three months...

really?? Really, has it been three months? I can't even tell you where it went. Never mind me taking a bit over a month escape to IL. Then there was the packing of the house in TX and getting it ready for market. Then on to the unpacking in IL and trying to find some balance. Although the balance for the most part is there, we are still teetering back and forth. Never mind that though, the teetering back and forth. I am back close to where I was two years ago. I have many a new option opened up to me. So many a new option I am almost paralyzed by all the choices that are presenting themselves. I feel slightly stunned to take off and run with any idea. If you know me, I have never been afraid to jump in on something that I want to experience. As of late, I have been very cautious. Cautious to the point of annoying myself. Well, heres to a new beginning. New options and choices. New ideas and well hell, desires.

t-shirt project.....

so what you are looking at is a t-shirt i bought at the local thrift store. i added all the shiny paint and the little crystals, cut off the neck and i have one hip shirt.

i have been working on another one, but as the hubby has pointed out the bull horns just don't look right. i will keep that blunder to myself. ;)

CASE IH

so if you know me.... you know that i root for the RED tractors. International Harvesters..... boo the green. heheheh
my friend Christine showed up one day wearing a hat like the one below. i just had to have one. but, if you know me, i don't like to wear hats.... all that heat from my thinking brain needs to escape. so i managed to make it into a sun visor. i fretted over the whole project, i did not want to ruin my hat. but i finally decided it would not get wore as a hat so i might as well cut and try to sew it into something i would wear.

mexico....mission

so my friend amy and her hubby will be heading out on their second mission trip to mexico. she asked me to provide two purses. what a simple request. i then was thinking what else can i send. lately i have been making tote bags from old pillow cases which have evolved into aprons. ahhhhh, i shall send aprons. maybe they would like to have that something to wipe hands on, carry things with and to keep the clothes that they are wearing clean just a bit longer.

the purses.

the aprons.

little bits

zettie in her new beautiful dress from her aunt wendy.... bows included.


harvested garlic..... ummmmmm.


fresh picked strawberries...... ummmm too.


strange dragon fly type thing which i came across in our back yard.

look what i can do....

already on to the next milestone. just a couple of weeks ago i took away the bottle. this week we are no longer taking formula. how is it the third one grows so much more quickly. she is only 13 months old.


i promptly got her down and up she scurried again. i even took her down one last time, with the camera turned to video, she started back up.... this time, no happy ending. ( are there really ever any happy endings) i have video to prove that i am a horrible mom whom did not stop her little girl from attempting to do what her two older siblings do everyday.

hail

yep, this is what we saw once we came out of the bathroom. although my hubby thinks that i am a little to antsy when it comes to such reports, i am glad that we all waited it out in the bathroom. more thankful that we were not hit by anything worse. just click on the picture to enlarge.

for the daddy

rozella sure has taken to drawing lately. we have post its stuck throughout the house. but, she saved her biggest one for her daddy. she even gave him a crown. she not only included herself but also the sun, the nickname we have for her.
sorry that you have to turn your head to see it.

smores

yesterday we got the tent out.... bought some firewood, and had ourselves a camp out. granted we did not get it started until close to 10PM. smores were made, scary stories told and just a little bit of cuddling. hubby let me go inside the house to sleep, thanks dear.

the hats alright, but the head is to small.

so my little girl is growing up so quickly. with three little ones in the house, it seems that it will never happen. hard to believe that it is all day school for her come fall.

homegrown... and we are not talking kids.

so well... these hamburger buns are not home grown but they are made from scratch. wendy i want to thank you for making me think that i can accomplish many a different task. earlier this year i conquered home made pizza crust. in doing so i re-realized how much better made from scratch things are. the buns are to die for. i have never, never had a bun taste so good. now that i think i have my problem of killing yeast behind me, i hope for many another baked good thing to come from kitchen.



yummmmm, we managed to find four ready to pick strawberries this morning. i have been fighting the birds from the beginning of the week. they like the berries as much as i do. i have a net and now i have added chicken wire and some wood planks. i think there might be a full out war if they do not leave them alone. one thing is for sure, all the waiting and longing will pay off. rozella allowed me to have one of her two strawberries and although small... it was oh so good.


another good thing, is our patch of garlic. making my homemade pizza and sauce yesterday i need some garlic and although the hubby thinks that it should be harvested in july... i went ahead and pulled one head up. it was ready enough to use, and so comes the end of buying one more thing at the store.



well, heres to a wonderful holiday ushering in summer weekend.

a whole new world.....

the recital, my little girl is getting so big.... as you can tell from the below photos. just a couple of years ago, was a trial, when it performing in front of a crowd. as you can see she sure shined in mine.

Change of Heart

When i head to my local library i do not hold my breath in anticipation of finding something that i am looking for. last week, sitting on the new rack was Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. a couple of my friends have mentioned that they planned to read it. of course it made it onto my mental book list. i am so glad that God brought it into my life when he did.

a couple of quotes:


"This is my sinple religion.
There is no need for temples;
no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;
the philosophy is kindness."

-His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

p. 283

"An individual can have a religion," he said. "He can't have a religious institution. But it seems to me that Shay Bourne is standing in a tradition similar to the ones the Gnostic Christians did nearly two thousand years ago. He's not the first to say that he can't name his faith. He's not the first to find a path to salvation that is different from others you've heard about. And he's certainly not the first to mistrust the body - to literally want to give it away, as a means to finding divinity inside oneself. But just because he doesn't have a church with a white steeple over his head, or a temple with a six-pointed star surrounding him, doesn't mean that his beliefs are any less worthy." p. 316

"Religion often gets in the way of God"
-Bono, at the national prayer breakfast, Febuary 2, 2006 p. 343


"I personally feel that it's just as worthy on a weekend to rake the lawn of an elderly neighbor or to climb a mountain and marvel at the beauty of this land we live in as it is to sing hosannas or fo to mass. In other words, I think every man finds his own church - and not all of them have four walls." p.399

"There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle."
- Albert Einstein p.443

if you know me, you know that i face a personal fit with those around me. those whom have made it clear that my personal religion is not good enough. so to them, go sit on your ass.... i will just continue to do it the way i have. AND along the way i hope to learn more about the Gnostic Gospels.

definition of Gnostic Gospels

Gnostic Gospel Library

INTO THE WILD

into the wild
YouTube Into The Wild


Where to start...... where to start.

this past weekend i picked up the movie and watched, heck the whole family watched it.. yesterday i picked up the book and tonight i finished it.

if you have not heard of the story of Christopher McCandless aka Alex Supertramp, it is one to be looked into. usually i am one to read the book and then watch the movie. in this case i am glad that i watched and then read. with the movie i felt so connected to what he was trying to do and gain. although i went to the book for more input it was very similar to the movie but with the movie Sean Penn did a great job showing us more of what could be going on in Alex's mind and soul. especially now that everyone should be on a bandwagon for conserving, conserving of almost everything. although i tend to think that i am at one with my consumption, it never hurts to ponder other ways to live, reuse, recycle, or to do without.

now for some of the quotes that i found to make me ponder... ponder my own existence here in a far off land.

"you are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living." p. 57


"But have you noticed the slight curl at the end of Sam II's mouth, when he looks at you? It means that he didn't want you to name him Sam II, for one thing, and for two other things it means that he has a sawed-off in his left pant leg , and a bailing hook in his right pant leg, and is ready to kill you with either one of them, given the opportuinty, The father is taken aback. What he usually says, in such a confrontation, is "I changed your diapers for you, little snot." This is not the right thing to say. First, it is not true (mothers change nine diapers out of ten), and second, it instantly reminds Sam II of what he is about. He is mad about being small when you were big, but no, that's not it, he is mad about being helpless when you were powerful, but no, not that either, he is mad about being contingent when you were necessary, not quite it, he is insane because when he loved you, you didn't notice." Donal Barthelme, The Dead Father p. 145


Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, or sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!

McCadless starred and bracketed the paragraph and circled "refuge in nature" in black ink.
Next to "And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us. merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness.... And this was most vexing of all," he noted, "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED." p. 189


take the time to watch the movie. you will not be disappointed.

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

hahahah i think that it was about time that she spoke it. ;)

this book was wonderful, thank goodness there is a whole series and that my local library carries em.

just a few little bits....

"ever since then she'd flounced herself around anytime I was in her office, not that anybody with all that weight ought to do any flouncing." p. 56

"Get a hold of yourself," I told her as I snatched a Kleenex from the box and handed it to her. "If theres one thing I've learned in all this, it's that you have to stand up for yourself. Nobody else is going to do it for you, least of all the people you ought to be able to depend on."

Radar and the Rodeo

so we have a new store in town.... Big R. along with the grand opening they had the worlds largest horse. Radar is his name. this picture does not do justice to how big he is. he is a Belgian Draft Horse. Radar stands 6'7.5" at the withers (if you know my hubby he is 6'7")just so you know the withers are at the top of the shoulder where the neck joins the body. The ‘lump’ seen on many horses is the top of the spiny process of the tallest thoracic vertebrae. This part of the vertebrae is quite high on some horses and shallow on others. this big boy drinks 20 gl. of water daily.

on to the rodeo......


this pic is of the wheel barrel races. you can see that Zettie was having a blast along with Rozella and her friend Chesna.




Rozella was not to sure this time about riding the horse, as you can see below William was loving it. by the way this horse was of regular size. ;)

why?

why is it some people think that they have so much control over others lives. be it, thoughts, eating, breathing.... ya know things like that.

the world does not revolve around you. i will not change my mind or my opinion just to make you happy.

don't you realize that what you continue to try to do, is what has made me stand up for myself and my beliefs. made me remember my backbone.

just because you want it a certain way, i will no longer be the one to go with your flow. i have my own flow, i have wants and dreams too. no longer will i participate in making yours come true, since you have showed me how selfish you are with helping me obtain what not only i need for myself but also for my family.

so step back, shut up for once and realize these are my dreams, my hopes, my desires......

things to bloom

these flower beds contain hopefully what will be a plentiful harvest of strawberries. we bought 50 plants last year. this year we have added another bed and separated them, we now have over 70. garlic inhabits the end of the first bed. we will be added onions, tomatoes and a green pepper plant. i surely would like to take a hand at that, seeing that the going rate for just one is 89¢. i should be able to buy a plant for 3 or 4 dollars. we will have to see.

the following picture is of the pear tree out back. beautiful at the moment.




this past weekend was a simple one. worked on my watercolors. pondered a couple of new ideas. finished pride and prejudice. and did many a load of laundry, it was great weather for hanging up outside. i hope you all have a wonderful week.

baked beans.. please

here is my littlest, sometimes it is just such fun to watch her throughly enjoy her food.

watercolors and alone time....

as many of you know. on Saturdays i head on over to the ArtCenter here in town. although i do not find much adult conversation, i do find solitude from little voices. seeing that all of them in my head are grownup. ;) below you will find a number of the newest finished pieces to my portfolio. maybe next year i will have enough to enter a show. as one can see i love using my nick nacks and of course the theme of five o'clock somewhere. well, i hope that you enjoy.


blue egg cup, 2008


untitled, 2008


my cup of tea, 2008


untitled, 2008


happy things, 2008

Charlie, the chocolate factory and a mouse

so while watching the movie, i thought that i saw something move over by the entertainment center. i asked is there a cat over there.....since the hubby had a full view. nope. then i turned my attention back to the movie and once again i saw something. this little mouse decided he wanted to play cat and mouse with our two. matt successfully caught him with a cookie smeared with peanut butter. he had to take the picture to prove it.

another reason to like... IKEA

just found this and it gives me another reason to like IKEA. not only are they not going to use plastic any longer. they are giving the proceeds back.

tree climbing & walking

although we do not have big trees, we at least have one great for little one climbing.








they have an old jump rope tide to a limb. this helps with the ascend and descend.... and well the tricycle at the base of the tree does too.

One other note. Zettie is finally realizing that she can walk. how exciting is this? well, for me very. it means that i can gradually stop worring about what she is wearing. seeing that a ton of the clothes that she has are borrowed handmedowns. seeing that handmedowns are great on the pocketbook.

padding of the nests

this is just a pic of a little sparrow collecting discarded samson fur. if you don't know what i am talking about, i am talking about my white german sheppard. it is now shedding season. and even though this fur came off of such a big beast... as i am sure the birds think, they are still picking it up and using it to pad their nests.

what a great reuse little birdies.

by the way the kids think that the birds have beards.. heheheh

8p.m. Saturday March 29th

Earth Hour


came across the above in the news on my yahoo page.... i am glad that it is not to late to join. this site is full of information. when you get a moment check it out.

Go CARDS!

well, here is my little man sporting his cardinals hat that grandma pam gave to him. daddy is a cubs fan so let the animosity begin. ;) isn't he just so damn cute?

along 287

the following is what you can find here in TX.... well, at least where i live in TX.



this picture is the beginning of the new wind power. these wind farms are popping up everywhere and hopefully will lead us to a cleaner environment.


these are some of them already put up and ready to go... at last count there were 16. this is small compared to some wind farms. it would not surprise me if they keep adding to.



now these are pics of a someones ranch. i failed to get the real beauty of it... an old ran down building. i just know that someone a long long time ago lived there. but in these two pictures what you can't see are some horns... might i say in the midwest they don't grow em like this.... out on the open great plains.





some of the things that you will not find where i live in TX are mature trees.... at least tall mature trees. you don't see two story houses and well since we are onto no two story house... why don't they have basements? you would think that if you don't have two stories for tornado season. then why wouldn't you have basements for tornado season. also, you will not find corn popping up in rows, just irrigated circles. and if you want to have green grass, you have to water water water. oh and by the way... where i am at in TX, no one drives minivans. that is right.... i think that i can count a total of 5 in this whole town. we are big vehicle country. i suppose that i should not complain to much, for God will greet me with a marvelous sunrise. this morning i could swear that it was a rainbow.... it was magnificent. and her at 10p. i as i sit here typing this my bedroom windows are open, taking in the fresh air (since the wind is out of the southwest, not the north - feedlot) and well the sound of the sprinklers which will in turn lead to green grass. and hopefully many flowers.

how irish are you?

You're 70% Irish

You're very Irish, and most likely from Ireland. (And if you're not, you should be!)

How Irish Are You?

acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm

"awakened doing is the alignment of your outer purpose - what you do - with your inner purpose - awakening and staying awake. through awakened doing, you become one with the outgoing purpose of the universe. consciousness flows through you into this world. it flows into your thoughts and inspires them. it flows into what you do and guides and empowers it.
not what you do, but how you do what you do determines whether you are fulfilling your destiny. and how you do what you do is determined by your state of consciousness." (p294)

"there are three ways in which consciousness can flow into what you do and thus through you into this world, three modalities in which you can align your life with the creative power of the universe. " (p.295)

"the modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm." "if you are not in the state of either acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, look closely and you will find that youa re creating suffering for yourself and others." (p.295)

ACCEPTANCE
"acceptance means: for now, this is what this situation, this moment, requires me to do, and so i do it willingly. performing an action in the state of acceptance means you are at peace while you do it. on the surface, acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it is active and creative because it brings something entirely new into this world." (p.296)
" if you can neither enjoy or bring acceptance to what you do - stop. otherwise, you are not taking responsibility for the only thing you can really take responsibility for, which also happens to be one thing that really matters: your state of consciousness. and if you are not taking responsibility for your state of consciousness, you are not taking responsibility for life. : (p296-297)

ENJOYMENT
"through enjoyment you link into that universal creative power itself. when you make the present moment, instead of past and future, the focal point of your life, your ability to enjoy what you do - and whith it the quality of your life - increases dramatically. joy is the daynamic aspect of being>" (p. 297)
"enjoy what you are doing already, instead of waiting for some change so that you can start enjoying what you do. don't ask your mind for permission to enjoy what you do." (p. 298)

"joy does not come from what you do, it flow into what you do and thus into this world from deep within you." (p. 298)

"you will soon find that what you do in such a state of heightened awareness, instead of being stressful, tedious, or irritating, is actually becoming enjoyable. to be more precise, what you are enjoying is not really the outward action but the inner dimension of consciousness that flows in the action. this is finding the joy of being in what you are doing. if you feel your life lacks significance or is too stressful or tedious, it is because you haven't brought that dimension into your life yet. being conscious in what you do has not yet become your main aim." (p. 299)

ENTHUSIASM

"enthusiasm means there is deep enjoyment in what you do plus the added element of a goal or a vision that you work toward. " (p 301)

"when you want to arrive at your goal more that you want to be doing what you are doing, you become stressed. the balance between enjoyment and structural tension is lost, and the latter has won. when there is stress, it is usually a sign that the ego has returned, and you are cutting yourself off from the creative power of the universe." (p. 302)

"the word enthusiasm comes from the ancient greek - en and theos, meaning God. and the related word enthousiazein means "to be possessed by a god." with enthusiasm you will find that you don't have to do it all by yourself. in fact, there is nothing of significance that you can do by yourself. sustained enthusiasm brings into existence a wave of creative energy, and all you have to do then is "ride the wave." (p. 302)

"enthusiasm knows where it is going, but at the same time, it is deeply at one with the present moment, the source of its aliveness, its joy, and its power. enthusiasm "wants" nothing because it lacks nothing." (p. 303)

the above are just some of the underlined words from Eckhart Tolle, a New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. this part of the book really hit it home, how i have been dealing with being here in Texas, that is. and all of the changes that my life has seen in the past few years.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

from a house with reds.... we wish you all a day full of wonder. maybe you will find that pot of gold. did you remember to wear your green?

aha!

Keep your weakness intact. Don't try to acquire strengths, above all those that aren't for you, not meant for you, that nature has preserved you from, preparing you for something else.

aha!



well, besides that which happened just a couple of minutes ago... i fell asleep out side on my glider swing while listening to the birds. if you are reading a new earth and have made it to the 8th chapter you know what i am talking about. finding those spaces.

right now as i type this Sweet Home Alabama is on. i so love this movie. a great day to end the day. besides the above mentioned accomplishments, i repainted the front door... of course it is still blue, it just matches the soffit color of the house now. well... now that i think about it much of the other stuff is not really worth mentioning. all in a days work of a stay at home mom. by the way i just typed that with a smile on my face.

well, thanks for taking the time to stop on by. i hope that the rest of your week is a wonderful one. and i hope that an aha! moment hits when you least expect it.

just another manic monday

nope, not really here in my world. although, it has all been about cleaning up, decluttering and making it look nice. we are in the throws of getting the house ready to be sold. now, who knows when this will take place, and it better take place. but, we are gearing up to get the job done and done quickly. if you know me then you know that our garage is full... a two car garage. so many a great treasure we just can't let go. we know that we will have to rent a storage unit once we put the house on the market. so since we are going to have to rent extra space, i have been decluttering within the house... this includes extra furniture. we have to up the visual especially showing the space. all of this hard work is making me tired. or is it all the thoughts of the impending move and the next step in our lives.

oh, it has been pointed out, i wrote the wrong weekend for Easter. wouldn't that be strange to have Easter one day and then St. Patty's day the next? have a wonderful day!

out being creative

so, the hubby usually allows me to take Saturday and either go thrifting or to the art center and paint. of course it being the only time i am not around my kids, i have to take it. although, i would love to trek all the way to amarillo, to see what goodies i might find... gas is $3.15 a gl. and since we are watching all the pennies, i decided to paint. i will have to post at a later time of the newest finished pieces. actually at this moment i am giving them a bit more time to dry before packing up and heading home. i have hit a wall and well, it is time to stop for the day, at least on this one project. last night i transplanted my little starts to flats. lets see, out of a whole packet of lavender seeds, i only had 4 starts. those are some tough plants to start. my black eye susans will be in abundance though. well it is hard to believe that next weekend is Easter. Spring has to be right around the corner. well i hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

how many colors do you know?????

so cruising around.... i found a site that tests you on how many 5 year olds you could take out. seeing that i have 3 under 5, i was able to take out 18. ;) i then saw this quiz. heheheheh you would think me being an art student would of helped. go see what you can do. then comment back.

25

easter pasts

well, it won't be long before the easter bunny will be paying a visit. it is amazing how quickly easter has come upon us. the following are from years back.


my little red enjoying the coloring of the easter eggs.


oh those curls... where did they go? and the innocence?


carson - what a chunky monkey you were. do you remember this?