The Eclipse

Since we were in the path of totality for this solar eclipse, this event has been hyped up around here for months. It seems every town around us was having all sorts of festivals and gatherings. I didn't think too much about it ahead of time, but was grateful that we'd get to see it. Well, this experience was way more amazing than I anticipated. And the weather on April 8th was spot on, perfect. The week before rained every day and the week after rained every day, so these clear, sunny skies and high 70's temperatures were a such a blessing. 

We have some tall trees in our backyard, so I ended up setting up our spot in the valley between our house and church. Perfect view from there. 

I took SO many pictures of the sun, but my iPhone didn't really capture much spectacular. In hindsight, I should have thought to charge up my Nikon, which takes much better pictures. 

The moon started the process of moving in front of the sun around 1:50pm. Initially, Curtis and Bella brought out some homework to work on, but that didn't last much beyond the first 30 minutes. 

This family selfie was a hard picture to take because, with the glasses on, you couldn't see anything except the sun. I just clicked my phone button numerous times and hoped we'd capture something good. 

You really needed the glasses in order to see any progression. With the glasses on, it looked like the image on the left. Without the glasses, it looking like the image on the right. Even when there was just a sliver of sunlight with the glasses on, the sun still gave off so much light that you couldn't tell there was a moon blocking most of it. 

But as it got closer to 3pm, the colors became more unique. It almost looked the the sun had a dimmer switched that was turned down lower. There is no filter in these photos. I'd just never seen it look quite like this outside before, especially at 3pm in the afternoon! 

Finally, the moon was fully in front of the sun. We were able to take off our glasses and view what looked like a glowing ring in the sky. In my memory, I can hear the kids and Andy cheering and commenting in awe at the sight. There were also two planets visible when the sky went dark. One of them can be seen in the lower right portion of the photo. I'm not sure which planet that was.  

It was one of the most surreal experiences to be out there at 3pm with a dark sky. The temperature also dropped about ten degrees. And one of the neatest things was what looked like a 360 degree sunset as the horizon all around us was bright while the sky was dark. 

Due to my camera settings, the sky looks brighter in my photos than it actually was. For that brief 3-4 minutes, it felt like nighttime. Even the animals and insects started making their nighttime sounds. 

Later on Facebook, a man from our church shared his photos of the progression. How fortunate we were to experience this firsthand. I will never forget it. 

I felt a little sad when the sky started to brighten up again. I would love to have been able to sit in that experience for a bit longer. But the weather warmed up again and I spent the rest of the day sitting outside and reading my book. 

Such a beautiful, incredible, and relaxing day. 

Easter

The morning began early with the sunrise service. Even earlier for the kids who were helping with the breakfast afterward. It was a rainy Easter this year. Easter should never be rainy. Typically, we go outside to the oldest part of the cemetery for the second half of the Easter sunrise service, but we had to stay inside this year. Not quite the same, but getting wet and muddy wouldn't have been great either. After all the services were over, we got some family photos at home. 

Here is the winner for best photo of the three kids. 

With all of them being older now, able to look at the camera and smile on command, you'd think this would be a relatively quick process. But alas, there were still many outtakes! 

Bella took a few of me and Andy. 

The boys. It wasn't until long after when I realized Bella and I should have taken one together. And wow. . . the boys have really gotten taller than Andy! 

I always love a good family photo and can't resist getting one when everyone is all dressed up. Thankfully, my family puts up with this for me. 

We did our egg hunt a little differently this year. For one thing, it was raining. And the other is that at least one of the kids is feeling a little too old for looking around the yard for eggs. Fair enough. Since two of the kids still wanted to do it, we just made some adjustments. The eggs were hidden in the kitchen and living room and we did a Scrambled Egg Hunt. Inside the eggs were individual letters for three prizes. The big prizes were a $15 Target gift card, $20 cash, and $25 TJ Maxx gift card. Each kid was allowed to find six yellow eggs that each contained a letter then, one at a time, they'd open an egg and place the letter on the word for one of the prizes. Whoever placed the final letter on a prize word won that prize and were out. Curtis ended up winning the TJ Maxx gift card, Graydon won the $20, and Bella won the $15 Target gift card. 

In addition to the letters, the other eggs and a number (1-23). Each number represented an order that they could pick prizes from the prize table. Here were the prizes they could choose from. 

Curtis ended up with numbers 1, 2, AND 3 (plus a few other numbers), so he got to pick three times in a row right at the beginning. 

He was also the winner of the chocolate bunny and $5 prize. The winner of the chocolate bunny also got to trade one prize at the very end. This guy ended up with all the best prizes, so there wasn't really much he wanted to trade for at the end; though I do think he traded one of his dollars for one of Graydon's snacks. All in all, a very successful egg hunt for Curtis! 

But the other two got some pretty good stuff too, so no one was too upset. 

Instead of baskets, we just had a wrapped gift for each of them. 

Curtis opened up some basketball training equipment.

Bella got a Yeti mug and some dorm dishes from her Amazon wish list. 

And Graydon, our weightlifter, got some 30 pound dumbbells. 

I made us a simple Easter meal and, by the end of the day, the weather improved; so we all went to the tennis courts to his some balls around. I'm (slowly) starting to learn how to play. It was a great family day together. 

Random Stuff of Life

This is just a post of random things. Here is another example of Mabel making a nest for herself in our bed and why, even when we make our bed, it doesn't look made.

Bella painted this ceiling tile for school. I believe this project was open to seniors taking an art class. She is so talented. 

One of the best parts of my morning car duty is watching the sun rise in the morning. We're completely in the dark for most of January and February, but we've gotten back to the point of the year where we get to catch it and we've had some beautiful sunrises lately (when it's not cloudy and rainy - which has been often).

We celebrated Andy's 44th birthday on March 24th. I'm really off my game and, unfortunately, this was the only photo from the day. Bella made him this delicious ice cream cake. 

Who doesn't have a gum ball machine in their living room and two claw machines in their kitchen? Andy's new hobby is vending machines. He has some soda machines and a snack machine in various places as well as a gum ball machine at a downtown Dairy Queen. It's a hobby/side hustle all in one that he's really enjoying. (And he sold this gum ball machine, so it's no longer in our living room). 

The claw machines are now in the basement until he finds a location for them in the community. I might have rolled my eyes a little when he purchased these, but the kids definitely had some fun with them. 

An author and podcaster that I've been following for years, Emily P. Freeman, wrote a new book and part of her book tour took her to Franklin, IN. Too close to pass up. I went by myself and loved hearing her talk about her newest work. I also love downtown Franklin, so win-win. 

She took a selfie from the stage. I took this screenshot when I saw it posted on her Instagram story and drew in a blue arrow to show where I was sitting. 

Easter and Eclipse posts are coming!