I Heart Faces - Someone I Love & Burst of Red

Day 5 & 6

This is the man I love. He is a Godly man.  He is a hardworking man and an outstanding father.  This man is very good to his wife!  I love so many things about him and one of those things is the fact that he can doze off in the midst of our swirling household long enough to let the kids decorate him. 
 

I Heart Faces - Shadow Play

Day 4

This is a Christmas tradition in our home.  We bring out all our winter stuffies and set up a snow scene at the top of our living room windows.  The scene varies from year to year but a few things remain the same: the penguin with the green hat always goes for a belly slide, and a lighted evergreen garland is hung around them.  I love how the little lights peeking through the boughs casts a playful dance of light and shadow.

I Heart Faces - What You're Reading

I do read actual books, novels, paperbacks, fiction and non-fiction, however, if I am being honest with myself (and you) this is what I read the most of.

And, yes, my laptop is held together with a cardboard box.  Don't judge.

I Heart Faces - Elf

The only elf on my shelf likes marshmallows, M&Ms, Pop Tarts and syrup on his spaghetti.

On Thanksgiving each year I bring out all our Christmas movies.  There are twice as many as shown here.  We watch the bejeebers out of 'em until January 1st when they go back into the vault (otherwise known as the bottom of the book shelf behind the box of random electronic parts).  Being able to only watch them one month out of the year makes them that much more special.  In fact, it would seem, that's what makes most things about Christmas special.

 

I Heart Faces - Me

So here I am, with my camera.  It is nothing special.  A Sony Cybershot with 3x zoom and 7.2 mp.  It takes nice pictures.  No one buys my pictures or pays me to take pictures.  We just do our thang capturing memories (sometimes inventing or recreating them) as they whoosh by.  Like my camera _I_ am nothing special.  I don't mean that in a self deprecating way.  A Christian, wife, and homeschooling mom.  A manager at a pizza joint. There are lots of us still in use, albeit, a little out dated.

The Big Year

The Big Year. It's a movie. With lots of birds in it.

It got super bad reviews from critics. I don't know anyone who saw it. I only knew about it from a snippet in my bird mag. I heard no buzz on the street about it actually being good, but you know what... it was.

The Big Year is based on a true story (which was first a book by the same title) and stars Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson in the lead roles, but it really had an all star cast. There wasn't one character where I wasn't saying or thinking "hey that's the guy from..." or "wasn't she in...". The movie follows the happenings in each of the leading mens' lives while they attempt a Big Year.

A big year in the birder's world is when an individual takes a year to travel the United States accumulating as many different bird species sightings as possible. Its all done on the honor system, there is no prize (maybe endorsements), and the only real gain is the experience of the journey and realizing your passion. That is what character's are trying to figuring out.

Beside the fact that there are no explosions or special effects and that it is totally clean (PG) I am not sure why it didn't get better reviews. It could be that we, as movie goers, are so over stimulated and used to overproduced, high priced, 3-D fantastical shlop that we don't recognize when a film is just simply good. It's not deep. It's not heavy. It's just simply good.

I should warn you though. I may be slightly biased. I am a birder. Nothing compared to the peeps in the movie. I mean, my life list is probably around 120, whereas in the movie it is over 700 IN ONE YEAR! That is amazing! I am content to see what flies into my neck of the woods and if I happen to see something special on a trip then that's cool too. I don't have the drive nor the money to travel for a year at a break neck pace to rack up a bird tally, but it sounds like fun.

The movie has a lot to do with the birds and the strive to find them so if you could give a rip about your feathered friends then you may want to skip the film. That being said, George said he enjoyed it and he only looks at birds when I yell to him from the window, "GEORGE COME LOOK AT THIS THERE ARE LIKE FORTY NORTHERN FLICKERS IN THE DRIVEWAY!" To which he replies, "uh huh neat."


If you have seen it... did you like it?

If you haven't seen it... give it a try.