The Painting Party, where we all painted a Sunflower, that I taught at my town library a couple of weeks ago was a such a success that we are doing it again in October. The ladies I first taught requested a fall theme for our next painting and requested this painting that my librarian found on Pinterest.
I tried finding the original source of this image but didn't have any luck.
This is my version of the chevron pumpkin.
When I teach the class I'll probably do it a bit differently; more orange and less red. I think I'll get rid of the spirals in the background and maybe do polka dots instead.
I'm loving these 2 hour painting classes. They are just too much fun! I've been on the Internet looking for ideas and I've found that these painting parties are quite popular, especially in the big cities. They have painting parties with thirty some students. I'm not in a big city but maybe I could make this a business! Maybe I could travel around and lead these painting parties. I could see a bunch of women wanting to do this instead of Tupperware!
Football Season is going pretty well....as in, my boys are having a good time playing football. If you asked them what their team's win/loss record is...well...then it's a different story. Saturday after the games it's not uncommon to see little 9 and 10 year old boys crying because their team lost..again. Not my boys though. They could really care less if they won or lost and that's fine with me (though on the inside I'm just as torn up about my boys losing!) There's more to this life than sports though and as another mom put it today, they are too young to be so torn up over anything. Good point.
This Saturday I got to take team individual pics of all the boys. I learned a lot this morning that's for sure. I sure wasn't expecting the sun to be so bright but I think the shots turned out rather well. I had to brush up on shooting outside with a flash which I hadn't done in a while.
I couldn't convince Yip or Yap to smile though...or quite a few of the other boys. I kept telling them this picture wasn't for them but for their moms.
I don't know what I did but Yip's picture is the only one that turned out awful. He was the first one so I was fine tuning with him. I guess I just didn't fine tune enough. Well, I'll have to drag him out to the football field for another photo sometime soon. THAT should be horribly fun!!
I have to tell you about a side effect of taking these photos that I wasn't expecting. There's 23 boys on our football team and I'm Facebook friends with some of them but not many. When I was done editing I put all the pics on Facebook and tagged some of the parents. Then I get a friend request from one of the other moms, after I gave her permission to tag my photo. (Can you feel the Facebook drama building??)
I declined her Facebook request. (No feedback yet, cross my fingers.) See here's the thing, I have a problem with people wanting to be my Facebook friend when I've only ever talked to them three or four times. I have a problem with someone wanting to be my Facebook friend just because our kids are in the same class/football team/time zone. Just because our kids hang out with one another, sometimes against their will, doesn't automatically make us "besties". And I REALLY have a problem when one of these moms wants to be my Facebook friend and she's. just. crazy. The mom I friend declined just dripped drama.
Is it just me or do other people have to deal with these "drama mamas"? Is it getting more prevalent? Have there always been crazy moms or is it just my generation? I haven't seen drama like this since I taught middle school and really, I could see some of my crazy moms going back to junior high right now and fitting right in!
I'm getting better and identifying crazy mama drama. I didn't use to be. I used to be too dang gullible and these CRAZY moms sucked me into the whirlwind of nutso.It's exhausting to climb your way out of someone else's crazy. It's like climbing out of a hole of peanut butter. So I'd rather just be known as the unfriendly mom rather than to get sucked into all that.
If I didn't have family 1000 miles away to talk to, I would give up Facebook in a heartbeat; they're the only ones keeping me on. As soon as my family is off Facebook I am too.
How do you deal with Mrs. Crazy Mom?
(Unless you are one? Are you? ARE YOU?)
Right now my dealing with crazy mama strategy is avoidance, the buddy system (always attaching myself to a normal mom) and avoiding eye contact with the crazed beast. So far so good.
Yesterday was a day that marked a lot of "firsts" for me. It was my first time teaching an adult art class. It was the first time I taught a project that was finished so quickly (2 hours). It was my very first time leading a painting party. Every one of those "firsts" was a wonderful experience.
As I headed into the library yesterday morning, what a cozy place to have a painting party, I was very nervous. All of the women I was about to teach were more mature and had more experience in life that I had. I was very worried that I would have a difficult time communicating with them. After all I am used to dealing with children who, for the most part, are content with my simple instructions and explanations. I don't like to talk much because as one of my favorite art teachers always said, "Keep it simple stupid".
I was pleasantly surprised at how working with adults in an art setting was very similar, and also polar opposite, to working with children. These wonderful women were very open to my instructions and asked questions and I felt a sense of complete trust from them. Trust that I knew what I was doing and would successfully lead them through the painting process. I wasn't about to let them know that most of the time I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. I'm kind of a bull in the china shop person, I just charge in.
On the other hand, as I suppose was to be expected, most of these women were very critical of their work. They wanted it to be "perfect", whatever that means because really what is perfect to one person isn't to another. Or what is flawed in one person's view is perfect to someone else.
I told the ladies at one point that I wish I had a hidden camera to take photos of their facial expressions as they evaluated their work. Some were so screwed up in concentration or contemplation that it was interesting to see.
Overall success! I think they were all pleased with the outcome of their paintings. What was very interesting as I watched the women paint was, I thought, their paintings perfectly expressed each of these women's personalities. We had so much interest in our art class that the Library has already scheduled another Painting Party for next Tuesday morning to paint the sunflower again!
I finally felt like an art teacher again, even for a couple hours. I'm secretly hoping that there is a huge interest in Painting Parties and it's something that I can make grow because leading people in creating and expressing themselves makes my heart happy. I could definitely see myself doing this as a full time job, ha, but I'd have to move to a big city for that!
Tonight we had football practice at 6pm and the field is right next a train tracks. During a normal practice a train will go by a couple times. But tonight we got quite a surprise, a train load of windmill blades were going by.
There were well over a hundred blades, and nothing but blades, on this train. They were heading to Garden City, KS to a windmill staging area.
Those blades aren't small are they? Even though I've been around a lot of these blades the size never seems to amaze me!
Are you ready for Christmas?? You know, there's only 94 days until Christmas!! It will be here before you know it. Hey, I'll help you out.
I'm hosting an online 31 Organizing Bag Party!!
And, they have a great deal for the rest of September. For every $35 you spend you get 50% off one of their two large organizing totes. Watch the video!
I've bought six bags for Christmas gifts and I wish I could keep them for myself.
My favorite 31 Bag, belief it or not, is my lunch bag tote that I take with me when I substitute teach.
It's nice and big and holds plenty of food, maybe too much! It has long straps so I can carry it like a purse and it's pretty too!
If you'd like to attend my "party" then go to this link;
Click on MY PARTIES on the lower left, then you'll see my name (Heather Wise Eslinger). Click on the link SHOP NOW to the right of my name and have fun shopping!!
Tomorrow we'll be traveling an hour, yes an hour, on a Saturday morning for the boys' third football game. One thing I've learned living in Kansas is you have to drive to find people to compete against. Living in Kansas makes Warsaw, Indiana look like a booming metropolis!
I forced the boys to pose for me before their first game. Hey, I'm the MOM!! Photos of "firsts" are my right!!
Don't they look impressed?? Ha!
This is their first year in tackle football and they love it, even if they might not really understand what it is they are supposed to be doing. Heck, I don't even understand exactly what they are supposed to be doing on that football field. (Basketball will be a whole different story! DR says I can only attend basketball games if I'm gagged!)
This year we have #30 Yip and #9 Yap.
I've got lots of shots where Yip is blocking and he's made some good tackles!
Yip blocking...good job!!
Yip blocking while Yap #9 is looking on. Yap doesn't quite get the whole gist of football yet. He's not quite as willing to jump into the mix as Yip. I have yet to get a good photo of my #9 in action.
Of one the dads told me not to worry about Yap though. He said as soon as Yap realizes that football is nothing more than legalized fighting then he'll be right in the middle and be just fine. HA!
Two games down and 4 to go!! Wish em' luck tomorrow...they need it!
Have you seen this commercial for Hello Flo floating around the Internet? Take a 3 minutes to watch it (I'll wait), it's super cute and a really neat concept....I wish I had thought of it.
Wasn't that funny? DR actually told me about it a couple days ago and pulled it up one evening for me to watch. This particular evening was like any other evening. Dinner was done, dishes washed and the kids were just hanging out around the house until bedtime. I was in the kitchen, on the laptop, trying to watch this three minute video without interruption. (right) Yip more than once came wanted to know what I was watching.
"It's a girl thing that you don't need to know about!! Beat it!", I snapped. Which he would respond to by immediately sneaking around the corner to watch the video behind my back. I kept pausing the video and shooing him off because really, explaining a period to a 9 year old boy just wasn't on my to do list for the day.
As we were getting the boys ready for bed that night Yip just wouldn't let it go. "Mom, what was that video you were watching?"
Of course that got Yap immediately interested, "What video? I want to see it!" *SIGH* The whole time the boys were badgering me DR was in the background telling them to drop it, shut up, just leave it alone and vainly trying to convince them that they didn't want to know anything about the video I was watching.
But they just. Wouldn't. Drop it!!
Fine!!! I caved! They wanted it, so I was going to GIVE IT TO THEM!
May God have mercy on their souls!
I broke out our handy dandy sex ed book....which DOESN'T explain periods...
....and found a uterus....
Now we've talked about sperm and eggs and where babies grow and they've looked through this book until it's ragged, not that they've read much so they know the black and white of the birds and the bees. Periods and sex haven't come into the discussion yet.
Before I even started talking DR told them this, "Boys, Mom is going to tell you something you won't want to hear."
"Yeah we do!!" heads nodding emphatically.
"So...", DR continued without missing a beat, "tell her to stop talking when you've heard enough." Boys heads turn to me and the book enthusiastically waiting to hear the "big secret".
They asked for it.
"Women are born with eggs, here." I referenced above picture. "Once a month one egg travels down these tubes to here." Once again pointing at the illustrated uterus as I gauged my boys facing trying to decide how to proceed. Simple and straightforward was my best guess since they still looked interested.
"Blood lines the walls here that will feed and keep the baby safe as it grows." I continued, still no reaction from my boys..they'd heard all this before, pretty black and white biology.
"But, if a mother and father decide not to have a baby then the egg, which is very tiny, passes out of the uterus.....along with all that blood." I glanced warily at my boys faces and noticed they both wore slightly alarmed expressions. "That happens once a month to older girls and women."
I was going out on a limb with my next sentence but, hey, they asked for it. "I have a period every month too."
"STOP!!!" they both declared in unison. Well, I guess that was the tipping point.They didn't even remember to ask what the video was about. I hope I haven't emotionally scarred them too much!
About that time DR was behind us giggling, pointing and saying, "I told you so!!" That was my first experience trying to explain what a period was to a boy, and I only got partway finished. Did you notice how DR didn't jump it at all to help? That's probably because he's just as confused by "women things" as the boys are.
Okay, so all you mothers of boys out there....have you ever had to explain this to your sons? Or did someone else take care of it? Any horror/humorous stories to share? Any tips for me when/if I have to finish their education of periods, pads and tampons?
Although we live in Kansas my heart and home is in Indiana. My husband DR and I have been married 15 years and lived in 5 states. Along with our twin 13 year old boys and 9 year old daughter, we love to travel and are kind of like gypsies :)
Although I'd love to live closer to my Hoosier family I am blessed to be able to see so much of the country that I wouldn't be able to otherwise. What blessings the Lord has given us!
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