fifty-eleven

Tomorrow is TT's birthday. But we celebrated today. Fourteen around my mother's beautiful table. It was a happy squish.

I made him his favorite, City Chicken. Family recipe from his mom. Actually beef and pork cubes on a skewer, seasoned with salt and pepper, dipped in egg and milk, rolled in saltine cracker crumbs, re-dipped and rerolled, browned in a skillet, then baked in a casserole at 325 for about three hours. You put about a half inch of water in the pan and cover with foil before putting in oven.

All the men at the table LOVED them! Dot made excellent mashed potatoes and gravy. Michelle made a fabby salad. Desert looked tragic, but was a hit. Peanut Butter Three Layer Cake with Reece's Peanut Butter Cups crushed for a filling over the peanut butter icing, between all the layers. (The tragedy was the top of the cake split into thirds!) That with Vanilla Ice Cream on the side.

Wonder why I have a sugar headache now?!!

My special gift to him, besides the meal, was a family membership to the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) at the national and local level. The main reason I did a family membership is so TT can take god-son (that's him with TT) to the meetings. EAA does a mentoring program where they work with young boys/men to interest them in becoming pilots. Eventually, god-son will get to go up in one of the planes!!!!

I love my Dot. She is flesh of my flesh and heart of my heart. And, I love our extended family. They are all Christians. The children add so much joy to our lives. Remember how scared I was about accepting this role of god-mother? I got over that!

It's all about being family and making family time top priority.

That's what TT asked for his birthday.

visit

I had an amazing day yesterday! I actually did a totally social thing. I usually spend Saturdays cleaning and organizing, paying bills and making lists for the week.

I gave myself a gift and drove out to visit Gardenia. I mean really, how many of us bloggers long to be able to meet each other and spend real time together and here we live in the same area!!

Of course, we were friends before we both started blogging. She is a dear, dear soul that inspires me and touches my heart. She is an extremely insightful, compassionate woman with a great, giggly sense of humor! I just love her.

I took out my collection of art books and she shared hers with me. I was in awe looking at her many paintings that are in progress. I have so much to learn. It was like a kindergartner visiting a high school senior! She is very gracious to me.

She also gave me an amazing gift. . . she may not want me to say what, so I won't. But it touched my heart. It is a beautiful gift I will enjoy my entire life.

I LOVE to organize. I found myself giving unasked for advice about a studio room for her. I am so opinionated. But, see, she paints in her eat-in kitchen. However roomy it is, she has to put things up for meals. . . Plus, it would really bug me having people milling around so close to a work in progress. Painting is rather private.

She has this lovely front room with a huge bay window. Lots of light, nice high ceiling, french doors. . . doesn't that scream "ART"?!! So, I want her to extend her kitchen flooring in there, do a "Clean Sweep" and get that room supporting her fabulous talent. She can put in a small window a/c unit, fabulous faux silk draperies from ceiling to floor, pipe in inspiring music and paint away. Close the door on it at meal time and go back after without missing a beat!

I hope she lets me come help her paint walls and make draperies and organize stuff!!

It was a fun day!

report

TT took her to Dr. She said she thinks it is all hormonal, that Isabella needs to be spayed. Her surgery is this coming Tuesday. They will keep her overnight, then all day Wednesday while we are at work. She will be home with TT on Thursday and hopefully okay by herself Friday.

Also, her eyelashes seem to be laying in her eye again. Though the graft protects her cornea. We had thought the eye problems were behind us. Oi.

I started taking her for walks around our circle on her leash. That is FUNNY!! She walks fast, then just lays down in the street for a rest!

Dr. thinks she won't be depressed once she is spayed. I hope so. I really don't want a double vet bill. Isabella is costly enough!

Not to mention MY dr. bills!

lonely?

I am worried about Isabella. She is doing much better than last week, but she is still spending a lot of time in her bed. She is eating some, but definitely has lost some weight. She is not upchucking anymore.

Her doc said her blood is fine, no need to be concerned about anything life-threatening. She really perks up when we have company, for a while, at least.

I am going to try taking her for a walk in the mornings now that the weather is so pretty.

I am also thinking about getting her a companion. Yes, another dog. Well, how would you like to be the only human in a dog household, get left alone for hours and the only language you heard was barking and whining? (Okay, don't even go there!!)

I think she may be depressed and lonely. She has never had a dog friend because all my friends and my daughter have these huge dogs who treat Isabella like she is a knat. That would depress me. I hate it when I am feeling invisible!

PS I have a new painting up!

baby shower

I know I said I had lost weight. . . but there are some things I haven't told you yet. . .Ha Ha Ha!!!! Pregnant NOW??? OMGosh, wouldn't that be something?

Dot, A and I hosted a baby shower for a co-worker. She had made this mold for everyone to sign. Since I had matched her colors, I just couldn't resist trying it on for size! (The baby-in-the-belly part, of course)

We had a great time, lots of friends, food and fun and fabby gifts!

How was your Saturday?

six pounds down!!

I got a treadmill two weeks ago. Doc's orders for me to walk two miles a day. I am a wimp about weather and can't risk not walking for weeks at a time because of the cold this winter.

I never thought I would like walking inside, but I love it. Maybe because I am such a charts and graphs girl and I can see my progress with mph, heart rate, incline %, calories burned, speed. . . I set little goals. Like I have to burn more calories than the distance I am walking.

If I walk 2.5 miles, then I have to burn more than 250 calories!

I have lost six pounds and I don't know how many inches. Of course, I have slowed down to nearly nothing on the wine or vodka. . . you know that helps. Then if I am not having those refreshments, I don't want late night shnackies, so no calories taken in there, either!

I want to get down to 125. I am down to 133 right now. So, five to eight pounds more and I will be so happy!!

Quote of the day, from Matthew Kelly, "In a sense, the body is like money- a great servant, but a horrible master." I have stopped yielding to it's childish demands and am giving it what it needs! Ha.

devotion

I painted it. But the words from my devotion today are too rich to not share. May they bless you as they did me. My love to you all. .

The Triumph of the Cross

A huge dynamite blast rips open a mountain. A powerful avalanche rushes down a slope and levels everything in its path. A raging flood drives through a ravine at a furious pace. In each of these scenes we see manifestations of incredible power. Nothing can stand in the way of these forces, and anything that comes into contact with them is overrun. Well, today the church celebrates the Triumph of the Cross. As dynamite, avalanches, and raging floods are three of the most powerful natural forces we know, so the cross of Jesus is the most powerful spiritual force in the universe.

Has any other single act in history won forgiveness for every sin that has ever been committed? Has any other event brought about the complete frustration of the devil’s attempts to control our lives and move us away from God? Was any other event powerful enough to tear the veil that separated heaven from earth and reveal a new and living way to the Father?

Like dynamite, the cross of Jesus has the power to blast away any deeply ingrained pattern of sin in our lives. Like a mighty flood, it can wash all anger, fear, and despair from our hearts. Like an avalanche, it can shower down on us the love of God in a way that destroys any obstacle to his presence. This cross is our way of victory because it points to a new day, a new hope, and a new joy.

How about you? Is there a sin pattern that needs to be exploded? Is there a relationship—perhaps with your spouse or a close friend—that needs healing? Is there an inner voice that constantly reminds you of your past failures and keeps you bound in guilt or hopelessness? Then today is your day. Take your sins, your weaknesses, your failings, and lay them all at the foot of the cross. Then rejoice with the angels and saints, knowing that this cross—radiant and triumphant—can overcome every spiritual, physical, or emotional obstacle to God’s love.

“Jesus, I marvel at the power of your cross. I believe that your death and resurrection have won my complete redemption. With joy, I celebrate the triumph of your cross—even over those situations where I have yet to taste your victory.”

Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 78:1-2,34-38; Philippians 2:6-11

Dark Hour

This is for another friend. Dark Hour I am intrigued with the idea of doing more Sacred Art. I have bought some drawing books to keep training my eye, hand and brain!!

After this one, I have a comical one in my head that has made me laugh ever since I "saw" it.

I have decided to start an ART BLOG, and I put the link up. That way this blog can be about regular living and those of you that aren't waiting with baited breath for my next piece of art won't have to feel like you're at a museum!!!

Ha ha ha.

bags too!

Gardenia got me going with her post on bags. I have quite a bag history!

Twenty years ago, my sister gave me the striped cloth bag Isabella is standing on, in a package of six. She was environmentally conscious then. I rolled my eyes over that part, but the bags appealed to me for a different reason.

When in a car, I cannot stand stuff rolling around on the floor, rattling or making any other noises! I have a bit of an anti-noise fetish. ( Like I hate hearing my husband chew anything when we are watching TV or movies, especially in a dramatic, emotional part.) With the cloth bags, my stuff could travel in silence!

Anyone who travels anywhere with us knows the number one rule is no plastic or paper bags in the car. Those go in the trunk!

My cloth bags have seen a lot of cherished belongings transported to and from this house and loved ones, work, play. . . all in silence!

The green floralish bag is my plastic lined Vera Bradley lunch bag. A good friend gave that to me for my birthday last year! Salon owner called my other bags "Hobo Bags", so I was happy to upgrade my bag image! I take my lunch to work nearly everyday. I like knowing I have my healthy salad, complete with tomato, lentil bean sprouts, avocado, broccoli, celery, garlic and feta waiting for me safe in my VB bag.

I left out of the picture my knitting bags, book bags, beach bag, cosmetic bags (I have one for face, one for body, one for hair, one for makeup), jewelry bags, vitamin bag.

Then we get Isabella, so she had a winter bag and a summer bag for the happy times we take her "bye-bye"! She likes to sleep in her winter bag every now and then. She just started doing that again this past week. . . is she realizing fall is soon to come?

TT took one of the cloth bags for all his meds and snacks and whatever. If we ever get on the road to anywhere, even just to church or a friend's house without his grey striped bag, we turn around to fetch it.

Hmmmm, now that I am painting and learning to draw, looks like I need an artist's bag, too!

Are there other bagaholics out there besides me and Gardenia?

kindergarten

I am calling this Communion. Painted it for the mother of our god-children. The Sacred Heart of our Lord, present in the Bread and the Wine. I got the perspective backwards on the Bread and it looks kind of moldy. I was trying to create texture so it wouldn't look like a brick!

I actually like the wine bottle. It is a little crooked, but I think that gives it character.

My least favorite is the Cross. I wanted it to look like it was translucent and glowing. And the heart is too muddy of a color. . . I was trying to make it translucent, too.

Okay, I am risking it, but y'all be honest. . . Gardenia has been so sweet. Tutoring me through email. I sent her the almost finished painting, so she did not get to help me create this. She makes me feel like there is hope.

So has Dot. She has amazed me with her sweet enthusiasm. She even tried to help me find a class today. So far, nada.

First sketches from drawing books. Don't know why the picture of the peach sketch is so fuzzy!! hahaha.

Son-in-law brought me over a fabby easel (on loan). So nice to work without wiggle!

struggling

I took off on Friday. Just to have a "me" day. I set up a little "art studio" space in our "library". I went to the local craft store. Bought a cheesy stand-up easel, because my back is objecting to too much sitting.

And I bought more acrylic paint, more brushes, drawing pads, pencils erasers, books, canvases and such. My daughter is a bit quizzical, though supportive of this "new" interest of mine. I saw something change in her eyes towards me when I showed her my sketch pad that dated back to 1996.

I have wanted to paint for a long time. My problem? I am so impatient. I want to be great instantly. My adult brain knows better. I guess it is the child in me that wants success NOW!

I am aggravated because I have not been able to find any acrylic beginning painting classes. People say, "Just paint." But that is not my belief system. I know I don't know anything about it. I like to learn from masters. I believe they can save me a lot of grief.

Plus, they will make me do what I don't want to do so I am able to do what I long to do. They will force a discipline that I don't even know I need.

My son-in-law said to take drawing classes. Oi. I know he is right. That is boring to me. I love color. It is also intimidating, because I am not a natural at it. But, I just read on Duey's Drawings that drawing is "60% patience, 30% seeing and 10% ability."

What an encouragment! Also tells me I desperately need help with the "seeing" part. So, I will call PJC tomorrow and see if they have any drawing classes since they had no acrylic painting classes.

I have put this part of me on hold for too many years. For about five years, I did not touch it because of my daughter's involvement with an artist. When we went to an art festival together and he rolled his eyes over how "terrible" their art was, I thought to myself I would never make myself vulnerable to his harsh critique.

But today is a new day. I am surrounded with love and support. I have no goals with art. I just want training. I want to see what is in me that has never been released because of no training.

I love color. I love joy. I love humor. I love depth. How does that translate to canvas? I don't know. But I want to.