A Gentle Encouragement...

Begin each day well...











Feed your spirit well. Feed your body well. Not necessarily in that order.

Country Living? Nah...

I say I live in the "suburbs"...and I do...in a declining, probably now a lower-middle-class neighborhood. And I live here with a precious grandson whose parents bought a house across the street from me. My other daughter, her husband, and baby girl live almost inner city.

Though my home is in a suburb, it is smack-dab in city limits. With a pawn shop and a liquor store and a Pilot gas station and a drug rehab center and a Strike N' Spare bowling alley, all within walking distance.

The other day, there were two attempted robberies in "my" grocery store. I was there for one of them. The manager confronted a really large, braless, belligerent black woman about some stolen items in her purse.

Three steps away from my Cracker, under 140 Pound Self.

She threatened the young male manager, also white, and smaller than (even) me. Then she bolted towards me. I literally ran away, pushing my buggy. She ran past me, only to be blocked by a few male employees, who tried to form a human enclosure, to contain her until police came. It was loud and scary.

Depressing stuff, I won't lie.

But then I read stuff like this.


(A wonderful blog post that will challenge your ideas about the sweet country farmhouse/Catholic school/private school/home school life you think you want to give your children...)

And like www.flowerpatchfarmgirl.blogspot.com and her entire October "31 Days of Going"  series.

This stuff will mess with you, if you read it. You might want to leave it alone.

On a bad day, I still want to go all Pioneer Woman, and move to the country, milk cows and live in benign seclusion.

But then I hear my neighbor's granddaughter, abandoned by her mother, living with her grandparents - my neighbors - and she is loudly singing in the yard under my window. Someone has to admire her 5 year old soprano, and show her the love of God. I sorta want the job.

Deep thoughts, here at the cottage. I am proud to be a NOT country blogger...a NOT wealthy, suburban grandmother...proving every day that I can be earthy and wise and eat from farm to table without property and livestock. And I can be politically aware, and don black sunglasses and carry a Michael Kors bag without living in a hip urban loft.

I am more like most of you. We can do this thing...we can live lovingly and compassionately and artistically right where we are. Right where we are, we can be a fragrance of Christ.

Daughters, Sons-in-Love, Sons, and Grandchildren

Jonathan, Sarah (one of my grown, married identical twin daughters), and Aidyn Esther....






Justin, our "other twin" Hannah, and the never-still Timothy Paul (The Preacher's namesake)...this picture says it all!





Hannah and Timothy. Oh, those two year old boy eyes!

The Preacher and I have known our share of heartache...we have sons who are "working on their testimony", and the stories about that...aside from the stress of ministry...would drop your jaw. How is it we are still friends and still in loving relationship with sons who have pulled what our boys have pulled? How is it we have managed to raise the bar (in terms of our Godly standards) instead of lower it, draw lines where lines should be, yet still exhibit grace? Still preserve relationships?

At great cost. By grace alone. Living by the law would be way easier. Like...way, way.

The Gospel. Living of the Gospel. That is how we do it. Our relationships with our children (and their spouses or Significant Others...and our grandchildren...and our friends) are infused and suffused with grace. Perfectly imperfect.

I am, like seriously, sloppy blessed. Still living a dream I have not earned and do not deserve.



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Of Jaunts and Junkets

The Preacher and I "slipped the surly bonds" of chores and counseling and obligation yesterday...we couldn't finish errands until the afternoon, so our jaunt lasted only for a few hours; we were back home working on mowing and church manuals and preparing for overnight guests by 7.

But guess what I found?







The most adorable vintage (circa 1960's) children's books...two of them, three dollars apiece, and in almost new condition. Every page with a winsome, beautifully rendered animal (in one) or an illustration of a nursery rhyme (in the other).

Even the lady at the cash register was jealous. I was firing off questions at The Preacher, as creative ideas tumbled out..."Is our flatbed scanner big enough to scan these pages? They are public domain, now!". "Will these images print on cold press watercolor paper, you think?"

She asked me what I was going to do with the books, and I explained how, as a mixed media artist, I intended to share these gorgeous children's books with the world, reincorporating them into art, while fully preserving the original books themselves.

She looked me in the eye, and said, "You totally just scored. I don't want to sell them to you, now. I want to do what you are describing. They are beautiful books, and your ideas are amazing. I wish I had thought of them."

Then she grinned and gave me her blessing.

Not that she had a choice. I was prepared to punch her in the neck, and run away, yelling brilliant artsy rhetorical flourishes at her as I exited the shop. Much like Grandma Moses might have done.

Never get between an artist and her muse.


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New In the Shop

New in my shop this afternoon...




I am venturing into a genre called "She Art", and I love it way more than I expected to. My intentions were to dabble, here and there...

...now, I want to create little other than "She Art". I am on a big, big She Art kick. Such an encouraging category.


This is an 8x8 print of the original I painted last week. The painting is entitled "Maria", and was inspired by a time of personal prayer over a friend. As I prayed, this is what came out...and I sensed that it was on target.

Don't we all need to hear encouragement to keep doing what we are doing, in spite of the difficulty and the pain?

This print is, as of today, beautifully framed in a simple, elegant, well made black frame. It is available for purchase in my shop.


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Bragging...

Look at how utterly, heart-squeezingly adorable. My little Aidyn Esther.

It rocks to be a grand mommy. It rocks to be me.

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Working...

Working ideas out in the art journal first. My favorites...the ones I'm really feelin'...will be done again on canvas.






I am feelin' today's results. This will definitely become a rather large canvas.

It says, "Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come..."

I preach the Good News to myself, through my painting.