Upsidedown Bee

7 Things

2012-01-29T21:04:00.001-05:00

A stomach bug has been making the rounds here plus I've had a lovely day-and-a-half tucked away at a lake house relaxing with a couple of friends so my computer has been sorely neglected. But here's a little catching up as I sit in bed, type and sip on a lovely glass of red wine:

1. Here's a few photos from Matt's hunting trip.... He was gone 6 days and killed about as many ducks! I think he had a good time, don't you? He's the one laughing in the photo below. My cutie-pie! :-)

Matt laughing!

Ducks and the sunrise at Hatteras

2. I'm trying to get ready to walk another 1/2 Marathon.... this one is in the Outerbanks in April. It should be loads of fun. My goal is to walk two 1/2 this year with both being at or under the 3 hour mark. I believe we did the Philadelphia 1/2 in 3 hours and 20 minutes. I've been following a plan for the past two weeks. I didn't make my mile goal on either week.... boo on me! Not gonna give up, though.... The hardest thing is the time it takes.

My walking progress

3. Pretty excited to be going with The Girl to this conference next weekend!

4. I am reading this and really loving it.

5. My friend Lynn redid her blog banner and is blogging away over there! So glad she is back to writing again. Go check her out for some insightful and encouraging words!

6. A meaningful quote for me this weekend from The Brothers Karamazov:

At some thoughts onestands perplexed, especially at the sight of men’s sin, and wonders whether oneshould use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love. If youresolve on that once for all you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility ismarvelously strong - the strongest of all things and there is nothing else likeit.

"Always decide to use humble love" - yes and yes again.

7. Here's a little sneak peek of a piece I started this week. I'm pretty happy with it so far and hope to be finished with it this weekend. I think this will land in my dining room....

Sneak Peek

Blessings, bloggy friends!

Book Review: Really!

2012-01-24T21:49:00.000-05:00

I've been having a little bit of a problem the last oh..... three or four months or so.... I haven't been able to read! I mean I can "read", I just can't seem to finish a book. The last one I remember finishing was in September when I was home recovering from surgery. It was Elegy for Iris, the story of author Iris Murdoch's life as told by her husband. Very good, if a little depressing. I followed up by watching the movie. Very, very good. (Kate Winslet was great!)

Anywhoo.... I don't know what happened after that. I just lost interest or focus or something. Couldn't seem to finish anything. So, yesterday I finally finished a book I've been working on since October, Peace Like a River. It's been on my TBR list for a while and our book club chose it for our November read.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, Atlantic Monthly Press; Later Printing edition (August 20, 2002), ISBN-10: 0802139256

Source: Heard of it for a long time, on my TBR list, chosen by book club

Rating: Definitely 5 out of 5 STARS

So, my taking so long to finish Peace Like a River is absolutely NO reflection on how wonderful this book is! There are a ton of reviews on it (here is a good one) so I won't really add much to all the words floating around out there in Bloglandria except to say "read it!" Great story told with wonderful words. Period.

I dog-eared so many pages! (Yes, horrors! I do indeed dog-ear pages of *my* books that have especially beautiful writing or interesting tidbits of information. Here are just a few examples of Mr. Enger's ability to produce "good words":

"...it had Judge Raster, who I'd pictured as some predatory deep-sea critter, sitting behind his high desk. In the flesh the judge had the kind of wavy white hair I associated with benevolence, the hair of soft-touch aunts who keep mints in candy dishes within your reach; though his eyes, behind half glasses, evoked no such hopeful impressions. Surprisingly, my first sense of Judge Raster was of a man who clung to small vanities. He had a preening look. You do't like to think it of a judge." page 83 (Just a great character description.)

"Once in my life I knew a grief so hard I could actually hear it inside, scraping at the lining of my stomach, an audible ache, dredging with hooks as rivers are dredged when someone's been missing too long." page 54 (Do you know that kind of grief? The description brought tears to my eyes.)

"Davy didn't reply. It was deepest night. I remember his shape in the stuffed chair next the window: clean map of chin and cheekbone, cup of coffee under drifting steam. He was watching the meadow and after some silence rose and stood close to the glass. A herd of deer had come out from a black tangle of trees. They were crossing the meadow, so shapeless at this distance seeing them was an act of faith." page 298 (Lovely!)

That's just a few random pages I flipped to.... there's so much to admire in Enger's writing! Truly a man who can write a story with an obvious Christian worldview to a wider audience. Excellent!

Since I finished this one (hooray!) I thought I'd pick up another novel to read and bought When She Woke for my Kindle based on a recommendation from a friend. Ai Yi Yi! I am *sorely* disappointed. It's so bad, I've put it down for good without finishing. I usually try not to be too harsh about books I don't like, but this one really was shocking to me. Great premise but very poorly executed with an obvious political agenda. Contrived characters, forced dialogue, stilted writing.... you get the idea. From some reviews I've read I gather Ms. Jordan's first novel, Mudbound, was much, much better.

So, now I think I'm off to bed to start Leaving Van Gogh.... a recommendation from a (different) friend that I hope gives better results.

Shower Invite

2012-01-22T22:01:00.002-05:00

Shower Invitation!

I've been working on a shower invitation for a friend. (She's a hairdresser, hubby is a chef, and there's big sister Trinity.) I'm hosting it next month and need to (*GULP*) get the invitations out tomorrow. Tuesday at the latest! Well, I have the front designed and now I'm off to see how they print out.

Hope you all have had a lovely Sabbath day!

And, oh! I*Walked*Six*Miles*Today!! Hooray for me!

Ducks, Crocheting & Poetry

2012-01-21T22:12:00.000-05:00

So, yesterday hubby headed off into the wilds of Hatteras to duck hunt. He's roughing it in a little shack by the sea.

Hatteras

This a bit different conditions than Louisiana swamp-duck hunting.....

Brrr.....Bald, bald bunny, ain't got no fur!

Here he is bundled up against the 40 mph wind today.

Mare with her duck.

And here's his weekend hunting companion Mare with a mouthful of duck. :-)

Girls Night In

Meantime, back at the ranch I had a "girls-night-in" with old friend S and two new friends O & L. They are delightful! O&L wanted to start some crochet projects so we're all working on this. It's been so fun to get to know them and to see how God is working in their lives. They remind me God is indeed faithful.

January 2012 NC Poetry Society Meeting

Then today was the January NC Poetry Society meeting. It's always a wonderful, wonderful time. So inspiring, entertaining, and encouraging. S & I have been attending for a while and O decided to join us, too. The guest poet was Lola Haskins. Amazing! You can read some of her poems online here. I limited myself to just one book today and bought this book by her. She also did a workshop after lunch about editing your poetry. I learned a lot.

Pencil Salt & Pepper Mills!

Finally, I came across these lovely goodies at CMYBacon from Frank Kerdil. Combining writing and food... Hmmmm..... What could possibly be better?!

Drat!

2012-01-19T20:49:00.001-05:00

Missed posting yesterday to keep the string going. Gah.....!

Ah, well.

CHeddar CHeese CHanuary!

We had our monthly neighborhood dinner last night: cheese soup, two salads, endive "tacos" appetizer, cheese & bacon bread, and apple dumplings with ice cream. Yum!! I love these people.... We've been at it for well over a year now....We meet once a month and rotate houses. We're up to six families. Each month we pick a theme, the host determines the menu, and we all bring a dish. This month was "CHedder CHeese CHanuary." Next month is My Big Fat Greek Valentines Day. Ha! We do costumes, too, as the mood strikes us. Togas are optional for February. :-) Look for photos!

The Plant

This morning at work I climbed up (okay, it was more like walked up a ramp) to a high point and couldn't resist snapping a picture of the plant. The sky was so blue and I think all the shapes and lines are actually pretty. And I promise the smoke coming out of the stack is all good.... no bad stuff going into the air from our little plant! It's a good place.

And here are a few funny doodle people I made during a telephone conversation at work today. My desk is usually full of doodles here and there!

Oh, and I am GLAD tomorrow is Friday! Blessings to you out there~

Tuesday Treasures

2012-01-17T21:27:00.000-05:00

Plant labels via Shine Your Light

Herb Tower via Cottage & Vine

Egads!

2012-01-17T11:43:00.003-05:00

My new easel!

Where did the day go? I looked up and it was Tuesday!! A great day off, though. I slept in (because I stayed up too late watching LOST...sigh....addiction is a hard place to be!) and then worked in the art room for a bit cleaning up, organizing, and yep! putting together my new easel. A friend gave me a giftcard to Amazon and I put a little more moola with it and *tada* I have a brand new easel!! I'm super excited about it but a little intimidated to know what to paint first. Needing a little inspiration here!!

The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping, cooking, sipping coffee with a sweet friend, and getting ready for our first Life Group meeting of the year. (Getting ready for Life Group = scooping up dust bunnies from the corners and doing a fast dust-job in the living room!) All is good and life is lovely.

Forgot to post this yesterday, so count this as my post for Monday. Back soon with something for today.

(Yes indeed, one of my new year resolutions is to post daily.... at least for the first month or so..... to get back into the bloggin groove. This blog has been too important to me over the years to let it go and it seems that was what was happening last year. It's such a blessing to go back and see what the Lord has been doing in mine and my family's lives through this little on-line home I've created.)

So have a lovely Monday-dressed-up-as-Tuesday, bloggy friends!

PS. Note the thingy on the corner of the white table. More to come on that..... once I've figured out how to use it, that is! :-)

Q&A

2012-01-15T23:09:00.002-05:00

I came across this great free font via eighteen25 from dafont.com called Sybil Green. Couldn't resist finding a Dr. Seuss quote and palette to try it out with.

Hope you have had a wonderfully blessed Sabbath day!

Nice

2012-01-14T22:42:00.001-05:00

Snagged from Swallowfield.

Play

2012-01-14T00:29:00.003-05:00

Moi!

A friend's 40th birthday party marked the end to a long, long week. I'm so glad it's the beginning of a 3-day weekend I could jump for joy! No, wait. I'm too tired to jump. How about cry?

Yes, that's better. I'm so glad it's the beginning of a 3-day weekend, I could cry.

I'm looking forward to being home, enjoying family, relaxing, reading, "arting", and getting my house back into order. Amazing how quickly things can get out of shape around here. I cannot fathom how I used to do a better job of housekeeping with three small children in the house!!

I took a photo of myself before leaving for the party tonight and then played around with it in Photoshop Elements after getting home. I love the look I got with two or three different filters. The problem is - I never record what filters and settings I use to get results I like.... so it's hit or miss every time! Bleh.

Well goodnight, bloggy friends. Hope you are looking down the barrel at a very lovely and extra-long weekend, too!

Seen This?

2012-01-12T23:30:00.000-05:00

Came across this today..... Scribbler. Fun little thing to play with and gives me some inspiration, perhaps.

Happy B-Day to E!

2012-01-11T21:05:00.000-05:00

She's 19 today! Wow!

And making a go of it at a new school in her spiffy apartment with her furry little roommate, Annie.

This is the painting I worked on to surprise her with right after Christmas. It's of her favorite verse and was an early birthday present. She really likes it but it's still growing on me. I think I just looked at it too long.

And Her Boy came through with probably the most beautiful flower arrangement I've ever seen. And cupcakes. One for mom, too! :o)

Ah, well....

2012-01-10T20:53:00.001-05:00

The Boy last night....

....they had a good time anyway! :-)

Two Words

2012-01-09T19:10:00.001-05:00

Only two words for today - Geaux Tigers!! :-)

A Lot of Purple in the French Quarters Today!!

My Day

2012-01-08T22:33:00.004-05:00

Hello, bloggy friends! Fun day, today! Spent most of it in Raleigh with my girls getting the oldest one's apartment as homey as possible before classes start for her tomorrow. It's a cozy little place, I think. Safe (most importantly) and happy. Below is Mary while we were shopping in Pier 1 for something to sit in the middle of E's dining room table. Don't worry, we didn't buy the fork, but Mary HAD to have her picture taken with it!

Mary with Giant Fork

Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Annie waited patiently for our return...... It's a dog's life!!

A Dog's Life

Making it home just in time to drop Mary at Youth Group and off to the grocery store to buy food for tomorrow's training session at work, I hadn't even thought about what Mary and I would eat for dinner. Lucky Charms seemed like the best bet. But Tada!! The doorbell rang and there stood a neighbor's child with their Christmas Card and a plate of warm homemade tamales. Now, if that's not manna from heaven I don't know what is!! As an aside.... this particular neighbor has 8 (yes, not a typo, 8) children from 13 to 6 months and home schools them all. A sweet, precious military family that has filled our little cul-de-sac with hockey games and bicycle races again. Love them!

Tamales from a Neighbor

Finally, instead of preparing for the training day at work tomorrow, I watched Margin Call and played around with one of the "road crack" photos I took during my walk yesterday. This is inspired by Carla Sonheim's "sidewalk cracks".

Road Cracks

And here's my digital little critter that popped out at me from the cracks. (Smile) I think I'll try to find some time to taking a slant on this little fella with watercolors, maybe.

Road Crack Digital Art

And, oh - I did indeed like Margin Call. I'm pretty sure I got it. Not being a business/money-minded person, I'm sure I missed a lot of the back-story. Great acting, good story.

That's it for today. Off to bed and up at a disgracefully early hour in the morning. Blessings on your Sabbath Day, all!

Mama-Friends

2012-01-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

I grabbed this shot of Mary and her buddy E tonight before we gobbled down some pizza E's mom and dad had brought up to our house for dinner. Such joy. These two are like sisters.... all the good and the bad! :-) They have their share of fights and disagreements.... snubbing and hurt feelings.... but mostly it's good. They compliment each other well and since both of them are "onlies" (E has no siblings, Mary's are much older), it is a blessing for them to have each other, for our families to be living life together, for us to live just a few doors down from each other.

The Joy of Friendship - Mary & E January 2012

And they reminded me of another pair - my own "E" and her best buddy "K". They grew up living across the street from each other, spent many nights talking together under the stars in our cul-de-sac.... went to school and church together.... cried together, laughed together.... and yes - fought together. (Seems to be a recurrent theme in girls' friendships, no?!) At one point, probably around 12 I think, K's mom and I called an official "break" on the friendship because they were arguing so much. Now (at 18 and 20) if we mention this time to them, neither has any recollection of it! They say, "We don't remember ever fighting!!" Ha!! It was WWIII!! K's mom and I often said K should have been mine and my E hers.... their interests and personalities seem to fit with the opposite mother! This shot below is from The Boy's wedding in 2009 when E laid eyes on her buddy and scooped her up into a big hug. You can't fake those smiles that come from the joy of seeing a much-missed girlfriend!

E and K - Wedding November, 2009

So, thinking of these two friendships led me to dig out this photo of me and the mothers of these girls. This was from a trip to Georgia in 2008 (I think?) when the three of us led a women's retreat on the topic of..... yep, friendship! We saw the sign for this church and couldn't help but stop the car and get a shot of us together. Cute, aren't we?

The Three Mamas - Somewhere in Georgia, 2008?

I was thinking this morning about how I've heard so many mothers say they just don't have time for relationships because they are so busy with their children. I totally understand that.... I've been there. But by the grace of God, He allowed me to develop some pretty awesome relationships in spite of myself with women through the years. And some of those have directly lead to strong friendships between their children and mine.

I know the friendships that Mary and E have and Ellen and K have will last through their lifetime. These are women that will share all the joy and sadness of life with my daughters. They will be with them when they walk down the aisle to be married. They will be there with the first baby's birth. And they will be there when they bury their parents. This is a great comfort to me. I love these girls. I love their mamas. I am blessed with blessing upon blessing.

So, my encouragement to you - bloggy mama-friend out there - is to make time for your own friendships with other women this year. It may be more important to your children than you know. And to my two dear mama-friends in the photo above - I love you! But, you already knew that, didn't you?

Friday Find

2012-01-06T23:12:00.001-05:00

Ah - the weekend! After work and a short walk and before heading to Mar's school for Writing Club, I swung by our local used book store and picked these up for $7.50:

Two crochet pattern books for M, one on slippers and one on pillows

Dubliners by James Joyce (Short Story Collection)

The Radiation Sonnets by Jane Yolen (Poetry)

Waiting for the Trout to Speak by Irene Blair Honeycutt (Poetry)

To My Husband and Other Poems by Anne Bradstreet (Poetry)

A Spiritual Formation Workbook by Smith & Graybeal

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

:-)

And I've been meaning to post our 2011 Christmas card. This one was a lot of fun to make! :-)

Happy weekend!!

Words, Movies, and TV Shows

2012-01-05T20:33:00.001-05:00

Here's a cool site for us word-lovers out there: Word Spy - The Word Lovers Guide to New Words. I like this one posted in November:

And here's a few movies I want to add to my must-see list:

1. The Tree of Life
2. Margin Call
3. Melancholia
4. The Descendents

Here's my list from last year. You can see I didn't do too well!
Slumdog Millionaire
Letters from Iwo Jima
~~Mystic River~~ (Saw! Excellent.)
The Pianist
Unforgiven
Amadeus
Inception (Saw! Excellent.)
Once
Pan's Labyrinth
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

And now I have a confession to make - I've gotten hooked on Lost. Gulp.

I've watched 2 1/2 seasons in the last month. I promise I'm usually doing something else while I'm watching so it's not totally unproductive. It's super-good and super-addictive! Beware!

I had heard (read, maybe?) that books were an important part of the series. Here's a link to a book list for Lost. I would love to read this whole list!

OK - off to watch an episode and maybe crochet! :-)

Wednesday Words

2012-01-04T19:17:00.001-05:00

Late last year I saw a "Keep Calm and Fly On" poster on Etsy or Pinterest and thought, "I should make that for The Boy for Christmas. So, I actually followed through! Yeah for me!!

And then I made this one for a friend who likes chickens and has turquois in her kitchen and needed a pick-me-up!

And THEN, because these are very easy to create and VERY addictive, I made this one for gifts for other friends. I just love the man riding the snail!

Here is where I found the "Keep Calm" font for free. You even get the standard crown image at shift-6! Everything else was done in Photoshop Elements. You can read about the original poster here.

Keep Calm, Bloggy Friends!

Treasure Tuesday

2012-01-03T21:46:00.000-05:00

What a great idea! Turning vintage cameras into nightlights! I found this at cmybacon.com (you should take a look!). The artist's name is Jason Hull and you can see more of him at his Flickr account. This baby is at his etsy shop for $65.

I.Want.This! :-)

Wonder if Matt could make this? I have an old Brownie...

A Day in the Life....

2012-01-02T21:35:00.000-05:00

I usually have all my New Year goals set down on paper by now but, alas, I'm still working on them!

However - a friend told me about the Photo 365 app today and how she was going to incorporate it into her Gratitude Journal. So I am shamelessly stealing her idea and using it as one of my 2012 goals - "Keep a daily photo gratitude journal."

Here are the two photos I uploaded for yesterday and today:

Thankful for the time, space, and resources to "do" art. More to come on this project...

Thankful for a talented daughter who can make this sweet little hat just from watching a YouTube video!

(That's me, by the way, with the wrinkly eyes (!) in the hat. I'm asking for a red one!) I'm pretty excited about this goal. Mary is going to do it, too. I think this is pretty doable and will be great fun to look back over each day.

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-01T20:39:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, Bloggy Friends! This is my most, most favorite holiday of all! Life is full of POTENTIAL and HOPE! His mercies are new every morning, true, but I tend to see them more on New Years Day than any other. As a favorite pastor of mine says, "God is a God of do-overs." May this year be a wonderful year of grace and mercy and do-overs for us all!

This photo is of the kids on Christmas evening. Everyone was pretty tired but willing to put on one more happy face for the camera. (The Boy is standing on his toes to make himself look taller than his Girl and his sisters. Cute, isn't he? But, aren't they all?) Left to right - The Boy, The Girl, Mar, and E.

Church was wonderful this morning. Here's a great quote used during the sermon from William Barclay:

"Those who feed their hearts on the record of what God has done in the past will never worry about the future. Worry refuses to learn the lesson of life. We are still alive and our heads are still above water; and yet if someone had told us that we would have to go through what we have actually gone through, we would have said that it was impossible. The lesson of life is that somehow we have been enabled to bear the unbearable and to do the undoable and to pass the breaking point and not to break. The lesson of life is that worry is unnecessary."

Here's a New Year toast to feeding our hearts on what God has done in our past and to looking forward to what He will do for us in 2012!

Blessings~

Doodle Dog

2011-12-27T21:11:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm alive.... Tired, but still here! Here's a "doodle" I did for E for Christmas. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Best yet is her telling me she thinks it was her favorite Christmas present! :-)

Morning Beach Walk

2011-11-21T11:36:00.001-05:00

This is our last morning at the beach so I set my alarm clock for 6am so I could watch the sunrise. Although it was a bit overcast, I was not disappointed. God always puts on a good morning show at the beach! I also took about a 45 minute walk with my camera. It is amazing how warm it is… I was able to walk barefoot in the surf! :-) I found some really cool images that brought favorite verses to mind:

Acts 17:27 - God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

1 Peter 5:10 - And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

Psalm 8:1 - LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.

Matthew 11:28 - "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Ephesians 4:29-32 - Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

1 Kings 19:11-13 - The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

OK, now we’re off to drive home! Blessings!

Oh - and don't forget to check out all the creative loveliness at AEDM today!

From the Balcony

2011-11-20T22:18:00.001-05:00

The weather has been wonderful here at the beach this weekend. Especially for November! It’s been plenty warm enough to be on the beach or to sit on the balcony and enjoy the waves.

This morning there were at least six surfers in the water waiting patiently to catch a wave or two. I immediately thought of the patience it takes to float, balanced but ready, waiting for the glimmer of a wave that promises to grow into one worthy of a ride. I grabbed my camera and zoomed in as much as I could and got a few good shots.

Quotes for your Sabbath Day:

”The mark of authentic spiritual experience is that you become satisfied with God for Who He is an not just for the benefits He gives you.”
~ J. Edwards

“Your religion is what you do with your solitude.” ~Archbishop W. Temple

Blessings ~

From the Beach…

2011-11-19T20:13:00.001-05:00

Hello, hello!! Mary and I are at Wrightsville Beach for a mom-daughter weekend away at our company’s condo. Ah…. the beach!! Here are a couple of photos I took this afternoon on a short beach walk.

Loved this little fella just staring out at the waves all alone.

While walking I couldn’t resist picking up some of my favorite finds on the beach – conch shell centers.

Blessings!

Flower Pillow Finished!

2011-11-17T22:18:00.001-05:00

I finished sewing the crocheted pillow strand on the fabric today as I sat with E during a scan at the hospital. Then this evening I managed to finish it up all together….. by hand (!) since my sewing machine is loaned out for a very good cause right now. The verdict is out on whether I like it or not. I definitely will make one again…. but probably with more space between the rows of petals.

Flower Pillow W-I-P

2011-11-16T23:01:00.001-05:00

I started on this crochet project quite some time ago. Somehow I think I’ve turned it into something much harder than the gals who posted the tutorial meant it to be.

First, I think my crocheted petal strand is much too long therefore making the pillow much bigger than anticipated. Which in turn is making the part I’m on now – hand stitching the petals to the fabric – more difficult, too. Bleh.

Today I chose fabric, penned the petals down, and began stitching.

I’m about half-way finished with the stitching. My neck and head hurt!!

Goal tomorrow: finish stitching down crocheted petals between

packing for mine and Mary’s trip to the beach this weekend,
going with E to the hospital for one more test to rule out gallbladder issues,
making cornbread dressing to serve 35 (!) people for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at work on Friday,
going to a mentoring kick-off meeting with our church’s women’s ministry (I’m really excited about this!), and
making snicker doodle cookies with Mary for a school project (with this recipe or this one?)

Oh, yeah – there’s that little thing called W-O-R-K!!

I’ve been doing better with my schedule, lately, I promise! I don’t know how I let all this glob up on me tomorrow!! Yikes! This is how I get in trouble…

Night, bloggy friends!!

Oh – don’t forget to check out AEDM for some creative loveliness!

A Weekend Away!

2011-11-15T20:25:00.001-05:00

So, as promised, here’s some sharing about mine and Matt’s great weekend get-a-way combined with his marathon. We had a wonderful time!!

First, here’s something I started working on while we were away and then finished with watercolors last night. I love the verse, “Be still and know that I am God.” Words I need to remember. Words I need to have tattooed on my forehead, actually. How often I forget and think I’m in charge! The lettering continues from letterLab and I’m posting this on AEDM. Take a look at all the happy things going on over there!

And here’s my guy just after running 26.2 miles. Amazing, isn’t it? He did quite well in the marathon he’s been training for since June. Not as fast as he was hoping, but good just the same. I think this is his 4th or 5th. Tack on a couple of 1/2 Ironmen and it’s not too bad for a late (ahem!) 40-something father of three. (By the way…. from this photo, can you see why I call him George as in “Curious George”!? Not everyone gets to be married to their favorite childhood literary character!! Love this guy!!)

This is the lovely inn George booked us in for the weekend. Probably one of the nicer places we’ve stayed. I’ve only been to the Outer Banks once and that was with a work group so I didn’t get to explore much. I absolutely fell in love with it this weekend. I think I must have sea-faring blood in my veins somewhere. I feel so good when I’m by the ocean!

This was the view from our living room. It’s downtown Manteo (pronounced man-e-o). It’s where the finish line for the marathon was at. Our inn was actually on the last mile of the race so I was able to just walk to the finish line to meet him. To the right is Nags Head.

This is where I found my guy after he left me browsing in a bookstore in Duck.

Here’s a closer look…. cute, isn’t he? :-)

Speaking of bookstores, this is the bookstore we visited. Pretty quaint.

Here’s an inside shot, too.

And after the bookstore visit, we went for a drive on the beach…..

And we spent a couple of hours in the outlet mall buying George some very much needed new clothes, especially since he starts a long-anticipated new job next week! Hooray for George!

Ok, more to come creatively..... I started reading a great book on writing.... and I finished the crochet portion of a pillow project I've been working on for some time now.... So more on those things later this week! Blessings, bloggy friends!

Words Popping!

2011-11-11T10:09:00.001-05:00

I’m continuing to work through the LetterLAB workshop. I’m learning how to add shadows. And now I’m packing up a little bag of pens and pencils to take with me on the road this weekend! Hooray!

Check out AEDM today!

Retro Night!

2011-11-10T20:58:00.001-05:00

Tonight was our neighborhood dinner and the theme was “retro" night. We have six families who eat together every month and somehow it’s morphed into a different theme for every month….. sometimes even with costumes! (Tonight one couple came as Mike and Carol Brady. Hilarious!)

Everyone brought food they ate as kids. We had hamburger biscuit casserole, Salisbury steak and gravy, peanut butter filled celery sticks, creamed corn, and cornbread.

I brought BBQ green bean bacon rolls and pear-mayo-cheddar cheese salad! :-) (They are better than they look, promise!)

So this is my creativity for today – cooking with lots of color, photographing, and “retro-ing” it up with Photoshop.

I also met with a new friend plus an old friend to begin a writing group. We discussed how we thought the writing group might work and did a short writing prompt together: “Write about two rivers that join together.” I like the direction mine took and may rework it this weekend.

And – oh! This weekend!! Big plans and I’ll be sure to share!

Finally, one of the three most creative things I’ve ever done and her name is Mary. Precious, isn’t she? Taller than me at 12 – hard to believe! Smart, funny, makes me laugh all the time. I love her!

PS. Don't forget to take a look at today's postings for AEDM! I've found some lovely places to land over there.

AED: LetterLab #1

2011-11-09T22:49:00.000-05:00

So, I did it! I signed up for LetterLAB with Lori Vliegen at Elvie Studio. I started working through the videos today and am practicing my cursive writing then learning how to turn it into “magic”! Here’s a practice sheet I worked on tonight. Now it’s time to go do some real dreaming.

G’night, Bloggy Friends and thanks for the kind comments on The Boy and The Girl’s anniversary present.

Oh! And don't forget to see what other creativeness has been going on today at AEDM!

Finished, Framed…. & Given!

2011-11-08T21:18:00.000-05:00

Well, thanks to the encouragement of doing Art Every Day Month, I’ve finished all six storyboard frames for The Boy and The Girl’s anniversary, framed them up, and given them away. They came home this afternoon from their anniversary trip so I left it propped up on their kitchen counter for a surprise. I think they liked it.

It’s pretty big though. Once I saw it framed I thought, “Wow, what a terribly big thing to get from your mother-in-law if you don’t like it.”

It could be like those dolls with the skirts made from folded Reader’s Digests. Horrors!

I made sure to tell her they didn’t have to hang it up. :->

Well, now I need to find something else to work on….
Take a few minutes to stop by CED and see all the creativity going on!

AED: Frame #6

2011-11-07T22:53:00.001-05:00

Whew!! The last one – Frame #6!! Now the poem is complete and all the frames are done! Tomorrow I’ll add just a few touches and frame. The Boy and The Girl will be home tomorrow evening some time and I’d like to have this waiting for them in their house as a surprise! I’m pooped!!

Click over to Art Every Day Month and see all the creativity going on!

AED: Frame #5

2011-11-06T22:36:00.000-05:00

The fifth (and next to last) frame of the storyboard for The Boy and The Girl. I think I’m pleased with how they are turning out.

Happy Sabbath day, bloggy friends! I hope yours has been full of peace and rest.

AED Frame #4

2011-11-05T23:09:00.001-04:00

Here’s the fourth frame for The Boy and The Girl’s story board…. “They found a dog…” That would be their doggie, Dingo. Sweet boy!

Two more to go!

AED Frame #3

2011-11-04T23:23:00.000-04:00

Here’s frame #3 for the storyboard I’m working on for The Boy and The Girl’s anniversary gift. One of the first things they did after meeting was go to see 4th of July fireworks together. :-)

Happy Arting!

AED: Frame #2

2011-11-04T00:16:00.000-04:00

Just finished Frame #2 for The Girl and The Boy’s 1st anniversary story board…. “And there was a boy.”
Hop over to Art Every Day Month Day 3 to see what others are doing!

AED: Frame #1

2011-11-02T23:45:00.000-04:00

I’m going to try to do Art Every Day again this November. It was a good exercise last year, although I didn’t come close to posting something every day. And *sigh* I’m already starting off a day behind. But such is the way of my life and I’m going to keep plugging along!

The Boy and The Girl’s marriage turns 1 year old on November 6th. We had coffee with them tonight to see them off on an anniversary trip that starts tomorrow. I’m so excited for them! I’ve got several little projects in mind for them that I hope to have done by the time they come back next Tuesday. Well…. one of them is a “larger” project and involves a 6 frame story board telling their story. Here’s a shot of frame #1….. “There was a girl….”

Hopefully frame #2 will come tomorrow!!

Good night, Bloggy Friends!

Red Pepper Flakes & Soul-Soreness

2011-10-29T23:16:00.000-04:00

Fall has finally stopped peeking its nose around the corner and made a full entrance into our little patch of earth in North Carolina. Actually, this morning felt more like winter than fall - the sky, a cold sheet of flat gray metal, made it seem like morning had dressed up as late afternoon, an early Halloween costume to trick us.

The leaves are tricksters, too, having all at once changed colors it seems – a beautiful contrast against the faithful green belonging to the multitude of pine trees our towns here are named after (Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Pinebluff, Whispering Pines, etc.) There are mostly shades of deep gold and brilliant yellow, but there’s orange, too. I’ve noticed the dogwoods tend to turn a lime green before morphing to yellow. And here and there is a spot of blazing red, like some great Soup-Maker is meticulously sprinkling red pepper flakes into His boiling pot of stew, being careful not to overdo it.

It really is a lovely time of year. I am thankful to be living it here.

And speaking of overdoing, this week has rubbed a little raw and left my soul sore. Take regular monthly hormones and tack on a pretty sick girl. Then throw in normal wife + mom + employee stress and a dash (albeit small) of ministry work. Ta-da! Perfect breeding ground for raw edges and soul soreness.

Since I’ve been (slowly!) reading one thousand gifts by Ann Voskamp, I’ve started visiting her blog. Wednesday morning, after a particularly hard evening the day before (due to no one’s but my own making), her words on being a Velveteen Mother truly spoke to me. She reminded me of this passage from The Velveteen Rabbit:

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

It’s the part I’ve bolded that has wound its way around my heart this week… to be real happens to people who don’t break easily, don’t have sharp edges, and don’t have to be carefully kept. Count them off on your fingers… one, two, three…

Sigh.

Sometimes I am pretty fragile. Often my sharp edges bump into others and I give them nasty purple bruises. And many days, I feel if I am to make it through, I have to be pretty carefully kept, I need to be coddled. So I protect myself.

I suppose the soul-soreness I’m carrying tonight might just be evidence of those sharp edges being worn away a bit? I hope so. And maybe the Lord is toughening me in some small way so that I can be less fragile and more sturdy? Maybe my shield of self-protection is slipping down a tiny inch or two? I pray so.

I’ll close with a verse I plan to tuck deep inside me for a good long while:

Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. ~Psalm 100:3

This sheep is going to bed. ‘Night and blessings to you, bloggy friends~

Hurry Up and….

2011-10-24T22:35:00.001-04:00

I’ve been thinking a bit about hurrying the last few days. Things have seemed so busy, the days so full. And I am far from alone… seems like everyone I talk to feels as if they are rushing from one thing to the next.

I came across a blog entry that referenced a Time Magazine article from 1989 titled “How America Has Run Out of Time”. Here’s a snippet:

“So how did America become so timeless? Those who can remember washing diapers or dialing phones may recall the silvery vision of a postindustrial age. Computers, satellites, robotics and other wizardries promised to make the American worker so much more efficient that income and GNP would rise while the workweek shrank. In 1967 testimony before a Senate subcommittee indicated that by 1985 people could be working just 22 hours a week or 27 weeks a year or could retire at 38. That would leave only the great challenge of finding a way to enjoy all that leisure.”

Wow…. 22 hour work-week, 27 weeks a year, and retiring at 38… How far off could they possibly have been? (Makes you wonder what ideas we have about the future that are going to be totally wrong, too!) What happened??

Here are some quotes for you to ponder along with me tonight about time and hurriedness:

“All my possessions for a moment of time.” -- Queen Elizabeth I, with her dying breath, 1603

"Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil." -- Carl Jung

"Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that." -- The Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland

Hurry Sickness is… “above all, a continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time, frequently in the face of opposition, real or imagined, from other persons.” -- Dr. Meyer Friedman, Cardiologist

“The clock ticks slow. I hear it for what it is: good and holy. Time, what God first deemed holy above all else (Genesis 2:3).” – Ann Voskamp in One Thousand Gifts

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” – Jesus Christ, Son of God

“Be still, and know that I am God.” -- Jehovah Jireh, Creator of the Universe

May you have a syrupy slow evening that saunters sweetly under a magnificently spacious star-studded night sky ~

Making Yogurt, Writing Blogs, and so on….

2011-10-23T20:37:00.001-04:00

Happy Sabbath, friends! Hope your day has been both restful and peaceful....

just came across Mary's blog and I am shamelessly stealing the quote she has posted at the tippy-top for all to see. It's from Frederick Buechner's A Sacred Journey. Mary, I think, is a kindred spirit. I agree that Buechner's quote captures a good explanation of why I blog, too:

"What I propose to do now is to try listening to my life as a whole, or at least to certain key moments of the first half of my life thus far, for whatever of meaning, of holiness, of God, there may be to hear. My assumption is that the story of any one of us is in some measure the story of us all. For the reader, I suppose, it is like looking through someone else's photograph album. What holds you, if nothing else, is the possibility that somewhere among all those shots of people you never knew and places you never saw, you may come across something or someone you recognize. In fact - far more curious things have happened - even in a stranger's album, there is always the possibility that as the pages flip by, on one of them you may even catch a glimpse of yourself. Even if both of those fail, there is still a third possibility which is perhaps the happiest of them all, and that is that once I have put away my album for good, you may in the privacy of the heart take out the album of your own life and search it for the people and places you have loved and learned from yourself, and for those moments in the past - many of them half forgotten - through which you glimpsed, however dimly and fleetingly, the sacredness of your own journey."

ere’s a great shot of Matt spinning the lid on our new yogurt maker. (Cute, isn’t he?)We found the homemade yogurt makes pretty decent smoothies, but we couldn’t quite stomach the macaroni and cheese made from a spaghetti squash! We did fine Darlene’s apple crisp darn good, though! The SCD saga continues…

inally, I’m enjoying Elvie Studio today. You should stop by, too! $40 for Letter Lab…. wonder if I have the time and discipline to do it??

Well – good night, folks. Blessings -

Acronyms, Birthdays and Other Such Stuff

2011-10-22T12:37:00.000-04:00

ello there, Lovelies… How goes it out there in Blog-landria? I’m still here, in my little corner of the world…. just been taking a blogging break to focus on other things in life. Well, no – not “other” things because that would imply this blog is just another “thing” - as if it were a hobby or something I like to do when I have time. It’s much more than that – it’s been a place to record our family happenings, to remember what God has done, to ponder what He is currently doing, to pay attention to the details, and to explore creativity. So, here I am Saturday morning with a little quiet time to write! Good for me!

I turned 39 for the 5th time last week! Yep, if you do the math, that means I’m 43. Hard to believe it. I told a friend what a terrible number 43 was. Her response? 4 + 3 is 7 which is a lovely number. Love friends who help me look on the positive side of things.

I had a great birthday with some thoughtful and wonderful gifts. One was these waaaay cool clogs above from Matt and the girls. I also got new pjs (yep, the ones I don’t plan to take off today!), a 2012 appointment calendar with beautiful artwork, a cup and mug made by a local potter, a bee plate treasure snagged at a garage sale, a homemade pillowcase, books, a necklace, wine corks, a Starbucks card, a sketch book with a paintable canvas cover, a hand-painted cup and saucer from Italy, and….. I’m sure there’s more but all my cups are running over!
Well, we have entered the world of acronyms around here with SIBO and SCD. If you don’t know what these are, feel blessed. If you’re curious, follow the links…. there’s much better sites than mine that will explain what they are for you. That’s what has taken up a good bit of my time lately. If you’re doing SCD then you know what I mean. I’ve been trying to eat it along with E for encouragement. We’ve tried new recipes, made homemade yogurt with our new yogurt maker, and I have a tortilla iron on the way to make cashew tortilla chips! A friend gave me the Eat Well Feel Well recipe book that has a lot of savory SCD options including the tortilla chips. Life is interesting. Here are some of the things we’ve made that we like:
- Healthy Hamburger Helper (with carrots instead of yams to make it SCD legal)
- This pizza crust topped with SCD approved tomato sauce, onions, peppers, garlic, bacon, and cheddar cheese. Pretty good.
- Almond cookies. We like them better a little undercooked and without the peanut butter and coconut. Cranberries are a pretty good addition.
- blue berry muffins – a friend made these for us and I’m not sure what recipe she used.
- spinach bread (I liked, not so sure about E.)
Today we’re going to try grain and gluten-free cheez-its! And something with our homemade yogurt that finished cooking last night.
My first instinct is to say not a lot has been going on in the realm of creativity lately, but that’s not true. I just haven’t been at home much so haven’t spent much time in our art room. But, I’ve had a couple of great things going on away from home:
- Mary and I took a four-week drawing basics class from our friend Doug who is a fabulous artist. It was very helpful for me since I’ve never had any formal art education. He’s very precise and methodical which appealed to my naturally left-brained self. I want to start a fresh drawing using what I learned soon. When I do, I’ll share mine and Mary’s drawings from class.
- I went to another Sociable Art session last weekend and it was wonderful! We painted Starry Night. Here’s mine. I was rather pleased. (Sorry for the camera flash glare.)

Reading? Oh, my. Something has happened! I’m in some dry reading season it seems. I’m having trouble finishing anything. I’ve got these four going:
- Peace Like a River – it was on my TBR list and our book club is reading it. Actually, I haven’t started it! I have a week to get it finished which seems highly doubtful.
- The Joy Luck Club – another on my TBR list. I like it, but I’m slogging through it. And will probably totally abandon for a while in order to read the Peace for book club.
- one thousand gifts – just love this. Love her writing, love what she has to say…. really, really good book. I’m on a chapter titled “a sanctuary of time” and it is truly what I need to hear right now.
- The Spirit of the Disciplines – reading this with a young friend who recently moved to Colorado who truly blesses me. We’re only on chapter two but so far it’s good.

That’s all for now…. there’s much more to share so hopefully I’ll find my way back to my little oasis soon! Have a wonderful weekend, bloggy friends!

Tuesday Tuism

2011-09-27T21:45:00.001-04:00

Here’s some things to share:

1. I just love this photo of E with friend M after their graduation ceremony. Sheer happiness! …. AND, isn’t she lovely? :->

2. Here is an article about untranslatable words. Very thought-provoking!

3. I love this little vase idea! It calls to the geek and artist in me!

4. I love this guy’s hand lettering!

5. There is so much I like about this knock-off Pottery Barn sign…. vintage… lettering…. black….. Plus it looks like such an easy tutorial!

6. One last link…. Like the doodle and L*O*V*E the words. Looking forward to checking out all the doodling going on here!

Mayhap Monday

2011-09-26T22:36:00.000-04:00

Last week was as busy as I thought it would be…almost all of it was really wonderful, though! Looking onward to this week:

Monday – work, spend some time with E, errands, Life Group

Tuesday – work, lunch with ‘da boss’, dinner with M and then we’re off to our first art lesson in a series of 4! I’m very excited!! This week’s topic is “Materials & Techniques”. This is the instructor and my buddy CD is playing along, too!

Wednesday – women’s breakfast, work, driving M to and from Youth Group! She is definitely enjoying being part of this group… I’m still trying to get used to the fact that my baby is now old enough to be in a “youth group!”

Thursday – work and a relatively quiet rest of the day! Hmmmm…. maybe I’ll start painting that chifferobe like I’ve been threatening to do for a couple… er, maybe a few, weeks!?

Friday – work and then book club with a lovely bunch of ladies! We’ll be discussing this book. I’d give it a rating of 4 out of 5. Maybe 3.5. Apparently readers on Amazon liked it a lot more than I did!

Saturday – busy day!! Go with a friend to our church’s “Discovery 101” class, then meet with some writing buddies, then church, then dinner with the “in-laws” (The Boy’s in-laws, that is…. :-> ).

Sunday – church again (long story) then off to catch a plane for Orlando for work!

I thought I’d leave you today with a story our pastor told during his sermon yesterday. (Very much worth listening to, by the way. You can listen or download it here. It’s the Making Room for Jesus sermon.)

In The Incredible Power of Kingdom Authority I read about a conversation between the late Adrian Rogers and Josef Tson, the revered Romanian pastor, author, and president of the Romanian Missionary Society who survived years of persecution and exile under cruel Communist rule. Rogers asked Dr. Tson for his perception of American Christianity.

I was surprised by Tson’s answer. After some hesitation, he replied, “Well, Adrian, since you have asked me, I’ll tell you. The key word in American Christianity is commitment.” Rather than being a positive thing, he saw it as an inadequate replacement of an older Christian teaching: surrender.

Tson described the difference, “When you make a commitment, you are still in control, no matter how noble the thing you commit to. One can commit to pray, to study the Bible, to give his money, or to commit to automobile payments, or to lose weight. Whatever he chooses to do, he commits to. But surrender is different. If someone holds a gun and asks you to lift your hands in the air as a token of surrender, you don’t tell that person what you are committed to. You simply surrender and do as you are told. . . . Americans love commitment because they are still in control. But the key word is surrender. We are to be slaves to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Wow. This has really convicted me. Yes, I very much like to be in control. Surrender? That’s tough.

You can read the whole (really great) article that includes the story above at Bob Butler’s article “Why I’m Not a Committed Christian (And Why That’s a Good Thing” in Discipleship Journal’s archives.

Yet Another Mayhap Monday on Tuesday!

2011-09-20T08:25:00.001-04:00

Good Early Tuesday Morning Everyone!

I’m feeling good as new and looking forward to a very full week!

Monday – already gone but was full of good-stuff…. good work day, good lunch with a friends, good Life Group meeting here at the house. We talked about making room for people in our lives… people who are different from us, people who need us, people who need Jesus just like we do.

Tuesday – Long work meeting today then off to a website meeting for church. (The photo below is from The Wedding last year – hard to believe it’s been almost a YEAR! The meeting today is at the lovely old house the company I work for owns in Pinehurst Village and is where we had the rehearsal dinner. I don’t believe I ever posted any of photos from that night. Lovely people, lovely meal, lovely location. A good night to remember. That’s me waaay across the room in the pinkish sweater!)

Wednesday – Women’s breakfast at Flynne’s, work, then our monthly neighborhood dinner. The theme this month is “Fancy-Pants” so I’m looking forward to a gourmet meal, men in ties or tux, and women in evening dresses. Always a lot of fun!

Thursday – Visitors in from out of town for a two-day meeting at work, my one day to cook dinner at home, and Mary’s friend M will be over again for the afternoon.

Friday – Work then off to a big-girl sleepover with two friends at lovely Lake Tillery. *Smile*

Saturday – Lake Tillery, coffee, and gabbing with friends!

Sunday – worship, manning the welcome center, and enjoying the Sabbath!

Projects for this week:

1. I painted the hardware for the yellow dresser in the art room a flat nickel. I think they turned out wonderfully. Now it’s time to start painting the chifferobe. Shall it be a matching two-tone yellow or two-tone green. Mary thinks green; I think yellow. Or maybe green…

2. I’ve decided on the word “create” to use as a Bible word study…. Now to begin!

3. I’m planning another “Unwrapping God’s Gift” women’s study to start mid-October, so it’s time to begin preparing and reviewing again. I’m super excited to see who God brings!

Have a super week, bloggy friends!

Thrum Thursday

2011-09-15T22:54:00.001-04:00

ope you have had a lovely Thursday out there in Blog-Landria and will make an easy slide through Friday and into the weekend! Today was back to work again and a bit longer at it than yesterday. Next week is shaping up to be an extremely busy work-week, so I’m really looking forward to a great weekend around our sleepy little town in NC.

Here’s some thrumming thoughts for you:

I’ve lost a little weight (with much more to go!) and needed a new pair of jeans or two. So, I decided today to go to one of my favorite stores in town…. Goodwill! Yes, I’m sorry to tell you, I’m a Goodwill Junkie. I love finding treasures that people have cast off. Today, for the low-low price of $22.51 I got five pairs of pants, one shirt, and one interesting-looking book! Very nice. BUT, as I was searching through the racks of jeans (not sorted by size!) I kept coming across Talbots and Banana Republic size 4. I just want to say – If you are able to purchase AND wear size 4 Talbots and Banana Republic jeans, please do NOT give your cast offs to Goodwill. It only demoralizes those of us looking for a size 14! We see that 4 on the tag and for just a second get excited. Not one woman out of the twenty that were shopping along side me looked like they had a prayer of fitting into a size 4. Most had not seen a size 4 since grade school. There. I feel better now. Carry on.

I have a friend who moved to Colorado recently. We want to stay in touch and have decided to read a book together and discuss it virtually. We’ve picked Dallas Willard’s Spirit of the Disciplines. I’m pretty excited about it.

I dyed my hair a couple of days ago. It turned out a bit darker than planned. Pretty much black. A guy at work called me Pat Benatar yesterday. Funny, huh? Today I went for a haircut. I have the best hairdresser ever. She rides a Harley and comes to our church and Life Group. Her hubby has the best restaurant in town. She’s been cutting my hair for 8 or 10 years or so and today she made me look like a rock star. I made an appointment for highlights next week and was thinking of blue streaks. E told me I was a “professional” and couldn’t do something like that. (A professional what, I asked?) Mary cried. (Just pure horror, I think, at the possibility of total embarrassment.) Matt said he’d really rather I didn’t do that. (First time EVER he’s made any kind of request regarding my appearance!) So I guess I’m not going with blue. Just a lighter brown. I’ve missed my window of opportunity to do things like color my hair blue, I guess. Matt said a tattoo was still ok if it wasn’t someplace visible. All kinds of pithy retorts came to mind about the “someplace visible”, but I held my tongue. He’s out of town until Sunday. Who knows what he might come home to! :~O

Mary had M over today, a long-time friend, who is a delight to me for a couple of reasons. One - she’s just a sweet girl. Two - she’s the granddaughter of one of my best friends who passed away over a year ago. I see glimpses of my friend in M’s smile and laugh. I catch a remnant of her in the tilt of M’s head and the crinkle of her nose. Ah, I miss her. But I am so glad M is here and I’m hoping we’ll be seeing more of her in the future. AND, as a bonus, M’s mom is wonderful too! I’ve always thought she was so beautiful and creative and had the coolest way of dressing. She said she would do a personal “What Not to Wear” episode for me and take me shopping soon. Of course, I don’t think she’s going to give me $5,000 to go shopping in New York. But God is good and He’s on His throne as M’s grandma used to tell me. I’m grateful for small things today.

That’s all the thrum I’ve got in me. ‘Night.

P.S. The “H” is from Daily Drop Cap. All other art is mine via my Flickr account.

Wordbreak Wednesday

2011-09-14T22:39:00.002-04:00

The word for today is THREE -

We now have THREE puppies living in our house. Sadie and Mollie and now ANNIE! Annie is a Miniature Dachshund puppy E's boyfriend bought her yesterday. E plans to head back off to college in the spring and will take one-eyed-Mollie with her. Well... the logic is that Mollie can't stand to be alone (it's true) so she would need a friend. Enter Annie. Enter dog #3. FEMALE dog #3. Poor Matt!

And here's a really cute video for you I snagged over at Challies. Stop by - he has lots of good stuff all the time.

Tuesday Tuism

2011-09-13T23:05:00.002-04:00

his lovely “T” is my first thing to share with you tonight. Go over to Daily Drop Cap to see all the lovely letters Jessica Hische has made available for bloggers to use. Unbelievable! Thank you, Jessica!

…and check out this Colors on the Web Color Wizard! If you do digital coloring, I think this is an awesome tool… for FREE!

I’m in love with this little crocheted pillow from Two Girls Being Crafty. The tutorial seems fairly straight forward…

These are awesome and true words that I’m inspired to find a spot for in my art!

I want to explore here and here and here.

Finally, here’s two sweet (FREE) September desk calendars for you. The first is from Gennine’s Art Blog and I put it on my home computer:

And the second is from Happy Serendipity. This one is on my work computer.

Both make me smile! :->

Well – back to work tomorrow, so I better turn in! Hope you enjoy all these wonderful bloggy-land finds.

‘Night!

Mayhap Monday …. on Tuesday!

2011-09-13T13:26:00.001-04:00

Yep – I’m alive. The little surgery I had last Wednesday was a might harder to get over than I thought, owing mostly to general anesthesia, I think. But all is well in “Upside Down B Land.” ;->

We have had an addition back into the house since last I wrote, though. E, with health issues to straighten out and maybe a sprinkle of college disillusionment, has decided her school of choice in DC does not fit her cost/benefit analysis model. So – she’s back in our sleepy little town, regrouping, trying to get her health in order, and making plans for a closer-to-home college choice for the spring. I have to say I’m proud of her for being willing to speak up and say her experience wasn’t what she thought it would be and didn’t want to fork out the cash that was required. As a friend told me, there’s great value in knowing what you don’t want. Perhaps this was the only way she was going to learn that for herself.

So we are back to a mom, a dad, two girls, and two puppies! (Puppies below on their way to haircut a couple of weeks ago.)

So – plans for this week, you ask with baited breath?

Monday – the day’s already gone but was spent at home, working via computer a bit, continuing to rest, doodling, sorting through junk in art room, and kick-off for new Life Group.

Tuesday – going to be moving around a bit more I hope today. May even venture out in the car this afternoon! Drawing this morning early…. the doodling yesterday got the juices flowing a bit. Drew and colored a “B” that I quite like. (Go to my flickr account to see evolution.) Coffee on the porch with The Girl. She’s written a BOOK!! More to come on that later. So proud of her. Work more via computer, catch up on emails, think about how to paint hardware for dresser Mary and I painted for art room (below), mmmm….. rest…… that’s about it.

Wednesday – Our church has an early morning women’s coffee at Flynne’s that has really turned into a sweet group I really look forward to each week when I can make it. I’m hoping to feel like going to that and then…. OFF TO WORK! Yay! Mary to youth group in the evening (hard to imagine she’s in youth group!!) Maybe I’ll talk Matt into taking me to our friend’s new restaurant. Best Italian food in the state! :-)

Thursday – Early morning work, hair appointment (hooray!).

Friday – Work, Drink and Draw at Flynne’s (don’t judge me!) Matt is off for a weekend retreat I’m really excited he is getting to go to.

Saturday – NC Poetry Society Meeting! Really looking forward to that, although I’ve written zippo lately…

Sunday – Church, manning the welcome center, enjoying the Sabbath.

Projects for the week:

Finish yellow dresser for art room (mainly that means painting and installing hardware)
Begin painting chifferobe
Try to get to lesson 4 for Raw Art Journaling group… I’m just about hopelessly behind.
Begin new word study in Bible – sleep? “but God”? or maybe a “normal” choice from Rick Warren’s list in his Bible Study Methods ebook:
Begin reading The Girl’s book. (It’s related to #4.) Ok, I can’t keep it a secret! I’ll go ahead and tell you the title: Biblical Hermeneutics: Understanding the Ancient Book in a Modern World. Cool, huh? Here’s a fairly recent photo of her below. Who knows? Maybe she’ll need a photo for her book’s jacket cover soon?

6. Blog. It makes me feel good to capture memories, think through ideas, and make plans. Plus, I just like you all my bloggy friends!

Saturday Satisfice

2011-09-03T21:47:00.000-04:00

Satisfice: to aim or achieve that which will suffice

Well, life continues to throw some interesting curves! But all is well, all is well…. as a good friend of mine used to remind me…. “God is still on His throne!” Yes & Amen.

So, for “Saturday Satisfice” I thought I ‘d share a few different things with you:

1. I was thinking of making personalized thank-you notes from photographs of people. Here’s a photo of me that I drew a contour drawing from. Then I scanned it in, put it in PSE5 and added the “Thanks a 1,000,000”. I’ll print these out on notecards and ta-da! Super-personalized thank-you cards….

Even personalized to the message… like “Hello There!” or “How are you?”

Or maybe graduation thank-you notes?

Thinking of putting this on Etsy (yes, I’ve made a shop but have put ZERO up there, yet) and just see what happens. What do you think? Should I be brave enough to take the plunge and actually try to market and sell my art? Hard to imagine!

2. I’ve had some lovely time to veg out tonight and played around with filters on PSE5 with a photo I took of myself a couple of days ago. Wow! So much you can do! Some filters would be a wonderful way to study a subject before doing a hand contour drawing or sketch. I’d like to play around with these a little more then try to draw or paint from one.

~me~

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3. Thursday I had to go to the outpatient clinic at the hospital to have some blood work done for a surgery (no worries!) that I’m having Wednesday. Our hospital does a fabulous job with artwork throughout the facility, most of it North Carolina artists. Well, as I’m sitting in the waiting area, I look up and really begin to look at the sculptures that are hanging from the ceiling. I surmised that the artist must have been a man. What do you think these objects are supposed to be? Ah, well, made me chuckle anyway…

4. Wednesday me, Mary and friend M made our first “quillow” without my mom. There’s no telling how many of these mom has made throughout the years. I bet I have at least a half-dozen in my house. M did a lovely job of picking out the material. Much was learned and fun was had. M took home the blanket for an early birthday present!

Blessings, all -

Wordbreak Wednesday

2011-08-31T22:11:00.001-04:00

Wordbreak: point of division in a word that runs onto the next line pausing

Monday night I managed some "art” time and worked on the found poetry assignment from Raw Art Journaling with Artists of the Roundtable. I used an old Discipleship Journal magazine and had a wonderful time cutting out words and arranging them into a poem. I’m so glad I took this photo because I’ve yet to get around to pasting the words on paper and they accidentally got moved around today! I think I can recreate it…

Tuesday Tuism

2011-08-30T21:09:00.000-04:00

Tuism – Apostrophe; reference to or regard to a 2nd person

A few books to share with you tonight…

1. Today, S and I went to a “Meet the Author” event at our local Indie bookstore. The book was Cathy Davidson’s Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn. Very interesting speaker! S surprised me and bought both of us a copy. :-)

2. Yesterday I stopped by to drop off some books at a used bookstore and found two treasures on their art shelf: Draw In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists Pretty excited about this one!

… and How to Be and Explorer of the World": Portable Life Museum. The author (Keri Smith) has a pretty cool looking blog I’d like to hang out at for a while.

Mayhap Monday

2011-08-29T23:06:00.000-04:00

…what the week may hold…

This is a late “Mayhap Monday” but…

1. Today – work, errands, help Mary (see above) and friend J with their edible cell models after school. :-)
2. Goodie bag off to our girl E at college. Today was the first day of classes!
3. Some church website work.
4. Meet the Author at a local indie bookstore.
5. Lunch with The Girl. :-)
6. Sew “quillow” with Mary and friend M.
7. Special worship service at church on Wednesday night!
8. One dog to vet; both for a MUCH-NEEDED grooming!
9. Try to catch up with the Raw Art Journaling Workshop at Artists of the Roundtable.
9. Looking forward to a lonnnng, quiet weekend!

You?

Saturday Satisfice

2011-08-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

Satisfice: to aim or achieve that which will suffice

Last night we spent some time with a group of friends celebrating a birthday. We laughed and talked and ate and danced. (Yes, danced - much to the horror of the teenagers who were present!). While we were dancing (Funky Town, Purple Rain, No Parking on the Dance Floor…. I can’t recall…ha!), Matt said to me, “We’ve been married a thousand years.”

Yes, it does seem like forever. I don’t know if all couples begin to feel this way after they’ve been together a long time or if it has to do with us growing up in the same hometown and getting married so young. But I can’t imagine not being together. 25 years… wow! And to this boy whose first words to me in the lobby of our high school gymnasium were, “Hey, goofy.”

The photo above was taken last night. Not a great quality photo, but pretty good of both of us. We generally take terrible pictures as a couple… Matt’s eyes are always closed and I tend to either look drunk or angry.

So, bad quality or not, this is a decent photo of two people who have been married “a thousand years.” I am very much satisfied with this gift of marriage I’ve been given.

Thrum Thursday

2011-08-25T22:54:00.000-04:00

Thrum – the end of warp which is not woven but remains on the loom when the woven fabric has been cut free.

“One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.” ~Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh is my favorite artist. I love his work. And I love his story. This quote of his makes me think of all the people we simply walk by in a day and don’t really know what’s inside them…. What are they suffering today? What are their joys? What are they going home to? What are they running away from? Like his street scene here in Café Terrace at Night, there are so many people we see everyday, people we sit beside in an office building, pass money to at a cash register, smile and say hello to at church. People with a blazing hearth who we see as only a wisp of smoke.

Yesterday on the way home from taking Mary to see The Help I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a neighborhood mom run into the road, look both ways, then grab her head before turning around and running back to her house. For a second I thought I would just keep driving… we were just a little way from home. Mary had a ton of homework and it was already after 7pm. I was exhausted and ready to get into my pj’s. I didn’t even really know the woman. Mary is getting to be friends with her daughter. Her husband and I worked together briefly many, many years ago. But, really, she was just a wisp of smoke to me.

But I made a u-turn and went back to her house. I already knew what was wrong. I recognized the panic. Her youngest, a six-year old boy with Down’s Syndrome was missing. “He was just in the garage! Just a minute ago!” she told me. She already had her older children out on bikes looking for him. I dropped Mary off at home to tell her Dad what was going on and to enlist his help. I then began driving around the neighborhood looking for a small boy I had never to my knowledge set eyes on. I kept coming back to our neighborhood lake and peering down the grassy edge by the water, praying, “Please, God, let him be safe.”

An hour later as the sun was setting my own mother-panic was beginning to kick in at the thought of this boy being lost in the dark. The police had been called and many, many other neighbors were out helping… on foot, on bikes, in cars. And then…. the boy was found! I was told he came riding home in a golf cart sitting on an elderly gentleman’s lap. Ah – blessings and glory and honor and all praise to the Lord God Almighty!

I’m glad I didn’t continue on my way yesterday. I’m glad I turned around and went back to ask what was wrong. I’m glad I had the chance to try to comfort this mother whose sufferings and joys are played out so close to me but who I know so little about. And frankly who I had never stopped to even consider.

I spoke to many neighbors I hadn’t spoken to in years probably as we checked in with each other to see if anyone had found him yet. So many people that live their days and nights so close to me yet who could just as well be living in another state. I watch from my window as wisps of smoke eek slowly from their chimneys.

I would like to do better.

Luke 10:25-37 ESV
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ...

Wordbreak Wednesday

2011-08-24T22:06:00.000-04:00

Tuesday Tuism

2011-08-23T22:06:00.000-04:00

Tuism – Apostrophe; reference to or regard to a 2nd person

1. Take a look at this connect-the-dot Mona Lisa. Incredible! The artist is Thomas Pavitte in Australia. His site is worth visiting!

2. I came across the quote I’m putting in the front page of my Raw Art Journal above at Inspired by This Feeling. Good place to be… well… inspired!

3. I love this “Post Cup” idea, but at $52 it’s a little too much for me. But, still, I can enjoy!

Mayhap Monday

2011-08-22T20:49:00.000-04:00

…what this week may hold…

1. Monday – early morning for work after an exhausting (but good) weekend in DC. Not feeling too well this evening. Probably just need a good sleep.

2. Tuesday – sit in on chapel at Mary’s school in the morning then head to work…. cook dinner. Any ideas?

3. Wednesday – just work. Maybe take Mary to see The Help.

4. Thursday – possibly a ‘31’ party in the evening.

5. Friday – planning a weekend to the beach with some friends, but it looks like there might be a hurricane a brewing! A quiet weekend at home is okay, too!

6. Spend some time drawing.

7. Start painting dresser for art room with Mary.

8. Read The Magician’s Nephew with Mary at night. (We plan to read the whole series together this year.) :-)

9. Do some yard work! Yikes!!

Overall, a quiet week! Hooray!!

Saturday Satisfice (on Sunday)

2011-08-21T07:36:00.000-04:00

Satisfice: to aim or achieve that which will suffice

I’m in the lobby of our hotel while E and her Dad catch a little more sleep time. We managed to finally get to the school yesterday around 4pm after wads of traffic on I-95. Ugh. And the big news is….

We got everything unloaded, up to the room, and unpacked! Hooray!

We were exhausted and stumbled to the hotel for dinner, but it was all good. E met her roommate and she seems like a sweet girl. They will go to a ballgame together this afternoon which I think is such a good thing for E to have something specific to do as we are leaving her.

After all the time of preparing, I’m happy with her room and I think she is too. We need to get a few more things for the wall, but other than that I think we did pretty well. Her boyfriend has a trip planned to visit in a couple of weeks so I’m sure we’ll be sending along some more goodies then.

That’s all for now! Looking forward to a long, quiet drive home with hubby this afternoon! :-)

Fain Friday

2011-08-20T00:05:00.002-04:00

Fain – happy, inclined, pleased

Mary is very pleased with her latest “Pouch Pal” creation. (He has a pink and turquois striped pouch on his back.) This fella is for a friend next door. I must say he's probably my favorite. She's getting more and more creative each iteration.

Most of today has been spent preparing E to head to DC tomorrow! Whew! I’m looking forward to the long drive and some SLEEP! :-)

Not sure what tomorrow will hold so I guessing I'll break this blogging streak I've been on. It's been good to be writing and drawing and such again. Night!

Thrum Thursday

2011-08-18T22:14:00.001-04:00

Thrum – the end of warp which is not woven but remains on the loom when the woven fabric has been cut free.

Today I stole away from a busy day for a quick lunch with a new friend. While waiting for her to arrive, I read a little from the Pinesong Awards 2011. Amazing how poetry can still a restless heart and make it listen to its own beat.

Rhett Iseman Trull was the winner of the Brockman-Campbell Book Award for The Real Warnings. The opening line of her poem published in Pinesong has found a space in the warp and woof of my soul tonight:

Heart by heart the house
will empty, thread by thread all hems
unstitch.

My girlie is almost all packed up! I’m pretty sure Trull’s poem is talking about death, and this child’s leaving, and her brother’s leaving less than a year ago, are anything but bad. He into a wonderful marriage. And she off to her dream college.

But in a way I can see that children leaving home is a “kind” of death… Not all bad - but still a death all the same. A death to what once was… along with a birth of what will be.

I am trying not to cling, Trull goes on to say in her poem.

Yes, I am trying.

G’Night and blessings all.

Wordbreak Wednesday

2011-08-17T23:02:00.001-04:00

Wordbreak: point of division in a word that runs onto the next line pausing

This is George. My gremlin. He tells me things like…. “You’re not a writer.” “You’re too old to be an artist now.” “Really, there are a million other things you should be doing instead of writing or painting.” “You think this is original?”

He’s pretty tough. And just when I get to a place where I’m able to ignore his insistent, whiney, voice, George wags his tiny, little, pitiful tail and I can’t help but feel tugs at my heartstrings and pay attention to him all over again! Sigh.

George is Lesson 1A in a workshop I’ve started with Artists of the Roundtable. It’s lead by Quinn McDonald, the author of Raw Art Journaling. I have GREAT expectations for myself and this workshop!

***

I’m listening to Alice Munro’s short story collection Too Much Happiness. I’ve been struck by how simply, but effectively she describes her characters. One character she described as having “a mole riding on one cheekbone.” Good, huh?

This description of a character at the beginning of a story titled “Wenlock Edge” is a prime example of Munro’s giftedness:

”His own name was Ernie Botts. He was a tall florid man with a good-natured expression, a big square face, and fair curly hair springing straight up from his forehead. His hands, his fingernails, were as clean as soap, and his hips were a little plump. My name for him – when he was not around – was Earnest Bottom. I had a mean tongue.”

***

Finally, here’s some words I like and plan to work into a piece of art somehow. I found it over at The Fiction We Live. Remember, I told you about her yesterday? The cupcake stand? Right.

Put your work boots on tomorrow, bloggy friends! G’Night.

Tuesday Tuism

2011-08-16T20:26:00.004-04:00

Tuism – Apostrophe; reference to or regard to a 2nd person

Here are a few “finds & treasures” for you tonight:

1. Loving this from i can read.

2. I’m enjoying “Humming Right Along”, a creative gal I’ve known for a long time!

3. How about this DIY cupcake stand from The Fiction We Live? I’m picturing all kinds of variations…

Oh – the weird little fella above? He’s the product of a long morning meeting and doodling that truly does help me pay attention! :-)

Mayhap Monday

2011-08-15T21:39:00.002-04:00

…what this week may hold…

1. Pack, pack, and pack some more to get E ready to head off to school on Saturday!!

2. Wednesday – take the day off work to spend with E. :-)

3. Thursday – lunch with a new friend who also works in the same small town I do.

4. Thursday evening – dinner with friends & E to wish her well before leaving for school.

5. Friday – take the day off to get everything ready and packed in the car to head to DC!!

6. Saturday – leave for DC, unload everything in E’s room, and spend one last night with her at a hotel.

7. Sunday – Unpack and get her room set up. Drive home to NC sans E and try not to cry the whole way home. I’m going to miss her!! But she’s going to do soooo good!

Sunday Susurrus

2011-08-14T20:50:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday, My Love!

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I’m thinking tonight of what a lucky girl I am to be married to the most compassionate, most funny, most wonderful man there is!

Happy Birthday, Mattie! I love you!
Top: Baby Matt… I LOVE this photo of him. He really hasn’t changed at all!

From left to right:
1. Serious Matt…. preparing to swim at Half Ironman a few months back.
2. Laughing Matt… with his buddy working on a friend’s dishwasher.
3. Daddy Matt… with his Boy just after the wedding.
4. Kissing Matt… with me (of course!) just after the wedding.
5. Talking Matt… giving directions to the prenuptial feast.

Saturday Satisfice

2011-08-13T22:26:00.000-04:00

Satisfice: to aim or achieve that which will suffice

that which will suffice…

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Much goings-on around here, bloggy friends. Thought at the end of my week I should share some things with you that I find satisfying…. or “That Which Will Suffice”. (Click on "View Slide Show" to see the photos!)

From left to right:

#1. Here’s the pile of dorm room supplies E & I have been gathering the past few weeks. Yesterday I shopped about four hours alone, picking up the things she really doesn’t care about – drying rack, suitcase, under-the-bed storage bin, hangers, closet organizers, a stock of must-have toiletries just to name a few. Neither E nor I are much on shopping. For some women I know it’s a sport of sorts, but for us it’s torture. Not that we don’t like getting things, it’s just that we don’t enjoy the process of dressing rooms, sale-searching, and crowd-fighting. But we are almost there! What’s left, you ask? An umbrella, a robe (a nice big fluffy one that goes chin-to-floor since she’ll be not only in a coed dorm, but on a coed floor! Be still my mother’s heart!!), shower shoes, and a rain jacket. She wants to pick up another pair of sandals, but I’m leaving that one to her. In SEVEN short days, we’ll be heading off to DC to move her into her dorm room and meet her roommate. Yikes!!

#2. & #3. Ta-da!! Matt, Mary and I have been working for a while on an Art/Writing/Reading room. It’s The Boy’s old room. We painted it blue stripes, put up shelves from Ikea, moved and organized a BUNCH of my books from downstairs shelves, and finished the door table. Hooray! These two photos are of the table. It’s g-g-g-r-r-r-eat!! I was waiting to share photos until we were 100% finished, but with everything going on, it might take us a little while to get all the details finished. (We have a dresser and chifforobe to paint, bulletin boards to hang, and a light fixture to purchase.) So I’ll give you a peek here and there. Mary and I are loving it!

#4. Mary and I recovered this ottoman with fabric she picked out. It was originally made for her nursery by a very talented friend of mine. It’s in the art room with a white chair I purchased from the Coalition for $15. *Smile* I’m very satisfied with how it turned out!

#5. Dingo is hanging out with us until Monday night. His mommy and daddy are at the beach with Dingo’s other grandparents. It’s good to have a grand-dog, even if he is a bit of a handful!

Good night!

Fain Friday - weekWORD

2011-08-12T20:32:00.001-04:00

Fain – happy, inclined, pleased

Today I am happy to be participating in weekWORD again. I even have a nifty little sidebar badge from Carmen. See? Click on it and you will be whisked away to a portal that will track the current weekWORD and host. Go ahead, click over there and take a look. I'll wait.

Good. Wish you would play along with us. This week's hostess is Carmen at Tails of a Biomouse, a blog well worth reading. She has chosen Quixotic [kwik-sot-ik] for this week's word. It means:

resembling or befitting Don Quixote
extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical,or impracticable.
impulsive and often rashly unpredictable.

What I like best about weekWORD is the places it can take you creatively. Of course quixotic made me think of windmills (ala Don Quixote)... which made me think of wind... which made me think of "winds of change".... which made me think of all the changes this period of my life holds: friends moving away, a son recently married, a daughter leaving for college, my youngest actually taller than me at 12(!).... but other things, as well.... still mourning the death of a good friend... all the physical changes that start happening around 40 (yes, it's true!)... And even yesterday I got word of a really, really good change that is about to happen (more on that at an appropriate later time), but still it's change all the same.

So, here's my representation of this week's word below. I drew first in pencil on regular drawing paper, then outlined with a Micron pen.

Next I scanned her in, added color with Photo Shop, and then recolored and pasted in the quote I handlettered from earlier this week.

I'm planning to color the original now that I have it safely scanned in, but I'm not sure what media I'll use yet. I also think I'll print this out, frame it, and put it somewhere to remind myself in the midst of all the change of this season of life to remember what I know to be true - mainly that God is still on His throne (as a good friend used to tell me) and that He is good.

Oh! I found this great, great, GREAT quote from Catherine the Great (ha!) on winds of change:

"A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache."

Is that not wonderful?!

Click over to Carmen's to see all the other links to posts on this week's word AND to find out who next week's host will be.

Blessings -

Thrum Thursday

2011-08-11T21:57:00.000-04:00

Thrum – the end of warp which is not woven but remains on the loom when the woven fabric has been cut free.

While we were at the beach I started reading Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light. For some reason, I read the first few chapters and then put it down. It was a really good read, though, and I plan to finish it. Not sure why I stopped.

In chapter three, “Lanterns at Sea”, there was a lot of information about whaling in the 1800’s. Two sentences planted themselves firmly in my head and and I haven’t been able to get them out since. That’s what Thrum Thursday is all about…. taking those little loose bits of thread left on the loom and seeing what you can make of them….

So, here are those two sentences:

”Whales have always inexplicably beached themselves, and once out of their element, they can’t survive for long. Exposed fully to the sun, their skin burns, and they are crushed by their own weight.” (pg. 38)

It was the thought of the whales being “crushed by their own weight” that captured me. In the water, everything is fine. The water buoys up their bulk and blankets their skin from the scorching sun. But “once out of their element” the whale’s body betrays her and she dies – suffocating under her own weight while being slowly roasted to death by the sun.

And this is where my mind has been lingering…. Like water is to the whale, what is my “element” without which I cannot live? Why do I sometimes “inexplicably” remove myself from where I can thrive and be well? And then go to a place where there is the potential for self-destruction?

There are many things I consider “my element”:

Being vulnerable and real with my husband and children.
Being in relationship with other people.
Being able to give myself space to create in one way or another.

But mainly, after living some 42 odd years, I’ve found for certain that my most basic, most needful “element” is God. I have been made, I have been created, to commune with Him, to worship Him, to live in right relationship to Him as the created adoring the Creator.

And when I’m not? When I start hauling myself out of the safety and comfort of His waters? I find the very weight of myself too heavy to bear. Without seeking God everyday, without reading His Word, being with His people, worshipping at the foot of His Cross, I am unprotected from the scorching rays of this dry world, and I begin to shrivel and melt within myself.

But when – as always because He will never, ever leave me or forsake me – I turn back to Him and sink into that wonderful, mysterious, unfathomable depth that is God, then all the other things (love, relationship, and creativity) click back into place.

My “element” is simply Christ. Without Him I cannot survive.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
(~Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing)

He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (~the Apostle Paul to the saints in Colosse)

Blessings, bloggy friends.

Wordbreak Wednesday

2011-08-10T21:42:00.001-04:00

Wordbreak: point of division in a word that runs onto the next line pausing

Here are some words I found here (and *loved*), redrew in a font called “French manicure”, and colored in Photoshop. Oh! And the color palette is from COLOURlovers and is called Van Gogh's Bedroom.

Tuesday Tuism

2011-08-09T22:22:00.004-04:00

Tuism – Apostrophe; reference to or regard to a 2nd person

Here’s three “finds & treasures” from some talented ladies out in Bloglandria:

1. Beautiful embroidered ampersand by Cornflower Blue…. gives me lots of ideas… It’s like doodling with thread! And you should stop by her etsy shop and take a look at these amazing barnacle soft sculptures.

2. Check out this pattern for a sweet crochet mug cozy from Crafty Anna. It has me wishing for those cool autumn mornings on the porch drinking my morning cup of java!

3. Yep. I like this from enhabiten.

PS. The sneaky bunny was made by sneaky me today when I slipped away and found a little time to create. (Via Carla Sonheim’s tutorial.)

Mayhap Monday

2011-08-08T21:58:00.001-04:00

…what this week may hold…

1. Life Group tonight watching the last video in this series we’ve been going through.

2. Super-early workdays Tuesday – Friday….good place to be, but argh!!

3. Tuesday night dinner with E’s boy’s parents at the restaurant where they both work.

4. Going to see The Help Wednesday night. Loved the book!

5. Neighborhood dinner on Friday – a German theme…which I think means a big variety of beer!

6. Reading: Major Pettingrew’s Last Stand and Foundations of the Christian Faith (Book II)

7. Saturday shopping with E for final clothes and dorm room stuff. Good grief, she’ll be gone before we know it!

8. Sunday Life Group celebration luncheon (+ Matt’s B-day! Hooray!) before taking a break for a few weeks.

9. Draw, paint, or write SOMETHING!!

10. Blog. (Smile, here.)

Sunday Susurrus–Shame

2011-08-07T23:14:00.002-04:00

susurrus \su-SUHR-uhs\, noun: A whispering or rustling sound; a murmur

There are winds of change blowing around here, bloggy friends. No deaths, divorces, or grave illnesses. No loss of employment. No tragedies.

But change, never-the-less.

Today we said good-bye to a young family, the dad of which we’ve known for years. An orphan, we tried to care for him as best as we could. He lived with us here and there, sleeping on the floor or couch when our house was too full to give him a bed, sharing meals and washing laundry. Matt and The Boy were both groomsmen in his wedding and I was honored to sit in his mother’s place on the front pew. Now he and his wife and young son are heading across country so he can work on his masters at seminary. Then, he hopes, on to another masters and a doctorate perhaps. Maybe those will bring him back to North Carolina. But I don’t know. He will be a spectacular professor one day.

Friday was good-bye to a friend I’ve had for 12+ years. A friend who was pregnant with a daughter at the same time I was with Mary. Our girls were born just two weeks apart. She took care of Mary with her daughter when I had to go back to work. They shared birthdays together. We walked through some very sad times on both parts together. Now she’s taken her four kids and left for a new future in Texas. It is right for her, I know. But still there is an empty spot left where she should be. I thought she would always be just down the road.

And then there’s E… she’s off to college in just two short weeks! It’s hard to imagine her not being here, popping in and out from work, school, and friends…. Going for impromptu lunches and having afternoon talks…. It is good and right and a blessing that she has this opportunity. But it is hard. So very hard.

I’ve been working on a project of mine and Mary’s for the whole summer…. I’ll share more of that with you soon….(The photo contains a tiny glimpse) Part of the project has required that I weed through and sort all of the books in our house – no small task! Yesterday I came across Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain, his autobiography that I read years ago. While flipping through the pages, I found this passage highlighted and asterisked in orange:

“The anguish of this self-knowledge is inescapable even on earth, as long as there is any self-love left in us: because it is pride that feels the burning of that shame. Only when all pride, all self-love has been consumed in our souls by the love of God, are we delivered from the thing which is the subject of those torments. It is only when we have lost all love of our selves for our own sakes that our past sins cease to give us any cause for suffering or for the anguish of shame.

For the saints, when they remember their sins, do not remember the sins but the mercy of God, and therefore even past evil is turned by them into a present cause of joy and serves to glorify God.” (pg. 322-323)

Telling these dear ones good-bye this weekend brought up regrets – regret and shame that ~~we weren’t~~ I wasn’t there more for this young man that so needed a mom….. that I wasn’t more compassionate, more present to the sufferings of this dear friend…. that I wasn’t a better mother, that I didn’t more wisely use this very short time we had with our girl living under our very roof.

And is there sin in these regrets? Yes, I think, probably. Sins of omission maybe, but sins even so. I didn’t love my neighbor (whether friend or family member) as myself.

But these words of Merton’s – oh, yes! It is still my pride that causes me to have this regret, this shame. Pride, the root of all evil. It is only when we have lost all love of ourselves for our own sakes that our past sins cease to give us any cause for suffering or for the anguish of shame….For the saints… do not remember the sins but the mercy of God…

And, my! Hasn’t the mercy of God been great?!

May all pride and self-love be consumed in my soul and I only see my past failings and sins as reason to give God more praise for His unmerited and unfailing mercy and love.

Amen and amen.

Heart Art

2011-07-19T07:56:00.006-04:00

Last night I doodled this “Love You Always” after admiring d’blogala’s Art Journal Friday heart. (Cool site to visit, btw.)

I scanned my little sketch and then colored, burned, smudged, etcetera in Photoshop. Then added a frame in Flickr and tada! A bit of doodle art to start the day off. Nothing spectacular… could use a little more handwork...just a little art time this morning and a new doodle technique for me! Have a great day, bloggy friends!

Back from the Beach!

2011-07-18T22:09:00.002-04:00

Hello, hello!! We are just getting back from a *spectacular* week at Bald Head Island. It couldn’t have been more perfect… lots of time sitting on the beach, reading books, looking for shells, playing games, riding golf carts, and eating (gulp!) ice cream! Even playing in the waves which is unusual for me!! Altogether wonderful!!

I spent more time this year than any other looking for shells on the beach. I collected white shells, triangular shells, striped shells, shiny shells, twisty shells, “hole-y” shells, and just plain ol’ interesting shells. My favorite by far, though, was what I called “sea nymph wings.” There were tons of them…here’s just a few sets above. Obviously they are just broken bits of shells, but they looked like wings to me. Actually, I mostly like the broken bits of shells instead of the whole ones… Brokenness is not a bad thing.

The sunset from our backdoor on the first night of vacation.

Me and my shadow!

The view from our backdoor during the day!

And here’s the house we rented. No!!! Just kidding! We drove by this house quite a few times just to ohhh and ahhh. I don’t think I was coveting… I couldn’t even begin to IMAGINE living in such a house or owning it… but I definitely appreciated its beauty. The view was of the shoals and at night the moon was indescribably gorgeous! We called this the “King of the Island” house.

I loved this house, too. It’s a little hard to tell from this angle, but its built to look like a ship. This shot doesn’t do it justice. Trust me.

But of all the wonderful houses on the island, if I had to choose one to be my very own, it would be this one in the marina but still beachfront. Navy and cream. Classic! Lucky for me, it’s for sale!!! I think its only a little over $2 million… er…that would be dollars…. of the U.S. variety! (Ok, maybe I’m coveting a little over this one.)

Me, Matt, & Mary at the Marina on our last (sniff!) day. E was with us from Sunday to Wednesday. The Boy and The Girl joined us on Wednesday to Friday. Plus we were there the whole time with our good neighborhood buddies, the W’s.

And just for a bit of artsy-fun, here’s a shot of place cards I worked on at the beach for a friend’s wedding rehearsal dinner coming up this weekend. They are just like the ones I did for The Boy and The Girl except on yellow cardstock and with blue ink.

That’s all for today, bloggy friends! I would say I promise to do better with posting, but apparently I’m not to be trusted. Blessings~

3rd of 3 Book Reviews

2011-07-03T09:09:00.000-04:00

Two posts in one day! Haven't done that in a long time! Here's the 3rd book review I wanted to get done this weekend:

Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood, Paperback: 240 pages, Publisher: Anchor (March 16, 1998),

ISBN-10: 0385491115

Source: snagged it off a friend's bookshelf (Yes, CD, I'll bring this one back!)
Rating: 3 of 5 STARS

Atwood is one of my top five favorite authors. I love her stories and the way she strings words together into something intricate and beautiful yet still simple. A friend had this collection of short stories sitting on her bookshelf just begging for me to borrow. I'm working on a short story or two myself and I had the idea of reading these and maybe dissecting them a bit to see how a master does it.

These stories didn't particularly resonate with me, though. I didn't find myself marking one passage of great writing like I usually do for Atwood. (See my review of Alias Grace and the "Good Words" I collected there.) It wasn't hard reading or boring or anything like that. These stories just didn't touch my soul like I've come to expect from Atwood. Still, I plan to pick my favorite and pull it apart for my writing edification.

So, if you're an Atwood fan, definitely read since being a fan myself, I'd like to read everything by her. But if not, and looking for a good set of short stories, I'd recommend her collection Moral Disorder and Other Stories instead. I read that pre-blogging days so don't have a review for you, but it is super-excellent!

Here are a couple more of her books I've reviewed on this blog:

The Blind Assassin

Cat's Eye

AND - as a help to me, here's a running list of books I've read this year but have yet to review! (@#%$^!!)

•Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (3 of 5 STARS)

•In the Time of the Butterflies (5 of 5 STARS)

•Still Alice (4 of 5 STARS)

•Let the Lady Speak (5 of 5 STARS)

•Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (4 of 5 STARS)

•Safe from the Sea (4 of 5 STARS)

•A Broom of One's Own (5 of 5 STARS)

PS. The cover above isn't what the cover of the book I read looked like, but I really liked this one instead! Which brings me to a cool site to share with you of an artist in St. Louis, Matt Roeser, who makes alternate covers for popular books. Hop over. I like his work. Here's his take on the cover of The Disappearing Spoon I reviewed earlier today! I also really liked his version of Lord of the Flies.

2nd of 3 - Book Reviews

2011-07-03T06:36:00.000-04:00

Here's number 2 of the 3 book reviews I'd like to get done this weekend:

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean, Narrated by Sean Runnette, Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,MP3 - Unabridged CD edition (August 24, 2010), ISBN-10: 9781400169528

Source: Where I get all my audio books - our wonderful local public library!

Rating: 4 of 5 STARS

This is simply a very, very interesting book. But here this is coming from a person who truly remembers the instant she fell in love with atoms in sophomore chemistry class and who went on to get a degree in chemical engineering. So I could be biased and the "normal" person (a group I sometimes include myself but not often) might find it dull and hard to follow. It's hard for me to tell. Also, since I listened to this book instead of reading it, I tended to get lost in all the techno-language of orbitals and quantum mechanics and radioactive decay and spent a good deal of time backing up to relisten to sections. Or either just admitting I wasn't following along and zone out until something intriguing (and less difficult to understand) caught my attention. Hence the 4 instead of 5 rating. But that could just be a fault of my personal brain and not the reading public in general.

The Disappearing Spoon is chock-full of fascinating stories about the scientists involved in constructing the periodic table. I've gotten tons of ideas for tangential short stories I hope I eventually follow through with and put pen to paper. Stories of Robert Oppenheimer, Tycho Brahe, and Louis Pasteur to just name a few.

Minus a few sluggish areas, this book is well worth the listen! And actually, I'm not sure I would have made it through the book in print. Narrator Sean Runnette does a fabulous job. His voice is very expressive without being annoying and carried me along from disc to disc whereas if I were reading The Spoon it very easily could have been one of those books that I might have been tempted to put down for a while and never gotten back around to.

1st of 3 - Book Reviews

2011-07-02T08:33:00.001-04:00

I'm so very behind on book reviews! I'm going to try to do a little catch-up work this morning, so here's the first:

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art & Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer; Hardcover: 320 pages; Publisher: Penguin Press HC, (March 3, 2011); ISBN-10: 159420229X

Source: Random from Public Library
Rating: 5 of 5 STARS

I really, really liked this book. As a 40-something (ahem) woman, my memory seems to be beginning to let loose and fail. Yes, I know going into a room then forgetting what you were going to do once there is relatively normal... but I'm doing some other weird things such as forgetting I've done things like taking a can of food out of the pantry to cook and then going back to the pantry to look for it five minutes later. (And getting mad because who in the world would have eaten my one can of green beans??) So, when I saw this book at my local public library, I couldn't resist.

Journalist Joshua Foer takes the reader on a journey to look at not only how to improve one's memory but also tells the tale of the history and science of memory. He takes us on a tour of memory anomalies like S, a young Russian journalist who remembered (literally) everything and EP, a man with the most extreme case of amnesia ever documented - his memory only extended back to his most recent thought. A really interesting aspect of the book is Foer's training for the U.S. Memory Championship during the year he performed research for the book. He actually won and shares his techniques for training. Especially interesting (and useful) is the hundreds of years old "memory palace" technique. I've tried it and, yep - it really works!

As an aside - if you're interested at all in classical education (which I am since I've taught at a classical school and have had two children attend) this should be on your reading list. Great thoughts on why it is still important for children to do memory work.

So, I highly recommend this one bloggy friends! It's one after reading I wished I owned to add to my personal library. And here's a great video of Foer being interviewed with RSA.

Things I’m Liking…

2011-06-30T17:29:00.001-04:00

1. How very, very cool is this? Matt thinks he could maybe make this. Wouldn’t that be a lovely birthday present!!

2. This is from a nifty little shop I found on Etsy today – Lucy Loves This

3. I love everything I’m seeing at Bookshelf Porn… Yes, I know – obnoxious name! But check it out anyway!

4. Go to Geninne’s Art Blog for this cute July Calendar Desktop. Happy July!

5. I came across this interactive feature at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum website. Incredibly interesting to take a look at the way these engravings are put together.

6. This is amazing. Makes me want to dabble in paper cutting. Go here to more of her work!

7. I'm also liking this artist and her 'mapcuts'. And she's in Charlotte!

weekWORD: Graduate

2011-06-17T05:38:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I cheated a little. I agreed to host, but already had something in mind to go with this week’s word: “GRADUATE”

We have been blessed this past week to celebrate our middle child’s graduation from high school. For some this isn’t that big of an achievement, just an ordinary marker of the process of a child maturing – like learning to crawl, riding a bike, and getting a driver’s license. E has had a bit of adversity in her short life and has overcome much to be where she is today. She not only graduated, but graduated with honors, and has been accepted into some pretty prestigious schools. She’s heading off to one of them in August to study Political Science and I couldn’t be more proud of her.

She is a true testament to prayer, patience, courage, and perseverance.

Now, for the “creative” interpretation part…

I had in mind for a while to make her graduation announcements something special… or at least "different” … so I did a little caricature (Lordy, I had NO idea how to spell that one!! Thank goodness for spellcheck! Ha!) of her E's senior photo and designed a card for her. I think she was pleased. Getting it to print right was the most difficult thing about it!!

Yesterday I put together a design for thank-you notes. I haven’t shown these to her yet since she’s at the beach with friends. (Oh, happy days!) I hope she’ll like it!

So, how about you? Any interpretations out there? Here’s who’s playing so far this week. If I’ve missed anyone, let me know. Take a hop over to their blogs and see what they’ve done with our word for this week. (If you’re playing and just haven’t left a comment yet, just let me know and I’ll add to this list!)

John – the Healing Seed
Sow and Sew

Oh! And if anyone wants to host next week’s word, PLEASSSEEEE let me know by leaving a comment to this post!

Liquid Diamonds

2011-06-16T21:17:00.003-04:00

I’m listening to a book on the drive back and forth to work called The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of Elements. It’s a great book if you’re at all interested in chemicals and chemistry. The author mentions that some scientists are holding out for the possibility that Jupiter’s core might be liquid diamond with some Cadillac-sized solid chunks of diamonds floating around in it. Can you imagine?? And can you imagine what that would do to our diamond market if we could one day mine Jupiter’s core? Hundreds of years from now our great-great-great-great grandchildren might look back and laugh at old photos of us wearing diamonds in our ears and around our necks like we would today if we saw someone wearing a necklace and earrings scrunched together out of aluminum foil!

We love diamonds and pay high prices for tiny pieces of them because they are considered precious. If you look up the definition of “precious” you get words like “valuable”, “costly”, “esteemed”, “dear”, and “beloved.” All this brought me down the path of thinking about what I hold as most precious. The Sunday-school answer, of course, is “Jesus.” But do I really hold Him as the most highly esteemed and valuable thing in my life? Well, yes, I think I really do believe that in my heart and mind…. but I don’t always act like it, I’m afraid. I don’t act like it a lot, actually.

I’ve seen worship defined as a private act with two parts – 1)seeing what God is worth and 2)giving Him what He’s worth (i.e. our praise, honor, attention, etc.)

I understand the worth of diamonds, even though I own very few of them myself. The few that I have were given to me and those people (my husband, my Dad) were willing to pay for that worth. I’m convicted today that I don’t always truly worship our Lord reflecting what I know to be His true worth…

So many other things get my praise.

So many other things receive my honor.

So many other things capture my attention.

Today I’m praying for the ability to not only see the “worth” of Jesus as the most precious thing in my life, but to also honestly give Him the praise and honor and glory that He deserves in response.

Thanking God today for the fact that His “preciousness” and “worth” will never change, no matter what scientists one day discover on Jupiter!

From Revelation chapter 4:

⁹ Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

¹¹ “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
   to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
   and by your will they were created
   and have their being.”

Crazy Beautiful

2011-06-14T10:39:00.000-04:00

I came across this photo at Adventures in Pretty. It's a display at an Anthropologie store in Seattle, I think. How amazing is this?

weekWORD Host!

2011-06-13T22:06:00.002-04:00

I've been shamelessly ignoring this blog. I guess after so many years of being *mostly* faithful I just needed a break. But today Elena included me in an email asking for a host for weekWORD and I thought it was a good thing to make myself get off my duff and back to posting and creating.

Sooo.... since it's that time of the year, the word for this week is:

Graduate!

Or any derivation you would like to choose... graduating, gradual, graduated....

1 : a holder of an academic degree or diploma

2 : a graduated cup, cylinder, or flask

So - here are the rules

1. Let me know you are planning to participate by leaving a comment on this post.

2. Share your interpretation of the weekWORD on your blog by Friday in a medium of your choice: painting, writing, poetry, lyrics, music, photography, collage, mixed media, drawing, videos.... You get the idea.

3. On Friday, I'll post links to everyone's interpretations and (hopefully) announce the following week's host.
4. Then spend some time visiting each other's blogs and admiring the work! :-)

Here's my graduate as of this Saturday morning! Oh, happy day!!

Come-Back-Forgiveness

2011-05-26T05:58:00.003-04:00

Greetings from sunny Florida! I flew down to Tampa yesterday for a work meeting and will be here until Friday. It’s been good to see glimpses of the Gulf and palm trees, to ride over the Sky Bridge and see people fishing off its side piers, and to watch ospreys gliding over the water. I don’t think I’ll have much time to explore, but it seems like a nice place to visit.

We flew Southwest Airlines which has always been a good experience for me. But yesterday in Raleigh our flight was delayed two hours because bad weather in another part of the country slowed down Southwest’s whole system. As we were approaching Tampa, the pilot came over the PA system and asked us to forgive Southwest for the delays we experienced and please come back to fly with them again.

I thought the pilot’s use of the word ‘forgive’ in this context interesting and it made me consider forgiveness in general as we began our rather bumpy descent. I suppose when we forgive anybody – an airline, a co-worker, a friend, a spouse – there is often a sort of coming back to them involved. I guess it doesn’t have to be this way to forgive, but the best act of forgiving has this component to it.

When I forgive a friend for whatever wrong she has done to me, really forgive, I come back to her with my heart, prepared to lay it on the line again, prepared to be vulnerable and open and ready to trust her. (Now, I know sometimes it’s reasonable to truly forgive someone and not come back. There are times when you can forgive the wrong, but it’s just not possible, or always even healthy, to allow the person the same kind of access to your heart again. I think of the adult child who wants to forgive the parent who was abusive to them or the woman who needs to forgive the man who molested her. Forgiveness is important, critical to the both the child’s and woman’s mental and emotional health, but complete restoration of the relationships are probably not going to happen this side of Heaven.)

I think “Come-Back-Forgiveness” is what the Jesus is talking to Peter about in Matthew 18 when He says don’t just forgive someone seven times then cut them out of your life. Forgive them seventy times seven! Basically, forgive them over and over again. Give them Come-Back-Forgiveness.

This is the kind of forgiveness God gives us. We sin against Him myriad times a day and yet He doesn’t leave us. He’s patient and gentle, pouring out new mercies each morning, giving us balm for our souls when we deserve so much less. Over and over again, He forgives not just when we don’t obey His commands, but also when we ignore Him and choose more “hip” friends, when we fail to speak up for Him when we hear others putting Him down, and when we get too busy to spend time with Him really talking and listening to what He has to say. But He’s always there, offering forgiveness and putting His heart out to us again and again.

Paul told the Ephesians “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32) God models this amazing, and expensive, type of forgiveness for us every day. There’s always a price to be paid for forgiveness. Not by the person who is being forgiven, but by the person who is doing the forgiving. And it’s never cheap. When we forgive, we absorb the pain caused by the sin against us into ourselves. It doesn’t just disappear. When God forgave us, He did the same thing. He absorbed the pain of our sins by sending His Son to die on the Cross.

I’m praying today to be able to show others in my life Come-Back-Forgiveness. But more importantly, I’m praying to be able to more clearly understand how God has forgiven me, how He continues to forgive me, and how He will keep on forgiving me everyday I have left here on this earth.

Summer...

2011-05-23T22:37:00.000-04:00

Mary gets out of school this week which means.............

SUMMER will officially begin for our family!!

We will:

1. Have a wonderful, amazing, restful, awesome, incredible week at the beach!! (Hooray!)

2. Make some cool crafts like these colored spoons below from creatively christy.

3. Open a mother-daughter Etsy store! :-)

4. Go to the Art Museum.

5. Get our art room set up. (Yes, we "sort of" have an art room!!) I like this organization idea from Weeping Cherries. And I actually have TWO old doors from The Boy's house to turn into desks. LoVe the sawhorse bases on the desk below I found at The Inspired Room.

6. Go "garage saling" - an old Southern tradition! Some of my most favorite things came from garage sales.

7. Read some really good books. (This is my list, not Mary's!)

8. Help "Sissy" get ready for college.

9. Read through the Gospels together. (This plan is for 30 days, but we'll actually have 60 days of summer!)

10. And try to remember....

Hope you have a wonderful summer planned, too!

Seven on Sunday

2011-05-22T07:15:00.000-04:00

Hello, friends! My silence is not due to lack of things to say!! There's so much it's hard to choose! Here's seven to try to catch up -

1. We just got back from a trip to Louisiana with the WHOLE family! The Girl hadn't yet met my parents or Matt's dad as they weren’t able to make the trip up for the wedding in November. So we all flew down last Thursday and came back Monday. We had a cookout with Matt's family on Saturday with all of his siblings and their families except for one. (Matt has five brothers and sisters!) It was a good time. The Girl noted that as people started arriving she could tell if the men were blood family or married in. The guys with no hair, she automatically knew were "true" Furby's! Below is a photo of father, son, and uncle. Cute, aren’t they, with those similar hair lines?!

2. Matt was also in a Half-Ironman a couple of weekends ago. The weather didn’t cooperate so the swim portion was canceled. Disappointing! He did fabulous on the biking and running, though.

3. I have several book reviews to catch up on. Here’s my list with ratings for now:

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (3 of 5 STARS)
In the Time of the Butterflies (5 of 5 STARS)
Still Alice (4 of 5 STARS)
Let the Lady Speak (5 of 5 STARS)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (4 of 5 STARS)

4. I’m working on E’s graduation announcements. I wanted to do something homemade and different so I’m taking her formal graduation photo and trying to do a simple drawing from it to put on the front of her announcements. Here’s the photo and the drawing I have so far. Much work to be done, but I like the direction so far.

5. Matt went on a deep-sea fishing trip with our company this past week to the Outer Banks and caught a 70 pound tuna!! Really! (The photo below is of him surf fishing the day before.)

6. Here’s a shot of our littlest cutie from Mother’s Day. Sweet, isn’t she? Those freckles are starting to pop out!

7. And then there’s The Boy and The Girl with our grand-dog, Dingo. The first one is the best behavior we could get out of him. The second is reality!

Welcome to Our World!

2011-05-10T06:16:00.000-04:00

Finally, I can share this with you! This is something I did for a friend at work who just had twin baby boys. They are BEAUTIFUL babies. I had wanted to make something special for him because he and his little family are so special. I actually started making this as something totally different and it turned into a 3-dimensional piece for the babies. It's a little bigger than I intended and I had a bit of trouble framing it. I'm still not really happy with the framing job, but I'll learn and get better! I've already learned that when I make something like this I need to think of the end product more so I can size it correctly.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it and I think my friend liked it, too. I hope his wife did! At the top is their family by their new log cabin and to the left of the cabin is the manufacturing plant where we work.

The "earth" is mostly gouache paint, then the roads are black paint pen. The houses, trees, etc were drawn with Prismacolor pens and then colored with Primsacolor markers. I used 90#, 12"x18" watercolor paper (because the earth had an original layer of watercolor before I decided I didn't like how it looked. I probably should have switched to mixed media paper.) The cars, flowers, boat, etc. I drew and colored on the same paper, cut out, and mounted on the "earth" with little pop-up pads.

I haven't really worked on anything else since finishing this almost two months ago. Maybe now that it's been given away, I'll start on something new! I just found out another friend is expecting so maybe I'll start working a new "world" for her...

Talking to Snakes

2011-05-09T09:50:00.000-04:00

When I read the story of the Fall in Genesis 3, there’s always been something that strikes me as a little odd about Eve and her initial response to the serpent. When he sidled up to her and began to talk, Moses seems to report that Eve’s answer was calm and gracious (albeit ultimately flawed.) There was no surprise or fear on her part that a snake was talking to her! She just calmly began engaging the old Devil in conversation and, of course as we all know, things went downhill from there.

But why wasn’t Eve shocked that an ANIMAL was TALKING to her? Apparently, this wasn’t a big deal to her.

I like to toy with the idea that maybe it wasn’t a surprise to her because talking snakes were normal in the Garden. Maybe pre-Fall snakes could talk?! Maybe all animals could talk? Maybe this is part of what we lost when Eve and Adam sinned, an ability to commune more deeply with the other creatures God had made.

Last week during the Bible study I’m leading, we were talking about Genesis and specifically the story of the Fall when I mentioned my thoughts on this. The lady sitting next to me – a lovely elderly lady – looked at me and said very quietly, “Well, she was innocent. She had nothing to be afraid of yet.”

Wow.

What a great insight. This has set me going down a whole different line of thought.

Eve, sans sin, had nothing to be afraid of because she knew and trusted her good and loving Creator-God. She knew He only had good in store for her. Everything she discovered must have been delightful. Any change to her “status-quo” in the Garden was only seen as the next blessing from her Father’s hands to hers.

That’s not usually my experience when new things come into my life, how about you? Even changes that are “good”, I generally have trouble handling. Like The Boy and The Girl getting married last year. I couldn’t have asked for anything better – right timing, wonderful girl, and terrific family. But still – the change was difficult for me.

Now E will be leaving soon for college – a school she really, really, wanted to attend that God has miraculously provided finances for, a school close enough for us to visit but far enough away for her to begin to learn how to be on her own.

Yet.

My heart is fearful as I think of scary situations and negative outcomes for her. My mind races forward, wondering how we will ever be able to continue to pay for her tuition after this first year. God has provided a way this year, but what about the next? And the next?

And there’s more. Job changes and opportunities, changes that come from aging (Yes, friends, your female body really does begin to drastically change at 40!), new seasons of married life, my baby growing into a teenager, friends moving away, new friends finding their way to us. It’s all good, but yet there’s a little tinge of fear in my heart these days that colors the edges of my vision, wanting things to stay the same, being comfortable in the known world around me and just a bit scared of what is to come.

In the Fall, it wasn’t God who changed, it was Man. God is still the good and loving Creator-God that He was in the Garden. It is my sinfulness, my natural enmity toward Him, (thank-you, Eve) that separates me from Him even as I strive to draw near, even as I know in all my striving and all my failings, that He is with me regardless. It is my close-fisted hands that fail to receive with joy and trust the blessings He offers.

So my prayer today is to be like Eve talking to a snake. To not be afraid of new things He brings into my life, to have open hands to receive change. And not just open hands, but hands cupped and ready to receive from Him his plan for my life to its fullest, brim-full hands, not losing one little drop.

Now, knowing what actually came out of Eve talking to the serpent in the Garden, this post may seem a little weird – a prayer to not be afraid of talking snakes! – but so goes the wanderings of my crooked little mind. Forgive the failings in theology or doctrine...

Blessings, bloggy friends!

The Third Question…

2011-05-03T10:31:00.000-04:00

The Bible study group I’m leading right now is in its third week. We’ve answered these two questions over the past two meetings:

What is the Bible? The inspired, infallible, complete, word of God.
What is the Bible about? Jesus, from start to finish.

The first question we answered by looking at our denomination’s statement of faith on the Bible.

The second question we answered by exploring some of the promises in the Old Testament that were later fulfilled by Christ in the New. We also took a look at how the stories of the Old Testament show us different facets of Christ. And we watched this video:

Portion of a sermon from Tim Keller, Redeemer Church NYC

Tonight we’ll look at a third question: “What is in the Old Testament?” We’ll discuss geography, storyline, and characters. But first we’ll talk a little about some typical views of God and compare that to what the Old Testament teaches. For example, here are three common “boxes” people put God in:

God is a benevolent, grandfatherly gentleman, always ready to pat us on the back and say, “Don’t worry, dear one. It doesn’t matter what you do, I will forgive you.” A German poet and journalist, Heinriche Heine (1797-1856), said this on his deathbed when asked by a priest if he thought God would forgive him of his sin, “Of course God will forgive me; that's his job.” The Russian Empress, Catherine the Great (1762-1796) actually beat him to the punch line, though, when she said, “I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that's his.” Is God a forgiving God? Absolutely! But the Old Testament shows us a God who is also Holy (Isaiah 6:1-10) and Just (Psalm 89:14).
God created everything and now He’s just sitting back watching from a distance, if He watches at all. He doesn’t care about my day-to-day life, my decisions, my sufferings, my sin. This would be called a deist view of God. But in the Old Testament, we see a God who is intimately involved with His people, directing them, loving them, disciplining them…. He is a God who speaks, who writes, who commands. He is most definitely a personal God. He intervenes in history and nature to bring His purposes about. The stories that show this in the Old Testament are myriad and way to many to list here. But you could start with the story of Abraham’s call in Genesis 12 and just keep reading!
God is a tit-for-tat God. If I do this for Him, He’ll do that for me. If I pray, follow the rules, read my Bible, have my quiet time, God will make sure I don’t lose my job, that my children don’t rebel, and that my marriage doesn’t fail. Definitely in the Old Testament we see God telling His people if you will obey Me, I will bless you. But we see in Genesis 15, where God “cuts a covenant” with Himself, declaring it is up to Him alone to fulfill the promises to Abraham of land, off-spring, and a people through whom He would eventually bless all the nations. In the same way, we are shown in the New Testament that our salvation is not up to us, not up to the “works” we might perform to please God, but it is completely, from start to finish, from God. Even the faith we need to believe in Christ is a gift. (Ephesians 2:8).

What’s your view?