Photographic Homeschool Mama's Software Wishes

Besides being a wife, mama, and homeschooler - I'm a photo nut. This should come as no surprise to those of you who have ever been here before.

Photo nuts heart Adobe. That's just a given fact. See? You aren't learning anything new yet. But you will... just wait...

The photo up above was altered in Lightroom by my friend Dawn. It looks like a pro photo, right? Well, at least I thought so. I may be a bit biased.

I emailed the picture to Dawn to see what she would do with it in Lightroom because I love playing with pictures. And I love seeing what other people create when they play with pictures. Just look at the difference...

Here's the SOOC (straight out of the camera):



Amazing, hu?

Software is expensive, though! Who can afford all the stuff that pro photographers use?! I wanted to give them a try though. So I did. After using trail versions of Photoshop and Lightroom, I'm now hooked. The only hurdle is the price.

That's why it is great that you can buy discounted software (and lots of other things) at Academic Superstore. I love them so much that I signed up to be an affiliate. I'm so thrilled to find a company with such great prices - and they are even local (Austin based)... aren't I lucky?

You only have to submit proof that you are homeschooling (such as a receipt for your homeschool curriculum you purchased) to get the awesome student/teacher discount they offer - up to 85% off on certain items in their store!

On my wish list are these items:

Photoshop CS4 ($298.95)
Lightroom ($98.95)
Windows 7 ($119.95)
Office Professional 2007 ($179.95)

You just can't beat those prices. Even if it takes me a long time to get them purchased (likely), at least they are doable one-at-a-time at 50-85% off. If you are pining away and planning to buy some upgraded software this Christmas (especially if you are a homeschool parent), be sure to check out Academic Superstore! Even better, click over and buy your stuff from here! You'll help me save up towards my Christmas wishes.




Quick Links:
Another Post where I used Pioneer Woman's Photoshop Actions
Admit it, You Came for the Pictures (and another)

Subscribe to Sprittibee by Email

Learning Without School

I'm avoiding the computer lately. Seems that every time I sit down there is another thirty things I have to add to my to-do list. My email box is stuffed to the gills, my paper in-box is overflowing, and my school stuff is heaped in a pile on the corner of my desk. Not to mention Mt. Laundry or the planning that needs to happen so that tomorrow won't be a dismal failure.

But then it hits me - like the spit up that hit me earlier today - unexpectedly... I AM GETTING THINGS DONE. Granted, maybe not everything (nowhere near everything), and maybe not even what I had planned to do... but we are accomplishing things. They are small milestones but they need celebrating.

For example... Here's a few things we DID accomplish today (even though they weren't on the assignment chart):

* The house smells like fall sweetness after we baked TWO Sweet-Potato-Pecan Coffee Cakes and a Sweet Potato Bliss (casserole) tonight. My daughter actually did a lot of the work with the help of my mom (who took turns entertaining the baby with me). We GREW the sweet potatoes in our yard, too. Dug them up just a few weeks ago.

There you have HOME EC and LIFESKILLS. Tomorrow night's dinner is in the bag - just add some green beans and a rotisserie chicken and we have a mock Thanksgiving treat a week early.

* My kids know how to use a computer. They have picked up some mean skills by watching mama. Tonight my son scanned a bunch of his artwork (his free-time project) so he could blog about them this week. I love it that he picked scanning art over video games. That's no small accomplishment for my X-Box fanatic.

There you have TECHNOLOGY & COMPUTER LIT. And I forgot to mention that my daughter looked my recipes up on my food blog while she was cooking tonight (easier than digging through the recipe cabinet and all those cookbooks).

* My refrigerator is cleaned out and my pantry, too - helps when you decide to tackle the mess during lunch hour so you can prepare for dinner. We also folded laundry - and managed to get Daddy to help. The kids picked up the house - some without even being told to help... and we organized the school boxes while looking for a Health book that was stuck in the wrong folder. Every time we've had a distraction we ended up using it to get things done... even though they weren't on the list.

There you have ORDERLINESS and DETERMINATION. So maybe they aren't academic subjects, but try to live a functional adult life without them and see what you get.

* The baby is alive and sleeping soundly. That means we took care of his non-sleeping little hiney all day - and kept him up in the evening so he would sleep through the night. After his 2 hour morning nap, he decided he didn't want to go to sleep again until around 6:30pm. I only let him cat-nap and he managed to fight sleep until around 10:30pm. I'll be surprised if he doesn't sleep through the night tonight. The little rat was a HUGE kink in our plans today. As cute as the bugger is, I'm beginning to think that he IS our extra curricular class this year (since the plans I had for doing Photography with the big kids aren't panning out for lack of time and energy).

There you have CHILD DEVELOPMENT and BABYSITTING. My husband and I both agree that the big kids will be superb parents by the time they 'graduate' homeschool.

* No, maybe we didn't check off our school list today... but what a blessing to be together and learn with each other. We read about horned lizards that squirt blood out of their eyes, found out that we didn't really need those two eggs that got left out of the doubled coffee cake recipe, and learned that meteor showers really are amazing (kids are in the back yard enjoying one while I write this).

There's READING, BIOLOGY, EXPERIMENTATION, and ASTRONOMY.

Not sure if you would say that we are 'unschooling', but whatever it is, I'm grasping for the positive and thankful that God is allowing it to grow me to be a better mother.

Enjoying my TEACHER TRAINING 101... even when things get hairy...

A Life Choice

When I got contacted by PureFlix Entertainment to review their upcoming DVD "Sarah's Choice", I was more than willing to do so. We always are looking for quality films that our whole family can see - since there are so few of them being made by Hollywood these days. I offered to preview the movie if they wanted to send me a copy of it. It helped that the lead actress was Rebecca St. James (a Christian Music pop star that my daughter already loved).

Here's one of her songs here if you haven't heard of her and wanted to listen in:



On Sunday after dinner we settled down to a "family movie night", complete with popcorn and sweet tea. I wasn't really thinking about the subject matter of the movie. I didn't know it would be one of the hardest reviews I would write. Talk about a tear jerker.

"What's the movie about mama?" Asked my eldest (almost 13) as we pushed 'play'.

"It's about a girl who gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby," I said, not thinking about the struggles or emotions that might play through the story and how they would personally affect me.

We've had 'the talk' with my kids, so they understand a lot more that some kids their age - and got the advantage of hearing it from mom and dad (and not the public school locker room). I wasn't worried about them getting educated on the birds and bees since they already knew that babies didn't arrive by stork. However, when the topic of pregnancy comes up, you always want to be sure (as a mom) that the movie covers it in a positive and tactful light. This movie was very discreet and there weren't any scenes that a kid would not be able to see - even while covering such a delicate topic. I was impressed. Even the few kissing scenes in the movie were more 'loving' and emotional than physical. That's something you won't see in Hollywood since the death of the 'black-and-white' oldies. I can't recall a curse word or a moment when the actors didn't have on clothing during "Sarah's Choice", either. Two thumbs up!

The main thing that made this movie so awesome was that it tackled real issues - ones that matter to people today. It is about time that parents and churches start talking about unexpected pregnancy; after all, it isn't as if it doesn't happen. The statistics in America are staggering - and they do not respect religious lines. Just as many young girls brought up in a church environment end up with unexpected pregnancies as those who aren't. You can blame it on anything you want - the parents, the kids, the public school, the church... but the fact is that it happens. It hurts lives, it breaks hearts, and sometimes it kills innocent people - the children yet to be born.

I'm not sure why PureFlix contacted me in particular for this review. I wondered, through tears - as the movie moved my heart, if they had read the story about my teenage abortion... or my miscarriage. It seems that God had already been touching my heart on this issue all week leading up to this review. Just days before, I had read an article about the Catholic Church (Priests for Life) putting out a YouTube video about first trimester abortion (one I was unable to force myself to watch after having my own first-hand experience with it). On the Priests for Life website, I also saw a quick photo-video with a picture of a tiny baby's hand (you could almost see the fingernails and fingerprints on it) - one that made me think back to my own 'choice' and how it affected my child and my heart forever.

The question on the photograph was, "Everyone Against Abortion, Please Raise Your Hand!"; and there was this miniature, perfectly formed hand... missing it's tiny little body. It is a picture worth far more than a thousand words; one that can alter a world-view and change a million minds about the truth of what abortion really is.

With a subject matter that is so touching and controversial in our day and time, "Sarah's Choice" couldn't help but be an awesome family-devotional ice-breaker. A long discussion with our kids ensued after the movie was over. My husband and I both told them that we wished our parents had discussed things openly with us as kids so that we might not have made some of the life-choices we made growing up. There was a preacher that we listened to when we first became Christians in our young 20's that said, "Past sins limit your future possibilities." So true. You have to live with your choices, even if you are forgiven. I'm so glad that my kids can face the future knowing their parents' hearts on this issue - in case they are ever faced with making a life or death choice like I did. I pray that they would not follow in the path that broke my heart and destroyed a life.

In addition to the main character in the movie who has to decide what to do in the face of an unexpected pregnancy, the movie also portrays the grief of a woman who has to live with the memory of a past abortion. Often I have had moments of sadness looking in to the eyes of my precious three kids. I have hesitated when answering medical forms when the question is asked: 'How many children do you have?' Then the real kicker appears under it on the form: 'How many pregnancies have you had?' The doctors know. They know that so many of us have children we 'didn't claim'... lives and family lines cut short. No matter if we talk about it or not, you can't sweep it under the rug. The woman in "Sarah's Choice" who was dealing with her past loss had a lot in common with me. It is time that the movies finally caught up with this ugly and all-too-common reality.

I've never shared about how I feared that God would take my children from me once they were born. I had read the story about David's son dying because of his choice to kill a good friend and steal his wife. I slept with one hand on my eldest son's chest for months, assuming that God was going to steal his breath in the night to get me back. I knew I deserved it. My husband finally told me, "Heather, God has forgiven you. It isn't our son that deserved to die for what you did, it was YOU; and you are still here. You are forgiven. You need to let go and believe that He loves you and this baby." My broken heart began healing. When we lost a baby in 2007, I had a revisiting of my doubts. Maybe that was God finally settling the score, I thought. Of course, my husband helped me through those feelings - again. I know that God doesn't have a score card and isn't keeping tabs. Love keeps no record of wrongs and I've been forgiven for my sin. Yet the pain and regret of the past is a monster in your closet... even if you trust in God's mercy. It is much better to not have that cold, steel table... or those sounds, images and tears to remember. Life is much easier without remorse.

So to answer 'Who thinks this movie is worth watching?' I raise my hand, "Yes!" To answer if I'm against abortion? I raise my hand, "Yes!" I thank God for the 10 hands that live in my home... and I hope I get to one day hold the four that wait for me in heaven. I'm also thankful (all year long - not just in November) that God forgives us - even when it is hard to forgive ourselves ...even when the sin and 'choices' we made affected other lives and not just ours. I'm thankful that He goes on to heal us and bless us with amazing love and hope - even when none of us deserve it. What an awesome God - to create life, to give His up for us, to renew us (right HERE and NOW) and take us home to be with Him for eternity even when we were never worthy. He is the most wonderful Father. I'm so glad He's mine.

If you want to see this positive, family-friendly movie, you are in luck: it will be available on November 17th (tomorrow)! Get your copy where good Christian flicks are sold.