Glad to be home!

The weather outside is frightful! I got off work at 8 tonight and drove home in a blizzard. My car was covered with a coating of ice so I could hardly get the doors open and the layer of ice on my windows was so hard I could hardly chip through it. Driving home the road was a solid blanket of snow and I could hardly tell where I was. Angelic guides must have brought me home, that's all I can say! Then I find out that daughter Micah and her family are still in town grocery shopping. But she just texted and said they were safely home. Whew! It was almost funny when I tried to unlock my door at home. There was a layer of ice on it and I had to chip it away with my key and breathe on it to melt the ice. But I finally got in.

Here's another ATC for the April Bizarre Holiday swap!

Bizarre! Hey, maybe I'll get a snow day tomorrow! Hah!

Shalom and stay warm!

Mama memories...

I'm trying to work on my photo albums in small bits so it isn't totally overwhelming. There's also the "mustiness factor" which seems to effect my sinuses a bit. I'm not one of those who spends lots of money on scrapbooking supplies. (That's an understatement.) I think I'll be doing well to get everything IN the albums, one way or another. I, actually, want to put just a sampling of pictures from each year and then I'll have a large tote containing the rest. Anyway, somewhere in my squirreling things away days I lost track of a big manila envelope with pictures of my mom. I just came across it again and am incorporating her pictures into the albums. Thus, the memories!

Ain't she cute? This is about age nine. I see where my little brother got his eyes.

Me and my little brother, Mark. Hmmm...I guess I got some of her eyes as well.

This is my grandpa Charles Moseman. Once again, I see my little brother's face.

 

 

That's my mom (Mary Jane) on the right. She's still about 9 or 10. I think she loved having her picture taken!

Here she is as a perky 14 year old. She grew up in a very poor family, but I think she learned the art of making the best of things and she seemed to be very happy and upbeat in her photos. I think she enjoyed life a lot.

Mom is the drum major on the left. Notice "major". The other two gals are majorettes. So Mom was the head honcho! The caption says that she's leading the Angleton High School band, one of 33 bands participating in the biggest football parade Houston has ever seen (as of 1950). Mom lived (and once again lives) in Angleton, TX, which is about 40 miles south of Houston. I consider Angleton to be my hometown, though I was born in a suburb of Houston.

 

Mom wrote a family history. I'll have to re-read it this afternoon with a cup of tea. :)

 

 

This is another little bit of family history that Mom sent in 2010. My brother, James, was evidently helping her to look up information on her mom's side of the family. Glenn, when I saw the date on this I was amazed! So much has happened with Mom's mental faculties in the last 3-1/2 years. She was such a sharp, intellectual person. Always organized and in charge. I've saved many of her emails and greeting cards to remember what a great mom and wise woman she was, and will be again! I look forward to seeing this wonderful lady when all is restored. And thank you, Glenn, for standing by her through all that's happening in her life right now. Bless your heart! Take care of yourself. (I obviously never got around to sending this copy and other photos back to Mom. Yikes...)

 

On the other side of the family...

How many can claim to be related to Ulysses Grant AND George Washington? LOL.

I was noticing the birth date of Ulysses and see he was born in 1865. Hmmm...any connection to his name? Oh, and he has the same birthday as my daughter! Just noticed that!

 

Family history can be fascinating. I tend to take it in small doses because I'd rather look forward than backwards. The best is yet to come! But, I'll probably do a little more photo sorting today and putz around with the continuing project of deciding what can be given to charity. I spend so much time reading and drawing that I don't get much done sometimes. The second bedroom is filling up with things to get rid of. Maybe a garage sale, if spring ever arrives! :)

 

Here's my latest ATC for the April Bizarre Holidays swap. I do apologize to Winston Churchill. It doesn't look much like him. I had seen this quote somewhere before, but didn't realize it was one of his. I like ol' Winston...

 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! It's my weekend off, so I plan to do the same.
Shalom, my friends.

Finished him!

Well, I finished this ATC pretty simply, but I had been so afraid of messing it up that I finally just said, "Oh well. If I mess it up, I'll make another one. Not the end of the world!" I'm not totally sold on the way I drew his back legs, but it'll do. ;)

Next up for swaps is April Bizarre Holidays! These are fun because you have to really think up something to represent the holiday in question. I'm leaning toward Winston Churchill Day, National Eggs Benedict Day, International Jugglers Day and National Pigs in a Blanket Day. Also in the running is Tell a Story Day and World Laboratory Animal Day.

But for now I'm going to do a little reading and get to bed at a decent hour. I'm babysitting from 9:30 a.m. until probably 6:00 p.m. tomorrow. Dear daughter Micah has volunteered to drive a van full of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) to Minneapolis (a 4 hour drive) for a leadership seminar. They will spend the night Friday and the seminar is early Saturday. None of the other ladies has ever driven in the cities, so Micah is the old pro. Prayers appreciated! (The seminar is for the ladies to learn to be discussion leaders in the MOPS meetings. Micah loves this group because she enjoys the socializing aspect and the baby girls enjoy playing with other preschoolers.) They also plan to go to the Mall of America on Friday afternoon (hence the early start Friday).

Good-night and shalom!

New Bible!

I'm SO excited! I just ordered a new Bible! Well, actually, it's a used one in very good condition. :)
I've had the same NIV Bible since 1978, and it's really showing its age.

I was going to order a brand new one but then I became aware of something that hadn't even occurred to me. The NIV was revised in 2011. I read a few reader reviews and found they had changed some of the text to make it more politically correct. You know, I just don't need that. God can create "man" in His own image and that's fine with me.  (Man has been replaced with "man-kind". Could be worse, but I decided to just buy the 1999 edition and bypass this progressive version.)

And it's GIANT PRINT! Something I've wanted for a while now. I had thought of going all out and buying a nice soft, black, leather Bible, but didn't want to break the bank. This Bible is hardback like my old NIV, so I figure it will last me until I don't need it any more. (And only $19!)

 

So, I'm excited about my new Bible and I hope to do some illustrating in the margins as Pom-Pom has inspired me to do!

 

Y'all have a great evening. Shalom!

The Bread and Butter Stories...

I'm still reading the introduction to The Bread and Butter Stories , and I'm enjoying Mary Norton's daughter's description of her childhood in Portugal. She mentioned that the Norton family was forced, by economic catastrophies in the '20's and '30's to move to a "small cottage clinging to a mountain in Sintra". This made me curious, so I found a YouTube video and took a virtual tour of Sintra, Portugal.

What a beautiful place to grow up!


Our snow has been melting quite a lot lately. There were even large bare patches of ground. Not too pretty, but a promise of spring. However, I woke up this morning to this!

HUGE, heavy, wet flakes! We've gotten several inches and the flakes are now much smaller, but I hope it doesn't get too deep. I've already swiped off my car and driven it in and out of my driveway to make sure I can get out later for my babysitting date.

A couple of days ago I plopped some watercolor on two ATC's and then let it do its thing. Here is one of the cards I'm working on for the Horse of Course swap. I was just sitting there this morning looking at the card and this little horse jumped out at me. I'm a little afraid of messing it up, so I'm cogitating about just how to finish his legs and body. He will be galloping furiously, I know that much! (That's his tail swooshing out to the right of his head, so it's a challenging angle to capture!)

 

This is the other ATC which I finished yesterday.

 

 

 

Now to read more of that good book!

Have much shalom in your day. :)

Okay, Granny bragging time...

Daughter Micah posted the following drawing on Facebook last night. This was drawn by my 2-1/2 year old granddaughter, Audrey. She said to her mom, "They're ghosts...and they have noses!"

 

Did I show you this one? It's supposed to be a sheriff...

 

 

The girls stopped by with their mom a few days ago. They weren't feeling very well; everyone was looking a little disheveled, but they managed to have some fun with Grandma's little toy selection.

Audrey the artist. (She's also great at stacking blocks!)

We watched a little Wallykazam and Hazel tried her hand at driving.

My delightful girls! Shalom!

Two down...

Here are two of the four horses I'll be making, Lord willing, for the Horses of Course swap...

 

I really like how the water turned out in this one.

 

Shiny!

 

Checking out my blog list. Shalom!



A day for running errands...

I had an action-packed morning! I had many errands that needed doing, so I drove the 12 miles into what we call "town". My first stop was the transfer station, aka dump, where I deposited bags of garbage and my old humidifier, which had bitten the dust. Secondly, I went to the bank to cash in my big jar of coins. The proceeds from this jar go to the Messianic Jewish Israel Fund (see link on sidebar). Then off to the P.O. to drop it in the dropbox  in the alley. I then proceeded to the Bearly Used thrift store to drop of some dishes as a donation. Next I drove a half mile or so down the road to my church where I dropped off two heavy bags of Bibles which had been left with us many years ago by a friend who no longer plans to come back for them. I still have several Bibles at home, but I didn't want these collecting dust on my shelves if someone could use them. Back to town to the DMV where I needed to change a car title into my name and find out how to deal with another title problem on another vehicle. After that I went to the library to drop off two more heavy bags of books which I donated to the library book sale. (So many people are happy to take stuff off of my hands! Bless 'em!) Lastly, I drove to the Rising Hope Foundation's thrift shop where I dropped off a wood bread box as a donation. Then I browsed around the shop and ended up purchasing five books and 3 beautiful greeting cards. Here are the books I bought.

 

Not shown is a little bedtime story boardbook I bought for the grandgirls. The Reading Promise is actually on my Amazon Wish List, so I figure  I got a good deal for $2! I plan to scour my shelves yet more and pare down my book collection to just those things I really look forward to reading.

 

Here are a couple of pencil sketches I did yesterday that will eventually be ATC's for a swap called "Horses of Course".

 

This guy is standing in a river, hence the lack of a bottom half. :)

 

This one is taking some work to get him to look right.

 

 

I just got home to regroup and change clothes and now I'm off to my babysitting gig!

Hope you're having an exciting day, too!

Shalom!

 

 

Literary delights...

Thank you, Pom Pom, for reminding me of the joys of Eloise Wilkin! When I think of her little books this particular one comes to mind first.

It's called "We Help Mommy". I love the pretty details she includes in each picture. This particular copy I read to my little girl, Micah, and now I will remember to take it with me to read to her little girls.

Thanks, also, Pom, for some book recommendations in a recent post. I just ordered two books that I'm excited to read. And they were a real deal at Amazon. (No, I'm really not a paid representative for Amazon. I'm just amazed at the good deals I'm finding!) I've ordered:

and...

I read an excerpt from Walking on Water and just loved it. As a Christian who is also an artist (though I say so very quietly) I'm always looking for books to help me understand how the two roles are intertwined.

The Bread and Butter Stories will be traveling all the way from England! How exciting!

Here's today's painting for P,P,P&P!

My morning porridge...

 

God bless all who stumble upon this blog and shalom to you and yours!

Reflections on simplicity...

If you have bread, butter and eggs you can always make a meal. Everything else is just gravy...or icing on the cake... :)

I'm not a big fan of apples, but I guess they're good for me.  And I'm thankful for God's supply! This was my simple lunch today before heading off to a short 6 hour day at work. I like simplicity. I find myself giving away a lot of knicknacks to local thrift stores. They benefit a good cause and things get simpler around here. I do like some pretty objects around, but I'm getting a few too many that don't have a lot of meaning for me. I'm trying to keep only what's useful or beautiful (to me)! This last sentence was inspired by William Morris as quoted in the Thistle Cove Farm blog. :) Her Sabbath Keeping blogs are always chock-full of good quotes!

Have a great day full of the shalom of God!

P,P,P&P

This is my latest sketch for Paper, Paint, Pencils and Pens. Our theme is "Kitchen", so I'm painting some of the paraphernalia which lines my shelves. My favorite little mushroom teapot and my hen and rooster salt and pepper shakers seemed like likely candidates.

This is the first time I've tried actually drawing or painting in one of my little Moleskines. Everyone should try it at least once in their lives! :) I think it's great for pen, but only so-so for watercolors. Of course, they do make Moleskines with watercolor paper, but I went for cheap!

It was a long day at work. After 8 hours of lifting heavy boxes of raw chicken and wrestling with fryer baskets full of fried chicken I'm beat! Sitting in my recliner reading blogs and sipping something hot with a heating pad on my sore muscles is my idea of paradise tonight!

Later I may stir myself long enough to work on an ATC for the monthly contest. The theme is Whimsical Trees, and I almost forgot. We aren't allowed to post photos on our blogs or anywhere else until after the contest is over. It's anonymous, ya know!  Oh, and I'd better not forget to actually post my teapot drawing on the P,P,P&P site!

Good-night and shalom to all of you out there in blogland!

Safe in the Center of God's Will...

It's been said (by someone) that the safest place to be is in the center of God's will. What is your definition of "safe"? I believe our spirit is safe in the center of God's will. Nobody and no thing can snatch us out of His hand. But our earthly body/self? The church of today seems to preach that God will deliver us from all suffering and discomfort if we pray, discern His will and stay in the middle of it. Why do we seem to see so many different outcomes for so many seemingly well-meaning Christians? Maybe it's our one-size-fits-all notion that if we pray or do "this", God will do "that". We think we've tamed God with a formula.

I've just finished a book called The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus. He speaks about something that I've been wondering about most of my Christian life. Why is the church of today so centered around the idea of God delivering us from every unpleasantness and making our lives easy and full of cool gadgets? What happened to the church of Hebrews 11:35-40? Jesus told us to count the cost before following Him. This implies there IS a cost. Our society may not be into throwing Christians to the lions or sawing them in half, but do we wince at even the idea that someone may reject us if we mention Jesus in a context that threatens their status quo?

Well, just some food for thought. I'm a long way from being a Barbarian for Jesus, but I sure think it's a worthy goal. This is a life-changing book, in my estimation. And all for a grand total of $4 from Amazon!

 

Shalom.

Am I getting ahead of myself here?

The cashier at the local Fleet Supply store smiled at me as if to say, "Don't you realize it's only March 4th and there's still 2 feet of snow on the ground, lady?" My cart contained about 10 seed packets, some peat pots, seed starter mix, a garden fork and...an ice scraper for my windshield. I actually went into the store with the simple intent of pricing garden forks. Then I saw it and had to have it! After all, in a few weeks there will be a run on the store and I may not be able to find one!

Ain't she beautiful? Standing next to her is my hoe, purchased last summer. I plan to do all of my gardening with these two implements because my veggie/flower bed is pretty small and I've had nothing but problems with tillers.

I'm not really that far ahead of schedule. I'm going to attempt to grow some Foxglove this year and according to the package they need to be refrigerated for 4-6 weeks before planting. Better start now!

I don't know if our area is a great one for Foxgloves, but I figure it can't hurt to try!

I probably need to begin my tomato seeds soon and I'll also start the acorn and hubbard squash because they never seem to make it when I sow them directly in the garden. I look forward to freezing my own snow peas for stir fries. The zucchini, summer squash, cukes and lettuce should flourish without too much work on my part and I look forward to seeing the morning glories climbing all over and the sunflowers (and hopefully foxgloves) shooting skyward.

This is a lot of variety for my little garden, but I think I can tuck it all in. Much of it has to be eaten fresh, so I'll probably be giving some away. The acorn and hubbard squashes can be stowed away in a dry, cool corner of the house.

Here is what my garden looks like at the moment.

Yup, the wagon wheels are at this end of the garden. That's where the morning glories will climb, and maybe the peas. There should be lots of moisture in the ground once the snow melts! The object at the far left is an old cream separator. The silver object at the right is the other side of the garden. The plot is pretty much a square. Yes, it's small, but I think I can then handle the work with hand implements. (The tracks at the top of the picture are from deer...I hope!)

Here's a sketch I did about an hour ago for Paper, Paint, Pencils and Pens which is a blog where we sketch according to a theme. For this two week period the theme is "Kitchens". (I came up with that brilliant idea.)

As I said..."sketch"! A very quick drawing and then some paint splashed on. Very fun and relaxing! I describe it in more detail at the PPP&P blog. I enjoyed doing this in a very loose, cartoonish style because I usually stress too much over all the details. In real life my windows are the same size, lol!

Spring WILL come! Hang in there everybody and let's see what your gardening plans are and shalom for now!

More March Bizarre Holidays...

The rest of my cards for the March Bizarre Holiday swap...

 

I kind of like the plain sketches!

 

Off to work early today. That means I get to come home earlier! :D

 

Have a great day!

 

Shalom!

A lazy, painting kind of Saturday...

Nice to have a whole day at home to do all those little homey things I love. I did a little cleaning (very little), a load of laundry, made some healthy meals, and read through a long home loan application. Then I felt like I'd earned some art time!

I'm going to stop saying that I'm going to take a break from ATC's, because I never follow through anyway! LOL. The Bizarre Holiday swaps are getting to be a tradition with me, so I jumped in again. I've finished the first of four cards commemorating weird March holidays. This one is for "I'm In Control Day". This is the first thing that jumped into my mind when I learned of that holiday. Think I watch too much SpongeBob Squarepants with the grandgirls? :)

Plankton, controlling SpongeBob's brain

 On the Paper, Paint, Pencils and Pens blog we're drawing things from our kitchen. I decided to show the contents of my fridge. I'm trying to eat healthy things, but you'll notice a tell-tale chunk of Spam in the upper right. I just crave its salty goodness sometimes!

I'm enjoying a large Gaither choir on TBN at the moment. Then I'll fix some supper and maybe do some reading.

Y'all have a great evening and shalom!