In Case You Were Wondering

Tomorrow I have big plans for a post about our interim digs here at my sister's house, as well as a super easy recipe for rhubarb jam (the 'Home Cooking' page is making a comeback... yay!). In the meantime, I just want to say this: I love dirty workin' man hands.

I just thought you should know.

Happy Accidents

I am the primary picture-taker in our family, in part because I love taking pictures and the camera is usually in 'Manual' mode, and in part because the flash is broken on our camera and Mr. Blue Eyes has a harder time than he used to have taking pictures, even in the 'Auto' mode.

We really just need to get it fixed (I've been telling myself this for months and months, but can't bear the thought of parting with my camera even for a minute) so that he can have the opportunity to take pictures whenever he is inspired to do so. To his credit, he still tries to take pictures of the kids, so when I'm looking through the pictures on the camera I am sometimes tickled to find pictures there that I did not take nor was I aware of. However, like I said, it's not all that easy for him to get good shots these days.

Take these, for example...

 

Or these...

You have to admit, these pictures would probably have been pretty cute if he had put the camera in 'Auto' mode and we had a working flash. I'm kind of sad that they didn't turn out, because through the blurry haze I'm pretty sure there's some cute moments in there.

The good news is, my Photoshop skills are so far advanced and fine-tuned that blurry, under/over exposed pictures like this are no match for me. Just take a look at how I fixed up this one...

Oh yes, this is much better. It's amazing what a little 'Unsharp Mask' and burned edges can do. I astound myself. For more of my photographic genius, look here.

On the other hand, not all of the pictures that I come across are bad, like this one...

Way to go, babe!

While the shutter speed was waaaay to slow, letting in too much light for this...

...it happened to be just right for this...

It may not be photographic genius or anything, such as the Photoshop skills that I displayed above, but when I found it on the camera this morning it made my day, kind of like most things that are Mr. Blue Eyes related.

I love my husband.

Give the People What They Want

Yes, he's quite a man, Mr. Blue Eyes. I don't even know where to start to describe how well he takes care of our family...

He braves the elements to care for child, woman and beast. He brings home most of the bacon. He changes diapers. He washes dishes. He's really good at back rubs.

He's one of the good guys.

I know this because the lady at Wal-Mart told me so this morning.

We were just checking out as usual, making small talk, and as he headed out to the car to load up our loot and I was completing the transaction, she said, "You've got a good one there."

All this she gathered within a few minutes of small talk. She just knew. Kind of like I just knew a little over ten years ago.

And above all of this, he plays guitar and sings to our children.

I mean, couldn't you just melt?

It makes me weak in the knees just thinking about it.

And they love it. They look at him with adoring eyes, thinking, "Just listen to the beautiful music my daddy makes."

Can he actually PLAY the guitar? No.

Can he actually SING? Um, he couldn't hit a note if it were as big as the broad side of a barn.

But SHHHHH! Don't tell my babies this. I'd like to preserve their innocence as long as I can. As far as they're concerned, random strumming and the gravelly, off-key sound of 'Play Me Some Country Music' is pretty special stuff.

And the thing is, it doesn't matter if he's actually musically gifted or not. What matters is that he does this for them because he knows they like it. That's what makes it special.

So, in honor of my wonderful husband, I've decided to make his favorite thing in all the world -- pecan caramel rolls -- and share my recipe with all of you.

Tomorrow-ish.

Not today.

Today, the weather is AMAZINGLY beautiful, the taxes are DONE (!), and Mr. Blue Eyes has the day off. Today, we're going to soak up the sun and family time while we can. Today, Farmer Gal is about as happy as she could be.

But don't worry, tomorrow will be good too. Sometime tomorrow (probably not until a little later in the day) I'll be posting the pecan caramel rolls in progress on the Home Cooking page. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, soak up your own piece of sun and do some aerobics... Trust me, you're going to need some preventative calorie burning for these babies.