*yawn*

I am trying hard to get back into this thing, believe it or not. I just suck suck SUCK at organization, and trying to get things done around here ends up with me running in circles as each task puts me in range of another task, which distracts me from the first task....doing the dishes, I need to clean off the counter. Grab the old dish cloth and take it to the laundry room. Pass the dining room table on the way, see Zach's Transformer on the table. Drape the dish towel over my shoulder, grab the Transformer and drop it off in his room. Bathroom door is open, I peek inside and see that there's toothpaste glopped all over the sink. Big sigh, go in, wipe it up. Bath toys lying all over the floor...they MUST be picked up, they are dripping water everywhere. While doing that, the dog runs in and grabs one, I take off chasing her, get the toy and the chase has led to the family room where OF COURSE the cushions have been removed from the couch by Owen. Bend over to pick up cushions, dish towel falls off my shoulder. Oh yeah, I need to put that in the laundry room! Set it aside for a second to finish putting the couch back together....

Now this semi-fictitious scenario hasn't even accounted for the fact that as I'm doing these random things, none of which contribute to my goal of CLEAN KITCHEN! Owen would be running around wreaking havoc throughout the house, or worse, injuring himself. And that's just if it all takes place while Zach is in school. While a good kid, and quite helpful, there is a different energy in the house when he's home and things just go even crazier. Especially the dog.

Speaking of Owen, he fell out of the computer chair today. I knew it was going to happen. It has almost happened several times and I have had my heart stop on many many occasions just watching him regain composure at the last split second, or be grabbed by dh or myself. But today, it was full on over the side, head on the floor, face against the desk...I think my heart literally made it's way up past my epiglottis. He was climbing from one chair to the other (which I was in) and they have WHEELS! and as I felt him coming over the arm of his chair to mine, about to grab him, I sensed him fall and watched it all happen in slow motion. And if that wasn't good enough, he tried again later to climb up into my chair, over the arm, slipped and busted his mouth on the arm rest. And I haven't been in this chair much today! ARRGGHHH.

Zach, not to be outdone, took off after Holly after she had nabbed a toy that didn't belong to her and took off in a flash out of the room. Do NOT chase the dog! But no, he had to save the day, and the toy, apparently. I think it was just the principle of the matter, Holly is in full fledged doggie adolescence and she's been harder to handle lately. Anyway, he zipped around a corner and his knee collided with the corner of a small chest I have. The knee already had a nice sized scab on it from something, I don't even know what, and all I heard was a banshee scream...as I rounded the corner I saw him writhing on the floor, legs up to his chest. There was mucho blood...he managed to rip off the whole scab and extend the injured area as a cut reached down further out of it. As I got him propped up on the bathroom sink, got ice and water, etc etc, I had to keep running out of the room to remove my cup of tea, Zach's cup of tea (herbal, no caffeine!) check the computer chairs, etc, just to make sure that Owen didn't take advantage of this brief lack of supervision to find yet another way to hurt HIMself again.

Zach thinks he should get to stay home from school tomorrow because he REALLY hurt his knee and he may not even be able to walk.

So I haven't taken any pics since the last ones I posted. I have, however, been spending a lot of time browsing actions for Photoshop, trying to find ways to tweak the pics to make them look more interesting, artsy, anything really. And if you are reading this and feel benevolent, I'm accepting donations to buy Lightroom and Imagenomic's Portraiture.

These actions have quite a learning curve. Sigh. It takes so much time, time that lets Owen hurt himself. At least he didn't find the honey from our tea. I can only imagine how THAT would be all in the couch.

Anyway, here are a few I've played with. Not suggesting that they look better, but they DO look different. Which is cool.