A Short Note

A short note while I have a moment. Yesterday we spent the entire day organizing and cleaning. We were able to accomplish a lot and this time, I didn't end up shoving a bunch of things in our bedroom. It still needs work, especially the new homeschool materials. But I won't die of humiliation if someone opens my door. I am getting more organized, one baby step at a time.

John's brother and family arrived last night. We have had a leisurely morning. Later the adults are going out to eat while the kids stay at home and have some frozen pizza. This afternoon we are planning on swimming.

Would someone please tell me what happened to the summer? It's not my favorite season but I didn't want it to go by that quickly. I begin my substitute job in less than 2 weeks! There are so many things left to do. I promised Holly that we would do some paper mâché and I want to do some more cooking with her. And that's just the beginning of what I haven't done yet! What are you hoping to do before the summer is gone?

Show and Tell Friday - Late again!

The end of June was so busy with our move and all that I did not have a chance to show off my son and his amazing artwork. (Pardon me if I brag for a moment!) He drew the lighthouse for my header on this blog. His real love is drawing portraits and has an extraordinary eye for detail. This past spring he entered one of his pastel drawings in a local art show. There weren’t any prizes but it was a fun experience for us all.

Here he is at the art show:

Gabe's George Washington picture:
(I don't know if it's me or blogger but I can never get pictures to post clear. These are much better in real life. Click on the picture to see it a bit more clearly.)

Gabe's Abe Lincoln picture:

Click here for more Show and Tell!

Father's Day and Random Thoughts

We took the day off today and celebrated Father’s Day. I realize that the calendar says the holiday is on Sunday but we like to be flexible. John and I will be out of town and we wanted to have a special day with our children. Hannah and I went shopping for a Father’s Day gift and I found this and this . OK, those are for me. I have been looking for just the right purse for three months and I finally found one that suited me. It was on sale too! We looked at picture frames and didn’t see any that we liked. We looked at shirts and the ones we liked did not fit our budget. We ended up buying what Gabe had suggested in the first place, a movie. Flash forward to this afternoon - we took our favorite fast food to the park and had a picnic. It was cool under the pavilion but one step out in the sunshine and I felt like a snowball in July. I was melting fast.

Tomorrow, I have to pack and straighten up. Tomorrow evening we have a reception to go to at the local art museum where Gabriel’s artwork is on display. I have never even been to one much less been involved. My mom said that we could dress up or go casual. We are pretty casual whenever we can be!

I am really excited about our trip to Virginia. I checked the forecast and it’s much cooler there, now. It looks like we are going to arrive just in time for their heat wave. Ugh! The hard part will be leaving the kids. The last time that John and I went somewhere alone together for any length of time was in 2002 for our 15^th anniversary – only a day and a half and in 1996 when we took a survey trip to Romania – 16 very long days. I think it's time to get away for a while. When was your last trip without the kids?

The Letter

The mail arrived at lunch time. There were two letters from the local art museum – one for my mom and one for Gabriel. I was so glad that Gabriel was home so that he could open it right away. It would have been difficult to let it sit on the counter for hours, not knowing what was written inside. On April 27^th, he submitted two of his pastel portraits to the museum; one of Abraham Lincoln and the other of George Washington. We were told that we should hear something by the end of the following week which was five long days ago. Not hearing anything led to thoughts of rejection. When my dad brought the mail in and we saw the letters, I was like a kid at Christmas. “Open it! Open it!” Thank the Lord it was an acceptance letter – both for Gabe and my mom!

Arts and Crafts Photos

Thought I would share a couple of things that we did this week in the arts and crafts area of our lives. Holly is taking an art class and this week the teacher had wooden blocks for them to create and paint. We have been studying birds in school and Holly made a cardinal.

Hannah is making a recipe book for her Home Economics studies. Here she is with a couple of pages that she made.

New Template!

As you can plainly see, my new template by Goofy Girl is finished! When she first asked me what I wanted, I really wasn’t sure. I told her that I liked blue and lighthouses. Later, I asked her if she could use a drawing by Gabe and she said sure! So he worked on one for me. This is not the picture that he submitted to the art show. His lighthouse is good but his real talent is in portraits. Take a peek here to see what he has submitted for the show.

Framed

Have you ever had one of those days when you had a task to do and you figured it would take about an hour but it ended up taking all day? That was my day today. My son, Gabriel, wanted to submit some of his artwork to an art show at our local museum. The deadline was today at 5 PM. We bought frames for his drawings last week and put the pictures in according to instructions from some artists. All I needed to do this morning was to take a picture of the drawings, get them developed and take the snapshots and an application to the museum downtown. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, taking a picture of a picture in a glass frame is no easy task. We had reflections all over the place no matter what we did or where we took the pictures. I am sure there is a right way to do it but professional photographers we are not. We ended up taking the glass out of the frames, putting the artwork back in, taking the pictures and then putting everything back together once again. Then we took the disc to get the pics developed and after lunch I finally delivered everything to the museum. Gabriel and I both decided that all of this was harder than actually drawing the portraits. The next hard part will be waiting until next week to find out if his artwork gets accepted for the show.

On the Drawing Board

BLOGGER FRIEND SCHOOL

Assignment #19 - “On the Drawing Board”

This week’s assignment is to post a picture of one your family’s/child’s art projects or drawings. Be even more daring and post one of your own! Journal about the project.

Artistic talent manifests itself in various ways. If you were to go to my mom’s house, you might find a few of my early attempts of creativity. There is a rock that I painted in 4^th grade. It was supposed to be a paper weight but I forgot to bring a rock to school. The only one my teacher had was huge. My mom has been using it as a door stop ever since. I decided long ago that drawing and painting were not my talent.

My children are busy discovering their own abilities. Currently, all their projects are packed safely in a box so I will display what is already on the computer.

Gabriel enjoys drawing, mainly with pencil or pastels. Here is Obiwan Kenobi that he drew in the fall of 2005.

Hannah is pursuing a hobby in photography. She took a picture for the Photo Friday meme where she had to find something “strange”. She decided on some paper mache puppets that we made a few years ago but never finished.

Holly likes to paint. She was able to attend a painting class at the museum here in Constanta. Unfortunately, it was on Saturday and Sunday mornings so she did not go as often as we would have liked. Here is a picture she did there which she entitled “Hawaii”.

This was a fun assignment. I am pleased with their efforts in their art work. Do you have a budding artist in your family?