Color Study: Yellow

Being in a drab environment is depressing to me.  The days without sun here have been too many this winter.  Once again, I find myself looking for beauty to override the gloom outside.  Today I've posted random photos that I've taken over the years... the only thing they have in common is that they focus on the color yellow found in nature.  

For some reason, yellow makes me think of heaven.  I guess because God is described as being bright like the sun.  It's no surprise to me that when the sun shines warmly on my face on a cool day, I feel like God is sending me His love.  As I write this, the gray outside is lifting and a bit of glorious blue sky is being unveiled.  Time to wrap this up and go outside in search of some sunlight to warm my face.  

I pray about all kinds of things.  Once I prayed that God would help me to take beautiful pictures while on our coastal vacation.  This is the result of my prayers.  Awesome!!

 Fall leaves are an obvious place to look for yellow.  I never tire of the visual variety that fall has to offer.

One day, my husband sliced the tops off of some bell peppers.  The patterns we found inside were intriguing.  I had to photograph them.  I love how God hides beauty in unexpected places for us to find.

Thanksgiving Tree

Long time since I've posted here...sorry!  Things are going well, but it's busy home schooling the kids and keeping up with the daily stuff as well.  I thought I'd share our latest project in case someone else might be inspired by it.  I wanted to do some sort of art project for Thanksgiving with the kids that would focus on the reason for the holiday: gratitude.  So, I pondered for a while and came up with the idea of a Thanksgiving Tree.  It was easy and fun to do.  We had a great time and actually didn't get extremely messy, which was good since we were not in paint clothes!  While the kids were "napping" in their rooms,  I painted trees onto the back side of wrapping paper.  I used FolkArt paint from Wal-mart.  It dries fast and washes off easily, plus it's only .97 cents per bottle.  Once the trees were dry, I painted the kids' hands to make the leaves.  We put twenty two "leaves" on each tree since Thanksgiving is on the 22nd this year.  Each day, starting November 1st, we'll write one thing that they are thankful for on a leaf.  Then, on Thanksgiving day, the kids will have a tree full of blessings that we can talk about while we enjoy our turkey dinner.  Here are some pictures in case you want to make your own.

I painted the trees onto the back side of wrapping paper.  Older kids could paint their own tree.  If you want to make it into an art lesson, have them observe trees outside to see how the limbs look without the leaves.

Next I added a bit of grass at the base of the tree so it didn't look like it was floating on the page.  I also added a title so we'd know whose tree belong to whom.  Before we started painting our leaves, I asked the kids to look outside at the variety of leaves on the trees in our backyard.  We named the different colors we saw so the kids would know why we were using the variety of colors I chose for this project.

Time to get messy!  I folded the paper so the kids could reach the limbs of the trees without ripping up the paper by crawling on it.  I opted to do one kid at a time, and just one hand painted at a time.  Marisa wanted to try painting her own hand.  I let her for a couple of leaves.  She did amazingly well for not even three years old!  (We did eleven leaves with the left hand then washed and took a break so those could dry.)

While Marisa's eleven leaves were drying, Kieran had a turn to do some leaves on his tree.  I did most of the painting on his hand, but let him try a couple on his own.  He was a bit more enthusiastic with the paint, but only got a bit on his jeans.  It washed out no problem.  Once his eleven leaves were done, then sister had a turn again to do the rest with her right hand.  The key for these guys was to do one kid at a time, and only one hand at a time...making sure to escort them to the sink so we didn't paint the whole kitchen.  :)

Here's Marisa with her finished project.  (She loves her "Penny the Penguin" from Koala Brothers.)

Here's Kieran with his Thanksgiving Tree.  (Love that smile!)

Both trees are on the wall in the dining room where we do our home school lessons.  We'll write one thing that we are thankful for on a leaf each day in November till Thanksgiving.  Then while we eat our meal, we can review all the amazing things God has blessed us with this year.

Next it was time to let the kids photograph mom.  Kieran decided to go artistic and slant the camera while he snapped the picture.  I think it turned out well.  :)

With a bit of trepidation, I let Marisa (the two year old!) hold my giant camera.  She actually got a decent photo of Kieran and me.  Everybody was all smiles after having a good time painting.  There were tense moments, but overall it was just fun.  I'm eager for November to arrive so we can start writing on our leaves.

Parenting is hard work, and not every day is all smiles and silliness like we had this afternoon.  However, it's the moments like these that I blog about so I can remember and know that there are a lot of good times mixed in with the tough ones.  Perhaps my blogs are a kind of Thanksgiving tree for me. How do you help your kids (and yourself) develop grateful hearts?  I'd love to hear from you.

Looking for Beauty

"The earth if full of God's unfailing love." (Psalm 119:64)

I went on a hunt in my backyard to find God's unfailing love.

I brought my camera with me to capture what I found.

As I looked closely at what God has made, I saw so much to be amazed by.  

When I paused to admire the delicate shades of purple and pink in the clematis, 

I realized God painted it that way because he loves me.  

The red tipped leaves of my favorite Japanese Maple,

and the blushing buds of the blueberry bush also whispered to me:

"He made these because He loves you!"  

Each leaf and blossom has its own intricate design and beauty.  

This hunt for God's "love notes" to us is changing me bit by bit:

more content, slower to anger, more patient and easy going, grateful.  

As I finished this post, I watched the sun set out the west facing windows.  

The sun almost blinded me with its fiery glow, both orange and magenta.

Awestruck, I watched it slip behind the mountains.  

Now the sky is left with shades of pink, orange, and purple.

Another message- this one painted large in the sky:

"I made this because I love you!"  

God is the author of romance.  

The earth is full of his unfailing love.

One Thousand Gifts

Like no other book I've read.  It's definitely worth reading.

Recently I realized that I have been spending way too much of my time in a bad mood.  Often I'd find myself exhausted at the end of the day, and then awake to a feeling of, "I don't want to do another day of what I did yesterday."  But how do I change?  What can I do differently so that I can enjoy my life and the sometimes chaotic season (two kids, you know what I mean) that I'm in?  

My neighbor recommended One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, and just by her brief summation I knew that I needed to get a copy and dive in.  Eagerly I waited for it to arrive from Amazon.  The first chapter had me in tears - this was not helping me have a better perspective on my life.  However, I kept on, knowing that the author was setting the stage for why she was on her own journey to find joy in the moment.  Her writing is unique and requires time and thought.  I find that I cannot rush through a chapter, but must stop after a page or so and mentally chew on the ideas she shares.  

What's the whole point of the book?  Thanksgiving is the key to having joy in our lives.  Simple, but so profound.  It's changing my life when I choose to tune my thoughts to ones of gratefulness.  At the end of grateful days, I'm not so worn out.  Come to find out, being mad all the time is exhausting.  Thankfulness is refreshing.  I'm slowing down as I seek out things to be amazed by.  There are so many things -gifts- God has given us that we can be thankful for.  Really, I'm sorry that I haven't been more observant. I'm learning that regardless of our circumstances, we can find things to be thankful for---if we look for them.  For example, recently I noticed how beautiful strawberries are as I sliced the tops off.   I stopped to look at each one and admire the unique starburst pattern hidden inside.  As I paused to admire the beauty in each berry, my son was having a fit about something.  I think it was related to potty training, and him not wanting to be told to stop his play to use the bathroom.  Instead of getting swept up in the fit, I just calmly sniffed a strawberry, and savored the sweet smell.  Ah, that sniff enticed me to take a bite.  So while my son had a melt down, I thanked God for strawberries.  Ridiculous, maybe.  But I know that this fresh perspective is making me a more peaceful person, a better mom, and a more pleasant wife.   This is something I'm going to have to work at, as my normal mode of thinking is to find fault with things.  It's not easy, but I know God will give me the grace to change.    

I'm on a journey to learn how to enjoy the every day moments in life...perhaps you'd like to join me?  Get a copy of the book, or read the author's daily blog.  I've added a link (look for the black button with a tree that says, "a holy experience")  that leads to Ann Voskamp's blog.