Seven on Sunday!

Hello, there!

1. No, I'm not dead. It's been a while since I've gone so long without posting, but really, it's been so incredibly busy - both at home and work.

2. I'm traveling this week to Nashville for work, but will have Thursday morning for some fun. And, of course, fun for me is all about books. I think I'll try to find a sweet bookstore where I can sip some coffee and browse away. This one, this one, and this one look promising.


3. I'm reading this. It's good. The problem is, I'm so short on sleep, I read a few pages and then conk out!


4. I just picked this up.


5. Molly goes to the vet tomorrow and hopefully gets her stitches out which means her cone will be off! Hooray!


6. This is Dingo getting rocked to sleep. He's such a baby.




7. It was a good Sabbath day... I met several new folks at church, wonderful worship and sermon, family and friends for lunch, and even had a few hours to work on my Ephesians study. It's coming up in 10 short days! =:-O

CONTINUE READING...

A Few Things...

This looks like a good place to hang out.

And here's a cool sketchblog...

And a super-talented photographer.

Here's the recipe for Starbucks Pumpkin Scones - have you tried one?!

And check out this amazing doodler!

CONTINUE READING...

weekWORD: Curiosities

My "curiosity" of the week:

Mary broke her toe because Mollie really, really likes bones.

Logic to arrive at the above conclusion:

Q1. Why did Mary break her toe?

A1. Because she slipped in a puddle of dog potty and fell down hitting her foot against the wall.

Q2. Why was there dog potty on your floor? Ew!

A2. Because Dingo (The Boy's 30+ lb dog) was sick and "leaking" a bit.

Q3. Why was Dingo sick?

A3. Because his kidneys were failing.

Q4. Oh my! Why were Dingo's kidney's failing?

A4. Probably because he ate something toxic in the garage.

Q5. Why did Dingo eat something toxic in the garage?

A5. Because Dingo was having to stay in the garage a good bit lately.

Q6. Why was poor Dingo having to stay in the garage?

A6. Because Dingo and Mollie (B's 10-lb dog) had to be separated.

Q7. Why did they have to be separated? Couldn't they just play together?

A7. Because Dingo jumped on Mollie two weeks ago and popped her eye out.

Q8. Gross! Why did Dingo jump on poor Mollie and pop her poor eye out? That's nasty!

A8. Because Mollie stole his bone and he wanted it back. Duh.

Q9. Why did Mollie steal Dingo's bone?

A9. Because Mollie really, really likes bones!

THEREFORE..... Mary broke her toe because Mollie really, really likes bones. Ta-dah!

Dingo is coming home from the vet hospital this evening after a couple days worth of fluids flushing out his system. He's not 100% but better. The Boy and The Girl are buying him a pen and dog house so he doesn't have to be in the garage.

Mollie is having her eye REMOVED tomorrow. Sigh. BUT - Mary wants to make her an eye-patch and take her as a pirate trick-or-treating this year.

Mary goes to the orthopedic doc tomorrow. It's just in her toe, not in the growth plate, so what can they really do? I'm sure just tape it. She should be fine! (I hope!) :-)

On a happier note, the radiologist told her he could tell she's not finished growing. Good news! Tall is good!!

For more "curiosities" this week, visit Emma's super nifty blog "The Gift Shed" for links to other players.

(My little "I Wonder" guy up at the top appeared this morning as I was thinking about curiosity. I guess his nose is so long because people who are curious sometimes get labeled as "nosey!" Watercolor paper, fine Sharpie pen, and my *new* gift-to-me Prismacolor markers!)

CONTINUE READING...

Float

Yesterday morning I started reading Prayers from the Heart by Richard Foster. It's a collection of his prayers and other prayers through the history of the church.

I underlined this in the introduction:

"My whole life, in one sense, has been an experiment in how to be a portable sanctuary – learning to practice the presence of God in the midst of the stresses and strains of contemporary life….. For me, the great challenge has always been to experience the reality of God in the midst of going to work and raising kids and cleaning house and paying bills. The grand experiment is to experience in everyday life what Jean-Pierre de Caussade calls “the sacrament of the present moment”; seeking, ever seeking to live, “light as a feather, fluid as water, innocent as a child, responding to every movement of grace like a floating balloon.””

This week, though it's only Wednesday, has held a more than average number of "stresses and strains of contemporary life." Nothing devastating, nothing traumatic... just life with children, husband, job, friends, and church ministry. Just L.I.F.E.

Oh, that I might learn to live light as a feather....

fluid as water...

innocent as a child...

and respond to God's grace like a floating balloon.

'Night, bloggy friends.

CONTINUE READING...

My Day...

How was yours? :-)

CONTINUE READING...

Meet Mullie Grubs

mul·li·grubs   
–noun ( used with a singular or plural verb ) Southern U.S.
ill temper; colic; grumpiness; fit of the blues.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Origin:
1590–1600; earlier mulligrums, appar. alter. of megrims

'Tis the maddest trick a man can ever play in his whole life, to let his breath sneak out of his body without any more ado, and without so much as a rap o'er the pate, or a kick of the guts; to go out like the snuff of a farthing candle, and die merely of the mulligrubs, or the sullens.'

Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616), Spanish writer. (Sancho Panza, in Don Quixote, pt. 2, bk. 6, ch. 41, trans. by P. Motteux (1615) to the dying Don Quixote.)

She's been chasing me around today...!

CONTINUE READING...

Seven on Sunday

Happy Sabbath Day!

1. The Boy's dog who is living with us until the Fateful Day and who popped my little dog's eye out last week, got into the trash yesterday and is vomiting everywhere this morning. Nice, huh?

2. Found in Mary's room this morning after she spent two hours cleaning it yesterday: one Chick-Fil-A cup with lid and straw, two partially full diet Pepsi cans, two partially full diet coke cans (at least they're diet!), one empty bag of Honey Mustard pretzels, one empty snack bag of Cheeze-Its, one empty applesauce snack bowl. Sigh.

3. I made this recipe this morning and it appears to be very yummy. Having it for lunch today with vanilla ice cream. :-)

4. I went to the local used book store Friday and got some really good titles. Most excited about this and this and this.

5. I'm reading Terry Brooks' Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life and am greatly enjoying it.

6. The Art of Silliness2 workshop starts Wednesday and I'm very excited! We've gotten one test sheet and links to the blog and flickr account. Big Smile here!

7. Great quote from a poem read last night from Hunt Hawkins collection The Domestic Life:

"He had the exasperated look of a man life has called to be a saint when he didn't really feel like it."

Another Big Smile here.

Have a wonderful day, friends!

CONTINUE READING...

weekWORD: Key

I love it when someone chooses a weekWORD that has many different meanings! This week's word "KEY" had me going in a lot of different directions... consider these definitions:

1. metal device shaped in such a way that when it is inserted into the appropriate lock the lock's mechanism can be rotated
2. something crucial for explaining;
3. pitch of the voice;
4. any of 24 major or minor diatonic scales that provide the tonal framework for a piece of music
5. a coral reef off the southern coast of Florida
6. (basketball) a space in front of the basket at each end of a basketball court;
7. a list of answers to a test;
8. a list of words or phrases that explain symbols or abbreviations

My first thought was an actual physical key you put into a lock... and that led to something being lost (as is usual with keys belonging to me!).... and that led to the girl above who appears to be looking down searching for something. (Or at least she is supposed to look like that!) My thought was she's looking for the lost key to her heart... She decided to keep it locked up tight from others and now that she's ready to open up, she's misplaced that dang key! She's forgotten how to let other people in... oh, don't we all do that at one time or another?

Then I thought of #4, a musical key, and a favorite quote from a favorite book, The Quantity of a Hazelnut by Fae Malania. In this passage, Fae is comparing listening to a Brahms Violin Concerto to paying attention to people:

"This is surely the clue to the kind of attention I owe to people. I must empty my mind of other claims and, in interior silence, let them tell me who they are. I must remain in watchful, active quiet as the basic architecture of a personality presents itself to my mind. I must learn to hear a slight variation on a theme, a modulation to another key, an inner melody, a discord, an individual beauty of tone.

If love isn't this, it can't be much.

But the minute the note of another human being begins to sound, my self leaps up in claimant alarm and yells: "What about me? I'm here too!" In the ensuing din, I can't hear a thing."

This whole passage rings true to my soul... that I need to be still and really listen to others and hear beyond what their words are saying... that this is what love is - learning to hear another's music, and then appreciate, their inner melody and individual beauty of tone. But, oh how I do clamor and clang! How my Self always want to assert itself and be heard instead of listening.

For more interpretations on the word "KEY", click over to Sally's place! Oh, aren't you glad it's Friday?!

(Girl above sketched in pencil in my moleskine watercolor sketchbook, clear gesso'd, then watercolored. I like her hair and her loooong nose!)

CONTINUE READING...

Girls and Such

Talked to my artsy friend CD and she said I must put clear gesso over my pencil sketches before I watercolor so I won't end up with a gray mush. So, this gal was drawn in pencil, gesso'd, and then water colored.

And this girl is just in pencil at the moment. She may stay this way.

CD also sent a link to sign up for an online art journaling workshop (appears to be free) from Strathmore beginning January 1, 2011. Seems ages and ages away at the moment but I know it will be here before the blink of an eye. And she sent me the link to sign up for Pam Carriker's newsletter.

I'm itching to put something on a canvas again.

No other news this morning except taking the poor puppy with the hurt eye to the vet today. Hopefully there will be nothing but GOOD news.

Have a wondrous Wednesday!

CONTINUE READING...

Seven on Sunday... on Monday!

I started this post on Sunday, so I suppose it can still count as my "Seven on Sunday!" Hope you had a wonderfully happy, restful, peaceful Sabbath Day!

1. What was the most exciting thing that happened to you last week? Me? Well, it would have to be that my son's (big) dog jumped on my (little) dog and... popped her eye out! Really, not kidding. Surgery, an overnight stay, and $476.40 later, she's doing just fine... wearing a cone and eye stitched closed... we'll find out Wednesday if she'll be able to see, if her eye will even be able to move or if it will be pointed off in the wrong direction forever. Poor girlie. Life is rarely boring!

2. I flipped through my journal this week and came across this quote I had written down a couple of years ago... It's one of my all-time favorites:

Recalling and confessing our sin is like taking out the garbage: once is not enough. ~ Breviary of Sin

So very, very true.

3. I went shopping with The Girl, her mom, the flower-girl and her mom, E, and Mary on Saturday for wedding "stuff." I bought a dress for the wedding! It's blue. And shimmery. And long. Can't remember the last time I've worn a full-length dress. Mmmmm....maybe prom?

4. I think Mary and I are going to participate in The Butterfly Project. I went to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. with a friend of mine a couple of years ago. We were in the last group allowed in for the day so were a bit rushed. It was surreal. Frightening. Shocking. Unbelievable. Yet, also so very much believable. A full-force assault of the Sinfulness of Mankind on display. But, somehow, God was there amidst the suffering and horror... there was hope and love and beauty. Here's the poem that inspired the project, The Butterfly, written by Pavel Friedman who eventually died in Auschwitz in 1942:

The last, the very last, So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow. Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing against a white stone....

Such, such a yellow Is carried lightly ’way up high. It went away I’m sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here, Penned up inside this ghetto. But I have found what I love here. The dandelions call to me And the white chestnut branches in the court. Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

5. Debating on whether to start Artists of the Round Table new workshop on the book Totally Tangled. Not a lot of spare time right now... I did learn oh-so-much from the last workshop, though - Drawing Lab by Carla Sonheim. I'm already signed up to do her Silliness2 workshop with Mary starting September 15th. Not enough silly play-time! :-)

6. I got a new moleskine watercolor sketchbook I'm pretty excited about. The most exciting thing about it is the cashier at Borders gave me an extra 40% coupon after I'd already used mine on something else so I got it for a little over 10 bucks. :-) I drew this girl yesterday then journaled all around her.

7. What does your Labor Day hold? Mine? Well, labor of course! Planning to work in the yard this morning then laundry alternating with working on the Bible study I'm slated to start leading in October on Ephesians. Hopefully I'll wrap up the day with work on our church website, catch up on some emails, piddle a little with the sidebar on this blog and do a bit writing just for fun! Oh, and maybe some art journaling time with Mary. And some sketchbook time for me! Yet again, there's much-too-much to fill the day!

Have a wonderful holiday, Bloggy friends!

CONTINUE READING...

weekWORD: Wrinkle Part 2

After a long, but successful, day of shopping... something that is not always my favorite thing to do.... I actually had a good time today.... It was nice to come home to sit out on my porch and sketch/paint out an idea I had floating around in my mind...

A young me:

And an old me:

Then all put together. This is who I am.... I'll never lose the young me I once was and I'll always be growing into the old me I am to become. And I actually find the old me much more interesting!

For more takes on the weekWORD "Wrinkles" go to June Bug's. What a great word for the week!

CONTINUE READING...

weekWORD: Wrinkle (Part 1)

It's been a couple of weeks since I've participated in weekWORD. This week's word is "Wrinkle" which is a great, great word. It was chosen by June Bug and you can go over to her place for links to others who have played along.

Last night me and Mary and a couple of friends had an art-journaling session, so I used the theme of "wrinkles" to make a quick page. :-) We had a good time cutting and pasting and gluing and painting!

So much more running around in my mind with the word, though. Maybe I'll have time to do something else this weekend with it!

CONTINUE READING...