Hey! It's Snowing!

Funny, we have finally had some weather more typical of Minnesota. I'm not looking out my window and seeing "mud". We moved our bird feeder to the front deck as an experiment this year. What with Nutmeg being let out that door often, we weren't sure it would work. We put the feeder on a "shepherd's crook" hanger, put our Christmas wreath on the same hook and the added two suet offerings on the deck railing. The first to come, as usual, were the chickadees. Funny little birds that flit and zip from the weeping crab to the feeder an back again. Then a few hesitant juncos appeared. They will clean up what the messy sparrows throw around. Then a flock of starlings stripped the weeping crab of all it's apples. My current favorite is a little downy woodpecker that comes to check out the suet.

Mr. DWP and I spent one afternoon playing hide and seek. He would come to the suet feeder and munch away like me at a salad bar. I would try to take a picture with my phone. I finally got two that showed the little guy but not well. He didn't seem to mind my being close to the window, so I got my camera. That's when he tagged me for bird paparazzi. He flew into our locust and hid behind the largest of the three trunks. When I put the camera down, he came back to the suet. I lifted the camera and it accidentally went off. He flew to the locust and sat there peeking around the trunk to see if I had gotten tired and gone away. Back and forth we went until I started to get the mental image of a Woody Woodpecker Cartoon. I finally gave up and set the camera aside. He ate his fill and then flew away.

The pictures you see in my blog site are taken by me. They are some of the best I have to offer. A camera defeats me. Dave had a once-in- a-lifetime chance to fish with a guide. He returned at the end of the day proud of his string of fish. It's true there were no award winners on it; nonetheless, it was an impressive string of fish. I took a picture to save a life-memory moment. Uh. It is a good thing he wore an identifiable belt buckle because that and the fish were all I caught on film.

I am truly sad to say we have very few pictures of our children growing up. Dave takes creative and artistic pictures of things but rarely records family. I would love to take pictures of people, but one would think I have a deep seated Samurai bent. I lop heads, hands holding treasures, and the part of the picture that tells a story without discrimination. When I'm not lopping, I am doing something that makes it look like all my pictures were taken while I sat at the bottom of a murky pool of water! Add to that, it takes me so long to try to make sure I am framing what I want, that people get tired of waiting and just walk out of the picture. I rarely get a good picture of Belle as she is in constant movement and I am not that fast. Bett poses, but that's because her mother has drilled posing into her psyche.

Jenny, I love you dearly, but you could easily be labeled the Photo Nazi! It is time for me to share "the Baby Shower story"! Jenny is a pretty woman who reminds one of the young and healthy Elizabeth Taylor. She has a gorgeous smile and will turn it on at the opening shutter speed of a camera. At the shower for her first-born, I said or did something that Jenny disapproved. She was scolding me. In the midst of harsh statements, drawn eyebrows, and spark-shooting dark eyes, someone raised a camera. Jenny stopped in mid tirade and SMILED for the camera. She has taught her children well. They too will stop on a dime and smile for the camera. Marc hates having his picture taken and will not be brow-beaten into smiling, cooperating or even just being still. He will go along to a point on holidays and very special occasions but when he is done, he is all done.

Next is Helen, also dearly loved, but second in line for the Photo Nazi contest. She has won county fair awards with photos of Bett and Belle, her cats (Calamity Jayne and Annie Oakley) and flowers. She has caught me in all manner of less than photogenic attitudes. She is highly critical of my attempts to take pictures of just about anything. Both she and Jenny are immersed in Creative Memories and have enough scrapbooks between the two of them to paper the globe! I have to admit, with Helen's inability to relax in front of the camera and my inability to take pictures, I have gotten some expressions on Helen that would look nice on Post Office walls.



Now that Bett and Belle have reached the age of pictures and Creative Memories, the excitement of what will appear as an opportunity for blackmail is even greater. We live in fear. However, without malice and no serious planning on my part I often take pictures that give me ample ammunition back at them. Every room shot is usually tipped and every nature shot contains a garbage can, junk pile, or other unwanted piece of flotsam. Dave gave me PhotoShop for Christmas. I have been having fun using some of my pictures to experiment with adjusting color and sharpening the photo. My favorite picture of Belle from this Christmas is not a good picture by any one's standards. She is surprised, close to tears, and laughing. However, the lighting was poor and the picture is blurry. With PhotoShop, I was able to clarify somewhat, crop the distracting busy background and bring the expression more into focus. I also have one of Bett, who posed so it isn't candid, that needed the distracting background removed as well as color correction. As a result of playing on PhotoShop, I have two credible photos that please me very much. They won't win prizes, except in my own heart.

I have been caught with my mouth open, eyes shut, and a moronic expression that could be the model for Walt Disney's Dopey! I have been caught in the act of falling over, moving with all the grace of a pachyderm on a tightrope, and sound asleep in a sleeping bag on a rock in Northern Minnesota! I am loved by my family in spite of the odd things I do, and I am in their photos because they love me. Think about that. My favorite photos of family are not the ones where they look perfectly put together but where they look like we were enjoying each other. I can smile with pleasure over the photos that didn't go altogether well, but show love. I sometimes weep for times I wish I had paid more attention and enjoyed us all more.

For a few:

• Dave begging a kiss from two-year-old Helen.
• Marc sitting in Dave's old chair so we can't throw it away.
• A very pregnant Jenny helping Bett look for Easter Eggs.
• Marc and Jenny on their wedding day.
• Kevin and Helen on their wedding day.
• Jenny's Dad (now deceased) and me watching Belle sleep in my arms.
• Helen, Jenny, Bett and Belle lined up with their backs turned to show all their long hair as Helen was about to lose her hair to chemo.
• Dave looking relaxed on the patio of a coffee shop in Duluth.
• My children, their spouses, and my grandchildren together Christmas Eve of 2012.

What does God's family album look like? Are we perfectly posed and smiling or is there a smudge of dirt on our cheeks or nose? Are His favorite pictures the ones where we are battle-weary, dirty and scuffed but victorious because we obeyed and were the type of person He asked us to be? Does He have pictures of us being knit together in the womb where He was fearfully and wonderfully putting us together? Does He shed a tear over those photos where we were being stubborn and insisting on doing things our way? When He shows me the album He has kept for me? Will I be able to share in His joy or will I wish I had done better? I suspect there will be some of both. Regardless, I know He has kept a record of His child growing and maturing in her faith; and He has loved me dearly. The same is true for you.