Happy Valentine's Day

Friday or Saturday (it's all a fog) I saw a person on Flickr who drew with her nondominant hand so I tried drawing with my left hand, too.

It took a lot of energy to work with my left hand.

Then, I've survived a teenage sleepover. Just two girls, but it was CRAZY. I didn't think it would be that bad. I don't remember being like that as a 13 year old. And poor James couldn't understand that the girls didn't want to play with him. Even though I was happy that Caitlin has someone who enjoys the things she does, I was glad when it was over on Sunday. While it went on, I locked myself in my room and played with markers.

These are like starbursts I used to make as a child with crayons.

Sunday, Gary went back to KC. This gave me some time to make Valentine's Day cards for my students. I had fun.

They are bookmark sized.

Happy Valentine's Day

Just One of Those Mornings

I just had to stop in and tell you why I am feeling grateful this morning.

This week is my week to pull hall duty where I have to be at work before 7 a.m. to be at my spot on time. This means getting my son up earlier and having things laid out the day before and so on. However, I didn't pack his backpack until this morning. On the bright side, my husband was here to take up some of the slack.

As I was running around doing my last minute checks, I opened my son's backpack to ensure his homework was there. I couldn't find the binder. My husband said it was there so I opened another pocket of the pack. Sure enough it was there. I quickly put it in the pocket I normally use for his things and went to zip the bag when I felt something wet. (Mind you, I am doing all of this in semidarkness.) I flip on a light and lo and behold, there is something wet and brown on my hand. The mind always shifts to the lowest common denominator so you can imagine what I was thinking. I immediately called my husband to deal with it while I ran to wash my hands. After some investigating, he found a lunch sack with an open pudding my son obviously saved from lunch the day before. It had soaked through the lunch bag and settled in the bottom of the backpack. Fortunately, I had a spare backpack for him or he would have been bringing his things to school in a grocery bag.

So far this doesn't sound like a grateful list. Does it? But I can now show you where gratitude comes in:

• My husband is home which means he wakes and dresses my son.
• I am going to work at 7 a.m. which means I get off at 3 p.m. instead of 3:15.
• I have electricity to turn on lights.
• The brown stuff turned out to be pudding.
• My husband cleaned up the mess.
• I had a spare backpack.
• I have you bloggy friends to share this story with.

So what are you grateful for today?

Oh and on the topic of messes...Where was this cool spoon (called a Boon) when my kids were babies?

(click on the picture for more information)

You fill the handle with baby food...OR PUDDING... and squeeze a little into the spoon. That would have been a cool tool.

Color My World

...in blues, greens, yellows and reds.

Chily-Pepah took the most beautiful photo while on holiday in Florida this past week. I was so drawn to it (pardon the pun) that I had to sketch it. Then I got out the kids' colored pencils and did my best to replicate those colors. It's the first non human, non doodley picture I have done in a while. I put this on the Sketchbook Challenge Flickr group under the theme opposites because it is such a departure from my usual style.


It's my favorite!

Following the Plan

On Art Journal Everyday, Julie posted a 7 day plan that would have you at the art journal for about 10 minutes each day. That's not how I usually work. I store up all my energy and find one day just to pour everything into my journals. This is why I don't usually get much done in my art journals. I rarely have that much time on my hands. This week I decided to follow the plan. It was fun. I have posted most of them and have two days left to show you.

Day 6 she said to journal on notebook paper like you were back in high school. I decided to pull out my old doodle friends, frogs, worms, dogs, elephants, rabbits, rainbows and flowers.

Day 7 she said to cut out a favorite piece from the day before to paste in the journal

and use it to doodle around.

I had a vision of wallpaper in my head.

Below are the rest of the pics from our Snow Day. The snow is all gone now except on my front sidewalk which never sees the light of day in winter.

This Moment

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.

Opposing Forces

We have been having unusually cold weather here in Central Texas. I don't remember it being this cold here before. They say it's going to snow tomorrow. I have opposing feelings about this. I am tired enough that I could enjoy an unplanned day off. On the other hand, I don't want to lose an already planned day off later in the year like Good Friday (aka Bad Weather Make Up Day.) I also don't want to lose anymore instruction time than I have already due to students staying home because of this cold weather. Yes, we're wimps.

The theme over at Sketchbook Challenge is Opposites so I drew this:


Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Ooh...I feel a little self criticism coming on, so I am going to post this before I have a chance to delete it.

Fortunately, Unfortunately

Fortunately, I have today off. Unfortunately, it is because James is sick. Fortunately, he is feeling better. Unfortunately, he had to endure two miserable days. Fortunately, my mother was able to watch him while I tried to make an appointment. Unfortunately, EVERYONE in central Texas was sick, and there were no appointments available. Fortunately, there was a waiting list. Unfortunately, they never called. Fortunately, I had made an appointment just in case they never called. Unfortunately, James had to suffer through two days of a fever of 102-103F (39C.) Fortunately, the doctor ended up giving him a prescription. Unfortunately, she wanted him to get a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia first. Fortunately, it wasn't pneumonia. Unfortunately, the doctor said take the medicine anyway. Fortunately, it was only a 5 day prescription. Unfortunately, James threw up the first dose. Fortunately, he woke up feeling better, so now I am home with a little boy who is enjoying watching cartoons, and I get to play on the computer, draw and do laundry. ( Or should that last one be UNFORTUNATELY?) :-)

This month's Sketchbook Challenge theme is "Opposites." I did a little brainstorm with this page:

When I started writing today's post, I realized that it fit well into this month's theme.
So does this:


I also have been following Art Journal Everyday. Julie shared a weekly plan. This page is based on drawing squares or rectangles and doodling in each square.


I am glad I am home. How often do you just get to sit around in your jammies on a work day?