No Apologies

I was going to apologize or make excuses for why my blogging hasn't been as consistent as I'd like. I had hoped to write 2-3 times a week. I've seen some who share everyday, sometimes a couple times a day, but that's just not me. It's just that...well, maybe it's just that I'm not really following a schedule. I decided a few weeks ago that my writing time should be left for the evening (even though it's the afternoon right now) because I hate it when I'm on a roll and I get interrupted a million times and forget my thought. Which invariably happens when everyone is awake. (I guess I'm a glutton for punishment...)

But I've decided not to apologize for this. If you read my blog or follow me on twitter then you know that I have 4 children at home. I home teach 2, 3 next fall, and I have a co-sleeping, wearable, nursing, mama's boy. He alone is a time and energy drain some days. Plus he's cute. When I thought about it, I realized that I have no reason to apologize for this, that's just the way it is.
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On another note, I have no photos to share right now, (at least not of my art). I have been working on some stuff in the snippets of time that I can steal away from "the more important things" but no pictures of them yet. I am honing my schedule, and Gabe's too, so that more art time can be worked in. I was annoyed that the girl's virtual school did not offer any art classes (as were they) so my hope is to make up for it this summer by teaching them some of the things I know. I think it will be a fun way to draw them out and nurture their creativity at the same time. I will definitely be sharing pictures of that.

In the meantime, here are some pictures my second daughter drew. She is 8 and very little of a girly girl. She likes bugs and snakes, as well as ponies. She likes playing pirates and princess (though she is usually the princess' horse), and she is my most picky eater.

Here is a picture of a skeleton in a coffin that she drew. I have no idea why.

(click on the pictures to see a better view.)

The next one she drew the same day. It is a sarcophagus and a mummy (with a belly button).



Enjoy,
Meliss

Things I Want To Be Cool At

I have a list that I wrote out about 3 years ago. Before my surprise son, before Gabe lost his job and we had to short sell our house. And before the renters destroyed our 1st house and stopped paying us so that we had to kick them out and move (for the 3rd time in a year) back in after gutting the place. (We even had to replace walls, it was so gross).

I called it my 'Things I want to be cool at' list and I saved it in my palm pilot (and forgot about it because I only use the palm for a glorified calculator and grocery list.) In looking at the list, I see that there are many things I wrote that I haven't really made any headway with, some that I started to but circumstances changed, many that I would still like to try and some that I think I've changed my mind about.

Here is a partial record of my list.

Exercise: do P90X, be stronger, strengthen core---
I actually did this, then I got lazy and didn't really exercise much, not consistently. Then I had a surprise pregnancy-he's 8 months old now-and I was sick for the first 4 months so my plan to keep exercising was altered and I craved nothing but nachos for the rest. So I currently can not do the X anymore. But I aspire to get there again.

Sports and Recreation:
archery--I'm still interested, and daughter #1 plans to take lessons this summer too.
croquet, juggling sticks,--I have a nice set of sticks and I was pretty good at first, better than Gabe even. But he is kinda obsessive over techniques and stuff so he ended up getting much better than me. Which annoyed me. I still like playing with them but I don't do anything real fancy.
hiking, surfing.--OK, first of all, I can't swim. And second the friend that tried to convince me that surfing is good and I don't need to know how to swim moved far, far away. Also, I live in Colorado. I've heard some very resourceful ones figured out how to surf here, but I'm still gonna fall back on the I don't swim excuse.

Parenting:
Be consistent with Love and Logic, Share my love and my time, do things with the girls-outings, cooking, enjoy their company. Commend their positives and be empathetic to their negatives.---

I have not been consistent. I have a drill sergent personality, I want it done and I want it done now! I also have a hard time being empathetic to stupidity-especially in adults-this is a hard one to break. My mom used to belittle me at times and I work really hard not to do that to my kids but I still need to be more empathetic I think.

I read a quote somewhere that said "children spell love T I M E" and I can totally see that. They don't need the fancy toys (they don't really play with them when they get them anyway, the stuff just gets lost or broken.) but they relish the time we spend. I instituted 'Mom and Me day' a few years back, (maybe when I first wrote this list, I don't remember) its a time where I spend the day with just one of them. We don't even do anything fancy, I run errands or we go for a walk or do some baking, but its just the 2 of us. All the the girls love it and ask when our next one will be. I wish I could do it more, I don't want to be one of those moms that thinks they know their kid when they really have no clue. These are each individual people and I want to know them all.

Jewelry:
necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets, ropes---these I've done many of.
pins, charms, hair sticks, pmc-these I sill want to try or do more.

Art:
painting, drawing, masks, (paper mache, resin...) collage, stamps, paper, clay, altered books, furniture (paint, cover, build)---
Many of these I've done but not nearly enough. I started a project as an anniversary gift for a friend about 3 years ago which is still not done. I wanted Gabe to sculpt part of it for me as that is his area of expertise, and he still has not finished, so neither have I.
I have not experimented with the masks yet but I still think they would be cool. I am in the middle of making covers for a few pieces of furniture, but I'm such a beginner when it comes to sewing that the stitch ripper is my best tool.

Playing:
bass--Gabe is a bass player. He's played since he was about 14, he doesn't play everyday so he claims he's not that good. He needs to stop comparing himself to Les Claypool. He is good and has written some great bass songs. And his fingers are abnormally long and stretchy because of it. However I have learned that I can't learn from him. Not well anyway. His teaching style is a complete opposite of my learning style and I get very annoyed when he takes over stuff. He's trying to get better at that, but maybe that's why he hasn't showed me a lot of stuff I asked him to show me. He used to teach bass in school and his students went on to perform but after 14 years I still don't know how to play. Maybe that's my fault? Nah.

Meliss