I'm really not ignoring you.....

You probably wonder where I've been. The month of May was SUPER busy for Painting Parties! Yay!! Most exciting, for me, was that I was able to paint with a lot of kids this month!  So here's a not so short run down of my month of May!

 

My month started off with a Sunflower party but this group of ladies really went above and beyond with their flowers to make them so unique.

Then I led my library ladies in painting Sunset (or Moonrise) on the lake. This has become a favorite for many painters and it's especially a good one for first time painters.

My next party in May was a birthday party for a mountain loving gal! Everyone went home with a present. What a lovely group of ladies. And most of them hadn't painted before and they did just marvelous.

But my favorite party for May was painting Pigeons with Preschoolers!! They were awesome!! Really, I could paint with kids all day long. They are just the best!

 

 

Then I painted clovers with my boys 4H Club. I won't lie, it was more chaotic than I was used to and there was no way we could get a group shot, but I think they all had fun!

Whoo....are we done with the month of May yet??? Not quite...

Towards the end of the month I led my first Peacock Party..also the first time I've had to break out the flashlight on my phone to paint by!! We were painting in the hostess' photography studio which has awesome windows that allow in wonderful light. Great for photos, not so good for a late night painting party!

Then a very ambitious three hour party of an old farm truck that went extremely well! Even though we were rushing around the last 20 minutes as we were expecting a hail storm to hit...that never materialized.

The very next night we painted (and drank) wine to celebrate a friend's retirement. Congrats!! This ladies were a blast!! I could paint with them every week.

And FINALLY I ended the month painting seasonal trees with a brand new group (all newbies!) from a nearby town.

Whew!!! That's alot for one month but I loved every bit of it. Thanks to all you lovely painters!!

So I'm really not ignoring my blogging here, it's just that these painting parties have become a real hit and it's keeping me jumping. In fact I'm leaving for one more in a couple hours to round out my month of May. This is sure never something I ever expected to be doing when I became an art teacher 16 years ago but I must say that this is so much fun. I get to meet all kinds of people with all different backgrounds and these painting parties are so flexible!

 

But the greatest reward has been when one of my artists go off independently and paint without me. My greatest goal is to teach myself out of a job. If everyone I meets gains the confidence to create on their own then I've done my job!

Dry Kansas landscape

 The kids got out of school on May 16th. I'm not bragging or anything, just stating a fact. I know plenty of schools (Indiana) are still in school. 

 

Summer; so far so good...meaning that my kids haven't driven me completely insane....yet. Which is surprising because this is the first summer in ten years where I don't have any kids taking a daily nap!! Who knew how exhilarating no naps could be!! No more tiptoeing around the house!!

 

The weather has been mild lately, only in the 80's, and we've been taking advantage of it with open windows and plenty of outdoor time before the 100's arrive...and they surely will.

 

Over the weekend we drove out to friend's house to go shoot. As we were tooling down the dirt road I was astonished to have to swerve around a snake in the road. Believe it or not after almost four years living in Kansas this was the first snake I've ever seen.  We backed up and leaned out the window to try and catch a glimpse of a rattler. All I managed to get a picture of was the tail, no rattle. After I described it to my friend she said it was probably a bull snake.

 

Here's a shot of the wheat field we drove through.

Not pretty. We've been in a drought the whole time we've lived here. A drought worse than the Dirty Thirties. When we first moved to Kansas I wrote a lot about the drought but after living in it for almost four years it's too depressing to write about all the time.

 

Heck...driving by fields like this everyday is depressing.

 

On a less depressing note the kids and I use this little trail to practice their driving skills. They are getting better. Yahoo wanted to drive too so she sat on my lap for a few bit and steered.....she's crazy!! If it were up to her we would definitely have ended up in a wheat field!

 

Sorry, no photos of the shooting...gotta focus!

 

Close up of the wheat.

I'm not sure if I'd recognize pretty wheat if I saw it...it's been such a long time since I've laid eyes on healthy wheat.

 

 

Summer is starting off slow but it's quickly building up momentum as I've started adding more and more events to my calendar. T-ball, Baseball, Camp, 4H, swimming, Bible School. If only we could get some rain, that's the only thing that would make this summer better!!

Quick Oklahoma Road Trip

 Last weekend we made a quick road trip to Oklahoma and stumbled onto a little gem of a place that I can't wait to get back to!!

 

We found the Quartz Mountain Resort which has a golf course, paddle boats, campgrounds, hotel and I'm sure more that I haven't discovered yet.

 

 

The kids loved climbing up the hills of boulders. Yip and Yap were more than ready to take off and leave DR, their sister and I in the dust. Cactus and wildflowers and huge boulders. I could have climbed mountains all day long!

 

What I was most excited about though was the art work. The resort hosts art workshops and have a sculpture by one of my favorite artists, Alan Houser.

 

 

Of course my boys were super impressed by the giant deer head.

 

I can't wait to go back and just sit and draw or paint the mountains all day long. What gorgeous and inspirational scenery!!

 

 

 

Garden is done. Time to wait.

I have my whole garden planted! For me, that is so exciting. Of course, now I just have to wait..... Which is the hard part! 

The peas we planted a few weeks ago are coming up great despite snow and cold.  The sight of these baby plants sure makes me happy.  

Last year I lost almost all of my tomato plants to blight. How frustrating!!!  So this year I'm trying containers for my tomatoes. 

I even had some helpers!  Yahoo's preschool class came and planted the tomatoes with me yesterday. They sure enjoyed looking at my garden. 

The preschool teacher told me one year the best tomato crop her brother-in-law had was after they were pelted with hail.  I've heard I should beat my tomato plants for a better crop, has anyone done this???  The idea makes me nervous. I've had such a hard time growing tomatoes the last few years I'm afraid I'll kill them if I could beat them. 

We also have carrots, onions, beans, cucumbers, spinach and I've planted blue corn!!!  I'm kind of excited about that one too. 

Do you have your garden planted yet? Are you trying anything new this year?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Did you all enjoy getting outside today for an Easter egg hunt? We all enjoyed a beautiful afternoon outside with Mountain Man target shooting. DR bought a 9mm Beretta the other day and this was the first chance we had to shoot. It sure was fun!  I could have stayed out for a lot longer 

Yip was sure he could shoot the pistol too.  With a little bit of help from his uncle, who said Yip needed to lift more weights to heft it, he emptied the magazine pretty handily. 

On our way home we had a nice nature show. Look at that beautiful storm system.  I sure hope it was falling on my garden too. 

When I first moved to Kansas I assumed it never rained here. I didn't realize we were in the middle of a drought. With all the green around us this spring life in general has been much more pleasant. I really believe nature has a much bigger impact on our well being than we realize. 

Part of me felt bad for skipping church on Easter Sunday to spend time with my brother. Though I think God understands.  He has granted me many wonderful gifts, far more than I deserve, and I enjoyed most of them today. Happy Easter 

Childhood Magic via The Water Heater Guy



Earlier this week I came across this article from the Huffington Post, I'm Done Making My Kid's Childhood Magical. In the article the author reflects on how parenting has become practically a competitive sport and how parents are trying to schedule everything perfectly in their children's lives from perfect crafty playdates to the perfect birthday parties and how exhausting it is. (My sister made the point that this is exactly the reason she doesn't read parenting magazines any more, because they just perpetuate this notion that parents have to perfectly plan everything.) Not to mention how completely pointless it is because kids don't need grown ups to orchestrate it all for them since they are more than capable than doing it perfectly themselves. Which leads me to my water heater....

 

My water heater, without my realizing it, has slowly been dying! Yesterday afternoon The Water Heather Guy came to put in a new one and he was still here when the boys got home from school. Of course the boys stood outside the door and talked the poor guy's ear off while he was working. But then Mr. Water Heater did something awesome; he gave the boys two pieces of scrap foam pipe insulation, not to mention the giant cardboard box my new appliance arrived in.

 

 

My boys were thrilled! They spent most of the afternoon until dinner "sword fighting".

 

I didn't plan it.

They didn't plan it.

Mr. Water Heater Guy didn't plan it.

 

Nonetheless, Yip and Yap adored their new toys that cost them nothing.

Cost me nothing.

And got the boys out of Mr. Water Heater's way.

 

 

Had I tried to "organize" and "create" this moment for my boys it surely would have been a flop. I can't create that magical sense of daydreaming or losing time in their imagination. Kids have to do that for themselves.

 

 

If you have the chance read the article, I'm Done Making My Kid's Childhood Magical. It's a good read for parents, parents to be, and grandparents.

 

 

A Book Addicted Family

The kids just left for school and I just finished dishes. So I walked around the house to get started on my day when I realized my kids and I might have a problem. Books. They are always all over the house ... except the bookshelf!

Follow me on the literary trail through my house that was left over this morning.

On the blanket chest and chair; a dictionary, three books and a magazine.

On the window seat; two books, two magazines and a kindle.

Dining room table; two books.

Yahoo'a bedroom; a Bible, a hymnal, and three books.

My bedside table; a kindle, a devotional and two books.

Oh, and my sketchbook on the bed.

Yep. Books have always been important to me and it looks like I've successfully passed that gene on to my kids too! Now if only someone would invent a book that would reshelf itself.