Rain, Art & Little House

We had rainy weather here in LA so we opted to do some puddle jumping in our backyard. Jackson climbed trees, we saw a very healthy looking squirrel eating away, a hawk in the sky and some adorable sisterly love. I think those very colorful moments on a rainy day were my favorite.

We introduced the kids to Little House on the Prairie over the weekend. To my surprise everyone loved it. We have the book on tape, but they've never seen some of the shows taped from the television. All were riveted.

We also got a book called Artistic Pursuits where we study different artists and then do something in their style. The first artist was Giovanni Cimabue, an Italian painter from Florence who lived from 1240-1302. The book suggested we do a watercolor painting. But he often did works for churches on wooden panels covered in canvas and gesso. I had some little wood panels so I had my husband cut them in a similar shape to Cimabue's sample painting in the book (Maestà, 1280-1285, Uffizi Gallery, Florence).

We covered our wood with gesso. Ava, Jackson and I played while Audrey napped. I put no set rules on what to paint. Jackson decided to copy a religious kind of theme, Ava started with a flower, but it's tucked away safely behind layer upon layer of different colors. She loves doing that and I love that she enjoys the process so much. I started a little painting, using some of what I learned from a multi-media online class I recently took. None of them are finished, but there's a sneak peak of them in progress. It was nice to give myself a reason to paint too.

All too often I wait till everyone is asleep to allow myself time to do something creative. But also all too often by that point I'm too wiped out to be creative. Or I get a second wind and stay up way too late and then pay the price later. Here's to finding hidden moments to be creative right alongside our children!

Organizing & Other Things

Ok.. I haven't finished organizing so this is going to be a photo highlight of our week. I am in the process, but organizing always entails a walk down memory lane for me and I wind up getting side tracked a million times over. My son says that's what mommies do best, get side tracked. I have a tendency to start one project only to discover another and things shift gears. I guess that's a good thing because it does mean I can go with the flow better than I thought I could. But it also means that things take longer than they probably should.

For example, my organizing art supply project turned into a rearrange the bedroom project. I don't even know why. I just started moving things and I'm not quite satisfied yet. Anyway, it's kind of nice to try different things though. We've now lived in our house for almost ten years. I get antsy every once in awhile and want to shake things up and change colors or move things around. I'm definitely having a ten year itch with some rooms. Sadly our house is having all kinds of ten years aches and pains like the garage door breaking, the wood fence rotting, the bathtub not draining properly once again. I definitely am noticing things need a little pick me up here and there.

I know what I really wanted to document our highlights from our week. On Tuesday afternoon I took the kids to the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino. We're members and LOVE it there. To my grateful surprise they had an exhibit on the History of Science including sections on light, natural history, the human body and astronomy.

On our way there we listened to an audio cd of Nesbit's "Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare" for children. We had to stop and start a few times due to our incessantly chattering Audrey who was keeping everyone from hearing. But all in all Jackson really seemed to get the story. My goal was then to revisit the Shakespeare Garden and see if we could find the statue that matched "A Midsummer Night's Dream" which was the story we listened to on the way there. It was a completely impromptu idea, but it worked and it was fun. The next day in the car Ava asked, "Can we listen to the statue stories again?" So while she didn't necessarily understand all the language she soaked it in and could appreciate that it was something interesting. They both also loved to pretend to be conductors at the beginning of each story when the music played.

After finding the statue (or at least what we think is the statue of Puck) we sat down to do our nature / journal drawings. I just told the kids to draw something they saw. Ava drew the palm tree. Jackson drew a story of the battling squirrels. There were many flitting about through the trees along the Shakespearean statues. He made up a whole story about them which I wish I would have recorded right away because it has already escaped me. But it was cute and creative.

OH and Audrey, well she mostly drew on herself. I've already purchased a set of toddler size colored pencils for her as a birthday gift at the end of the month. Pens are just not a good idea right now. She was pretty much covered in a kaleidoscope of color from her nose to her toes. Some of it was an accident, but some she did with sheer glee, just because.

Our bible verse this week was, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Psalm 23:1. The first day I said it and Jackson started repeating after me, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not _________ (pause), but I WANT mom!" He had a little epiphany in that moment. Wow, I shall not want. How hard is that? I think we all could have these epiphanies couldn't we? As our week went along I was reminded as I was thinking, "hmm my side tables don't look so good anymore, I'd like to get new red ones to spice up the room." Or, I really would like to get new... blah blah blah. Or I wish I had it more together to be able to actually sell things on etsy already. Oh yea, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." I think this scripture is definitely not just about material things, but about yearning only for Him.

Let's see, what else? Oh I got some cool magnetic geometric shape manipulatives for the kids. All three loved playing with them. I was most impressed with a structure Ava built and then Jackson added to and of course Audrey tried to crash down.

Our Friday was already looking like a lighter day. I planned to try to take them to Little Tokyo, just to see a little bit of a different culture in 'real life.' Jackson studied Japan a lot last year so he already has an affinity for it. But then the gardeners came. We had to chop down a tree in our yard and this diverted the whole day's plans. But in a good way. The kids stared out the window and I made a plan.

First, you must know that this pains me to cut down a tree like this. We planted it about eight years ago and I love trees. As a child there was a tree outside my bedroom window that I named Henry. I truly believed I was helping Henry grow by talking to him and being his friend. (I was under five..so don't judge.) I really have always loved trees. This one was a River Birch and the bark is beautiful. We have others in the front yard too. But this one had grown so big the roots were coming up out of the grass and jeopardizing the foundation under the patio and house as well as causing everything in the back yard to not thrive because it was blocking out the sun. I fought doing this, but finally conceded for all of those reasons.

I recently got the book "All Year Round" which has celebrations for the seasons. I already knew I wanted to find a good branch to hang Valentines and then later Easter decorations. Wa-la... I had an abundance of branches to choose from. I also decided the trunk and branches would make adorable little tables and chairs for dolls and figures.

So quickly draw up and then run out to my gardener with a little diagram of what I'm thinking. One larger trunk cut for the table with four smaller branch cuts to make high back chairs. He already thinks I'm a little crazy ever since I nearly lost it after he massively hacked my camelia tree one year. He now checks with me before making any major 'trimming' because he knows I like things to look natural and not like they've been shaped by a weed whacker.

So he obliged my request. I thought it would be too much to ask for three sets since he really had a lot of work to do, but he actually gave me more than three. I think we'll have one for each child (to prevent fighting) and then give whatever is left as gifts. Now I just need my husband to help me with his saw make the cuts for the back of the chairs. I'm looking forward to when they're complete, and so are the kids. And the best thing is, I don't feel as bad cutting down the tree because we're making something we can save out of it. Eventually, when they're done I'll post pictures.

So here's to a new week and many more exciting tomorrows! Be back soon.

Princess Tea Party & Lego Mania

My daughter's birthday is December 29th. I was on bedrest the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas because she kept trying to come early. With way too much time on my hands I would google what to do about a child's birthday being so close to Christmas. I stressed over whether I should celebrate her half birthday instead. My mind ran in circles while I lay in bed with the laptop. It was all a needless worry really. I'll explain why a little further down.

On Christmas Eve the bedrest was lifted. My first time out of the house was to go to the midnight service at our church alone with my husband. It was really a special feeling to be that pregnant on the night we celebrate baby Jesus' birth. She hung in there four more days, but on a very stormy early morning of December 29th, 2004 she was born.

She does go to our church preschool four mornings a week and what I've done is we celebrate with our family on the 29th, but save the party with her friends until the weekend after everyone returns to school. That way there's some distance from Christmas and friends are more likely to be in town. It's a win, win. We celebrate her birthday for what feels like weeks, she's happy, and I'm way less stressed.

So this year she said she wanted to have a princess tea party. I didn't want to have the typical Disney princess theme so I devised my own. Tea parties are completely up my alley. So I had fun making the invitations, princess crowns for the girls, and turning our kitchen eating area into a little girl's haven.

The only downfall was that my little princess, though she begged for this party and insisted we invite all the girls, is a little overwhelmed and shy when there are lots of people around. The room made her happy in the morning when she woke to discover it. She soaked in every little detail, but when her friends arrived she wanted nothing more than to cling to my neck or leg at all times. I felt so badly for her. She just couldn't wait for everyone to leave.

Her guests did have a wonderful time though. They were so cute, so many dressed in costumes or very pretty dresses. They sipped daintily out of the tea cups Ava chose while my son served as the butler. All in all to me it was so sweet, I just wish Ava could have enjoyed it more.

She loved getting some new clothes, a pretend make up set, hello kitty desk set and lots of fun games including princess bingo, and the tea party game. We all played tonight while Daddy worked. I got her a book about children's tea, and my dear friend Kim who is her godmother gave her a book called, "A Child's Book of Grace." After skimming through it I'm so excited to read it to all of them and try out the activities.

Oh.. and to get to the point of my title on this post. My girly girl has been a little envious I think of all the time her brother has been getting with Dad while putting together his lego agents mission six truck. It took over ten hours between the two of them to put it together. She also admires her big brother so much and sees how much he enjoys legos that she insisted she wanted the lego agent shark set for her birthday.

I know this will be a passing phase, but Daddy completely obliged and spent the morning putting it together for her. Somehow it doesn't look right in her room. But I know I need to let that go, and let her enjoy her tomboy side. Now she and Jackson are running around acting out their missions together. It's rather sweet to overhear. However, little Audrey has already quietly gotten her fingers on the toys and broken a few. I've announced it is Daddy who'll work on fixing it. I tend to break legos even worse than they already are when I try to repair them. And then they're truly upset. So to divert a big meltdown I've suggested we put the lego repair mission on hold till Daddy is home and has time. Whew... I'm off the hook for now.

As for me. I'm feeling the big need to get things in order now that her party has come and gone. There are lots of loose ends like writing thank you notes and some 'happy new year' cards. Since we left for Maryland rather early this year for Christmas I wasn't able to send out all the cards I usually do. Again, to let myself a little off the hook I decided some will be Happy New Year cards. I've received them in the past and actually like them after the major influx of the holidays so I hope the receivers of ours won't mind.

My son's favorite bible verse is, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." Proverbs 3:5. I heard him whispering it under his breath one day as he was getting ready for a baseball game. He told me he says it to himself whenever he feels nervous. I love how children will say things that strike a chord in our lives as well. He got me thinking about learning to trust and how I don't always fully trust in the Lord with ALL my heart. I have that head knowledge, but do I always exercise it? Sadly, no.

How do we learn to trust unless we do things that seem scary or hard and cause that butterfly in your stomach feeling that my almost two year old so sweetly calls, "dee dee?" How do we learn to live more like God without "dying to ourselves," to our selfish and worldly nature? When I feel nervous or scared or alone I have to remember that He has a perfect plan for me and part of what I need to do is to stop thinking and researching and just TRUST. He will take care of me and more than likely the blessings will far surpass what I could have ever imagined possible.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." Ephesians 3:20.

Happy New Year

Wow...while I was busy living, I was seriously neglecting this blog. Ok. New Year's Resolution is to make a better effort to record tidbits of our lives, crafty projects, and inspirational thoughts. So much has happened since I last wrote. We had an amazing December.

It was a very full one with lots of celebrating and a trip back east for Christmas. New Years Eve was celebrated with a few families (east coast time with the kiddos). It was a lot of fun and a great way to start the new year. Then to officially ring in 2009 we went for a hike on one of our most familiar trails. All of the kids stopped to draw while I read from the Burgess Bird Book. There's something about getting out in nature and being quiet and still especially on the first day of a new year that fills your heart with hope for all that is yet to come and with gladness for a year well spent.

I have had so many thoughts running through my brain lately and have wanted to start a new art journal (thank you to my sis for getting me a cool nifty one with pretty birds on the front cover) where I can doodle and tape inspirational images and just purge my many musings.

Some I like to write here, but there are some things I just want to keep private and yet still need to get them out of my mind and onto paper. However, I must say I am a much faster typist and find it easier to journal this way. Here's to a Happy New Year!