{love} Rock Art

It's not as if I ever post my Family Pictures on time, right? I just need to aim for once a month.

If you know me at all, you know I spend A LOT of time outside when the weather warms up.


I've taken to making rock art with the kids, when we're at the creek. Spread the love.



The water banded snakes at our most frequented creek. They look a lot like water moccasins, but they're not as thick and don't have the same buoyancy.


My littles. Yes, The Girl wore jeans to the creek. Jeans. okay. Whatever floats your boat, hun.


And this lovely lady is my Mom, and her dog Sally. My Mom (Noni) is a total outdoorsy creek-lovin, cave-explorin', water-raftin', mountain-bikin, marathon-running superwoman. My sisters and I are carrying on the nature love with our families.

Noni's dresser

My Mom (Noni, as the kids call her) took this idea and ran with it:
A papered dresser!!
She's redoing her entire third floor in the colors of the painting.

The paper pieces came from scrapbook paper, magazine photos, book pages.

And, while most of my pieces were square or rectangular, my Mom took a step beyond that and just clipped and modge podged to her heart's delight, here and there, layered, and in all shapes.

She bought various un-matching, yet coordinating, knobs from Lowe's and Hobby Lobby, and painted some of the wood ones herself.

I love how unique, colorful, cheerful it turned out!! Can't wait to post more pictures, as soon as her furniture arrives. The room is looking amazing. It's a "guest/quiet floor" now, with a seperate bathroom, built-in bookshelves, etc. Love it!

Monster Dolls

More Gift Ideas, folks, from a book I love!

Meet my Guest Artist!

This is Cheryl... my Mom.

We affectionately call her "Woman"

(as in Superwoman, naturally)

This is what she is capable of...

This is The ArtistChild's favorite toy ever. One of mine, too.
Who says grown-ups don't need toys?!

Love Big Lipped Betty, below.

If I remember correctly, that one was an original idea.


And, below, is Hungry. His brother, who very much resembles him, is named Silly.
My kiddos are constantly correcting me, when I mix the two up.

He's worn it around for 4 years, and it's held up wonderfully. She makes these toys to LAST.
Yes, a boy's dream come true.

You put your books, toys, rocks, worms, underwear, whatever

IN the monster's mouth, for safe storage.

To empty your treasures, just make the monster vomit-- voila.

And what do you end up with?

A rather rascally monster, with his tongue sticking out and his eyes crossed.

Like I said, perfect for little boys. ;)

This Noni knows what the grandkids like.

Plus she still makes toys for me!

Tailwaggers 5K

You know I'm all about doing family things...

Yesterday morning I was able to see my mom race, be outside on a fabulous fall day (high of 74!!), plus see friends and get free food. To top it off, the race was at the downtown park, and they brought in a Bounce King. The more energy my kids get out at the park, the less they'll bring home... right??

LOTS of doggies at the Tailwagger 5K and walk. Below, my mom crossing the finish line, first in her age group. My -super-athletic- Mom, and my super sweet second-cousin Lisa.

Mom, I'm so proud of you for running!!

Man, I'm starting to feel that urge to get back in shape. For awhile, we were doing P90X, running, eating well... and then it all went down the toilet. I started eating Papaw's apple pies for lunch, quit working out altogether, and didn't run all summer because of the unusual and intense heat. Bleh. I'm feeling the effects now! And, although I only put on about 4 lbs, my weight is shifting to the butt area. Eh. Not great.

So, with you as my witness, I am committing to get back in shape.

I need the energy that comes with exercise,

the health benefits of it, the stress relief.

Help hold me accountable!!

I want to run the next race, too, not just watch from the sidelines!

Happy Days are here to stay

The kids wondered why we aren't flying. Well, simply put, it's because we're poor.

But, you know, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with driving. I'm okay with bypassing amusement parks or ocean tours, in favor if downtime at the coast every day. I'm more than okay with this amazing opportunity we have to travel together. Being on the low-end of the financial pool keeps us creative! Sure, I would fly if we had the money-- but we don't, and that's fine. You use what you've got.

I grew up at the high-end of middle class...but I don't remember "things." I can't recall a single Christmas gift I received as a child. I barely remember Disney World. The things that stuck with me were family game nights, weekend camping trips, the super-long stocked art table that my parents had set up for us. I remember long walks by the creek, "special times" with my Dad, and creek swimming (My parents swam with us; they never stayed on the shore the entire time, reading or tanning.) I remember all the TIME we had together. And that is what I want my kids to remember. :-D

Hitting the big 5- OH !

This is my Mom. She is 50. I know, it's crazy, right? This lady has more fun and energy packed into her athletic little frame than most 20-year olds I know. Call it good genes, if you want. (please! I'd like to think I'll look this great at 50!)

See how the kids just take it all in stride? It's nothing new for us to have crazy parties and wear enormous glasses.

Who is my Mom?

Let me tell you a little about her:
Her faith is real. She wants to be exactly what God wants her to be. Mom strives to be the best version of herself. She searches the Bible for truth, and can easily discern Truth from modern-day-lit-garble. (And she's an English major, so I may get some tongue-lashing for all of my hyphen uses and made-up words in this post! ha! Sorry, Mom!)

She is fun. She loves to laugh and joke around. She loves to spend time with family, anywhere & anytime.

Mom is a writer by nature, and spends much of her free time filling up notebooks with her newest (and incredible) articles.

She is tolerant and grateful of others. She's one of those sweet people that will let you out of the church parking space when you're trapped in, and then she'll give a friendly little wave. Uncommon these days.

She's physically impressive, for a 5'6" small-build little-lady. Don't even think about arm-wrestling this woman. Mom and Dad will be traveling to Florida in November for their next marathon. (By the way, on Dad's 50th birthday, he climbed Mount Evan in Colorado. Nothing gets in their way, certainly not a few extra years under the belt.)

She loves to see new places, and especially to capture them on film. They are empty-nesters, so she gets to travel with Dad, usually to Colorado, Missouri, and Mexico. They did take a trip to Europe about a year ago, too.

Mom loves nature. She instilled this in all of us, by taking us camping, hiking, swimming, caving at early ages. We camped ALL the time when I was young. When we lived on the East Coast, they took us to the Market and the beaches almost every weekend. I went rafting and water-skiing for the first time when we lived there. On the West Coast, for summers, we spent hours and hours on the rocky shore line, just soaking up the beauty of God's creation.
Enjoying nature is part of her daily life, and I'm so grateful that she passed that on...

She is "Noni" to seven grandkiddos. Four of them, below, patiently wait for cake to be served. My folks are fantastic grandparents. They always have time to babysit, play chess, take the kids to the park, play music and dance, you name it.


She loves her family unconditionally, and has accepted each new son-in-law fully and completely, with affection and encouragement. Regardless of how goofy they are... ;-)

(Fred having his "lightbulb moment." He never divulged what it was. Go figure.)
My mom is compassionate. She wants to help you, me, everyone. She feels pain deeply. If you are sick, she is the best person, hands down, to keep by your bedside. She is empathetic, almost to a fault. Others can take advantage of her, if she isn't careful.

Poor baby Ransom! He wasn't used to the confines of the Baby Bjorn. He'll love it in time. Noni gave him some lovin' after this.
My Mom is all this and more. She's still running marathons and taking overseas trips at 50. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if she takes up skiiing or windsurfing by the time she's 70!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Thanksgiving on Thursday at my parents' house

Trevor is 3 today!! (so that means the terrible twos MUST end!)

This is our family party for Mr. Trevor








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body image

Every Sunday Fred buys donuts. It's just a tradition for him. I usually pass on those fried delicacies, but yesterday I ate TWO donuts with my coffee. Anyone remember that commercial of the girl walking down the street with donuts on her bottom? That's the picture that I immediately conjured up. I wanted to post it, but can't find it. heh heh. Just as well.

After that I tried on three outfits for church before finally sticking on a knee length skirt and blouse. And, let me tell you, I was so self-conscious about it at church. I usually wear longer skirts than that. We all have our body image issues, don't we?

I remember once, in elementary school, a girl told me on the playground that I had bad nails and big lips. (Actually, part of that was a major compliment, but I didn't take it that way at the time. Maybe thin lips were "in" then.) And so started my body image issues.

I've always had a gripe about my thighs, too. Don't we all? ;-) But when I look at pictures of myself, I don't look bad... so it must just be the mirror that I'm looking in at home (and in dressing rooms.)

I have to stop myself and remember that my "little people" are watching me. I want them to love their bodies and be confident with who they are. God made us in His image, and we should treasure that and take care of ourselves, not condemn and gripe, turning this way and that in the mirror.

And, actually, sometimes I feel very good about who I am and how I look. I guess it just depends on the mood of the day. ;-) Fred helps, too, being very complimentary of my appearance. Although he did ask, before the La-Z-Boy picnic, if I was planning to wear what I had on... Hmmm... Needless to say, I quickly changed clothes.

My parents did bless me with healthy habits from a young age. We always took walks, went swimming, hiked and camped, played tennis.... Of course, when you have marathon-running parents, I guess it's natural that they would pass on good exercise and eating habits. Having chips or soda in our home was a big deal. We just didn't regularly eat like that. Cakes were reserved for birthdays only. But we ate tons of delicious fruit, steamed veggies... all the things that I love now.

A gal I know recommended a great article on body image by a friend of mine, Shelley. You can find it here. It's worth the read!

Noni's back

Noni(my Mom)is back from COlorado. She will be here until Sunday, when she gets on a plane to Washington.



And, in other news... BabyO can hold toys now!! YEA! He does get rather ticked when he drops one of those cold teethers, though.