Keep going

This week seems to be all about just moving forward a day at a time.

Red

Surprisingly delicious

We had this quinoa dish a few weeks ago. With just quinoa, peppers, and blue cheese with a olive oil/vinegar dressing, it was unexpectedly tasty and satisfying.

Sky between the branches

Opposite

The husband is pretty close to my complete opposite in the kitchen. While I do all the dishes before I cook and then take out one or two ingredients at at time, he creates a mighty disaster and then deals with it all at the end. It's been a good lesson for me that different approaches can be equally effective. I just stay out of the kitchen while he's baking!

Skyline

Every morning on the way to work, there is an intersection at the top of a hill that provides a fantastic view of the Dallas skyline. It's a great highlight to the morning drive.

Default subject

When in doubt, take a picture of a flower!

Best of the lot

Ben recently brought me flowers, which was awfully nice, since I spent the last week being attacked by some kind of germs. Having cheerful flowers to look at improves anything. As the sun was going down yesterday, I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures, and I hurried to snap a few shots. Unexpectedly, the very last one I took turned out the best.

Serene

Part of our apartment that belies our minimalist decorating tendencies. Have a peaceful Friday!

Garlic

To ruin a quotation from Benjamin Franklin, garlic is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Bloom

One of the perks of living in Texas - it may be November, but there are still flowers blooming!

Gangs

As you can see, our apartment complex has issues with gangs. Often I have to walk past this intimidating bunch on my way to pick up the mail.

Mundane

Er, why, hello there, internet world! What have I been doing for the last just-over-a-month? Not much, actually. I've been going to work and coming home from work and doing the dishes and laundry and generally being a fairly boring person who only takes pictures very rarely. Quite frankly, I've been having trouble seeing the beauty in metropolitan Texas-land, but I've decided to challenge myself to take at least one picture a day for a while to see if I can start really seeing the world again. Stay tuned.

Pink

Look up

Sometimes, when you're stuck in a rut of just dealing with the next task, a change of perspective, like looking up, is the best thing to do.

Catching Fire

Yesterday's lack of post was due to my irresponsibly and addictively reading the last two books in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy - Catching Fire and Mockingjay. My eighth graders are going to be reading the first book in the series next week, and I thought that as a responsible teacher, I should probably take a look at the other two books in the trilogy, in order to respond intelligently if the kids decided to read the rest of the books and talk to me about them. I downloaded them on my Kindle at 3:30 pm on Sunday afternoon. At 11:30 pm, I blearily looked up from the last page of Mockingjay and went immediately to bed, since it was hours past my bedtime. It's a pretty intense trilogy!

Old digs

Speaking of nostalgia for the Middle East, I'm kinda missing our old neighborhood in Bahrain. This was our street in Suqaya.

Nostalgia

Several of my coworkers are Turkish. They've installed a teapot that makes Turkish tea in the teacher's lounge, and which is reminding me how much I'd enjoy visiting Turkey again.

Sky

...is a glorious thing indeed.

Summer bonfire ephemera

Flowers

One of my new school-year goals is to always have flowers somewhere in the house. They don't have to be expensive or fancy, just in existence to cheer up one of the rooms.

Watermelon

Nothing says it's still summertime like watermelon. Even if it is September.

Sunshine

It may be the first day of September, but it's still sunny and hotter'n'anything around these parts. I like Fall. Maybe it will come visit us sometime.

Close-up

Sometimes you just have to get right up next to plants when you take their pictures.

Breakfast

I'm trying to incorporate breakfast into more of my mornings. This was one of the tastiest thus far, albeit by uninspiring electric light of predawn.

Coping

This is how I've spent my weekend coping with the germs my students so generously gave me this week. Lots of tea and sleep. Thank goodness I'm almost back to healthy now that the new week is starting!

Clouds

It's hot (another 100-plus degree week), but at least there are clouds!

Strategy

I have a finite willingness to lose to my husband at strategy games, so he was happy for a chance to play against optimistic cousins this summer.

Rose of Sharon

Curry chicken

I've discovered a new dinner favorite: curry chicken salad. It's ridiculously easy (mayonnaise + curry+ chicken + celery + grapes + cheese), and oh-so-very tasty.

To and fro...

The view on the way to and from work today. The morning and afternoon commute are quite different, almost like night and day (oh, wait a minute...)

Remain

John 15:5

“I am the vine; you are the branches.
If you remain in me and I in you,
you will bear much fruit;
apart from me you can do nothing.

Succulent

Calling a plant a "succulent" always makes me laugh, since I generally think of succulence in terms of tastiness. The plants don't look tasty in the least, but they are attractive.

Alert

Getting up at five a.m. now that the school year has started is less exciting than you might imagine. This morning, I made coffee to console myself for the early hour. Happily, I was much more alert today than yesterday because of it. I'm not keen on the thought of a coffee habit, but it is a fun treat!

Sunset

Froglet

Dad and I spotted this tiny tree frog when I stopped by the Chippewa Nature Center a few weeks ago. It was not very cooperative, but I managed to catch a shot of it in its natural habitat--an asphalt path.

Kilter

Taking pictures of flowers from off-kilter angles is my favorite photography activity. Clearly.

Summer night

Peel

The apple peels left over after making apple sheet cake were unexpectedly pretty!

Coneflower

Spotted on a walk at the Chippewa Nature Center.

Sister time at the Zinc

French onion soup, creme brulee, sister-time, and great atmosphere outside. What's not to like?

Light

The light on my granny's balcony was great one evening as we were helping her settle in, and Benjamin uncharacteristically cooperated with my compulsive photography. The combination resulted in a great portrait!

Pooch

A portrait of Blondie--friend of man, destroyer of dogs.

Tobico

Tobico Marsh in Bay City is a glorious place to go for a walk. Not only is it the very first state park my parents took me to when I was a wee tot, but it is now conveniently right next to my in-laws house. The flora and fauna are also very accommodatingly photogenic.

Glorious summer!

...and we're back! Back from seeing family, and Michigan in all its glory. Back from moving to a new apartment. I've eaten many tasty deserts, celebrated a birthday, gone for some glorious walks, and taken a mountain of pictures. I'll be posting many of them this month, but of all of the pictures from Michigan, this is probably my very favorite. Enjoy!