The Crepe Myrtles are Saying It's Fall

Fall is my favorite season! Every year, I spend August's sweltering days anticipating the cool of autumn. When September arrives, I begin watching the trees. While driving, I've noticed that certain trees are shifting to yellow as if sighing that they are just too hot and tired to maintain their summer green. In my own yard, I heed the crepe myrtles - my watchers on the wall, ready to signal the change to come. Yellow-tinged leaf tips whisper secrets of shorter days and cool breezes. Each day, golden hues seep further along and spread the word. Finally, the leaf blushes, sounding the red alert before it fades into brown and falls silently to the path below.

Fascinated by this ritual, I plucked a few leaves and brought them into the studio to sketch. A younger me might have stood on the rocky garden path, balancing a sketchbook, drawing pencil, kneaded eraser, and a dozen or so coloring pencils as I drew them still on the tree. The older and wiser me preferred my comfy chair and air conditioning, only to face the frustrating task of preventing Kitty Mau from tasting, caressing, and stealing the leaves! Upon realizing the battle was futile, I went to fetch leaves just for her. She rubbed them, licked them, and promptly batted them off the table and onto the floor. She liked my leaves better. So much for wisdom on my part. I resorted to placing the canned air, her mortal enemy, next to the leaves. Truce achieved. 

Colored pencils are a new medium to me. I purchased a set of Prismacolor Verithins recently and have enjoyed playing with them. They are very different from chalk, conte, or oil pastels - all of which are old friends of mine. I need to study a few pencil techniques and practice. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with the drawing. I love the different stages of the color shifts in the leaves. I couldn't do it justice. Still, it's wonderful to be making art again - doing it just for the pure joy of bringing something from nothing. No pressure, no deadlines, no expectations. Simply bliss.

On another note, you may have noticed that my blog got a makeover. I've been wanting to come back to it with a fresh start, so voilà! The cloudy background is a digital painting on a canvas texture. A bit of a rushed job, not wanting to wait for paint to dry, but I think it's rather fun.

So, I rejoice in the new season, comforted by the surety of its coming. 

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. ~ Gen 8:22


Lord, I thank you for autumn, the time of harvest, and for mild weather to relish before the biting winter comes. Thank you for establishing the routine and rotation of seasons as a continual reminder of your steadfastness and eternal stewardship over the earth. I praise you in every season and revel in your unending love!

Random Musings of Snow Days

Snowy Day Garden

Snow Day Weather: BRRRR! It is cold today!! I woke up this morning to teen temperatures and negative wind chill factors. Snow still covers the ground from yesterday's snowfall. Schools and many businesses are closed. The world is quiet as most people have gone into hibernation to wait out the weather. A perfect time to write a little personal blog. I've been hitting the Bible study blogs pretty heavily lately, so I thought this would be a nice change. 

Snow Day Adventure: Rick suggested that we go out for breakfast yesterday to check out the roads. About an hour later, I decided I was up for an adventure, so I agreed. I almost changed my mind when the passenger door on the truck would not open. It was frozen shut. The windshield wipers were frozen in place too. After sliding down our street and struggling with a hill, Rick decided to put the truck in four-wheel drive. He announced, "Now we'll get some traction." Then made a left turn and slid sideways down that street. I thought it was all funny until he made a right-on-red turn onto Highway 10. There were cars coming! Granted, they were a block away and doing about 10 miles per hour, but they were coming. And we were sliding again. Sideways, very slowly, down the highway, ahead of the other slowly moving cars. It was like being chased by zombies. We did actually make it to breakfast, and home safely. On the way home, we watched a big duel-wheel truck slide very slowly through a red light that he was trying to stop for. He never did get stopped. Thankfully, no one was moving toward him. The car across the intersection was just spinning, not going anywhere. It was quite a hilarious adventure!

Jessey making hot chocolate

Quinten on his 2nd day of the WoW Snow Day Marathon

Snow Day Gratitude: The boys are delighted to be out of school. Jessey is thankful that he has extra time to study for the test that was scheduled for today. He's also thankful that he does not have to drive his freshly painted car on treachery roads. Quinten is thankful for my decision that homeschoolers should get snow days too. Guess what he's doing? WoW! You're right! Quinten and I ventured outside last night to find out what 10 degree weather actually felt like. Despite my heavy coat, I was shivering in less than two minutes. Quinten insisted that it was not that bad.


Snow Day Accomplishments: I've been taking advantage of the lovely snow-reflected light that is shining into the studio - I've been painting. I have two in the works now. One is a seascape/beach scene. The other is a riverside scene that I began years ago, but never finished. I may title it "Letting Go." We'll see. Are you intrigued? I had to stop painting, though, and let both dry. One of the things I love about oil painting is the technique of layering. But that requires down time between layers. Nothing teaches you patience like waiting for paint to dry. 

Maow in her Snow Day camping spot on my bed.

Nommy on her Snow Day perch

Snow Day Pets: Did I mention that it's cold? The studio was so cold yesterday that we let the cats into our bedroom. They both slept on me last night. I didn't complain. We kept each other warm. Maow has staked out a spot on the bed and is camped there for the duration. Nommy can't be still that long. She played hunting cat from her perch today, while watching the squirrels and the birds in the back yard. Shadow and Faith made a record quick trip outside yesterday morning; but by afternoon they had decided that the snow was fun. They chased around, kicked up the snow and bit it. Twice yesterday, I had to make them come in so they wouldn't freeze.The dogs had one of their favorite treats earlier. After Jessey topped his hot chocolate with whipped cream, he squeezed out a bit for the dogs. It's so much fun to watch them catch falling whipped cream in mid-air. And if they miss, they clean up the mess themselves!

Shadow & Faith getting their Snow Day treat

Snow Day Question: "What are you doing?!" - which was asked of my repeatedly as I snuck up on people to take pictures of them. I'm sure the pets were thinking the same thing.


Snow Day Bliss: Family safe at home, enjoying the day. Getting to spend some time doing what I love.

My sweetheart is a good cook!

Snow Day Blessing: My wonderful husband cooking dinner! Cheesy Chicken Casserole is great comfort food on a cold night! Later, there will be a movie and munchies!

Snow Day Prayer: Lord, thank you for this day of much-needed rest. Also, thank you for the beautiful snowy landscape outside my window. Please keep all my friends and family safe today and blanket them with the warmth of your love. In Jesus' Name - Amen.

Random Musings of the Day

Goal of the Day: To have more fun with this blog and stop being so uptight. Everything I write does not have to be some profound insight. Duh! :P I am free to be myself and find my voice. I will stop getting twisted up with who might read this and what they might think! I am going to R-E-L-A-X! Oh dear, what a concept!

Good News of the Day: According to the LA Times, polling data indicates that younger viewers are more likely to love the movie "Inception" and older viewers are more likely to dislike it. Hooray! I'm young!! Loved the movie!

Accomplishments of the Day: Grocery shopping and finally getting around to creating the worksheets that I have not wanted to do. And, hopefully, this blog.

Pet of the Day: Shadow in his favorite spot! He is an Australian Shepherd/Keeshond mix that we have had since birth. He got very depressed when his mom, Chewie, died in 2006 and put on a lot of weight. I haven't helped matters by supporting his Milkbone habit. The guys fuss at me for supplying his "fixes". Shadow is Quinten's best bud! He is also a 75 pound lapdog if we let him be. He catches tennis balls like a pro and will bring them back every time (unlike his sister) until he gets tired. He and his sister Faith turned 10 years old last May. Shadow is a bona fide good dog!

Pet Peeve of the Day: Generalizations! I had a wake up call this morning and I've decided that I'm very displeased at being told things like, "everything you do..." or "you never ever..." or "you always say..."! Such things are exaggerations and usually downright lies from the father of lies and I'm not buying into that nonsense anymore. I have been told such generalizations before and been absolutely guilt-ridden with myself only to wake up to several examples that blatantly disprove the accusation. So, fair warning mankind, if you speak to me in the future using such a generalization, I'm closing my ears. And I will do my best to keep it out of my dialogue because it is poor, self-serving, defensive, psuedo-communication that accomplishes nothing positive.

Jessey Quote of the Day: "Come kill it please?" Followed by an explanation of how he can generally kill things on his own, but this is a wasp... in his room.... (BTW, Dad killed it and no one got stung.)

Observation of the Day: Kitty Mau just stormed past me with a look of indignation. Guess she wanted to be Pet of the Day.

Spiritual Insight of the Day: The human spirit is like a rechargeable battery. If we plug into the things of God - love, joy, peace, faith, kindness... - we recharge. All the negative things of the world drain us. We should recharge daily! ...or constantly!!

Be Blessed...