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mishinctrl

Control is overrated. Musings of a stay at home mom, an aspiring writer, and a spiritual seeker.

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September 2015

Emergency Preparedness – One Bite at a Time

September is Emergency Preparedness month.   It’s a great time of year to think about what your family will need in case of an earthquake, power outage, or other natural disaster.  Kathryn Shulz’s article The Big One was published in the July New Yorker.  Its focus on the catastrophe that awaited the mostly unprepared Pacific Coast spawned discussion on talk radio, news segments, and additional articles in our local paper.  I wanted to make sure our family had a plan to weather something big, like a major earthquake, or even something minor, like losing power for a few hours or a few days in an ice storm this winter.

But Emergency Preparedness can be overwhelming.  In a recent post in a mom’s group I participate in, one of the very pregnant mom’s asked if anyone was thinking of emergency preparedness.  And while the conversation helped identify an emergency preparedness expert in our group who is putting together a get together to discuss this topic (sweet!), it also uncovered a general feeling of ‘being overwhelmed’ by the task.   Continue reading “Emergency Preparedness – One Bite at a Time” →

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Welcoming Fall


It’s that time of the year.  The bright warm mornings of summer have been replaced almost instantly with cool crispness in the morning air.  Summer produce has given way to pumpkins and apples.  And green leafy trees are showing vibrant hues of red, orange, and yellow.  I love the change in seasons.  As much as I have enjoyed this spectacular, eventful, and beautiful summer, and I have thoroughly, I am excited to welcome the fall. Continue reading “Welcoming Fall” →

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Shooting Stars

I have always been enchanted by the night sky, not to use too flowery a word to describe it. I remember star gazing at different points in my life; from the foot well of the rear facing seat of a Buick as my parents moved us from Las Vegas to Portland when I was seven. They started in the middle of the night so they could eat up the miles while five kids slept, or stared out the window at the universe that seemed unchanged even as we transitioned from desert to rain forrest. From state parks on family camping trips, to the rare cloudless evening on the Oregon Coast as a college student, staring up at the stars has always been a refuge, a comfort, and a promise of infinite possibilities. A comfort because no matter how crazy life got, the night sky was always a beautiful reminder of the grandeur of life. It just is, and it is beautiful. A refuge because I could escape any stress by fantasizing – about life on other planets, how far away the characters in Star Wars would have lived, and who I would have been, had I lived there too. And infinite possibility because no matter how big my teenage problems felt, looking at the night sky reminded me that I am just a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things, that nothing in my priveledged life could be as terrible as the problem my mind was fueling, and most important, the stars would carry on, regardless.

The night sky has always offered me some perspective, but it’s easy to lose it through the normal comings and goings of the day. I was thrilled, however, to be reminded of this perspective with some beautiful images and a wonderfully educational blog post from my friend, a talented photographer and architect, Alene Davis. I hope you will enjoy her images and her blog as much as I have.

Alene Davis Photography's Blog

There is something magical about the night sky. If I am lucky enough to find myself far from city lights and can see the millions of visible stars and the amorphous Milky Way, I can’t help but be awed by the universe.

Shooting a dark night sky can be both a mystery and a challenge if you haven’t done it before (and even if you have!). This blog walks you through the process I use.

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