Baby J's new favorite thing...sucking on fruit.

Well, I didn't draw today...or yesterday. But tonight, Max and I made a book. Max has been having some difficulties learning some of his sight words, particularly his color words. I really want him to be able to get them learned before the end of school...so I have made up some flash cards and found some good worksheets for practice online. I really want his practice and learning to be meaningful to him, so I thought of making a book together. We decided on a color (blue) and went on a treasure hunt with the camera searching for blue things. He said the words, and I wrote them in later. This is the book we made. We plan to make one for all the colors. Our first book is called Blue. I want to get it printed, laminated and spiral bound.

You can click on the title to see it. I will probably make a couple of changes...Sam said I shouldn't have the text in Comic Sans...he just showed me bancomicsans.com...too funny, but it really probably is the most over-used font, so I will probably change it.

I spent the day today hanging out with Savannah and troop 166 at Girl Scout Camp...during rest time after lunch, I went outside and sat at a picnic table near the fire pit in the sunshine and drew.


I just finished watching the movie Juno with Sam. I really enjoyed the movie and Jasmin slept in my arms through the whole movie. I don't know why, but after it was over, my heart was flooded with overwhelming love for my kids...and for a moment I couldn't believe I had four such beautiful kids. I looked at a picture of Savannah, Max and Karson and then at Jasmin asleep on my chest and felt such joy and thought about how proud I am of them. How blessed I am to be a part of their lives.
Today I was thinking about how Jasmin will be 6 months old in a few days and how fast it has gone by...I was thinking about all she has done in the past 6 months and that in 6 more months she will probably be crawling and walking and maybe even starting to wave and say momma or dada. I kind of feel like I would like her to stay little for a little longer...I never really felt that with the other kids...I was always so excited to see them grow and make their next big accomplishment...but I know Jasmin will be our last baby, and it's almost sad to see those milestones go by...it just seems like its going to fast. I wish I could appreciate every single moment...but you know, you get caught up in life and all the craziness and those are the last kinds of things on your mind. But I have to say that while it's not often on my mind, I do know how blessed I am and how blessed our family is. I could never have imagined that my life would be anything like it is. It's not all roses and cherries, trust me! We have a stack of probably 25 DVDs that have to be fixed (we have a place that takes the scratches off so you can watch the movies again). There are thousands of Legos in our house and they have made their way into almost every square foot of our home...including the refrigerator! Our kids whine and cry when they are tired. We have a box of at least 75 socks - with no match to be found! Our lawn guy is moving out of state. Anyway, you get the picture. Life is not perfect, but I don't think it's supposed to be. I wouldn't trade mine for a million dollars.

This is Max's shell that Mimi brought back for him from Florida a couple of weeks ago. I have started having Max write a journal page every day. I gave him my date stamp (but I am still going to use it) to stamp each day's date on his page. I am trying to encourage him to do more writing and write on his own by listening to the sounds of the letters in the words and recording what he hears. He usually just writes a sentence or a phrase. Sometimes I write the actual spelling of the word he wrote underneath his writing. Writing frustrates him, but I think he is starting to see that it can be a lot of fun to keep a journal...especially when we do it together.
This is my page. A pen drawing colored with crayons.


Oh...and our scanner is ruined due to a leak in our roof...so you will have to endure photos of my drawings until we replace it.

#1
So today, my 5th graders come into class, and James (apparently a big fan of my artwork) asks to see my journal. I do not generally have it out, nor do I show it off. It's personal, but I haven been known to in the past pull it out and do a quick sketch or something while the kids are working. I don't seem to have a lot of time for that this year. But he remembers that I carry one with me and asked to see it. I pulled it out of my school bag. I bring it with me everyday. Though, I hardly ever get it out. I took a couple quick seconds to glance through it to see if there would be anything really personal I should keep from his eyes...and decided it would be ok. He looked through it and studied my drawings. He asked me several questions about different drawings I had done. By this time a couple of girls had gathered and were looking over his shoulder and snatched my journal away as soon as he was done. Then another kid said, I remember that drawing you did when your shirt caught on fire. Where is that one? I told him it was in another journal at home. He and the girls begged me to bring it next week...I told them maybe I would. James had really wanted to see some new drawings. He told me to bring my journal back next week because he would like to see what I drew this week. Hmm.
#2
My art goal buddy wrote me an email after about 2 months of silence on both our parts. We both have demanding careers and a whole load of excuses for not doing art as often as we would like to. She asked me how I was doing and reminded me about the draw every day in may challenge that I had said I wanted to do. Dang it...I totally forgot about that! I told her I was glad she wrote today...so I really only have missed one day...and I have to make that up. I really did want to do that challenge, so I started it tonight.

I think it was interesting that both of these things happened today...I really do need to be doing more art. I miss the time to be creative. This month I plan to do one drawing every day and post them on my blog. I may not be able to post them everyday, but I will post every drawing. So check back soon to see what else I find to draw.