Potpourri Adventures: a place where I can feel free to be myself; to write about anything & everything, the way I see it.
But most importantly it’s the venue I have chosen to learn to be a better blogger.
Odd? Maybe.
Crazy? Possibly.
A learning experience? Most definitely!
Thoughts & advice are welcomed.
Criticism, just leave it at the door.
If you don’t agree with things I post, that’s fine, agree to disagree.
Have a wonderful day!
Hello there! Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings!!
It has been quite some time since my last post. Everything has been all right. Things just got a bit wild there for a hot minute. Life’s busy-ness, circumstances changing and what have you. Nothing major.
I also lost interest in blogging for awhile as well. However, it would’ve been nice if I had been keeping up on my blog though because a lot has changed over the past… 5 years?
My family and I have moved, a couple of times; our family has grown a bit as we rescued a couple more cats. And we’ve also suffered a few losses. 2019 hit us hardest with 3 family losses within 5 months and then I was hospitalized and ended up having a 3-in-1 surgery a few months later in 2020. No sooner had I been released from the hospital, Covid-19 hit full on in our area. Thank the good Lord we’ve been healthy since, aside from a cold or bout with the flu. I know that many others haven’t been as fortunate. And for that I’m truly sorry and send my condolences and prayers.
I do hope you have had an excellent holiday filled with love, joy, and peace.
Let us hope and pray that 2022 is a better year for us all.
Much love
It’s not something that you can just get over. It’s not something that is short lived. If you’ve never experienced it you cannot fathom how horrible it truly is.
When I was 15 I attempted suicide. I hated myself, I hated my life.
As I got older I began to get a better perspective of things, but the beast would rear it’s ugly head yet again during the years of abuse.
About 18 months or so into the messy relationship, I was diagnosed with clinical depression and put on anti-depressants. I had no support of family–well, I did, but there wasn’t much support that could be given being 2100 miles apart. I was a mess.
After the relationship dissolved and I started the healing process, I took myself off the medication. I was feeling better, but I also could not afford the prescripts anymore.
From time to time I still fight the ugly battle. Sometimes it’s easy and the feelings only last a little while. Other times it’s more difficult and those ugly feelings last for days.
Lately I’ve been dealing with negative feelings again, and they got me to thinking. I did a little soul searching and decided to write a poem in hopes that it would help others to see and maybe have a deeper understanding of what it’s like for people who suffer with depression. I’m not saying that everyone will feel exactly the same, as each case is different, some being more severe than others.
It is my hope that this post will help others to reach out to people around them. People who have depression may look OK on the outside, but hell is on their doorstep on the inside. For those who suffer from this beast, I would like to encourage you to REACH OUT and ask for help. Talk to someone, a trusted friend or family member, a counselor, a pastor, a doctor… Someone who can offer love and support and/or who can find help for you.
DEPRESSION…
The bottomless pit
Devoid of any light
Darker than dark
Blacker than black
From deep within its walls
I SCREAM
It’s echo… infinite
yet no one hears, but me
I grope around in the abyss
searching for a way out
But all I feel
is the slimy filth of emptiness.
I am alone.
xCraftyChickx
9-27-16
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
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For the past month I’ve been taking online classes to learn how to use Adobe Lightroom. It was a great course and the instructor taught each class in detail. Whatever questions he couldn’t get to during the session, he would take via email as well.
It was a free course through Shaw Academy (Mastering Lightroom). You can buy a membership and take as many classes as you’d like. Right now they are offering a FREE course for a very limited time (HURRY! Less than 24 hours left in the offer–I apologize for not posting about this sooner). I’ve been so busy getting my assignments and challenges done, as well as normal life stuff. I actually still have one assignment and my final exam left to do.
Shaw Academy offers several courses including: Photography, Cooking, Weight Loss, Career Advancement, and many more. They are currently creating several other courses to be introduced by the Fall.
Anyway, I learned a lot in the 8 classes of this course. You may be thinking you can’t learn very much in that short of time, but I actually learned quite a bit. Thankfully they offer replays of their courses. You can go back and watch the recordings up to 2 weeks after the course ends. (I took down a lot of notes). This is a BIG help for studying before taking your final exam for your certification.
(You are given THREE (3) chances to pass the final exam).
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So, what’s this course like? Well…
For the first couple of lessons we learned about the program interface, how to import photos and how to organize them. Each lesson after covered a few to several other tools; learning how to use them to edit and improve photographs. After each lesson we were given a challenge to send in to show the instructor our understanding of what we had learned. We also had an assignment for each class (a multiple choice quiz). Challenges were not mandatory in this course, but as a visual/hands-on learner this was great for me.
Here are a few of my challenge results:
Challenge 1: Send in a photo we improved in Lightroom using the basic tools. (Photo taken with Pentax K-50)
Challenge 3: Send in a photo that we edited in 2 different ways. (Photo taken w/ Pentax K-50)
Challenge 4: Send in a photo with a local adjustment–use one or more tools from the lesson. (Photo taken with LG L Stylo)
Challenge 5, Part 1: Enhance the color of a photo w/ HSL. Part 2: Do a B&W Conversion photograph. (photo taken with Pentax K-50; a request by my daughter)
I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my work.
Remember to take a look at the classes being offered, you might find one you like.
HURRY! Offer expires in less than 24 hours!
Weight Loss… it’s a difficult road. If you are overweight you know exactly how hard it is.
If you’re one of my usual readers you know I have struggled for years. You have read my unfinished story. The saga continues…
It has been a few months since I have worked out. I’ve become lazy and more sedentary. (not good!) I have known just by the way I feel that I have been gaining weight and needed to do something about it. I’ve been angry with myself. I’ve felt discouraged because I hadn’t seen any results when I had been working at it after having been so sick. (My family and I had had terrible colds, lasting many weeks, thrice over the past 2 years).
For the past couple weeks I’ve sat knowing I need to change my habits and get back into my fitness routines, yet at the same time I was thinking, “What can I do? How can I change this?” Then I remembered some wise words I had spoken to others–JUST MOVE!
Yeah, I was taking my own medicine.
This week I jumped off the self-pity train, recommitted myself, and got back on the Fitness Wagon. For the past 2 days I have been kicking my own behind. Do I hurt? Oh yeah! But I’m not going to let that stop me. It’s a good pain.
This morning I did a weigh-in. I didn’t want to do it, but I knew I had to. I was shocked. I knew I had gained, but it was more than I thought I had.
I’m glad that I made the choice to do better for myself. Not only that, I have a family that needs me too.
With all of that said, last week I recommitted my life to Christ. I had not walked away from Him, I just wasn’t as serious in my relationship with God as I used to be.
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Maybe you’ve been struggling with losing weight or to break a bad habit. Or maybe you, too, haven’t been totally committed in your relationship with God.
Don’t be dismayed. Recommit!
Smile and hold your head up high. You can do it this time! If you happen to fall along the way, get up and keep going.
You only fail if you quit.
Now I’m off to plan my workout for today.
Much love and God bless you. ❤
Pingback Issues on WP
I just talked to someone at WordPress support, and they said the problem only seems to be affecting custom sites. That means, if you have .wordpress in your site’s address, you shouldn’t be affected. If you pay for your site and you don’t have a .wordpress.com site, and your pingbacks don’t work, please let support know.
Proof that they’re doing something: I got a pingback tonight. Problem was, it was from Margret’s post here:
but the link pinged back to here:
https://lindaghill.com/2013/04/21/how-comments-can-hurt/ – a post of mine from three years ago.
Weird. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon.
Have a good night all!
I am really enjoying my new camera. I didn’t realize how much I have missed shooting photographs. I had a ball. Our other 2 feline fur-babies were my subjects today.
Let me introduce you to Maximus Leonidas and Yoda.
Max was my birthday present in 2013. I named him Maximus Leonidas specifically for the meaning behind the name–the Great Lion. He is anything but. He’s long and thin, and is fairly skittish. He’s probably the most gentle and quiet cat I have ever had. He can also be a bit of a brat, sometimes taking after his step-brother Yoda, who is an instigator and a bit of a trouble maker with our other two felines.
Yoda was named by my husband who, at first sight of him, said that he had a green tinge to his fur. Not only that, but when you scratch him in just the right spot on his head he flattens his ears out to the side; similar to the way Yoda from Star Wars ears appear.
In my first attempt at photographing Max, he started nuzzling the camera lens which made me laugh. He doesn’t often show affection so it was a cute surprise. Yoda also tried to “nose boop” the lens and fogged it up in one of the photos.
Photos taken with Pentax K-50
A day in the life of your average kitty cat…
They say felines sleep on average, 18 hours a day. I have never counted the hours any of our felines have slept during a day. I have, however, enjoyed watching them sleep peacefully.
Meet Bear, my family’s Tuxedo Tabby.
Photos taken with Pentax K-50 f/5.6 1/80 sec. ISO 1600
I love the little 2-tone pads on his feet–pink & grey.
April 8, 2016 — About an hour after sunset
While eating dinner with my family, my husband looked out of the window and declared, “Honey, you need to take a look at the moon. It’s lower than it has been lately. I think you should take a picture.”
I tried leaning over to see what was so interesting about it and barely caught a glimpse. So I got up and walked over to the window to get a better view.
The moon was lovely, even if only as a thumbnail. From our standpoint it appeared the dark orange-y sky could have represented sand at the beach… if it weren’t for the trees, buildings, and telephone poles in the foreground.
There is a slight reflection from the double pane window, but I like it that way.
Thumbnail Moon After Sunset
Photo taken with Pentax K-50 f/5.6 1/40 sec. ISO : 12800
If you’re one of my usual readers you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t written a blog post in quite some time. I was taking some time off from things trying to get my life to calm down. I had been having a rough time and my mind just wouldn’t shut up. Yeah, Mr. Negative was rearing his ugly head again. That happens sometimes, but never usually for as long as this was. Usually I’m back to my normal self within a few days, but this time I just couldn’t shake it off. And the holidays only added on to the stress. It wasn’t until January when I finally snapped out of it.
Depression is no stranger to me. After all I was diagnosed with Clinical Depression during my previous marriage. I haven’t been on medication for it in years, as symptoms were few and far between shortly after I ended the relationship. I wonder, occasionally, if I should still be on them…
Anyway, enough about that. Onto something more enjoyable…
I used to own a (SLR) Pentax K-1000 with an f2/55mm lens and a 200mm zoom, but after so many years of use something was messed up inside the viewfinder. It looked like it might have had a crack or something, or maybe needed a cleaning, but I couldn’t afford it. A few other things happened and I ended up getting rid of it. (June 1993 to April 2012) That was a sad day for me. I had participated and won competitions and taken hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures with it.
Ever since getting rid of my camera I have wanted to replace it, we just never had the money. Or when we did have the money, something else came up. I had nearly given up the hope of ever getting another camera. But then… Comes the Light*.
For the past few months I have really been enjoying seeing and reading about all-things photography. It had been a passion of mine during my last couple years of high school.
I follow several Photography pages on social media, including blogs here on WP. I had started my own Photography page back in 2014. At the time I only had use of the camera on my smartphone and a Point-and-Shoot digital camera. And after having owned a 35mm (film) camera, I was just not happy with the results. With that said, I got better results with my cell phone than the Kodak point-and-shoot, which I have now passed on to my kids.
Why am I passing down my digital?
First, my kids have wanted a camera ever since the first time they saw me use a camera. Second, I am hoping that they will enjoy and maybe want to learn more about photography, even if only as a hobby.
And last, but certainly not least, I was finally able to replace my beloved camera… and upgraded to boot.
I am now the proud owner of a Digital SLR! There is a lot to learn. There are many buttons and features on it, but I will get the hang of it.
Pentax K-50 kit, camera bag, remote, & memory card.
Please excuse the quality and the background. The photo was taken with my LG G Stylo phone.
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Here are a few photos I’ve taken recently while learning about my new baby.
Photos taken with Pentax K-50
Animals, Nature, Landscapes, and Still Life are my favorite subjects to photograph.
*Comes the Light–is a nickname given me by my late grandfather S.A.M. It goes well with my first name: Dawn.
Photography — the “art of light”.
Sharing writing tips, information, and advice.
Inspiring mental health through creative arts and friendly interactions. (Award free blog)
A place to be, uniquely me
Simple and delicious dinner inspiration
Finding my way back out of motherhood -- while mothering
Join the world where yarn ends to be just a thread and begins the magical amigurumi creation
Potpourri Adventures 