Best of February 2013

Feature Art Friday: The Broadway Bridge

The morning commute is more interesting when there are cool architectural details to photograph while sitting in traffic. I love this old bridge. 

38 things list update

4 months into being 38, I've marked 11 things off my list. Keep in mind that I made this list before I knew the boys were coming to live with us so I might have been a bit ambitious. These days you could call me a lot of things, but ambitious is not one of them. I take that back... I am very ambitious about getting a reasonable amount of sleep.

In an effort to keep from feeling like an utter failure at this list business, I'm being a little generous with a few parameters... for instance, "cook a big holiday meal" actually involved ordering a smoked turkey, making a few side dishes & delegating the rest. It was technically cooked, just not all by me. We did eat at my house, does that count?

1.Do something unexpected
2.Leave a kind note for a stranger
3.Make homemade bookmarks
4.Paint a piece of furniture
5.Join Arkansas League of Artists
6.Try a new recipe
7.Give away a book
8.Swim in the ocean
9.Plant something in the yard
10.Fly a kite
11.Update website
12.Throw a party
13.List 100 items on Etsy
14.Go to the farmers market
15.Pay off credit cards
16.Have a picnic
17.Finish the stairs
18.Try something new
19.Make smores
20.Submit work to art magazine
21.Spend more time with my family
22.Play in the dirt
23.Take a photography class or e-course
24.Go to a parade
25.Make cookies with kids
26.Buy art
27.Hang twinkle lights
28.Take a family photo
29.Learn to speak Op
30.Ding-dong-ditch people with holiday cookies
31.Donate stuff to goodwill
32.Submit art to Starving Artist Cafe
33.Make a book of my recipes
34.Take a long work break
35.Make homemade Christmas ornaments
36.Cook a big holiday meal
37.Go somewhere new
38.Perform a random act of kindness

Feature Art Friday: Dudley

Confessions of a new parent: the one about the tail light

One of the unexpected things that happens when you adopt 3 children at once is that people begin to look at you differently; some as if you should be fitted with a halo & others as if you should be fitted with a straightjacket.

When the former happens, we turn to look behind us to see who it is they are looking at with the awe-filled expression on their faces. In the case of the latter, we recognize that the look is directed at us & respond appropriately. The definition of appropriate is, in this case, relative based on how tired we are.

Since you do not get the opportunity to look at me with either the “what is the circumference of your forehead” or “how quickly can we get you in this nice jacket with the really long sleeves” look, perhaps we could occasionally provide you with a little evidence & let you decide how you should be peering at me through your monitor. Welcome to ‘True Confessions of a New Parent’.

During our first days of flailing about in the deep end of the parenting pool, I forgot that we were only parking one car in the garage & the other in the driveway due to the enormous influx of bicycles, scooters, skateboards & other wheeled paraphernalia that comes with 3 children. I got in the car in the garage & promptly backed it into the car in the driveway. Good thing I pay the car insurance, right?

After surveying the damage, I found myself standing outside of the bathroom door holding a piece of a tail light that should never be away from the car. Certainly not being fondled by a nervous new mother while standing outside a bathroom listening to a shower & having the following conversation through the door:

“Remember how you were saying you wanted to get a bigger car?”

“I can’t hear you over the shower.”

(of course you can’t, because the only thing that makes a silly mistake more fun to talk about is to have to shout about it.)

“REMEMBER HOW YOU WERE SAYING YOU WANTED A BIGGER CAR? BECAUSE WE ARE GETTING 3 KIDS?”

“YEAH…”

“I THINK THAT WOULD BE A GREAT IDEA… BECAUSE IF YOU HAD A BIGGER CAR I COULD SEE IT IN THE DRIVEWAY WHEN I BACK UP…”

Three things happened the following week:

Our boys moved in permanently. 

We got a bigger car.

I started parking in the driveway.

Feature Art Friday: Periwinkle Capitol

A word.

It's posted on my monitor so I don't forget.

'Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.'

                                                                                                      -Albert Einstein

Who can argue with Einstein? Not me- with 3 new children, I have no energy to argue with anyone.

Rather than choosing a resolution for 2012, I decided to choose a word. A word takes up less room in my head than an entire resolution would, so maybe that extra bit of space will provide the energy to argue, should it become necessary when it becomes necessary.

Simplicity. That is the word that has taken up residency in my head for the last month & I must admit, it has already brought some peace. As stress appears or commitments begin to multiply, I ask myself how I can simplify whatever it is & still accomplish what is necessary. I know... it sounds, well... simple.

For some people it is. For the rest of us, who are somehow genetically predisposed to make things more difficult, more involved & be very suspicious of anything requiring less than 18 steps, simplifying things feels odd at first. But after a few weeks of practice, I am getting the hang of it.

Coming up on the blog this month... a few featured pet portraits, some new art inspired by Flora Bowley's 'Bloom True' ecourse, an update on the '38 things to do before I turn 39' list & something new... 'confessions of a new parent'... in which I make shameful fun of myself as I learn to swim in the deep end of the parenting pool.

It's good to be back. Thanks for sticking around.