Category: family

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We Heart Art!

To celebrate art and creativity, three blogs are hosting two days of We Heart Art! If you heart art, too, you should visit I’m Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor, Three Bay B Chicks and Domestically Challenged. They also have a great giveaway going on!

I come from a very creative family, but alas, I am probably the least creative. Here’s my chance to brag about my incredibly talented family! My parents are both very talented people. My mom, being a pastor’s wife, created many beautiful banners for her various churches and also designed the needle-pointed kneelers that are in front of the alter at my church. I get to see them every time I go up to communion. When I think of my dad and his artistic side, I think of his wonderfully crafted sermons.

My sisters are both college professors in their chosen fields. One composes music and the other has had art exhibits in galleries around the country. As for my brother and me, we dabble in creativity but mostly in private!

A few years ago, I took a community art class, taught by my dear friend T. She’s at home right now with a new baby….If you get a chance to read this, T, I think you are an AWESOME art teacher!

One technique she showed us was how to use a grid to draw. This is a black and white photo of a baby I found in a catalog. You can see the grid I drew over the picture.

I drew a grid on a white piece of drawing paper, and carefully copied each square, transferring the image. Here is the end result:

I loved taking this art class, and when I have time sometime, I hope to resume my art studies! I may have a while to wait….

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They’ll Never Let Me Live It Down

Never live something down – If you say that you will never live down something bad or embarrassing that you have done, you mean people will not forget it. Three million people saw the singer fall off the edge of the stage. He’ll never live it down. (from thefreedictionary.com)

We all have stories that we hear over and over again. Most of the time, it is the embarrassing stories that are told and retold. Especially when you bring that someone special home to meet the family. Ed found the following story extremely humorous, and frequently retells it.

I couldn’t have been more than two years old when my mom found me outside with wings around my mouth. She was horrified that I had been catching and eating box elder bugs. Maybe my little toddler body was craving protein.

For years, my mom always told me to be very, very, VERY careful when I was carrying something. When I was a kid, we kept the jars of jams and pickles my mom made in the basement. When I was bringing up a jar of pickles one day, I dropped it at the bottom of the stairs. Broken glass and pickle juice was everywhere. “Remember the pickle jar!” Mom would caution when I was carrying anything breakable.

I cannot say the word Yosemite without thinking very carefully about its pronunciation before I say it. Ed loves to tease me about the one time I said it wrong. My cousins will never let me forget about the Smush. (Or Shmoo, as most people call that cute little cartoon character from the 70’s.)

Fortunately, MY REALLY BIG MISTAKES seem to have been forgotten, or at least, no one mentions them because they know I would feel awful all over again about MY REALLY BIG MISTAKES.

I’m not going to remind anyone about MY REALLY BIG MISTAKES. It would be too tempting for someone (*ahem* ED) to revive these stories at the next family gathering!