Verners

Start ‘em young, originally uploaded by verners.

It’s probably never too early to get your kids thinking about global issues. Our youngest, Luke, has been really impacted by all of this talk around our house about the world. He often expresses deep concern for the children who are dying from starvation everyday. After some silence he’ll say something like, “Dad, we have to help them, those children who are dying. Let’s bring them food!”

And, I will usually explain to him that it’s not that easy to bring them food. That we need to send money, not food, and also help make the world the kind of place that won’t let people starve to death… He decided to wear his One shirt to church today to do just that.

Bike crash & he lived to tell about it, originally uploaded by verners.

Here, Luke is pictured after his first “major” biking accident at Walnut Grove Park. He was cutting over a dirt field to meet up with Mom and Dad when something went wrong and sent him flying face first into the earth below. There was a one-and-a-half foot mark the width of his face in the midst of the scene. He was crying himself into convulsions, spitting out a mouth full of dirt. His nostrils were completely filled with dirt and his two eyes were the only things visible.

So, really, as you can see he’s doing pretty well considering. One thing was clear though, helmets are great head protection only if you do not land face first.

It pays to have an assistant!, originally uploaded by verners.

It pays to have an assistant!

I got motivated this morning to take some pictures and so, as usual, I bribed the boys with a surprise if we got anything good. Levi was hired on as assistant and Luke the model. After dusting off the tripod, pulling out the umbrellas and firing off some test shots, I called the boys over and gave instructions. “O.k. boys, in order to get a surprise I need to get at least one picture worth keeping.” Levi, focused on the task at hand, smiled and nodded enthusiastically. Luke was skeptical and wanted to know more about the surprise before going to all the trouble to pose for the shot.

I handed Luke the blocks, and provided some simple instructions as to what I was looking for – blocks should not be in front of the face, look natural, no monkeying around, no silly smiles… Luke, who ironically just got his ears checked at his 5 year physical last week spent the better part of what seemed like 30 minutes (but actually was only 8 minutes) doing everything I had just instructed him not to. Levi, seeing the chances of a surprise dwindling was frantically giving instructions which Luke categorically disobeyed.

So, out of that experience came this little gem of a shot. Here Levi has just reset the blocks, sat Luke up straight and is in the process of straightening Luke’s head when the shot is fired. Which begs the question, should they get a surprise??? We did end up with a keeper.

When you have a minute, check out Cory’s new blog, HourChallenge.  He is blogging about his commitment to spend an hour each day to help in the fight to end extreme poverty.