Just Can't Stay in the Groove!

The blogging groove, that is. It's been another whole week since I wrote anything. That's crazy! It's not like my life is THAT hectic, you know?! I guess I just haven't been in the mood or something dumb like that. I'm still not, but it's TIME.

Boy... THIS is going to be a boring post! I sat and stared at the screen for a full minute or more trying to think of something to write and THIS sentence is IT! Ha!

AHA! I didn't think I had taken any pictures in the past week, but I have. THAT reminds me of something I can blog about! A few days ago James took ALL THREE KIDS (did you get that?!) to the library and into town to run an errand or two. That left me HOME... ALL... ALONE...!!!!! Whoa!!! It's been so long since I've been home all by myself I just didn't know what to do with myself! Ha! Actually, I didn't really have a chance to think about it. I had to proof the Evening Light asap, then I had my ABM service to work on for the following night. So even though I wasn't able to just party (ha!), I WAS able to get some necessary work done in a perfect still and quiet house with no distractions at all. WOW! It was terrific. :-)

Since nobody remembered to take the library cards with them (I keep them in my wallet), James took everybody in to town and let them all pick out one cheap craft from Hobby Lobby. That night it was a regular art class around here. Katie came home with a new Sculpty book (that shows how to make different creatures out of clay)...

I'll have to take pictures of everything she's made since then--she's getting better all the time. :-)

Joe came home with a wooden pirate ship to build and paint...

The boys have gotten LOTS of great play out of the ship with all of their little cowboys and Indians as the crew. :-)

Sam decided he wanted a canvas of his very own so he could do "Bob Ross painting with Dad." :-) I took LOTS of pictures of this because I just LOVED how hard he was concentrating. James coached Sam, showed him what to do, and helped him a bit, but insists that Sam did most of it.

Sam working on a tree, James edging the land and the water...
Sam decided he wanted a whale's tale in his ocean...
Signing his name...
And adding just one more tree...
Speaking of Bob Ross painting, there's been quite a lot of it going on around here lately. James has painted two or three (or four?) paintings so far. Then last week he saw that there was a 5 hour Bob Ross class at Hobby Lobby, so he went to it. :-) This is what he painted while he was there.
About a week ago, James insisted that I paint a picture, too. HA! I tried and tried to tell him that I can NOT paint and that it would be a disaster, but he wouldn't hear of it. I think he was sorry when it was all said and done! Ha! I finally gave in and agreed on the condition that he stay with me the entire time and tell me what to do and where and how. It sounded sort of like this:

"Okay, let's put a cloud up here somewhere... yeah... except... try to make it look like a cloud..." HA! I tried to explain to him that I see everything in simple, basic, primary shapes. When I think cloud, I think puffy white cloud with large, curving edges all the way around--like would be on a little kid's wall. When I think mountain, I think of a perfect and equally proportioned triangle shape. If it has snow, I see a zigzag line evenly across the top of it. I made a mountain and when I realized how UNrealistic it looked I really TRIED to add some non-equal angles to it, but it still ended up pretty much a triangle. Then James would say, "Okay, now get some light color and sort of highlight one side of the ridges on your mountain, where the light would be shining." Ridges? What ridges??? I don't SEE any ridges--I still see a little gray triangle!!! It doesn't make sense to James that some people just can't visualize stuff like that. I love and appreciate beauty as much as anyone. I just can't recreate it. :-)

Hhmmm... here are just a few other pictures I took last week. This is Sam, thoroughly enjoying the CPMA service the other night. He fell into a deep, hard sleep. It wouldn't bother me so much if he wasn't such an amazing snorer!!! Ha! He's going to shake then house when he gets a little older.

And when we got home from church that night the sun was just setting and it was raining over toward the mountain. So cool. :-)

That's about all of the excitement for this week! Today was my birthday, but there really wasn't a whole lot that was exciting. My sweet kids woke me up this morning with a kiss on the cheek and breakfast (cereal, jellied toast, and juice) in bed and a homemade gift and card. Katie and Joe had made me a clay fish and Sam had made me a fishing pole with an angler fish on the hook out of WikiStix. (Don't know what the fish theme is all about, but it was sweet anyway!) I proofed the Western Skies and made the corrections and I located and gathered some pictures (on the computer) for James... and that's about it! This morning I started the 1,000 piece Coca-Cola puzzle that Emilee had brought to me at Convention and I worked on it off and on all throughout the day, sometimes with Joe and Sam's help. Believe it or not, I actually FINISHED it tonight! Wow!!! It's a really, really fun puzzle. THANK YOU SO MUCH, EM! :-) Anyway, we had Totinos for dinner tonight. James asked if I wanted to go to town so he could take me out for dinner for my birthday. HA! Town?! Me??? On a Saturday night??? No way!!! I asked if he would please just run down to the store and pick up some pizzas so I wouldn't have to cook and I wouldn't have to go to town. So he did. He got me some purty flowers, too. :-)

And now it's way too late for me to be up and I really ought to call it a night. But at least I didn't go OVER a week between blog posts. :-)