, he's so cute! So I ran to get my camera and used the reflected flash and it turned out pretty good - at least so you can see my sweet little baby in good light and not blurred from no flash or overpowered with bright flash!
And then one more - this isn't a great picture but my babies don't usually cuddle together when they sleep so seeing Emmalove cuddled against James here makes my heart just constrict with love for my babies and how cute and sweet they are!!! Little Emmalove is just now learning to come up on the couch with us, so hopefully I'll be able to get more cuddly sleeping pictures in the future as well. And the blanket - my little cousins made it for me maybe three years ago and it's the blanket that I sit under all the time on my couch because it's James's favorite - very knead-worthy! :)
I need to clean my apartment. Desperately. It's so cluttered and so dirty and so needs a complete cleaning from top to bottom. That's my goal for today and tonight. And I say "today" because I'm at home instead of at work. I got my period yesterday and the cramps weren't bad at all, but then this morning I just couldn't wake up and was so exhausted and slept until noon - when James woke me up by pawing my face and biting my hair and pulling on it - he seriously cracks me up! And now I'm waiting for Tylenol to take effect so the the cramps go away and I can start cleaning while it's light and sunny and beautiful outside. I always feel SO SO SO good when my place is clean and tidy and looking beautiful - it seriously makes me feel that my life is in some kind of order and that I can do anything then. I feel empowered when it's clean and straightened. I need to get better with cleaning more regularly and not just when it gets really bad. I should make a little chart and set certain chores for each day. But then there's that big problem with me having no self-discipline. I know that's the biggest current thing I need to work on - discipline with almost everything in my life.
I think I'll make the chore schedule and try to hold myself to it. It would just be one thing each day so that's very doable, and much easier than having to clean the whole place at a time! One day will be cleaning the bathroom, that's easy. One day will be swiffering the whole apartment - that's easy too, and then there won't be little litter pieces scattered all around everywhere. One day I'll vacuum the area rug in my living room and do my best to de-cat-hair the couch and chair - that's easy and won't take too much time.
Then there are the three things I'm the worst at: doing laundry (because I have to get organized and take it downstairs), doing my dishes (because I don't have a dishwasher and never want to start the dishes even though once I do start I don't mind it at all and actually enjoy listening to music and getting in a zone and thinking about all kinds of things while I'm cleaning), and straightening up after myself each night (so the coffee table doesn't end up being loaded with crap after a few days, like it is now). Those three things are what is the hardest for me. But maybe if I stick to the other chores, then straightening up and doing dishes every couple days won't seem like such big thing anymore. And even though I'm lazy when I get home from work, and it's dark and I'm tired and I just want to sit on the couch and do my stuff - I just need to Do It. As The Meat always tells me, a little saying that some bigwig had when he was in the Army: "Do It Now. Do It Right Now. Do It Right Now This Minute." In other words, if I procrastinate and find excuses then I'll never do it, and I'll end up again so frustrated because I live in a pigsty. And I don't like living like that. And I really want to get better disciplined before Mr. H and I are living together so I already have developed good habits!
So - I just took a third Tylenol, and I'll give it twenty minutes and then I'll start my cleaning and play happy music and once I get into it then I don't stop because I love the transformation of each room becoming clean and beautiful!!! And then I'll be so happy and can work on Mr. H's website to my heart's content this weekend and not feel guilty and gross because my place is a pigsty!!! :) So that's my plan!!!
