A nice day...

My poor Hoosier family. My mom just texted me that northern Indiana is under a code red travel advisory.  And a blizzard warning until 10 tonight and winter storm warning until 7 in the morning. 

My poor sister in law moved from western Kansas to northern Indiana just a few month ago. I'm guessing she's not having a very good winter so far. 

I probably shouldn't share this photo with her then should I? 

Sunny and bright and almost 60 degrees. 

I shouldn't complain but honestly...I don't think I'd mind being in the middle of a blizzard right now. 

Papa Asa

With the big move coming up in just three more weeks my busy schedule is slowing down. I gave up my position as Sunday School teacher and on the Township Library Board. I was looking at my schedule last week hoping that I'd get some good long hours of painting in before the move. That hasn't quite happened yet. I did get this handsome guy done a little over a week ago though. 

This is my Grandpa Asa who died a few years ago. I was pretty close with this Grandpa even though we fought a lot! Stubborn runs in the family I guess. 

I worked on this one on and off for about 4 months before it was finally finished. I already shipped it off to my Grandma Mary, his wife. I already miss him though. I admit when I started painting this I started at his eyes and I cried for the first couple days. Papa's eyes were his most striking feature and it was really hard to paint him. 

Last year I finished a painting of my Grandma Lennis. 

I think I'm getting better. I'd like to paint a picture of each of my grandparents but I'm having trouble finding good photos of my other grandpa to work from. 

Yesterday I was hoping to paint but Yahoo was sick all day. Maybe nothing urgent will come up today and I can get some time in. I think one of the hardest things about being an artist is not allowing day to day life intrude on your creative time. 

Home sick

I guess I'm not going anywhere today. Yahoo is home sick with a fever. I'm not complaining though because we have dodged the bullet on the nasty stomach flu so far this winter but we've had a lot of bad colds. Coloring books and Netflix!

Big News!

Wow, I can hardly believe that it's been almost four months since I've blogged. I know I've been ignoring my blog here but I must say the other aspects of my life have been flourishing! 

In case you didn't know, in the last year I've started my own business The Roving Brush, a traveling painting party. It became more successful than I had ever imagined it would. In the past 16 months I'd say I averaged one party a week which along with substitute teaching and teaching Sunday School I've only gotten busier the last couple of years. 

And of course Yip and Yap are 10 1/2 years old, almost as tall as me and busy with basketball, 4H and the many adventures they get themselves into. Yahoo will be 6 in a couple of weeks and is so very proud of the fact that her bike's training wheels are off and she's working really hard at learning to ride like a big kid before......

........big news coming......


........can you guess???.............


WE ARE MOVING! (Yes, again!) 

Let's recap shall we?? 

Quick timeline;
Aug. 2003 - DR and I were married and I moved from central Indiana to Kentucky. 
March. 2004 - DR's job moved him, temporarily, to Delaware. I was two months pregnant with twins. I move in with my sister in Indianapolis because we don't know how long "temporary" will be and what issues we may have with twins. So for the next few months DR and I flew back and forth to see one another. In June, "temporary" became permanent and I am told by my doctor to no longer fly. 
August/Sept. 2004- Yip and Yap were born very healthy and a month later my mom and I drove to Delaware with the babies. DR didn't like the position he was forced into with this company and so....
January 2005 - My parents and teenage brother came to Delaware and helped move us back to northern Indiana....through a blizzard....with 5 month old twins....to a rental house that I'd only seen once.....two years before.  
October 2005 - We moved again to a house we bought two streets away because,you know, we thought we'd be there for a while. 
July 2006 - DR is asked to take a position in southern Indiana close to his family....we move again. 
October 2007 - July 2010 DR's company moved us again to central Illinois close to the Indiana state line. Yahoo was born!! 
July 2010 - March 4, 2015 We've lived in Montezuma, KS one of the best little communities in the world!! (can you tell I'm biased?)  
March 4, 2015 - will be our last day in this great town and we'll be moving to a 20 acre place in the country that I haven't seen yet!


I am super excited for our move though. We'll be living about an hour southwest of Kansas City, KS which is only a day drive to my parents in Indiana!! That's so much better than the two day drive with three kids that we've faced these last 4 years. DR has taken a job with his company that's a promotion (more on that later hopefully!) that he is really enjoying. He's been living in Kansas City in a hotel since early December and we are all tired of it! My kids miss their dad!!! The kids are pretty nervous about being at a new school but I'm sure they'll adjust pretty quickly. 

Anyway, with our move coming up we (obviously) have some big changes coming. I anticipate that the biggest challenge for me is that I will suddenly have either a) a whole lot of time on my hands to blog or b) so busy with living in the country and kick starting The Roving Brush again that I won't have time to blog! We'll see! 


As I was searching back through my blog to find that timeline above I found all those posts I did years ago that were Pics of the Day. Now why haven't I been doing those in a while? Oh, I know it's tricky to lug a camera around, load pics onto the computer and then post. But now I have a phone I can blog from and....why haven't I? I've decided to try to do those again.

With just about 3 weeks until moving day my schedule is all kinds of crazy. Some days I find myself busy from sunup to when I crash into bed and then other days, like today I find myself with some unexpected time on my hands. 
I'll do my best to keep you all updated on the big move! 

Keep us in your prayers...we need it!! 

Heather 

Harvest notebook

This week marks the third full week of harvest. The farmers are going hot and heavy in the fields and are keeping my husband pretty busy. DR leaves before 6 o'clock in the morning and doesn't get home until after 10 o'clock at night. Not only does he work really long days but he usually works 13 days in a row. Which makes harvest hard not only on DR but pretty hard on his kids when they haven't gotten to see their dad for over a week. 

If we were a farm family Servite being harvest wouldn't be nearly as hard. If DR were a former then the kids could spend time with him while riding in the combine or a semi. Or the kids could spend time with him every evening eating dinner in the field. But a grain elevator isn't the best place for kids to hang out and spend time with their dad. It's crowded it's busy and really if we went to the elevator we would just be in the way. 

Yep and Yap are 10 years old and they are pretty close to their dad. Which makes harvest even harder for them to endure. So this harvest we have started a harvest notebook. Every day after school the kids sit down and write a message or dictate a message to me for DR. There Messages me explain how their day at school went or how their spelling test was. Sometimes they ask their dad how work is going or random questions they wanted the answer to. A lot of times the kids will ask their dad to do things with them after harvest. Sometimes the notes were funny and sometimes they are serious but they always end with a message to their dad of how much he is missed.

 Then every evening when DR gets home from work and as he's changing clothes and falling tiredly into bed I read him the notes from his children. He answers each no patiently while I write down his answers. He always ask plenty of questions of his own to keep the conversation going. In this little way the kids and DR keep a connection that sometimes it's hard to nourish during harvest. 

The harvest notebook has been good for everyone. This harvest isn't going to last forever. DR anticipates only a couple more weeks before life gets back to normal. It could be worse. I remember a harvest in Illinois that lasted three months. Whatever the length of harvest though when you don't get to see your dad it always makes the time feel a lot longer. So the harvest notebook has helped us be patient during harvest waiting for dad to get home and gives us things to anticipate when harvest is finally over. 

Blogging Rut.....

In case you couldn't tell by my lack of blogging posts the last year I'm in a blogging rut.....
I suppose I have plenty to write about being that I have three loud and busy kids at home and myself having spreading my eggs in lots of different baskets (church, painting parties, substitute teaching, library board, etc......that's an exhausting list.) But none of the things going on lately inspire a lengthy blog post, though I feel like I have enough stuff rattling around in my to keep me up at nights. Some of which......

• We've lived in SW Kansas for 4 1/2 years now. The longest DR and I have lived in one place together our whole marriage. Honestly, I'm getting a bit antsy! We had a good wet summer this year in SW Kansas but I'm not sure if it was enough to start celebrating the end of a 5 year drought. It was odd though to drive down roads this summer and not recognize where I was because of all the green. Other than that life in SW Kansas is still pretty much the same; dry, windy and plenty of tumbleweeds.
• Yip and Yap aren't playing football this year (4th grade). They lost every game last season and were pretty bored since they played on the line and barely touched the football. I love sports but I'm totally fine that they aren't playing football; it's made for a pretty relaxing fall so far! Our Saturdays are open and I'm not rushing them to practice once a week. They are looking more forward to playing basketball...me too!!! 
• Yahoo is in Kindergarten this year and it's meant a big change for me. I'm home all by myself days I'm not working and she's suddenly has independence she didn't have before. Last week was the first time she went to the library program without me. I have to admit that it made me a bit uneasy. Not because I was worried about her but because, for the first time in ten years, I don't have the feeling that I have a child who can't be without me. It's odd. That's just something that takes a bit of time to get used to. I'm learning to like it!! 
• Speaking of Library....I'm on our public library's board. I love my librarian (she's awesome) and other board members (so supportive) but working with other government entities (that will remain nameless) is exhausting. Sometimes I just can't figure out how people in leadership positions can be so stupid and irresponsible. *heavy sigh*
• Substitute teaching is same old same old though I may be busier this year considering the new respiratory virus going around. The school sent home a note about it but really, it was hard to get too worried considering the beginning symptoms were the same as a common cold. So we stocked up on orange juice.....
• Painting parties are keeping me busy too. I'm having so much fun doing them and now that school is back in session I'm averaging about one a week. I could write about them all the time but I'm sure you all would get bored hearing about them. The best part is painting parties gives me the opportunity to teach people who really want to learn!! 
• I could say that I'm also busy cleaning my house while my kids are at school all day long but there's better things to do!!! 

Painting with The Peanut Gallery, otherwise known as "My Family"

I know, I know....it's been forever since I've posted anything. 

I'm in a blogging rut....(I'll worry about that later..) 

Though a couple of weeks ago we had a GREAT family event!! My brother got married and our whole family came from Indiana for the wedding!! All my brothers and sisters, their kids and spouses, were in one picture! That happens only every 3 years or so...

( I LOVE this photo!) 

Most of us got together the week before the wedding and camped out at Lake Scott State Park. They have some really nice cabins. Not only did we camp out and climb hills and roasted marshmallows, we also had painting parties! We split up the guys and the girls because someone had to watch the kids while we painted! 

First two of my three sisters, my two sister in laws, mom, grandma and cousin painted outside in the campground shelter. It was great, despite the 95 degree heat and breeze. 

I've never had paint dry so quickly! 

Painting with these ladies was great! It was just as I expected it would be. They painted, asked questions, and came up with some really great ideas! 

Overall it was a great painting party! Very much like all my other painting parties. 

We painted a pasture with a barn, trees, a fence row and some flowers. 

But then the next day I painted the very same picture with the guys.....

...oh boy...

You know, sometimes when I host painting parties I tell folks that having a beer or a glass of wine before helps some people relax and paint. But I think my brothers took that advice just a bit too far. They came in pretty rowdy! (I had to have two beers right off to get through the night!!) 

Our family had rented two cabins for the week and we crowded the guys into one cabin for an evening of painting. 

My dad (on the left) and my three brothers...

...my two Okie cousins who had just arrived. We didn't even let them eat! 

(Thanks for being a good sport guys!) 

..and my brother in law. Yeah, he painted a fish...I ran out of big canvases!! 

All that was left was a little fish.....whoops. 

(Yep...that's my crazy husband in the background ....I'm not sure what that face is all about!) 

I've done about 40 painting parties and they've always been pretty relaxing for me! I've always enjoyed teaching people and coming up with new ideas for paintings. I love working with people and helping them solve their painting problems. 

But painting with my brothers was not relaxing. They sure know how to rattle my cage! 

My brothers were "The Peanut Gallery"!!  I chugged two beers just to deal with all the heckling!  

Though they were loud which was a lot of fun!! Sometimes painters can be a bit too quiet. 

But not my family of guys !! 

I guess maybe I deserved it though....

I'm the oldest...and I guess maybe  I was kind of bossy growing up. Especially to my brothers. 

Heck I'm at least ten years older than all of my brothers so they probably got tired of me (a second mom) a long time ago. 

Maybe they got it all out of their system though. I sure hope so.

I'm not sure if I ever want to paint with guys again if guys in general act anything like my brothers!! 

I was proud of everyone though! For as crazy of a week that we had with all wedding stuff I thought the painting parties went really well. My whole family did a great job painting! 

Normally I take a group photo of artists and their paintings but we were pretty tired by the time we were finished and didn't get around to it. 

I'm hoping they will all send me pics of themselves holding their paintings...

...HINT, HINT!!! 

...(9/22) and my mom just sent me a couple more pics!! 

My brothers Mater, Mountain Man, John Deere and my dad. 

And my mom and two sister in laws (sorry, no cool nicknames for you two...yet!)