Thankful!

Wow! I have got to say that I am glad that Christmas is over, at least the commercial part of it. I learned a lot this year. I have made some New Year's resolutions for next year: no holiday baking (at least my version of it which entails making at least 10 different things), no Christmas parties and limited sewing projects. Hmmm, sounds like taking those things out might ease the stress a bit. All in all I enjoyed doing every one of those things and they were all simple in and of themselves. However, lumped together, not so good. But you know God gave us a life to live and not a year to live because it will take us that entire time to figure things out, and even then, at the end of our life, we will still be left with room to grow. God has been showing me that I don't need to linger in guilt over not having it all together but rather accepting it and enjoying the journey. That is what we're on, a journey. I guess I really do want to be perfectly prepared for whatever but what am I Wonder Woman? The true Wonder Woman is the one that doesn't throw in the towel but keeps going even if it's at a snail's pace.
The expectations that I have on myself are unrealistic and cause me stress and cause me to be impatient with the kids, which is not fair to them. But alas, I am making changes and if feels SUPER!
The picture at the top is of all of the kids on the Sprenger side of the family, all the cousin's kids (except for Leah and Ruth). They were so cute and were actually pretty patient getting the picture taken.
So yes, the title of this entry, Thankful: I have once again been reminded of how fortunate we are in America. Christmas gifts galore, amazing health ( for most of us) and good medical treatment if we need it. We not only have roofs over our heads but beautiful ones at that, and full of nice furniture, a million choices of clothes to wear and food to get fat on. So many all over the world are dying of hunger and disease .............and we get cranky if we don't get our Starbucks!

Just a little perspective that's all. Trying to give it to the kids too, they get it in small ways but can't fully comprehend it all now. I just feel overwhelmed with gratitude and i hope you do too!

Christmas

Wow! Hard to believe it's the Christmas season again. I always look forward to Christmas. It has always been a good time for me. No sad holidays yet that I can remember anyway. However this year seems to be extremely stressful. I'm not sure why but it seems that the workload has doubled in every way. We added a Christmas party (for our worship team at church) to our schedule this month. You'd think that a simple Christmas party would not come this that much stress but my goodness! My motivation is slipping away and I'm afraid that I'm not going to be able to finish getting ready (the way that I wanted to at least). For next year I need to prune way down the amount of things I try to accomplish for Christmas. It's not the things I do for my family. It's all the things I try to do for everyone else. I need to do less baking for one thing. I enjoy it so much but now it's becoming a burdensome tradition that I can't keep up with. I am also making several homemade Christmas gifts, which I also love to do, however, more time and more stress. Hmmmm, there seems to be a pattern here. It seems that I am putting too much expectation on myself and that I need to do less than that.

You know why Christmas was so fun and exciting as a kid? It's because everyone else did all the work and we just got to enjoy it all. We were the recipients of all the hard work.

So the question is...........do we, as the adults now do what our parents did to make Christmas so special in so many ways to make it equally as special for our kids. Or do we do less and set our kids up for success when they grow up with a whole lot less expectations???

I guess it all goes back to the real meaning of Christmas..............and it's certainly not the snowman in the picture above!

I am curious to hear what you all will have to say.

"Tuscan Sunset"

This was probably about my third painting. I really like this one too. Seems like some of your first ones are your best. Now I'm trying new things and getting out of my comfort zone. This was a Christmas gift for my brother-in-law. I drew his name and he requested a painting.........brave soul!

Shawna's room

My first contracted work. I went to her house to figure out what kind of painting she might like and where she would like it. We decided small paintings over the window would suit her style the best. These are originals. I took the cues from her bedding.

Spin-off

I did this one after I finished Kari's. The circle pattern showed up nicely on the right but I got a little sloppy on the left. I still like it though. This one is to go to a coffee shop that Liberty Bible (my old church) is opening up soon. They are looking for local artists that want to display and/or sell their work. Might be a good place to start.

Love this one!

This is a replica that I did for my friend/neighbor Kari. I wanted to keep it!

For Annabelle

This was a set I did for Annabelle's room about 2 years ago called "Peonies."

This one has no title but it has a twin and they hang above our bed

Freedom

This was one called "Freedom" that I did for the church foyer

Artwork

I have been wanting to post some of the paintings I have been working on for a while but have just now gotten all the pictures together. I still have 2 or 3 that need to be photographed (hopefully better quality than the ones I am going to post). I also have a couple that are in the works that should be done soon. I started painting probably 3 years ago but have done a lot in the last year. I really enjoy seeing things come to life on the canvas but don't really know the techniques just yet. I am replicating a lot of things to gain some experience. I enjoy watching Bob Ross and a couple of other painting instructors on TV even though I don't personally care for any of their styles. It has given me a bit of an understanding as to how to get started anyway. I have done some originals which has been fun, I guess probably and equal mix of originals and replicas. The painting you see above, "Rustic Pear" was one I did for the Portland Symphony's annual auction. A lady that I used to do some gardening for actually ended up buying it so that was really great.