What they think of me

Pete has been gone a lot lately -- he was out of town with Strider all weekend, and has had the busiest 2 weeks ("possibly of his whole life") at work, which means he hasn't even been home in the evenings.

So tonight Miles said to me, "Dad's worked a lot.  Maybe it's time for him to stay home and YOU to go to work."

I told him I thought that would be fine.

Then he asked me what kind of job I would want to do.  I didn't have a ready answer, so he came up with some possibilities.  

"Maybe you could work at a restaurant.  Like as a chef.  You're a pretty good cook.  Or, maybe you could be an earring-piercer!  Or a tattoo-maker!  Or, I know how you could make a LOT of money -- you could be a boss at Chick Fil-A."

I will definitely take those into consideration.

**

On one of those nights that Pete was gone over the weekend, the kids spent some time braiding my hair and trying to make it all fancy.  So while they were having an impromptu dance party I went upstairs and put on my "fanciest" dress -- my old bridesmaid dress from Katie's wedding.

When I came down to dance with them, they were all surprised and delighted, and then the next comment out of Colsen's mouth was, "But maybe you should wear something on your shoulders.  You have too many freckles."

I'll have to make sure and wear turtlenecks when I go to my tattoo-making job.

Ski Day! (and Paint Day!)

It was time once again for the annual ski trip to Blowing Rock and this time MILES WAS ABLE TO GO!  He had been counting down the days.

Turns out, he was a natural.  :)   They all had a great time, even in chilly weather, zipping down the slopes.

And the nice bonus was that the Dreschers were there, too!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Rayna and I went to Classical Conversations, and then our friend Mrs. Harris came over for a painting session with Rayna.  It was a sweet afternoon.

7!

My baby is 7.  I'm both sad and thrilled.

He's just thrilled.

When your birthday falls on Shrove Tuesday, it makes for an interesting birthday dinner.  Pancakes and ice cream cake!

 One of the 2 gifts that he begged for was a Rubik's cube.  He received it in the morning, and then played with it all day.  By dinner he was consistently able to solve 1 side over and over.  We'll see how long it takes him to figure out the rest!

The other gift he had begged for was a drone.  He got that, too.

 Finally, his big surprise present at the end of the day was.... a new mattress.

 For years he's been complaining about how uncomfortable his mattress was.  We ignored him for a long time, but finally decided it was time to get him a new one.

 When we were switching out the old one last night, I noticed the name "Merritt Hutchison" labeled on it.  (This was Pete's grandfather.)  He died in 1982..... So, I guess the mattress was REALLY old!  Ooops!  Sorry Milo...

But at least he now has a nice new one.... if the springs haven't been broken yet.

We love our lively, opinionated, happy, affectionate, creative, clever, insightful little 7-year-old.  We pray the Lord blesses him greatly in this next year!

Creativity Studio

Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.     --Amy Lowell

The latest Passion around here has been ART.

Spearheaded by Colsen-the-Passionate, the kids' recent ambitions have been all about drawing, painting, and lettering.  Colsen has been spending all of his money on art supplies, and Miles and Rayna have followed suit to a smaller degree.  Just about every day they are busy creating something new, watching you-tube videos for instructions usually (because they're not getting any good art instruction from me!).  Colsen even spent the afternoon with my friend Donna recently, learning some new watercolor techniques.

All day long I get earfuls all about oil pastels and Prismacolor colored pencils, and the differences between charcoal and graphite pencils, and 4H and 2H pencils.... or something like that.  I don't quite follow it all.

After moving all of these supplies and art stations back and forth upstairs from room to room, we finally decided we needed a permanent location for all the excitement.

So, we have re-purposed our old "Conservatory" into an art and music studio.  I had been struggling to figure out what that room should be, but now I think it has new life.

And Rayna's artwork is gracing the wall above the piano.  We all love her use of color!

Now I look in there all the time to find scenes like these:

  I love to see their creativity at work!

Art has the role in education of helping children become like themselves instead of more like everyone else.     --Sydney Gurewitz Clemens