Art at the Lyceum

The lovely Dawn of Art of Humungous Proportions started teaching a new class at the Lyceum yesterday, which Josh and I signed up for. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, full of light, colour, laughter and friends.



The subject was Van Gogh, and we talked abut his life, his struggles and his unwavering passion to create the beauty that he saw in the world.
We chose a painting and proceeded to try to recreate it. Recreating masterpieces is a time honoured tradition among artists. It really gave me a window into Vincent, and a chance to see the world through his eyes. His vision was vibrant.



I was thrilled with the medium of choice for the class. I had made a set of chalk pastels a couple of years ago at a class in Wetaskiwin. I haven't used them nearly enough, and it was amazing to see that saturated colour transferred to my page.



Everyone chose briliant colours, and each picture was so incredible! Sunflowers and Starry Nights are perfect subjects for playing on paper.

It is so satisfying to get dirty doing something so inspiring!

We were all happy to share our thoughts on what the process (and that was what it was about) taught us about colour or perspective or light.

The best thing? We get to do it again next week!

Thankful

I may be behind in posting, but since I started posting again it doesn't worry me. No one will care that my pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner are so late. Or at least they won't say anything if they do. (will you?)

Thanksgiving weekend is usually a very laid back affair centered around turkey and gravy. And cranberries. Sometimes we go to Slave Lake and then it includes a big adventure on the Quads up into the hills through the autumn leaves. This year we had that adventure early, for my mom's birthday in September, and decided to stay home and celebrate with Nialle and Nessa and the kids. Since they had just returned from their first holiday without the kids, we opted to do a communal dinner at their house and skip the turkey altogether. (Scandalous, I know!)

It was a succulent feast with actual courses, each served independently and leisurely. So unlike the usual loud and rowdy buffet we do when the whole family is together with all my siblings and nieces and nephews. That is every man for himself, and is completely charming and exhilarating. Sometimes dangerous, but always fun!




We packed up our contributions to the meal and headed out to our kids house. We found some pretty flowers for our hostess.

Our first course was baked brie with fresh cranberry topping, roasted garlic and bread.
Gooey and yummy!

At our second course, Ada made sure her Mommy didn't go hungry. She fed Mommy the green salad with pears, caramelized walnuts and balsamic maple dressing.

The table was beautifully set, and with the low October light it was magical.

We all had big smiles!

Next up was a brilliant creamy carrot soup and fresh, hot bisquits with fresh herb butter and homemade raspberry jam. Be still my heart!

Oh Ada! You make me laugh, even if you won't hold still for a perfect photo op! You're such a happy girl, though you just cut your first two teeth!

Between courses, we had time for stories. Grandma read Curious George to Liam (with a lot of help), and we were both shocked to note that that silly little monkey has no tail! How can this be? I ought to complain to the proper authorities! I read these books to Nialle when he was little, but I had never noticed this until Liam asked me about it. Three year olds are so smart.

Liam checks to see if he has a tail.

Uncle Josh and Liam had time for a game of Rush Hour. It wasn't even rushed. Aaaah. I love slow, stress free holidays.

Miss Ada is always on the move. She is a blur passing by, and my shutter speed is no match for her. Darling girl!

The last courses, Walnut crusted pork loin with apple stuffing, homemade crab-apple sauce on the side (made by my mom...it was a four generation meal!), autumn veggies roasted in balsamic vinegar...(mmmm...like candy), and sweet garden peas with bacon, didn't get photographed. We were beginning to moan. By the time Vanessa served her homemade pumpkin pie we were almost comatose. Considering our meal took two hours to eat, I think we did pretty well.

I give thanks and thanks and thanks again for my wonderful family. I am blessed.

Change the World

Go ahead.... I know you can do it!

Check here to see how easy it really is.

Under the tree.

Grandma must want a close up!

The tomatoes are a huge draw.

Joy!

More to share

Giant, happy faces in Mom's garden.

A view of what a burned out forest looks like 5 years later.

September sky.

He likes to help with the projects.

Some of my favorite photos from this fall...

The beach at Slave Lake at the end of September. Deserted and peaceful.

Miles and miles of it...

The water was still warm and inviting to bare feet.

Mine weren't the only bear feet on the beach that day.

Colour of Friendship

This is my amazing journal! It's custom made and prepped for me by an amazing artist friend who lives a very long way from me.

This is a small hand trying my wonderful art journal on for size.

The journal, a work of art and a labour of LOvE, was created by Kim, The Queen of Arts, for our Canadian Chicks Journal Swap.

There are pockets full of treasure...

beautiful pages prepped and ready for me to journal...

And colour sweet colour! I love my journal, and can't wait to play in it. Kim, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity and the joy of life that comes through loud and clear in this treasure. It has the reflection of it's creator in every single page!

On Being

It's almost as great to witness something really exciting as it is to do something really exciting. And I don't mean witness as in seeing a lady get mugged in the Walmart parking lot, because that happened this summer and it wasn't great at all. I mean seeing a transforming life process that happens before your eyes.

Let me explain.

Over the last year, in my home, I've seen two amazing young men spill over with gifts and talents and joy. I've always believed that childhood is special because a child IS important; IS a real person who contributes and has value. I don't buy into the "children are important because they are our future" idea. No. Children are important because they are human beings, created and gifted and important because they are whole human beings.

So seeing my boys BE-ing has always been a very sweet gift. I feel blessed to be a witness to their life and growth. They are so much fun to be around! They are so interesting and thoughtful and full of life. Spending time with them is energizing. I love it!

The young adult (known in some circles as "teenage") years are when all the time you've spent with them, building memories and trust and values and love begins to come back in abundance. It is a time when they just seem to get it. Life is what you put into it. They become responsible around the house and grasp the fact that they are here to contribute, not consume. They see, and understand this connection. I think these years are some of the best for parents. We've sown, and now we reap.

My baby is a natural athlete who is loving his sport, and is just as comfortable with a guitar in his hand or reciting Shakespeare in front of a crowd.
My eldest is a very gifted musician who loves what he does, loves people, does useful work in his job and is a wonderful husband and father to two of the most beautiful babes in the world. He has many, many creative gifts that serve him well in making the world a much more beautiful and interesting place.
My middle child (who has never suffered from the stigma of that label) is a designer who creates and makes things as naturally as he breathes. He is always looking at the beauty of the world, at the possibility of a material, at the way that we use and manipulate the physical to become...more.
He is not "going to be" a designer.
He IS a designer, and always has been.
He makes things, and music, for himself, and with complete generosity for others.

They all have deep interest in the world, curiosity and contentment, and a wicked sense of humour. They are all good, good people who bring joy to their families and strength to their communities. They are all intelligent and capable and brave. They had these gifts from birth, I've no doubt about that. I take credit only in allowing these gifts to germinate, and providing what I could to the mix, and staying out of their way.

I look out the window and see the season changing. I look at my garden that produced a lovely harvest. It's good to recognize that potential in all creation for such abundance. It's so sweet to recognize this in our own lives. We don't manufacture the seeds. We just plant, water and get out of the way till the day the harvest comes in. And may I say...the fruit is very sweet.

How did that happen??

So I had a big day today. It started out especially well, as I could actually breath. I think that cold is gone. My home grown tomatoes have magical powers!

We had tickets for the Citadel to see The Drowsy Chaperone. We had to leave fairly early, by 10:30 am for the 12:00 matinee. But first I had something I wanted to check out. I had seen a sign for a job fair a few days ago, and I knew today was the last day, so I got up early enough to mozy over there before heading into the city. Who doesn't like a fair, right? I thought I'd wander in, mingle, get some mini- donuts, pick up an application form to peruse, and scoot out so I could think things through in the privacy of my own home. Alone. At my leisure.

You know these people called it a "fair" when really, that's false advertising. What kind of fair has no clowns, no cotton candy (or for that matter no food on a stick of any description), and no balloons. Also, no livestock or ferris wheels in the vicinity; I would bet in the entire county!

I was so disappointed that by the time I realized I was the only person there, (Duh! Hello...deep fryers.... you'd get a lot more people out!) I had a pen in my hand and was handing in a job application and being interviewed by a lady who claimed her name was "Arlene". Oh really?! Hmpff!

So I may have just accidentally got myself a job. A job that sounds kind of fun, (don't they all?) with a new company that is opening in Leduc, but seriously, do I really have time for this? On the other hand, I could start a holiday fund or get a new sewing machine. Hmmmm. My plan that backfired may actually turn into something useful.

In other news, today we also saw the play (awesome!), shopped for fabric from the seesters list (stressful...so much responsibility picking thread colours for someone else!), went to the bookstore, picked up Fran and saw a so-so movie.
Oh, plus I got hit by a car in a marked crosswalk. I was crossing 104th (monster intersection) with the light, and a car decided to turn right...into me. He bumped me and I fell into his car catching my balance, then he continued to drive, knocking me again. What? I banged on the hood with my hand as I tried to get my feet under me, and the guy looked through me, kept talking on his phone and barely waited for me to clear the front of his car before he burned off. I was shaken up but not hurt, and my heart was pounding as I tried to get across before the light changed, and I didn't even think to get his plate number. Sheesh.
First no Merry-Go Round, now this.

What a day. I tell ya', they are just packed. I seriously don't know how I'd fit a job into my schedule!

Good Medicine

The last time I was sick was I can't even remember ago. I don't mean feeling sore and tired and blah and in a Fibro fog...I mean so sick I can't leave the house for fear of spreading my plague throughout the land. But the donkey of denial was kicked out from under me this week. (is that a mixed metaphor or are my delusions twisted in my weakened state? Whatever.)
After coming home from holidays the boys had little achy sore throats for a couple of days, and I blithely ignored it, failing to foresee my impending doom. I was blind, floating along in a fog of contentment and post-holiday bliss, but then I too started to feel the scratch in my voice and a tickle in my nasal cavities. It developed into a full blown boar of a cold. H1N1? I would not be surprised. My Brother in Law just recovered from it.

I've been sticking to home and couch for days on end. No grocery shopping, no parties, all activities canceled. I've had boxes of kleenex and my homemade Bacteria Buster spray at hand at all times. I've sneezed so hard and so often my eyes actually fell out of my head several times and rolled around on the floor. almost.

This morning I woke at 4:11 am as the Mr climbed out of bed to begin his day. I could not go back to sleep. My sinuses hurt and my addled flu-brain raced with the thought that I had to de-clutter if I wanted to feel better. This. Does. Not. Happen. Plus, I was suddenly obsessed with the thought that if I didn't recover and my mom had to come and clean out my craft room, she would discover just what a pack rat* I've become!! That on top of loosing me! ( Not that she doesn't know this as well as she knows my middle name, which is the same as her first name, and she named me, but still!)

I'd hate her to have to leave my funeral early and go directly to my house in her state of grief and sort that whole container of thread that I accidentally dumped out on the floor at Christmas time and didn't have the heart to sort so I just stuffed it all in a bin, tangled mess that it was, and said when my time came someone else could worry about it. I also said some other stuff. **
Well. Apparently that someone else is the alien that has taken over my fevered mind and forced me to worry about cleaning and thread and clutter in the middle of the night.

I cleaned from 4:30 am till 10:am...without the benefit of caffeine I might add, Lord knows what I could accomplish if I was on the junk.
I cleaned bins and containers and sorted sewing pins by colour for goodness sake! I organized bobbins and needles and notions and then, THEN, I started in on the homeschool paperwork I have moved from place to place and filed and shelved and never, ever looked at since 1995!!! That was in the LAST CENTURY!! I actually threw most of it out, but only after I had read every, last page. (I know, I'm sicker than you thought I was. But on the other hand, if this is H1N1, you know the one that is causing all the fear of lost work time and lost productivity? Maybe they don't have to worry so much about that last part?)

So please pray for my swift and speedy recovery. Or not. Because when I staggered up the stairs muttering, and collapsed, drooling, face down on the couch at 10am, frightening my children, I had accomplished more in the way of home organization while they slept that I had in the previous decade. Or thereabouts.

I slept the sleep of the truly exhausted, uncaring of my plugged nose and sore throat and dry mouth. I woke at 12pm when the phone rang, and carried on an almost intelligible conversation with my seester, whom, when I filled her in on the details of my binge-like behavior offered to call 911. It hurt her how the illness had taken from her the sister that she knew and loved.

An afternoon of reading and resting, with almost no sneezing, and I felt ready to go outside and see to my tomatoes. I picked a huge box and a pail besides, and I knew they were just just what the Dr ordered.
And I made supper! No minor miracle in my state.
I made a meal that, should you also happen to come down with the bubonic plague or swine flu or any other nasty virus that leaves you in a weakened mental and physical state, will surely set you right.

This is what to do about it.

Gather plenty of these...I have a bunch of heirloom varieties. They are not perfect and uniform looking as the tasteless ones from the store. They are purple and green and yellow striped and luscious and juicy and sweet beyond imagining.

They are full of vitamins and flavonoids and phytochemicals, but all you can taste is the sunshine and the love!

Wash hands. Pour a generous amount of your very best olive oil into a roasting pan, chop the tomatoes roughly and toss them in. Add some chopped onion and sea salt. Put them into an oven at 450. Cook till they start to caramelize, stirring once or twice.

While they are cooking, take three or four HEADS of garlic, whole, and slice the very top off. Trust me, it's not too much. Place them on a sheet of foil and drizzle with that lovely, fruity olive oil. Wrap loosely and place in oven till, soft, squishy, sweet and golden. Set aside.

When the tomatoes are done (oh, you'll know!) place them in a bowl and give them a whiz with the immersion blender. Then open up the package of garlic (the best medicine ever) and break the head apart. Squeeze the cloves, which are now a golden, gooey lovely paste of mild sweet heaven, into the bowl, yes ALL of it, and give it another quick whiz. You know what? You won't even need more salt. The flavour of this sauce will now make a grown man cry with happiness. And the coulour?? Where do I begin? I am already feeling better.

Take some zucchini and red pepper, and chop them up pretty.

Take a big, big pot and fill it with water. Throw in some sea salt, a little more than you think you need. Bring it to a boil.


When the water boils, throw in some good hearty pasta. I like this organic stuff, with all natural beets, tomatoe and spinach colour. It's big, tasty, and really soaks up the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, saute the veggies in a little olive oil and while you're at it throw in some garlic and seasoning salt. Don't overdo it on the heat...you want them to still have a crunch.
Chop a couple handfuls of fresh basil from the pot at your back door.

Drain the pasta, layer it all in a huge pasta tray, top with feta or goat cheese and the basil. Pass the freshly grated Parmesan at the table.
This is better than you can even imagine. It will cure whatever ails you. It represents all that is wonderful in the world of health and nourishment. You will thank me for it, your men will not complain, or even notice, that there is no meat, and hopefully it will help you sleep at night. I'll keep you posted on that one.

*AKA "slob"
**%^&*#@!