Friday, June 6, 2008

Getting Back In The Saddle . . . With A Potpourri Of Topics

Thanks for all the nice emails while I've been taking a break from blogging.


It lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. Turns out, although I thought I was the queen of multi-tasking, sometimes more things get done in real life if you just take a real live cold turkey computer break. Of course, those who know me from some of the home-schooling boards know that I didn't totally go cold turkey, but I did trim it down significantly and I have a lot to show for my time off . . .


We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. If you liked the first three, this one will be lots of fun for you. It holds true to the series. If you are looking for a real action movie judged only by today's standards, well, not so much. Baby Boy has a full movie review. I'll have to get him to type it up this weekend and post it later. I really enjoyed it, but frankly, it doesn't take too much to impress me. It also doesn't help that I'm totally infatuated with Shai LaBeouf. He's like an adorable little Ken doll that I want to bring home in my purse and put on a shelf. It's amazing to me that he's the little Brady Bunch Afro-wearing boy from Holes. I'm not sure why, but, well, I've been known to have strange ways.


I went to see my niece's "Self Expression" exhibit at her fancy private school. She made a very cute self portrait. I think it turned out really well.




Speaking of self portraits. Baby Boy and I finally finished the six or eight or however many art lessons on how to draw the parts of the face. Today we did portraits of ourselves in charcoal. Don't laugh, remember, we are not trained artists. Just a mom and son trying to express ourselves a little bit, LOL.


Self Portrait


By Baby Boy


and


By Mom #1


In case you are wondering, YES I did intentionally make my face a lot slimmer in my portrait than it is in real life. I mean, that's the way I see myself, young and thin. I'm not letting reality get in the way of a good fantasy! One thing we couldn't figure out was how to make ourselves black (I mean African American) without making ourselves, you know, black (like the color), so we just left ourselves white (you know, the color, not the race). As you can see, this discussion could go into the wrong direction, so just look and love the art for what it is. HA HA HA!


Actually that is the kind of drawing I like to do. We've pretty much finished all of our subjects but seem to still be hobbling along at geometry. Unfortunately, that means the kind of drawing that I have been doing the most of lately looks like this . . .




. . . and poor Baby Boy has been spending his mornings looking like this . . .




But all of that hard work is really paying off. Recently we experienced something of a miracle around here. In five years of home schooling, we have never - until this week - witnessed this extremely rare phenomenon . . .




A perfect 100% on a math test! Yah! As you can see, stickers are a great currency around here.


In honor of all that hard work, and because we really really felt like we needed a break. We took a little mini vacation to our local water park. We had great big fun, although I am deathly afraid of the water and cannot swim at all. They provide lots of shade, fun slushy drinks, and chairs directly beside all the rides so lazy scary moms can watch their wild and crazy kids. That's where I was at.




So. As you can see, we're all doing fine. Busy, as life always is, but fine. I've enjoyed spending quality time with my family and friends. I'm going to try to find better balance in my life that allows for the real life closeness and the online fun. If anyone has the recipe for that secret formula, please forward it to me. I'm in desperate need! ;-)


Just for kicks, I'm going to round out this post with pictures of our new grand baby. She's still so new and beautiful and perfect in a way only grandmas can appreciate. She's a smidgen over three weeks old. These pictures were taken about a week or so ago when she was about 2 weeks old. She's already making lots of noise and funny faces, so we know she'll fit right in with the rest of our family.




Until next time . . .


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was stopping by and say hello and see you have been busy.

Oh, a family full of artists! How neat and what great work! I love the Geometry drawings too. LOL

Now, you are going to have to get over that fear of water if you are going to be a water/beach lover. Heehee. I'm so glad y'all had a great time. It's great to get away from class here and there.

And, I know you are proud grannies because that baby is too cute! Two words for y'all... spoil her! LOL

Anonymous said...

That is a beautiful self-portrait. My friend and I were just discussing how we feel so young; the outside and the inside aren't matching. But that's o.k.

Great picture at the water park and beautiful new grandbaby.

No answer for the balance. I struggle with that myself.

SabrinaT said...

Glad you are back!
You and baby boy ALWAYS have great art~ Humm, maybe start a fancy private art school in your living room? It is an idea!
I am not a fan of waterparks, to many kids peeing in the water.
What a beautiful baby!

Paula said...

Geometry, Water parks and new babies. What a busy month!

Love your artwork!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the comment! My blog got hacked :-( and I (and by I, I mean DH) have been unable to get it back up yet. Apparently he thinks this thing called work takes precedence? My advice, make sure you're running the latest version of your platform, because I'm having withdrawl too!

Artist Anika said...

Very cute pictures, and don't worry, self portraits are the hardest thing to draw. I read once that drawing yourself or your loved ones is harder than drawing anything else. It's because our perceptions of ourselves/loved ones get in the way of the reality. It's why I always stick to abstract self portraits ;)

Great job and it looks like you are both developing some great skills!

Artist Anika said...

Thanks for commenting back! I almost never get responses on the comments I leave, so I really appreciate that.

I have been drawing for several years now and spend quite a bit of time on it. I am glad to hear that you liked my work.

When I first started (for the first few years actually) my art was a lot less recognizable than yours. It just goes to show that practice really does make perfect (or, at least, it is getting there). I hope you keep drawing and I look forward to seeing you and Baby Boys progress.

Jason, as himself said...

Thank you so much for posting your congratulations on The Jason Show.

And as for you. . . I am loving getting a glimpse into your lives, I honestly don't know very other families similar to ours. Your family is BEAUTIFUL! I've bookmarked your blog because I want to go back and read through your archives.

And I'm quite impressed with your accounts of your homeschooling adventures. I have a very close friend who is going to begin homeschooling her 11 year old daughter within the next couple of months. Do you mind if I send her your way?

One last thing. . . it takes a very deep person to admit how shallow they are!

Jason

As for getting married. . .Texas will come around some day.

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