family

Tips for taking good photos with a phone

October 11, 2021 by Kristin Leave a Comment

Smartphones are a bit of a double-edged sword. Many of us spend too much time staring at social media and you might benefit from detoxing from your phone for a while. Yet there are also great things about having a smartphone, like being able to take photos wherever you are.

In the past, taking family photos required a bit of planning but these days, you are ready to capture amazing memories at the drop of a hat. Sometimes being able to take as many photos as you like means that people don’t put effort into capturing beautiful photos. They get home and look back through their pictures only to find that all of their great family memories are blurry or somebody had their finger over the lens. (Yes, those things still happen with a smart phone!)

Follow these simple tips to take better family photos on your phone.

Take Multiple Photos

You shouldn’t just take one photo of your family, you should take multiple photos. Basically, my rule is: The more kids, the more shots, even if the first one seems perfect. People close their eyes or move right as the picture is taken.

The only problem with this is that you’ll end up with lots of duplicates on your phone This guide on how to delete duplicate photos on iPhone will help you keep your photos organized and get rid of any duplicate photos. I go through my photos every few days, especially after a big event, and save the ones I want to keep in my iCloud and organize them by month and year.

Use The HDR Setting

HDR stands for high dynamic range. It’s a great tool that will help you take better photos. Most smartphones come with this setting and it analyzes the photo before taking it to ensure that all of the lights and darks are captured properly. If you’re not sure whether your phone has an HDR feature, just look through the settings until you find something similar.

Simply switching this setting on will make your photos much sharper and get the balance of colors right, so they will look more professional.

Use Natural Light As Much As Possible

My kids know I want them to go outside to take a posed photo. That natural light is just too good to ignore. Taking photos indoors can be difficult because you don’t have a lot of light to work with so shadows happen more easily. If you want your family photos to look great, you should take them outside whenever possible. Plus I love how the outside setting allows me to capture the season too.

Avoid Using Digital Zoom

When you want a close-up of your family, the last thing that you should do is use digital zoom. Instead, step closer to your kids and get down to their level. Using digital zoom is never a good idea because it simply enlarges pixels rather than taking a closer photo, so the end result will be blurry. You need to be physically close to your subject if you want better quality photos and there’s no way around it.

If you do want to use a zoom function, you should invest in a lens that goes on the back of your phone, so it works like a normal camera zoom. Sometimes I crop pictures after I take them, but typically I try to frame the photo as I want it when I take it.

Use The Rule Of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a simple and effective way to ensure that your photos look great. Mentally divide the scene into nine parts and take note of where the lines cross. (Some cameras even have these lines on the screen for you!) You should make sure that important elements in the photo fall on one of those intersections. This will make it more aesthetically pleasing and ensure that the viewer’s eye travels over each section of the picture without any difficulty.

You don’t need to be a professional photographer to capture family memories, but you can improve your family snapshots, take crisp photos, and frame the moment like you want to remember it if you follow these tips.

Tips for a happy & healthy family

September 7, 2021 by Kristin Leave a Comment

With everything happening in the world, health and happiness are important right now. Physical, mental, and emotional health are all important. Even though I’d consider us a happy family, I want to take reasonable steps to keep us that way.

Here are seven tips to help you get started and keep the whole family happy and healthy.

Find balance in work and home life

With constant access to one another through technology, finding a work-and-home balance isn’t easy. My husband has made strides in this area in the midst of a busy season at the office. Some ways to do this are to prioritize your time, set work hours and stick to them, and capitalize on your strengths. Unbalance happens when you try to do much and get your priorities out of whack. See where you can make a few changes, and not only will you be able to spend more time with your family, but also ease the stress at the office.

Communication

Communication is key, not just between partners, but between all family members. Effective communication will enable everyone in the family to feel included, open an honest conversation, and firm up a foundation that remains in good and bad times. Good communication happens between my husband and me with Google Calendar. My oldest child, who is a freshman in high school, recently asked me to share our family Google Calendar with her. My sixth-grade son has recently started using email at school, so that is another way for us to keep him informed.

Quality time

Dinner together is important to me. We’re in a busy season with two kids who each have two soccer practices during the week and Saturday games, but we still strive to find ways to eat dinner together — even if that means sandwiches on the bleachers at the soccer fields.

Other ways we spend quality time together include playing card and board games, inviting friends into our home, and talk while driving to and from school. My husband and I recently went away for a long weekend together. That took some planning and coordinating, but the time together with little responsibility was worth it.

Exercise

I’ve been trying to incorporate more walking into my everyday life, while the kids are practicing soccer. It’s good for my physical well-being but maybe more importantly my mental well-being when I walk and talk with a friend. My husband has been doing exercises in our make-shift garage gym before he starts working most mornings. In the summer, we love to swim. Our kids like to play soccer and basketball and also have two days of Physical Education at school, so it’s good for them to be engaged in physical activities. Regular activity also helps by improving our moods, helping us sleep, and transforming our general quality of life.

Nutritious food

When we have nutritious food at home, we are more likely to eat well. Recently, I’ve gotten a couple of home deliveries from a local business that sells produce and products from local family farms. If you’re 40-50 miles from Harvest Crate in Benton, Kentucky, this is a great way to get fresh, healthy food to show up on your porch. You can get free delivery on your first order with my code TAYLORHC.

My orders have includes items such as farm-fresh eggs, corn, onions, red & white potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, donut peaches, apples, chicken legs, zinnia flowers, and blueberry scones. (See more about that here.)

We have some salmon in our freezer from our last Harvest Crate delivery, so I may use this easy, delicious baked salmon recipe. I add vegetables to almost every meal, even if that means cutting up a cucumber for my kids who don’t like my favorite sauteed squash, zucchini, and onions.

My kids and I enjoyed these relatively healthy Monster Cookie Energy Balls as a quick breakfast or snack. They always come home from school hungry, so we’re all better off when there are easy, healthy choices available. That does take some planning.

Create routines

Humans are creatures of habit, and thrive off a routine. When children and families have routines, it helps to bring consistency, certainty, and comfort into a child’s life, while helping to reduce any stress and anxiety because they feel safe. I’ve helped my kids with a morning routine with a checklist inserted into a page protector so they can mark off things with an Expo marker.

Of course, I also have to remember to notice when routines need tweaking. I value bedtime routines, but sometimes that’s when my kids want to talk the most and process whatever happened or is expected to happen. I’m thankful we have a foundation here for that to happen.

Look after yourself

As a parent, I spend a lot of energy caring for and managing my family life, but it’s also important I take care of myself. I do this by keeping regularly scheduled doctor appointments, getting monthly-ish massages, and reading lots of books. Some seasons of life make this more difficult, but right now I have pockets of free time while all three kids are at school and my husband is at the office.

How do you keep yourself and your family happy and healthy?

Transitions, routines & rhythms

August 31, 2021 by Kristin Leave a Comment

We are all about transitions around here right now. After two and a half weeks of school, we’re all still finding our footing in routines and rhythms.

But here we are, figuring it out with a kindergartner, sixth-grader, and high school freshman. I am thankful they’re all on the same campus because that makes my mom taxiing easier.

Rachel is getting used to all-day school five days in a row. Ben has multiple teachers and classrooms, an email address mostly for Google Classroom, and a locker for the first time. Cate is officially a high schooler and has a schedule that gave her choices for the first time.

We’ve got some new rhythms in our daily life, but I know we are just getting started and more routines will come. We will add soccer practices for two kids and church small groups.

Before school started, I felt like I made a million decisions as a school board member and a mom. Then, of course, we had some disruptions even getting school started. We closed on our second day so many of our teachers could go to a funeral for a former student at our small school.

That same day off of school, Ben started feeling poorly and had some symptoms we thought could be COVID. Most of his class was then quarantined. He took multiple rapid and send-off COVID tests over the coming days, but he never tested positive and started feeling better after a few days. I’m guessing an unnamed virus struck.

Cate still has antibodies from when she had COVID in February, plus she’s fully vaccinated now. Rachel missed a couple of days while we were waiting for Ben’s tests results.

Now that everybody seems healthy, we’re trying to make the most of this new season. I’m recognizing my availability. I can show up for people while my kids are at school. I can tackle the neverending to-do list, help my husband, and catch up around the house. Honestly, I’m taking life one day, one thing at a time, and praying I’ll see where God wants me to step next.

My favorite part of this new school season has been hearing Cate and Ben talk about shared moments in Upper School, where the middle and high schoolers have a shared house system, some electives, and recess time. They’ve talked about kickball, Knock Out basketball games, and funny things that have happened in their hallways. Cate even helped Ben with some math homework the other night.

As I was making dinner one evening last week, I caught a glimpse of my two oldest sharing a table and I whispered a prayer that their shared experiences in school this year will create a deeper bond. Their youngest sister will certainly be watching them — in the hallways at school where she’s quick to hug and right here at home where we all belong together.

*****

What’s this season look like for you? Of course, we held onto summer this past weekend with some time at the lake, a homemade slip-and-slide with friends, pool time, and sunkissed, bug-bitten skin. But we know we’re also transitioning into whatever God has for us next.