November 2

Back in March (or was it April?), I fell and broke my leg. Remember that? It was awful. Thankfully, it's over, I'm back to 100%, all of the medical bills are paid... there was just one bit of damage left untended to.

My camera lens.

When I fell, I had Eli wrapped on me, Lily on one hip, and my camera hanging from its strap on my other shoulder. Eli was fine, Lily hit the ground, rolled, and popped right  back up, and my camera... well, the lens got a good bonking. The glass was fine, but the plastic along the outer edge was smashed pretty badly. Worse, though, the zoom was no longer fluid. It was slightly sticky, and I'm fairly confident the focus was a bit fuzzy. (That last part may have been user error, though.) It was fine, though, and I didn't want to pay the $150 to have it repaired or have to do without it for a few weeks while it was being fixed, so I was steadfast that it was fine.

And it really was, mostly. But I've been working to launch a bit of a photography business, and at my last three or four sessions I noticed that I couldn't zoom out as much as I wanted. Finally, I sat down and looked and realized that while my lens is supposed to be 17-50 mm, it was only zooming 30-50. For some reason, the "sticky" zoom had become stuck, and I was only able to utilize half of my range. I knew  then that I needed to get it fixed. 

I have a bit of a lull in scheduled sessions for the next few weeks, so today was the day: I boxed it up and took all four kids to the post office with me. For the next few weeks (hopefully less than two?), I will be making do with my 50mm fixed lens, so bear with me, please.

Did you notice that I wrote that I took all four kids to the post office? On a Monday? Caleb has today and tomorrow off school for records day and teacher development. We had such a lovely day today: he played nicely with the girls, and I felt like I finally had my little boy back. Last night, Chris and I once again began reconsidering the option of homeschooling Caleb. We've thrown the idea around a lot, and now it feels like we may actually do it. I'm terrified, but I think it could be really good. Days like today confirm that I would prefer to have him home.

The kids played outside all morning, and when Eli woke up from his morning nap, we went to drop off the last diapers from the study I'm doing, we visited the post office, and then we had a picnic lunch at a park. The park happened to be really close to Chris' parents' house, so I called his mom and asked her to join us. Happily, she was available! The kids were so excited to play with Grandmother!

Yeah, it was sunny and 70 again today.

Also, this photo makes me wonder why I don't use my 50mm lens more often.

Our playtime was cut short when a certain daughter of mine desperately had to use the restroom, but the park's restrooms were closed for the season. Her need was not of the "go behind the bushes" variety, so we loaded everyone into the van and drove to Gayle's house to use her restroom.

I was buckling everyone in when I noticed that Lily's dress was cold and wet. I couldn't put her in the car seat like that, so I quickly took her clothes off and changed her diaper and put her - clad only in a diaper - back in her car seat. We had urgent business to attend to, so there was no time to put clothes on!

She actually really enjoyed it!

Eli really enjoyed his veggie straws.

Once Daisy was more comfortable, we headed home for naps. While the little ones napped, I researched home schooling and Caleb and Daisy played outside, read books, and watched TV. When Eli woke up, Caleb was eager to go in and get him. He begged, "Can I hold him?"

My boys rocked and snuggled, and Caleb said, "Take a picture of us!" It was really very sweet.

He may be sweet, but he's also all boy.