7 Quick Takes: August 21st (Vol. 12)

I have had a strong desire lately to work on another mixed media painting. I just loved working on the ones that I gave to some of my sisters for Christmas last year, as well as one that I kept for myself.

(The one shown here was the 16×20 canvas that I made for my sister Erin, after we kept saying that at a scrapbooking retreat amongst our family members.)

I have all of the paints I need, lots of different papers picked out as being good candidates, and even several sizes of canvas. Apparently all I need is to make it a priority to find the time to work on one sometime.

~ 2 ~

I did, however, work on a painting with watercolor crayons this week. Granted, it looks much like a third grader did it, but I’m cool with that. I know that I am not much of an artist. But, I do know that I had fun creating it, and that’s what matters.

My reason for working on that was that the kids were working on their weekly lesson from Artistic Pursuits (from our curriculum this school year). I really love this curriculum. We’re in the K – 3rd grade Book 1, and it’s so fun. We’ve been talking about what artists do, looking at pictures of famous pieces of art (along with discussion questions), and then working on our own art.

One of my favorite parts is that we were told which art supplies we needed, and they were real art supplies. There is just something exciting about using watercolor paper (instead of computer printer paper), real watercolor crayons, and nicer paint brushes that cost $4 per brush, instead of the kinds of brushes that you get five in a pack for $2.

My other favorite part? Those real art supplies inspire me to sit down with the kids and do my own project. And, in that, I am showing them that you don’t have to be good to enjoy creating art.

~ 3 ~

This week found us at Molly’s very first ballet lesson ever.

Oh. my. goodness.

It was so cute that I thought I might have to cry.

Molly enjoyed herself, and is looking forward to her next lesson. I’m looking forward to watching her and her classmates work again. (If Molly can just work on keeping her eyes on her teacher, and not me, it would be even better.)

Oh yeah, and I’m also looking forward to hearing her teacher call the class of girls aged four to six years old to attention. Because, while it’s cute to see them all ready for their lesson, it’s even cuter each time the instructor says, “Okay, ladies…”

~ 4 ~

I have been worrying about our math curriculum decision. I kept thinking, “Maybe we need to try Math-U-See.” Then, I went to their website again, and was again confused by the videos. I finally realized that we were just fine with our Horizons Math.

But, just as an extra help to Jack, I introduced him to Touch Math. And, you know what? That really helped.

It also saved me over $100 in buying new math books.

Double bonus.

~ 5 ~

I have worked on losing weight off and on for a few years. Honestly — I don’t have very much willpower, so it never seems to work very well. (Although I did once lose a little over 25 pounds, but then I just put it back on later.)

Deciding that it was time that I really worked on it, I convinced Eric that we should challenge my parents to see which couple could lose the most (based on percentages).

Apparently we’re all in. I just hope that the prospect of a night away without the kids (it would be our first ever) is enough to push us both to actually lose some weight.

And, on the up side, even if we lost the challenge, I would be happy to see my parents do well. So, it will be win-win. (But we still would like to be the winners, of course. Well, except I can’t actually imagine being gone overnight without the kids.)

~ 6 ~

I have had the song “Lost!” by Coldplay in my head most of the day.

While I really like that song, I just might be ready to have it out of my head soon. I’m thinking of listening to it several times loudly tomorrow, and hopefully that will help. You know, or it will make it worse. Definitely one of the two.

~ 7 ~

When something good happened the other day, I said aloud, “God — what did I do to deserve such a blessing?”

Then, in an instant, I realized that if God gave me what I deserved, He’d probably drop kick me across the room. I’m thankful that we have a God who doesn’t give us what we deserve, and who loves us so faithfully.