polar bear party

What would a polar bear party look like?

 Would they dance in front of a sunset?

 Eat a snowflake or two?

 Love the silhouetted trees?

 Be in awe of the colors

 and ready to sleep after so much fun?

wish I could party with them...

How about you?

please play with your food...

It's been a hard week...

After the storm ended our heater went on strike,

so we got a new one ($$$ sigh)

and then the power went out again.

Our yard looks like a bomb went off in it - 

looked kinda nice when it was covered in snow,

but now the two broken trees look really sad.

Well this link to the photo above and many more

cheered me up so take a look if you need a smile -

and who doesn't?
I will be back later with two new kiddo projects
and some happy art news too.

34 degrees and rising...

I so want to visit Anthropologie to see their new windows...

but must patiently wait for the snow and ice 

and extra layer of snow on top to melt.

Maybe tomorrow I will get to see the glorious color in these displays

instead of all this whiteness...

 7 inches of snow, then 1 inch of ice and then more snow -

never seen anything like it.

And of course no power too,

 but thankfully it came back on in the night.

 Two poor trees couldn't handle the ice...

You wouldn't believe how loud it is listening to the ice come off these trees -

it thunders and tinkles and just sounds so odd.

And I hope he hasn't cracked in the snow and ice.

I should have been a good mom and brought him inside.

Hope you are somewhere warm and sunny 

or staying cuddled up inside

just like this guy...

for some odd reason he hates the vacuum

when it is running,

but adores curling up on it to sleep.

outside, inside?

the grass is always greener...

or should I say 'the snow is always whiter?'

snow day - yay!

It all goes by so fast...

Oh earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you...

Do human beings ever realize life while they live it  - 

every, every minute?

Thornton Wilder, Our Town

a Sunday blessing - One Thousand Gifts

I am so enjoying this read

and her beautiful poetic thoughts

on faith

and grace

and thankfulness

and joy

 and how important it is to enjoy and love

where we are right now...

These very real lungs will breathe in more than 11,000 liters of air today, and tonight over our farm will rise the Great Hexagon of the blazing winter stars - Sirius, Rigel, ruby Aldebran, Capella, the fiery Gemini twins, and Procyon, and in the center, scarlet Betelgeuse, the red supergiant larger than twice the size of earth's orbit around the sun -  and I will embrace the skin of a boy child that my body grew from a seed.  The low heavens outside the paned windows fill with more snowflakes then stars, no two-stacked crystals the same; the trees in the wood draw in collective green breath to the still of January hibernation, and God in the world will birth ice from His womb, frost of heaven, bind the chains of the Pleiades, loose the cords of Orion, and number again the strands on my head (Job 38:31; Matthew 10:30).

Isn't it here?  The wonder?  Why do I spend so much of my living hours struggling to see it?  Do we truly stumble so blind that we must be affronted with binding magnificence for our blurry soul-sight to recognize grandeur?  The very same surging magnificence that cascades over our every day here.  Who has time or eyes to notice?

Ann Voskamp

Who has eyes or time to notice?

That line really gets me...

well today I will notice.

 so I get up and take a photo of the snow melting on the branches

 and I adore this photo taken at the coffee house yesterday

(we only have to look around in our every day for 

incredible beauty right?)

 and sitting next to me is this metal table

of my dear grandmother's

that I painted in gold leaf -

 for I know the plans I have for you 

declares the Lord...

and even last night's sunset looks beautiful in greys.

I hate to admit it but I have been coveting homes 

and wondering where we will live next.

I never dreamed I would live 25 years in the same place

and we have been feeling a tug to do something different,

but what?

So I started looking and then drooling...

and then today I innocently tried to put in a realtor's disc of a home

that is twice as much money as our home and...

ahem...

it jammed and I could not get it out or in and it was stuck for several hours

and needless to say - 

I had to shut down my beloved computer.

That got my attention.

Only God knows the plans he has for me and

I am sure there are plans

and if it is to stay put right here

then I will relish in 

His grace,

His abundance and blessings,

and find joy in the beauty that surrounds my every day.

amen

come 'Create with Me' on this winter day

 Well Matteo may not be very happy ,

but I am so thrilled to have my art clubbers

featured again in this wonderful magazine.

 So run - don't walk - to the nearest Barnes and Noble

to check out their brilliant birdies on pages 94-97.

Or even better - order one from Stampington here.

And most importantly

 find the nearest child and start creating
right now

 on this snowy winter day...
 go for it!

instant architecture

 the art clubbers constructed some homes

 using simple shapes

 stamped with foam,

 then added outlines with cardboard strips

and more stamps for trees and house

 so that we were able to tour

 their villages

 full of color.

I don't know about you but I would move right in.

a Sunday Blessing

How?

 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?

By living according to your word.

I seek you with all my heart;

do not let me stray from your commands.

I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you.

Praise be to you Lord;

teach me your decrees.

With my lips I recount all the laws

that come from your mouth.

I rejoice in following your statutes

as one rejoices in great riches.

I meditate on your precepts

and consider your ways.

I delight in your decrees;

I will not neglect your word.

Psalm 119:9-16

On this Sunday 

my blessing is my son, Jonathan,

who is in his ordination year.

 He was given this Psalm to meditate on for the year,

and I thought a visual of the verses 

would help instill in him a sense of his part.

So I stamped the brown highlighted words in the verses

onto the background of the painting.

Then I liked the idea of different tools 

to represent how each of us worships God in our own unique way.

Finally I pasted verses from an old Bible 

that was falling apart on to the edges.

Thanks for being such a blessing Jonathan!

Hope you all are having a blessed Sunday.