Artist at Work

Here I am hard at work with my colored pencils while camping up in the Adirondack Mts last summer. Actually...I wasn't really doing serious artwork. I was working with Crayolas that one of the kids brought along just for fun. I had fun drawing with the kids. I was working on a quick sketch of the Lakefront at Star Lake.
Tomorrow is Alicia's 7th birthday. I am painting a box for her treasures. I am having to do some super fast work here because it needs to be done by tomorrow night. That's where a hairdryer comes in handy. Money has been a little tight lately and I'm at a loss on what to get her anyway. She already has plenty of dolls of all sorts. There are enough games in this house. Basically you can call me a scrooge because the kids all have plenty of stuff. Wait. Let me correct that. We all have plenty of stuff in this house. This house is only 1500 sq. ft. And with 5 people along with our stuff...it makes for a tight squeeze. I'm thinking that I need to simplify big time.
Anyway...I think she will like a box painted just for her with her name on it. I have purchased a few small things to put inside. Some pretty hair bows, some sidewalk chalk,...and I can't even remember what else I bought. Not too much. Don't want to take up all the room in that box. I'll try to post a picture of it sometime.
Anyway...I need to go check to see if that first layer of basecoat is dry and get back to work!

My Son's Photography

More pictures of a much loved dog.

Cowboy-dog

This is what happens when you leave an 11 year old boy alone with a camera and a dog.

Anyway...I thought it was time to write another blog although I haven't any ideas of what to write. Maybe I'll leave it at this and be done with it.

Springtime in PA

I'm back after a vacation to Pennsylvania. I went with my sister-in-law and children. The kids had off of school. Jamie did not come with us because he had to work. We stayed in Allentown and went over to Nazareth to tour the Martin Guitar factory. It was quite fascinating to see how they make such precision instruments.

The next day we took a tour of a handbell factory and then drove to Easton, PA where we took a tour of the Crayola Crayon Factory. The kids had a blast there. A lot of hands on things to do for kids. I would highly recommend it for very young and elementary aged children. We spent over 3 hours there.

The following day my brother-in-law Kevin met up with us and we went to the Mack Truck factory. I thougth it was fairly interesting and so did Kevin, Laurie and Allen...however, my 2 girls were not all that impressed. I was particularly amazed at how the Lord has allowed man to have such knowledge in order to know how to put together such big, powerful and technical machines. After we left there, we drove to Reading, PA to take a Pretzel Factory tour. When we got there, we were told that they no longer give tours. They suggested we drive to Lititz, PA and visit The Pretzel House. So that's what we did. The entire time I was there I was thinking and wondering about some friends of mine who happen to live in that town. It would have been fun to pay them a visit...but since it was unscheduled and a week day...I'm sure that they were busy...having work and school. (The PA schools were all in session) Not only that but my bro and sis-in-law don't know them. It would have been awkward I guess. I really liked the town. It was very quaint. I wanted to browse in the shops there...and I did a little but I got the feeling that no one else really wanted to.

The weather in PA was just beautiful! They are ahead of us in the Spring season by atleast a couple of weeks. All their tulips are in full bloom and the trees have bigger leaves. The next day we drove north to Bloomington, PA and spent the night at friends of Laurie and Kevins. They were really nice. By then the weather was just rainy and dreary. We ended up going to a mall and shopping a little and then just hanging at the house.

I will try to get some pictures up. I have pictures in my camera, but I don't have a way to download them to my computer unless I send them to work with my hubby...which I didn't think to do this morning. It was all so nice to get away...but what I really would like to do is get away with my husband. We just haven't done that in so long!

He Has Risen!

He has risen indeed!

Nice Kitty

Here are 20 arbitrary statements about me.

1. As a child, I loved my cat Jodo. (or is that orange kitty? Martha, help me out here.)
2. I have a red mark on the palm of my right hand and it's been there as long as I can remember.
3. I shouldn't read romance novels.
4. I started wearing glasses in third grade.
5. I accepted Christ as my savior when I was 14.
6. God rocked my world when I was 19...almost 20.
7. I recommitted my life to Christ when I was 21. This time Christ was Lord of my life...not just my savior(there really is a difference)
8. While I was pregnant...I often suffered from insomnia.
9. I love mexican food!
10. I don't drink alcohol...at all.
11. My shoe size is 8 1/2.
12. I'm 5'6" tall.
13. I've hardly done any traveling at all.
14. I can draw quite well.
15. During my pregnancies, I never suffered from morning sickness.
16. Sometimes one of my toes on my right foot comes out of joint and it is very painful!
17. When I was in elementary school, my best friend's name was Birgit.
18. I'm a core leader for Community Bible Study.
19. I hate using lead pencils.
20. Sometimes I write incredibly boring blogs.
    

Scones Anyone?

My son has been working on an immigration project for school. He's in 5th grade. Each child was assigned a person to be. The kids had to come up with a story as to why they were immigrating to America, come up with a costume, pack a bag of 6 items with explanations as to why they were bringing each one and they had to bring an ethnic dish from the country they were immigrating from. Today they set up their classroom to be Ellis Island. My son was a poor textile worker from England, seeking a better life in America in 1880. I'm happy to say that he was allowed into the country!

The other day we went to Salvation Army Thrift shop and bought a vest and suit jacket. We went to a junk shop and bought a $2 American History book that was printed around the turn of the century. He also packed old English currency that he printed off the internet, an old family photo, a Bible, an English flag, and a snack of crackers to eat on the boat. Last night, I supervised while he made English Scones. They smelled wonderful...so I decided that I'd better make some for the family as well. He returned from school with almost all the scones. The kids liked them...but apparently there were "80 million things to eat." That's what he said anyway.

I guess we will be eating scones for a while. It's funny that I found this picture of blueberry scones on the internet...because that is the kind he made and they looked pretty much exactly like this! Yum!

Doesn't Anyone Sit on the Front Porch Anymore?

Lately I just haven't had much inspiration for writing. Some people are very gifted blog writers...just check out Christine's blog link to the right for example. I've had a lot of fun reading other people's blogs...which puzzles my husband. He walks by the computer and says something like, "Now what are you reading? Who's she?" I'll say something like, "A Christian stay-at-home-mom who lives out in California. Aren't her children just darling?" He'll shrug his shoulders and walk away...bewildered as to why I spend time reading and sometimes communicating with strangers. But I am equally puzzled by him spending time working on web sudukos. I just don't get it.

Anyway...here I am again. I guess I just feel this strong need to connect with people. Yesterday was wonderful connecting over lunch with Cathy. I get lonely here. And so I sit....alone...in a room...by myself...in front of a computer screen. Sometimes I long for the "old days." When most people's relatives all lived on the same street...and most mothers stayed home with their children. And not only that but most families just had one car...so you were basically home. There were no computers. No one called ahead before they visited. No one carried cell phones or pagers. People actually sat on their front porches.

I live in an older section of my town. Many beautiful, century old homes with big front porches...but rarely do people actually sit on them. I sat on mine yesterday...but the other porches on the street were empty. What's wrong with this picture? Where is everybody?

Life is Good!

I am getting bored with my own blog...so I thought I'd better get busy and put up a new post. Today is an absolutely beautiful day. I also was thrilled to be treated for lunch by my friend Cathy. She was the friend I built the castle for. I had told her that I was not interested in earning any money on it. Last night she called and said, "How about I take you out to lunch?" So we had a nice lunch at a littel deli called Pepper's. I had a wonderful wrap with guacamole, tomato, turkey, lettuce...and I don't know what all else. It was very tasty. We had nice and meaningful conversation. It's wonderful to have good friends.

I got home and worked on filling in the pits and cracks on the blanket chest I am going to paint and hopefully sell. In 2 hours it should be ready for me to paint and put primer on.

"Lord, I just don't get it."

I was unable to go to my ladies' Bible study this morning because my son isn't feeling well. I sat down to have a devotional and thought, "Now what?" You see... my routine had been interupted. I usually do my homework for my devotionals. But I had completed all the homework and I don't have the next lesson. So I opened the Bible and found John 13. Sometimes I admit that when I read the same passages over and over again I think, "What new can I possibly get from this?" And then a verse caught my eye.

John 13:7 Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

I was intrigued. I must admit that a lot of times God leaves me scratching my head and thinking, "Why?" I pondered that and thought there must be a devotional somewhere written about this specific verse. So I searched on the net and found

This

The author of the devotional cross references to Rev 4:1-3, where God takes John to see "what must take place after this." It is there that John sees a complete rainbow encircling a throne. Here on earth we don't see complete rainbows. Did you know that rainbows are not arch shaped? They are circular! While on earth we are not able to see a complete rainbow...just part of it.
Someday, we will understand. We will see the complete picture. On that day I will say, "I get it, Lord!" And then I will fall down and worship him and shout his praises!
I'm looking forward to this...because here on Earth, I just don't get it. But I will trust Him when He says that someday I will.

Castles in the Wind

It's late and I shouldn't be blogging. I should be sleeping...or at the very least laying in bed, trying to go to sleep. But this time change is still not natural to me. I don't feel tired, therefore I must not be. Isn't that a famous saying?

I finished the castle I was constructing and my friend just loved it. I have no pictures of it at all. It was quite an adventure trying to get the castle to her. This morning I opened the back of my minivan...only to discover the castle would not fit! As I was struggling with it, in the wind, I might add (keep in mind this structure was made out of foam board), my friend, Blake pulled up in her SUV. "She will save the day!", I thought to myself. Sure enough, Blake offered to transport it for me...but not until later in the day, as she was late for a meeting and still needed to stop at the store and pick up a desert for brunch.

At 1:00 she faithfully returned. Much to our horror, we discovered that the castle would not fit in her SUV! Luckily, "All things Art" is not located far from my home( the drop off point). I decided I had no choice but to carry the thing all the way there. Luckily it is not heavy. So there I was, carting a large styrfoam castle down the side walk. I could imagine what my neighbors must be thinking. I saw my mailman, Dennis...who gave me the raised eyebrow. "Don't ask!" I called across the street to him. "I won't," he assured me. Just then a gust of wind came up and whipped the castle around, practically wrenching it from my hands. And then, the cloud came off! I had already rounded the corner onto Niagara Street. Could I make it another 2 blocks? I became very doubtful. Had I constructed this thing in vain?!

Oh, my dear friend Blake! What would I do without her? She had circled around to see how I was faring. Seeing that the structure was somewhat smaller now that it was missing the cloud, she pulled over to see if she could now be of some assistance. We tried again. It barely fit! I can still hear the squeaking of foamboard against glass as we put it in the back...with one of the castle towers hanging out the back of the doors, that were not quite shut. I got in with it to keep it from blowing out the doors. We drove sloooooowly and painfully to "All Things Art." Made it!

Several pieces of duck tape later, we were in good shape! It looked almost as good as new, and praise be to God that all the ladies there gushed over it! kathy said she would make sure I got a photo...which I will try to add to this post a.s.a.p. I just wish I had a picture me struggling with it in the wind!

Clean up

Well I cleaned up my blog a bit...getting rid of some useless posts that were just taking up space...but in doing so, I accidently deleted"church planting"...the post encouraging you all to check out Chris and Liz's adventures as missionaries to Melbourne, Australia. Their link is to the right.

Stepping Heavenward

Today as I was studying the word of God....I came upon a passage in Nehemiah 9 where the Jews spend a significant amount of time confessing their sins to God. In fact they spent a quarter of the day just confessing and worshipping the Lord. By my calculations that is 6 hours! Wow! That is quite impressive. This was after another 6 hours of listening to the word of God being read.

I started considerring that I haven't come near to that...especially the confessing part. Sometimes I gloss over that or I'm very general. I decided to spend time in confession. Hey. I'm human, I have sin in my life. I didn't spend 6 hours...in fact I really didn't keep track of the time so I have no idea how long...but I spent time writing out specific areas of sin and confessing them to the Lord. I asked Him to bring things to mind. He did. I just want to grow in him and I want all the garbage gone. I have garbage in my mind and heart and I listen to the lies of the enemy all to often.

Praise God that there is no more condemnation for the sins I have committed. (Romans 8:1-2) I just want to be more and more the woman God intends me to be. It's a long journey that I seem to never make progress on. It seems like I will always be the little child...trying on her Father's hat and toddling along.

"Father, Grow me up in you."

Decluttering

I spent the day decluttering one room of my house. It was really looking bad and I finally resolved to do something about it. I hauled out a box full of stuff that was laying around that no one cares about anymore (or maybe never did). It's on its way to good will. I also threw out quite a bit of stuff too. Wow! Does the room look great! You know...I've done this decluttering thing before...but it always comes back. Especially when I let my guard down. I stop paying attention or I get so I'm apathetic about it or unmotivated or too busy to bother.

This sounds very similar to my spiritual walk sometimes! I get really into the Christian walk...reading and praying and memorizing scripture. The clutter moves out of my brain and heart. I'm doing great! Practically walking on water! Ha ha! That's when I get too sure of myself. I stop paying attention. I get lazy and pretty soon it seems like such work to read my Bible and pray. Then the clutter starts moving back in. The doubts. The depression. The "what ifs." Old hurts are resurrected and...my spiritual house is a mess! Why do I follow this cycle over and over again? You'd think I'd learn after a while!

Joshua 24:15 As for me and my house,we will serve the Lord."

Yes, this needs to be my daily motto and committment!

Lord, paint me beautiful!

Well I have not blogged in forever. I'm still not sure what I'm going to say. I have just been busy that's all. Just doin' the mom thing and it seems like it's always something. I've also started a couple more projects. Business has been a bit slow...but I have a couple of pieces that maybe I can paint and sell. I've tried to stay off the computer because it can really be a time waster for me. I just get on and it just sucks me in and pretty soom I've blown a couple of hours doing nothing.
Lately I have been stripping layers and layers off of an antique chair. It is a painful process that doesn't seem to end. When I started, it was bright yellow..with the back rungs being white...and was covered with dirt and mildew. The mildew is gone, and I have discovered a variety of colors built up over the years. Yellow-white-tan-black-red-green-white again. It reminds me of the Lord...stripping down through my painful layers in order to renew me. Yes, it was painful...but well worth it.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Ps. 139:23-24

That is all. Hopefully I will regain my creativity soon with blogging. Sorry to disappoint you readers.

President's Motorcade

Hey! Here is the actual picture of the president's motorcade taken by one of the women who is in my leadership group. I'm glad she was wise enough to bring along a camera...and nice enough to share it with me...who didn't even think about my camera as I left the house that morning.

Presidential Visit

I knew I had to blog today because President Bush came and visited our town today. He visited an upscale nursing home and made a speech at our local high school. Who'da thought our town would be picked out of all the towns on the map of the USA? Anyway...our town has been quite a buzz for the last several days. Everyone was busy cleaning up the main drags around town and putting signs of welcome out. One business even went through the trouble of "planting" red, white and blue plastic flowers.

I went to my CBS leadership team meeting at the free methodist church...which is located on one of the main roads into town. When I walked in, our fearless leader Blake said, "We're switching rooms to meet in today." Why? Well to meet on the side of the church that faces the road, of course! We had our meetings, with occassional interuptions from someone who would say..."Oh! There goes a state police car!" We'd all anxiously look out the window to see if the motorcade was on it's way. We finished up our meeting and gathered around the windows and waited. Finally after about 15-20 minutes, the motorcade arrived. Several dark official looking vehicles with darkened windows. Several vans and of course security vehicles. We were all so excited!

The kids got home from school. None of them go to the high school, but got to watch the president's speech via close circuit TV in their classrooms. I said, "So, did you see the president? How was it?" Their reactions were typical for their age. "It was boring. He talked about medicare." My littlest one said, "I didn't listen." They were less than impressed I guess.

I got to thinking about all the fuss and preparations made for this great man to come to our town. A day that will be remembered by many for years to come (even if it was of being in a sunday school room at a Free Methodist Church). Every day I have opportunity to have a personal visit with someone greater than George W. And most of the time, I take it for granted and don't spend a lot of time on preparation or even in excitement. My God is an awesome God! I want to have a greater love for Him than I do. One that anticipates my encounters with Him and hangs on his every word. Like Mary, sitting at His feet and listening. Everything else stopped because He was most important to her.

I'm ready for spring now!

After reading my niece's and Martha's blogs...I had to copy them. I want spring. It was warm and sunny this morning...but just when I was ready to go out for a walk, the clouds rolled in, a wind came up and it actually started sprinkling. Audra and I took Sherman for a walk anyway. A short one. I put my hood on and pulled the strings tight. I must of looked like a goof ball. I kept laughing because A's long hair was blowing every which way. Sherman thought the whole thing was wonderful. He probably wondered why we were taking such a short walk when we returned to the house. I guess the weather didn't bother him a bit.

I have not been in much of a blogging mood lately. I guess I have the winter blahs.

My Beautiful Niece

Here is a picture of my beautiful niece, Bethany and her new husband Adam. They were married on December 3rd. In this picture Adam looks like he has grey hair...but he doesn't. It must be the lighting somehow.

Chocolate is My Friend

Well...I'm having a pitty party today because I am lonely. I have called several friends to see if anyone wanted to have coffee or lunch. No one is home. Martha is home, but she lives too far away. I went to Jamie's work place to see if he might like to go out for lunch. He wasn't opposed to the idea...but felt like he shouldn't leave the office because he was the only one available to answer the phone.

I came home and noticed my neighbor's car in her driveway. Went inside and called her, but there was no answer.

So...I came inside, made myself lunch and ate by myself in front of my virtual friends on the computer. The funny thing is, none of them seemed to be home either. And so I did the next best thing....I went into the kitchen and cut myself a very large fudgy brownie. I ate it and felt a strange fullfillment. I knew then that I must find a picture of chocolate and put it on my blogspot.

To anyone out there who can sympathize with my plight...eat a piece of chocolate.