A little belief in myself does me good

The massive dump of rain over the last month has created a frenzy of growth with all things green and weedy. Grass that was an inch tall yesterday is now a foot tall today. I'm not joking. The kids and I were in the field across the street and I felt like I was in a new land. New wagon tracks had to be forged, and you almost needed a compass to navigate the landscape. Above: a small, budding, yellow, flowering, weed-grass, specimen of something I spotted in the sea of green. I love how his arms are outstretched towards the winter sun, as if to say, "Hallelujah, the sun has come!" Hallelujah indeed.

Below: a picture I have posted before at this post. Random? No. I am going to share with you how proud I am of myself. (Not easy for me to do.) I regularly follow one of the most popular photography/home/nesting blogs in the country called thepioneerwoman.com . The creator, Ree Drummond, basically lives my fantasy life: she lives on a ranch somewhere in the beautiful frontier of America, she cooks, is an amazing photographer, and has a hubby who wrangles cattle. Oh and she runs a lodge and home schools her kids. (Although that last part is not a part of my fantasy.) A few days ago on her photography page she posted an "assignment": share a photo that demonstrates a shallow depth of field. (That basically means the subject in the foreground is sharp and the background is blurry. Both pix I shared today are an example of that.) Anyways, I usually never consider submitting photos to contests as I always feel quite intimidated. (I know, working on that.) But this time I thought I'd give it a try and have fun with it. I went through my photos and picked one I thought demonstrated what she was asking for. This morning I went on her site to see the groups of photos she had picked for today's "winners" and was absolutely shocked to see mine among them. Of course my immediate thought was, "Look at all the other beautiful amazing photos she chose!" I swallowed my insecurities (with the help of hubby) and smiled at myself for my little accomplishment. 

So I am posting it again below, but if you'd like to see the real deal just click here .  

And please check out the rest of her site...especially if you are interested in learning some basic photography stuff. Her tips and tricks she posts are very easy to understand. And once you go through them, you can join me participating in her future assignments.