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Here are a few ideas we’ll be trying at our house for the month of February:

This Cute Heart Garland, I think the girls will be able to put it together on their own…
(found thanks to mommysecrets)

and this Fun Heart Wreath, I think we’ll take one to decorate my Dad’s door at his assisted living facility. (found thanks to theclarkchronicles)

and this Candy Necklace, I don’t know if I’ll have the girls make these, or if I’ll make them for their treat on Valentine’s Day.

Share your ideas!

Hope you have a lovin’ time at your house this month!

There was no room in the coffee shop to sit, so I’m out here with my latte and computer.  It’s about 45 degrees and I’m going to type till my fingers freeze up. 

Today has been a blur-a blur of getting done, checking off, meeting the deadlines, and leading my three little blurs along with me.  It started with a flurry of stress last night and led right into the early evening today.  The culmination of stressful moments came when we were on our way out with our science experiments and cookie orders in hand and discovered an empty key hook on the way to the car. The hook for the car keys, that is.  

In that moment, the blur skidded to a stop and then began in a reverse, slow-motion cloud.  This is test I thought.  It’s a test from God, and the test is-will I completely lose it?  There were 3 little people who kept me from answering that test with a yes.  So as they strapped themselves in the car(the door was unlocked) with the confidence that mommy could handle it, I walked around the house chanting my new mantra “Lord, show me the keys.  Lord help me find those keys.”

The mantra failed, but with deep breaths, I was still hanging in there.  With the aid of a speedy and sympathetic husband(or one afraid to come home later if he couldn’t solve the dilemna and avoid complete pregnant-wife-on-no-sleep-breakdown), we were headed down the driveway.  And so the blur sped back up, faster than it had been the rest of the day.  My body carried out the motions, the tasks got done.  

And now I’m here. 

Freezing, but fully clear-headed at the same time, not a blur in sight.  Tired, but invigorated while the latte lasts.  Free of the the busy, and not even contemplating how to prevent it from coming back tomorrow.  Because right now it’s absent and tomorrow is distant. 

So my baby and I are here, with cold fingers, and wide-eyed senses, together and bright.

Here’s a little peek into today’s art lesson at the Guest Academy of Great Children.

Today we learned about form vs shape.  Shape is a flat object, whereas form has depth and width like a sculpture.  To illustrate form, the girls created these great animal figures.

The art lesson came straight from our art curriculum, Artistic Pursuits.  We started the program this year and we do a lesson a week.  The kids ask if we can do one every day.

Now, we are a crafty family, as previously suggested, so why, when they are always creating things anyway, did I spend money on curriculum?  I’ve always enjoyed artistic pursuits, but couldn’t tell you a thing about color theory or how to paint a nice watercolor.  I wanted to encourage their confidence and freedom, but also give them some good, knowledgeable information to strap on and then take imaginative leaps and bounds.  

This book has short lessons that are designed to introduce concepts such as

• Artists Compose
• Artists Communicate
• Artists Make Portraits
• Artists see Line

Almost all lessons include:

• 1 page describing the concept
• 1 page that shows a great piece of art to illustrate the concept
• 1 page that gives the instructions for the hands on art lesson

We invested in some quality art supplies and it’s all taken off from there…

Let me be clear that all art lessons don’t go smoothly.  I have two children with completely different approaches to any artistic effort.  One very similar to her mom, one lines up with her Dad.  Which means one likes the detailed process of “how to”. And the other would by pass all instruction and only learn by doing.  One doesn’t like any specific parameters, the other thrives under them.

So there can be frustration amongst the watercolor crayons and tissue paper. But I have empathy, because I still get frustrated with my own attempts to translate a vision from head to paper, or computer, or canvas.

So we try to breathe.  Respect each other’s different styles.  Look at the next small step, instead of the big goal of the lesson.  And then magic happens.

Micah started out unexcited about this lesson.  About five minutes later this is what you would have heard in my house:

“Hey, I like to cut and fold things, I do all this stuff anyway, I think this is going to be a better project than I thought.”

She’s responsible for the lion above-came up with all the details on her own(the book only showed a standard dog with the invitation to turn it into other animals).

Jael wanted to make a frog and was sure that none of the basic parts to the form would work for her idea.  She didn’t want me to assist in any way, even when she got frustrated.  She plugged away, cutting and shaping, and soon showed us the frog above.  After that, she was ready to work on my animal, too. And soon you heard 

“I’m the best at doing this kind of work!”

“Jael, can’t we just say that we are all great artists in our family?”

*This Book

Escaping into the Open: the Art of Writing True by Elizabeth Berg

It’s always nice to pick up a new book on writing, though I don’t know if it’s good to read it right before bed.  It might be stimulating my thoughts and contributing to my lack of sleep!

*This Blog

WordGirl

What a gift to visit my friend Shannon’s blog and track her thoughts of creativity, art, writing, and God in the midst.  I feel like I get to tap into her in a whole new way.

*This Artist

Grandma Moses

The girls asked to study a “girl artist” for our next 6 weeks of picture study.  I found Grandma Moses and I like this lady!  Her paintings feel so free, a bit whimsical, and they make me smile!  The way I’d like to feel when creating art.

*The Library

Oh the library!  How I love thee, let me count the ways.  I think it’s my favorite place to go.  A place of surprises and a sore back from always carrying out more than I can handle.  This week’s goodies include some Arctic books for homeschool, the writing book above, 3 new fiction books with pretty covers, and a couple of cookbooks.  Truly, my heart starts beating a little faster as I walk toward the door, where so many unexpected gifts await.

*These Changes

Big changes are happening.  We are painting over the lovely garden that I first painted for Micah 7 years ago when I was 7 months pregnant with our 2nd child. Gone are the oversized flowers and in comes the butter yellow to provide a backdrop for both the girls and the boy as they bunk together and make room for the baby sister on the way.  

Change, specifically, change in the house, brings all kinds of emotions. On the one hand I’m creating art and picture frames and curtains in my head, rearranging the canvas of a room into new and pleasing pictures.  On the other hand, the process of moving and changing includes a period of disorganization and working through clutter and how to make small spaces work for big purposes.  All of that can drive me nuts!  But the real truth is, I love to move things around and pleasantly discover new ideas for old places.  And creating the living space for this little one makes me happy. My husband, on the other hand, has had to dish out extra doses of mercy upon my frustration and urgency in the projects!

Things that jam up my creativity quicker than play doh in the carpet

1) Giving myself creative time only if a end-product comes from the allotted time.  I’m not a process kind of girl, and my extra free time is limited.  So the practical side of myself likes to justify a creative endeavor if it’s a frame that will make money, or a present for someone that will save money.  But writing, an area that God has led me toward, doesn’t work that way.  You have to write just for the sake of practicing, you need the hundreds of hidden hours and throw away drafts to make it to  thing you want to world to see.  Well, I suppose I’m winning the fight be writing right now(the draft in microsoft word that you can’t see right now, that I did before I came to this blog).

2)Perfectionism.  If art is supposed to capture life, atleast reflect it through my eyes and colors and textures, than when does perfectionism have any place?  So why do I still drive myself toward it as if it’s an achievable goal?  Photographs are more interesting when everything isn’t centered, a piece of writing is usually more compelling when the writer hasn’t used a thesaurus to get “the right word” line after line, and I like visual art that looks like the artist enjoyed painting it and felt freedom in the process.  This one’s a work in progress.

3)Taking the easy way out.  What I thought about doing before I sat down here was to watch tv.  It requires nothing of me, no giving of inner thoughts, no reflecting, and I certainly can’t fail at it!  Creativity, atleast that which leads to some interesting art, does ask us to keep a line connected to life.  Even if we’re writing fantasy, we’re still keeping in mind what it is we’re escaping.  It’s mindful process, not mindless.

I like what my friend shannon said about talking to ourselves the same way we would talk to our kids about their creative splurges.  Some common things we say around here (that I could say to myself, not just to my 6 year old):

• “You’re a great artist!”
• “It’s your own work, there’s no wrong answer.”
• “What color do you think it should be?”
• “That’s awesome!”
• “Let’s hang it in your gallery.”
• “Isn’t God an amazing creator?” 

A friend commented on my last post about creativity:

 but the pressure on my spirit to write has recently been enormous. I envy your confidence that your creativity is purely of God and your willingness to so actively pursue it when I’m sometimes just scared by it.

I’m pondering these thoughts and thinking back on my creative journey and how I arrived here, and where I hope to go.  As I ponder, here’s a quote:

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and I could say ”I used everything you gave me.“

Erma Bombeck

Most often when friends visit our house or I’m sitting around with some other moms, I hear “Aimee’s so creative.”  And I immediately puff out my chest and list off all of my creative endeavors.  No!  I think about how I have no choice but to create, because God sculpted me just that way.  Some families sacrifice in order to fill their days with sports or academics.  This year we’ve given up other things in order to write summer dramas for church or find time to for Matt to paint.  The girls have spent hours creating “shows” and making miracles with scissors and paints.  It’s the unique way that God has crafted our family and I’m so thankful that it’s something we share together.

The few times that Matt and I undertake a creative project together, there’s the good and the bad.  The good of course is that we’re putting our heads, bodies, our imaginations, together.  Along with that, comes stress and deadlines and artist’s passions and inevitably some grumpiness!  And yet through all of it we’ve come through the other side with something we’ve made into existence that wouldn’t be there without the two of us, collaborating(we think in some life we’d be good movie directors as well!).

Recently I realized that I was void of  any creative urges.  My camera didn’t call me, I had stepped out of my writer’s group, my frame materials were up in the attic. Friends reassured me, “You’ve been sick with your 4th pregnancy for 5 months, it’s understandable”.  Which is true, and was somewhat comforting.  But now my hands are itching.  My brain is working in full-color.  

It doesn’t really matter what the creative task is, if I’m in the act of it, I feel more like the person God made me to be.  So friends, I have no choice.  What is there in your life that you feel compelled to do, that you feel closer to God when you’re in the act?

There have been many past New Year’s Eve nights when I could look ahead and see no significant change for the coming year. This isn’t one of them. Even as I sit here, I feel the rolling of our baby’s arms and legs across my growing stomach and wish more than anything that I had a camera to peek in and see what she’s doing in there.  In 9 short weeks the mystery will be solved and she’ll be in our arms.  In that single digit number, our lives will be changed forever.  

On this side of the change, I feel the anxiousness of the unknown.  It’s easy to look at the life I have now, the day to day routine with my husband and three children and think “Why would I want to change this?”. Why would I want to give up the sleep-filled nights, the predictability of our homeschool days.  And not to rose-tint life at the moment.  It also includes lots of sibling fights and tedious chores that need repeating every day.  But it’s comfortable.  It’s containable. It’s known.  

But change is coming.  My body knows it and sends me the message-get ready.  Even as I drop my book in the bathtub and drift off to sleep after a day of putting the christmas decorations away, my mind still works on, picking out colors of paint and making lists of tasks to prepare the nest. I may worry over the lost “mommy time” with my 3 year old, but still I’m rearranging furniture(in my head) to fit our expanding family.

Experience is worth something though.  At the eve of each birth, I’ve felt these same fears.  And inevitably the moment arrives.  And matt and I marvel that our family ever existed without this warm, soft, beautiful, unique person that was always meant to be part of our family.

I know without a doubt that’s how I will be feeling in approximately 9 weeks.  I also know that these other thoughts will stick around til the day the miracle happens.

It’s the way this goes.

“A birth is not really the beginning. Our lives at the start are not really our own but only the continuation of someone else’s story.”

excerpt from The Thirteenth Tale