treasures

yard treasures

curated by Little Man

to take to show and tell

at preschool

color your world challenge

Remember how I was participating

in the Color Your World challenge?

No? Well. I got way behind.

I feel like I'm finally coming out of the pregnancy haze

and am tacking long-planned projects.

I scaled down my plans

and completed all three missing color challenges this week!

September: Teal

This is supposed to be a teal silhouette of a teal duck,

but I think it might actually be a wood duck. Oops.

It still turned out pretty nicely.

October: Orange

“[Orange] is one of God's favorite colors--

He stuck it right there between red and yellow

as the second color in the rainbow.

He decorates entire forests with shades of orange every autumn.

It shows up in sunrises at the start of the day,

sunsets at the end of the day,

and in the glow of the moon at the right time of night.”

~Reggie Joiner

November: Brown

I love Brown.

"The color brown, I realized, is anything but nondescript.

It comes in as many hues as there are colors of earth,

which is commonly presumed infinite.”
~Barbara Kingsolver

linking up with Jennifer's In the Studio

funny little flower hat

A few weeks ago I decided to use up some of my yarn scraps

by making a hat for Sweet Pea (my girl loves hats)

that used a cool technique I found on Pinterest

for incorporating 3-D flowers into whatever you're crocheting.

It turned out pretty cute!

Though on second thought it might have been smarter

to use this technique on something that was going to be flat

instead of curved like the hat is.

The flowers might lay flatter that way instead of being quite so quirky.

But on third thought,

it was a fantastic time to try a new technique in a small project,

and Sweet Pea likes it and has already gotten quite a bit of use out of the hat.

Time to stop second guessing myself. : )

resolution

So it's almost the end of March,
and I'm finally posting about my New Year's Resolution.

This actually ends up working nicely
because often by this time of the year, Resolutions are forgotten.
But instead of forgetting,
I'm writing about it for the first time
and getting a nice reminder of my year-goal.

(acrylic and sharpie)

Several bloggers I follow

wrote in January about how their resolutions

were encompassed by a single word or short phrase.

I loved it.

And the more I read,

the more convinced I became

that my special resolution words for this year

should be Peace and Peaceful.

Between family and friends, church, work, and play,

not to mention sleep-deprivation and emotions,

I find myself becoming agitated far too often.

So this year I am pursuing being a

person who is characterized by peace.

It is a hard but excellent goal.

art journal

Doodles with a basic ball point pen.

This rather psychedelic creation was made

when Little Man wanted to share his markers with me.

While I was doodling with his markers,

he drew a picture of the two of us together.

I so love it.

And Brother drew "ladybugs in the tall grass beside our porch."

Sweet Pea is still mostly drawing abstract squiggles

though she is working on drawing circles.

Another bright marker doodle.

Even though this one's just a doodle,

it has special layers of meaning for me.

The black dots are braille for "love"

which is significant since my mom is legally blind.

I wanted to communicate that love is a language

everyone can undersand

and that it can be "seen" be everyone.

I got some fun new art journal supplies last week.

A water brush and basic water colors.

And a package of colored GellyRoll pens.

I know, I know.

Gell pens are so nineteen-ninety-nine.

But I really love the way these lay down ink so smoothly.

Plus once they're dry, they're waterproof!

I'm learning to make the most

of the small windows of time I have for art.

This only took about ten minutes

but I felt refreshed afterward

and had a little art to show for it!

I really need to stop chewing on my pen lids while I draw, though.

It's a yucky and destructive habit.

Little Man wanted to try my new pens too.

This is "A Jabber" when it's facing this way

and "A Colorful Bag With A Handle"

 when you turn it upside down.

two months

eats

mama milk on demand

sleeps

likes sleeping on his side gripping a blanket

is beginning to prefer his crib and swing to crashing anywhere

though he still likes cuddling best of all

says

soft coos of one or two syllables

(his voice so reminds me of Brother's when he was tiny)

sweet giggles and the occasional little belly laugh

hearty cries ("MAAAAAAA") when distressed

does

holds his head up with increasing stability

rolls from stomach to back in tummy time

is starting to focus on objects and try to grab them

escapes from his socks with ease

likes

baths

swinging

eye contact and conversation

having his head rubbed (still)

staring at Daddy's guitars (they're hanging on the wall)

sitting propped up on the couch and looking around

interacting with his brothers and sister

being held

dislikes

sudden loud noises and hats

having shirts put on over his head

being squished by Sweet Pea's hugs

having a stuffy nose

being too warm

the big picture

but of course life's not all sunny mornings,

painting peacefully with the boys,

enjoying sweet baby smiles,

and delighting in my girl

it's also up-all-night

comforting the coughing, feverish ones

and your being cries for rest

through aching body and runny nose

exhaustion beyond  imagination

yet appointments must be kept

and dishes pile up

while laundry mountains grow

and trash begins to stink

and everyone still wants to eat

so you gulp the coffe down

and try to breathe in deep

and you pray for super-human Grace

to keep on going, keep on loving

and somehow strength is there