The Best Dog in the Whole Wide World!

Here he is guarding his new toy... a ball I made for him of loner socks!

Recent Reading!

I recently found Laini Taylor's first book, "Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer" at my local library much to my delight. Discovering her blog through Sunday Scribblings is what led to me finding out about her first book and reading the first chapter online. Laini is a talented artist and author.

Faeries of Dreamdark is the tale of Magpie Windwitch. Magpie is a faery whose noble efforts help to rid the world of devils and worse in a time when most of fairy civilization has fallen to frivolity. Through her journey she unearths dark secrets hidden since the beginning of the creation of the earth by it's creators and faces the resulting chaos head on.

I give this book two thumbs up! ;)

New REAL Water Colors With the Girls...

C'mon Mom, the new paints are ready, take the picture already... (i only had time for one try!)




The girl's results as hung on the wall by little E.



The end. Little E. thought it'd be fun to mix everything together to find out what happened.

This was the best $5.60 I have spent in a long time. A set of 12 real water color tubes... I had to get over micromanaging the girls about keeping the colors separate, mixing separately, and not using too much paint. For goodness sake, it was only $5.60 and we have enough left for at least 4 or 5 more sittings.

Self Portrait Before Date...

Jeff and I will have been together for 19 years in a week or so. We've been married for 13 of those years. We went out this weekend...

Next Big Purchase...

Now, for anyone else having to consider braces, please note the difference in price if I buy a membership to a discount dental plan that I found on the internet called Dental Network of America. I googled discount dental plans and found several plans and surprisingly enough one of the orthodontists that my dentist recommended was listed for a few of the plans. So, I picked the plan that offers 20% off orthodontic services for the price of $109/year. Not bad, huh?

Bye Bye Baby Girl...

Yes, it was the first day of school for my other kids, too, but this is little E.'s first day of all day kindergarten. :( She seemed to like it. She said she made lots of friends, liked going outside for recess, and liked riding the bus.

Future Studio...

Today was the day set aside to regain/gain some divine mojo as deemed by a fellow blogger, Megg. This morning I awoke planning to set aside the day to start making the space in our carriage house/barn deemed as mine, my own. This meant cleaning and going through boxes from our move eight years ago consisting of art school memorabilia and lots of negatives, photographs, and obsolete photography equipment mixed with some dried up clay and glazes. Throughout the day, I started to feel overwhelmed but I knew that today was divine mojo day and somehow that reminded me that I need to quiet those damned negative voices that normally keep me stagnant. I decided that rather than one day for divine mojo, I am going to dedicate the rest of this week to the project. I fully intend to write down all the negative things I tell myself, burn them up and release them to God to be replaced with positive energy and thoughts. Awhile ago the following verse from the Bible came to have new meaning for me,

"Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."

Before whenever I read this verse, I only heard the negative side of what it could mean... what I shouldn't be thinking about or watching on TV or listening to or whatever. Lately, though, it's taken on a deeper meaning for me... I think this verse means that we should focus on the positive things in life and ignore the negative voice in our head telling us that we aren't good enough, that there will never be enough time, that we are too old, etc. So, for me, finding divine mojo means taking this verse to heart.

The Outside:



Panorama of the inside (BEFORE)

Waiting for The B00K!

Stop!

Turning Back Time: My First College Roommate!

She used to watch my oldest son, now 16, when we were in college when I was a junior. Crazy. She knew me before kids and this past weekend I finally got to see her as a Mom. She's a great mommy!

That long red hair of hers came in handy many times, btw!

Pool

Ya' know... I don't think anyone is going to try to dive into the zero entry end of the pool... other ends, maybe, but zero entry?

Garden Blooms

These are the flowers from my garden that decided they would return this year without any help from me minus my peach colored rose bush which bloomed all at once and promptly lost all of it's petals in a rainstorm.

I love flowers that return without my input!

Peace

(photo by my dear 8 yo)


Is there a song that brings you to a place of peace within moments of it's first chords? Pink Floyd's, "Breathe", slows my heart almost instantaneously the moment the noises from the outside world at the beginning of the song die down and the true opening chords kick in. I close my eyes and exhale. I am no longer standing in the kitchen of a house on Main St. USA but am instead lying on the forest floor looking up at a canopy of dappled emerald sunshine.

Oh yeah.

(And, thanks to my friend Carrie who came up with the expression "dappled emerald sunshine" and said I could use it three years ago when I asked since I was completely enamored by the phrase... now, I have finally worked it in...)

Inspiration...

I didn't really get any good shots of the astronauts because it was so dark but I wanted to included one especially because of the astronaut on the right. He gave a speech at the beginning of the program that was quite inspiring. He applied to the space program the first year NASA took applications for the first space shuttle back in 1978 and was rejected. He applied again in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, in 1992 he called before he sent in his application to ask if he was getting too old for the program to which they replied, "No, you're not old enough", and he applied again in 1993 and was finally accepted in 1994 when he was 38 years old. Two years after acceptance and training, he went into space.
Most people would've given up. He spoke of how it became a joke before he was accepted. It's too late for me to be an astronaut but perhaps there's something else for me to be.

Interesting Sites in Washington...

American Indian Museum

By the time we were finished in this museum, my ankle and feet hurt so bad that I broke off from the group and then realized I might not have enough cash on me (and no mac card) for a cab back to the hotel. I asked a security guard how much a cab would cost and couldn't even get the words out without crying... he told me the amount, which I had, but said he would've given me the money if I hadn't had it. (Thank God!)

Road Trip!

Jess and I right before we took a wrong turn thanks to google and go an hour out of our way!



Feet after arrival last night!

101/365 Loooooooooong Exposure

Coming home from hanging out with Jessica... lights.

Happy Birthday Chaya!

We celebrated Chaya's birthday on Easter but I didn't get a specific birthday type picture of her. Pictured above she is using her
"bunny money" to buy gifts from the makeshift store that Bridget set up. Bridget created the bunny money to hide in some of the eggs for the Easter egg hunt to add to the fun. Bridget's famiy has been celebrating Easter dinner with us for a few years along with the usual relatives... Jeff's parents, my stepfather (occasionally my Mom and sister when they are in town) and Jeff's brother and his wife. Fun, fun!



Chaya requested an ice cream cake this year so rather than buy one like we usually do, I made it myself and it actually turned out! Yum!

My Egg Funked Out

My egg really is this color but Jeff helped me funk out the background.