Papercraft: A Cheap, Addicting Hobby

I recently stumbled across an amazing hobby called papercraft.  Apparently this has been around since the early 20th century and I am told that a form of paper modeling was popular among kids during World War II because paper was one of the few things not heavily regulated.  The internet has given papercraft wings in the new age because templates are easily uploaded, shared, and printed.  The complexity of paper models on the internet range from a simple 3D cube to a scale model of the starship Enterprise.

Cool beans, right?

Cardstock paper, a printer, scissors, a precision knive, and glue.  That’s all you need to make papercraft toys.  You simply download the template and start cutting.  It’s hella easy and hella fun.

My son starts homeschool this week.  I am so proud of my wife for taking on the responsibility of teaching our kid during the day.  With over 26 weeks in the curriculum (ABC Jesus Loves Me), we start this week with the letter A.

Shari found a papercraft alphabet that is perfect for teaching kids the alphabet.

Due to the cutting nature of these projects, I don’t recommend letting your kids in on the fun unless they are older and understand how to handle sharp objects.  There are simpler projects out there that only require scissors and are more suited for the younger crowd.

You don’t have to be perfect, but it helps to cut a semi-straight line.  This is a skill I don’t come by naturally.

By the way, ‘A’ is always for Astronaut.

When all is said and done, you should end up with a handsome looking figurine.  I hope it makes my son’s lesson a little bit more fun.

A word of caution: even though it’s made of cardstock and put together with the indefatigable Elmer’s Glue, it should be handled with care.  My 2 year old took a Storm Trooper figurine I made and turned it into a paper ball.  I guess as a toy, it works on multiple levels.

Papercraft rocks!

CALEB|bubbles|PAPA

You remember those warm, sunny afternoons in the backyard with your grandpa? You remember how bubbles made you feel all giddy inside, especially when you tried to pop them? My son feels the same way. Here is a video of just that.

100 Things – A Beginning

Lately, I have been weighted down by stuff… stuff and things. These things revolve around me like objects orbiting a planet. Occasionally, one thing grows to an enormous mass, causing me and all of my other stuff to revolve around it.  I then find myself swirling through space, hopping from thing to thing, dragging my stuff in my wake of despair.

Physics analogies aside, we all have that room full of things that we don’t need, or that we think we need, but we only use once or twice a year.  Am I making any sense?  Well, Shari and I are going to get rid of it.  We are starting a new journey in our house that we hope parallels our other ambitions (fostering, faith, father/mother-hood)

We are going to write down 100 things that we think we should keep, and then get rid of the rest.  The inspiration comes from a guy named dave, who wrote about his 100 thing challenge and became famous for it.  If you’ve had your ear to the ground for a while, you probably already know about this and have an opinion.  My opinion is that there is no better ambition than uncluttering your life with the intention of filling that hole with God.

You see, God is the gospel, not all that stuff in your garage.

I’ll let you know how it all goes.  Good and bad.

I might even let you see my list.

Maybe.

Family Worship

I occasionally pull out the guitar and sing a few songs with my family.  I think it is a healthy practice, and I love that quality time.  The other day, I was playing around on the guitar and I pulled out my new portable audio recorder so that I could catch Caleb singing with me.  He was sitting on my lap, grabbing the strings, and trying to copy what I was singing.

Even though he doesn’t understand volume or tone, I appreciate the effort.  There will come a day when he won’t sit on my lap and sing at the top of his lungs, so I will take all the chances I can get.  Forgive the raw quality of the recording.  A professional I am not.  To God be the glory.

 

Sunset in Aptos

There can be no words to describe the glories of God’s creation. I am currently hunkered down at a beach house in Aptos, California. My wife is a photographer, my sister is a photographer, my mom is a painter, and my dad is a musician. There is no lack of creative talent in this house, and yet there has been one common theme when we talk about the sunsets here: there is no way we can ever replicate that kind of beauty in our media, no matter how hard we try. Our cameras can’t capture what our eyes can see, and our paintbrush can’t recreate the ever-changing colors as the sun sets. This picture was one of my many frantic attempts at capturing just some of the beauty that takes our breath away out here.

To God be all the glory.

Psalms 136:1-9

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

to him who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

to him who by understanding made the heavens,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

to him who made the great lights,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

the sun to rule over the day,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

35mm Amusement – 2nd Roll

I went ahead an did the Facebook/Flickr thing with all of the pictures I took on the Nikon FE, but I reserved these three for the blog.

Texas occasionally has spats of good weather during the winter and we like to take those opportunities to step outside for some fresh air.  On this particular day at the beginning of the year, we used the power of the sun to dry our wet laundry.  The light had a really interesting quality to it and I knew I had a few shots left on the Nikon, so I took them.

Even though the pictures didn’t come out the way I saw them in my mind’s eye, I am pleased with how they look.  Of course, I am always pleased with how my wife looks… always.

The results were totally unexpected.  First, the film is expired, so there is no telling exactly what has happened to the emulsion.  Second, I’m still getting used to the light meter, and the shots aren’t exposed correctly.  Third, I think that there is a possibility of some light leaks on the back of the camera due to some rotted out light seals.  Looks like I’m going to have to get those fixed.

Christmas 2011

The Hensons had a whirlwind Christmas again this year. We celebrated with our immediate family on Christmas eve morning, drove to Gorman and celebrated with Shari’s family that night, then celebrated again with Shari’s extended family on Christmas morning. Finally, we drove up to the panhandle and celebrated Christmas with Shari’s dad. That’s a lot of celebrating. As exhausting as Christmas can be, it is so good to spend time with family and get away for a few days. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We can’t wait to do it again in 2012.

35mm Amusement – 1st Roll

I am slow.  So slow that I am just now starting to catch up with all of the media I generated during the Christmas holiday.  I was recently inspired to pick up my sister’s old Nikon FE 35mm SLR and shoot a few rolls of film.  I loved getting back to the basics of photography.  My wife and I both have nice digital SLRs with snappy auto-focus, auto white balance, super accurate digital light meters, and many other bells and whistles that take all of the thinking out of the exposure.

Taking a picture without that high-speed processing power makes you really think about what you’re shooting, what kind of light you’re shooting in, and whether or not you really need a picture of it.  Especially when you realize that you only have 24 exposures per roll.  Add to that the increasing price of film developing and you start to get nervous every time you press that shutter release.  I think it’s that nervous excitement that I crave, hoping that the picture turns out exactly the way you see it in your head.  Film photography has become a novelty rather than a standard (at least I think it’s novel).  I love the “film look”, and I can’t wait to shoot some more with that camera.

Pictures taken with a Nikon FE, Nikkor 50mm 1.8

‘Tis [Always] the Season

The second I step into the house, my son’s bare feet are pitter-pattering to the door. He flings his arms wide and yells, “Da…!” or “Dat!” or “Daddtheee”, or some combination of those. My beautiful wife is usually right after him with a sweet kiss and a hug. I love coming home to my family and I want it to be pleasant for them when I come home.

Even in the hot Summer months, or the dreary winter months (post-Christmas), a dad should always be willing to get on the floor with his kid, make a few funny faces, and play. Play on your kid’s terms, not on yours. Shrug off the worries of work and let your family know that you are now completely there for them.

The Elephant in the Womb

The following story is not light-hearted.  I don’t have a fun video to watch, and I can’t expect most people to understand.  It will also be wordy, so don’t feel guilty if you don’t read it all.

Most of all, I am not writing this for pity.  You don’t need to feel sorry for us.  It’s okay if you cry, or if you pray for us, but God heals all wounds and if we are broken, it is to draw us closer to him.  We are strongly grounded in our hope in Christ Jesus.  I truly believe that everything that happens on this earth leads to glorifying our God, the creator of the universe.  I hope this story helps someone.  I know it helps me to write it.

I was almost a father… again

On November 30th, my wife texted me while I was at work.  The text simply said, “Call me please”.  Of course, I obliged to call as quickly as possible and when I did, she floored me with the news that we were pregnant for the second time.  She had taken a pregnancy test on a whim.  There had been no indication that she was pregnant, she just got curious I guess.  A new baby wasn’t even on our radar, except through adoption/fostering.

Nothing could have made me happier.  I was both floating on clouds and getting crushed by the weight of a completely different reality simultaneously. We have been avoiding pregnancy for a while because we are training to be foster parents, so this changed everything.  I immediately started thinking about maternity gifts for Christmas. I started rearranging the house in my head to make room for the new love of our life.  I even started thinking about names.

It might be a girl;  A little sister for Caleb to look after and protect.  It might be a little boy; a little brother for Caleb to play with and share with.  Either way, I was ready.  You know my motto:

Bring it on.

I don’t pretend to understand how a woman’s body works, but I have learned a few things after being married for 3+ years.  For one, there is a huge difference between bleeding and “spotting”.  My sweet wife patiently told me as much when I made that mistake last week.  It started on December 7th, just 1 short week after finding out we were pregnant.  We were already emotional, having to switch gears from fostering to having a bio-kid.  Now, we were trying to ready ourselves for the worst.

Spotting doesn’t have to bee a bad sign during pregnancy, but it can be.  In my mind, my wife was bleeding profusely and needed to be rushed to the ER.  My wife, sister, brother-in-law, and our good friend Kelley calmed me down and said we just needed to wait a little while.

First, there was a chance that it was just normal spotting.  Nothing to worry about.  The doctor still needed to check it out, but there are good reasons for that process that are a mystery to us, and a glory to God.  Second, if this really was a sign of a miscarriage, there isn’t much anyone can do at that point.

There was nothing we could do…

You mean I can’t fix it?

I stood in our house, helpless, wanting to cry.  And then an amazing thing happened.  Joel–my brother-in-law–decided to pray for us.  We all circled up, heads together, and just prayed.  I think there was a puddle of tears in the middle of our little group by the end.  Like I said, God works everything to his glory.  Even though praying didn’t make the situation less painful or sad, it helped us shed the worry, knowing that God was and is in control.

The next day, Shari went to the doctor with my sister and they did a sonogram to make sure there really was something to worry about.  Of course, there was something there but they couldn’t determine whether she was having a miscarriage or not.  At this point, they say that it was only the size of a small orange seed.  It might as well have been Caleb in there, and I felt like I was losing him.

The weekend dragged by with a lot of sorrow and comforting.  By the end of it, we knew without a doubt that we had lost our second baby.  Shari and I felt at a loss of words, but only for a short while.

As I said before, we put our hope in the saving grace of our Lord.  There is no use mourning for something that has gone away.  We can’t do anything about it, but strive to glorify God until we meet Him again.  I really feel like this has been a blessing because it has made our little family closer and more away of the fragility of our lives.  We are so blessed to be where we are today and I am so blessed to have such a strong a courageous wife.

For the other half of the story (which is a bit more light-hearted), you should read the latest post of i have mom brain.

Thanks for listening.