All I know..... is that i don't know.

We have five children. Yep. Five. And we have both regrets and praises, with all five of them, as individuals. The older three, we were worried about putting groceries on the table, and were too young to have enough life wisdom, to pass along. They never really “wanted” for anything, but also had to fight for anything they really had their heart set on. If their heart really wasn’t “set on it", they didn’t get it. Looking back, do you really know what you want in life at 19-20-21? So again, they fought for everything. Friendships, Jobs, money, personal relationships, and careers that would work for them. Is that a bad thing? I wish it would have been easier for them, but a bad thing? I love who they are today, and I think they appreciate those “battles”.
The younger two? We learned so much in round one, this is easy, right!?

Fail!!

One has college paid for, so she covers her own “expenses". One has to pay for college, so gets his “expenses” covered. Those feel like the easy parts now!
What about the not realizing what it’s like to make a monthly cell phone, and insurance payment you’ve avoided your whole life? What about valuing your pre-paid college and making the most of it? What about being forced to work, to pay for those expenses, while trying to balance your classes? What about relationships? What about the too pushy girlfriend or boyfriend, before REAL life has even started? What about paying off all that student debt?
All we really know, is that we still don’t know a damn thing.
All we really know, is that we will love them endlessly.
All I know is that I will defend them till I die.
I will be the crazy Mom, shooing away unwanted advances from my daughter. I will be the crazy Mom, that hurts my son’s girlfriend’s feelings.
All I know is that I will be ferocious with anything that appears detrimental to them.
And all because I don’t even have it figured out yet myself, so once again, why would I expect them to have it figured out at 19 and 20?
All we can do is be there. Every single day. Not just on the easy days.
All we can do is apologize when our guidance may not have been the best.
All we can do is make our best attempts at protection.
All we can do is love.
Because at the end of the day, I don’t care if they are “average”. They aren't average to me.
I care about their minds, heats and souls.
As long as they are happy. As long as they know we gave them our everything. All five.

FreeShopping Spree

Linda, over at "A crafting Journey", is taking a little blog break, for a vacation. In the mean time, just leave her a comment on her blog, wishing her well on her vacation, and be entered to win a free $50.00 shopping spree!

Thank you so much Linda~!

Yes… Another vacation post

We decided to take a day to venture into Tawas City and let the kids swim in Lake Huron. What a beautiful day for it!  86 degrees and finally getting a little tan! 

They scared seagulls away….    it’s funny how this picture turned out. It sort of looks like Alex is playing volleyball… but he’s just chasing birds!  LOL

Played in the sand…

I love having dedicated time for the kids. Despite all their silly antics, they grow up so quickly and become beautiful young adults. I think these are my two favorite pics of the day. So beautiful.

 

After we got back to the cabin, Courtney and I spent some time drawing and creating.  I played in my art journal and Courtney has been drawing on loose leaf paper and collecting them in a “school folder”.  She’s a good little artist~!  I think like me, she likes the quiet time to put her thoughts together and let them flow out of her pens. I Love it~!  It will be a good excuse for me to wander around the stores for a new journal and make a little journal gift for her.   (Shhh~!)  

I finishes up a couple of pages I had started some time ago….

And…!    The best part… LOL….  My husband even drew a picture of me as we played~!   He doesn’t understand the whole art journal concept, but I think maybe he secretly wanted to be a part of it. LOL

Vacation Post

While our older kids are at home, house and dog sitting for us, we have ventured up north, to Michigan’s wilderness. We still have five days to go and have completely enjoyed ourselves for far!

We have four wheeled, swam, fished, and generally relaxed!

The boys….

 

 

The girls…..

A break for a quick consult of the map…

The ride home….

And by the time we got back, the girls were just as happy as the boys~!   What a great time for all of us.  Apart from the mud, sand and speed, we saw two deer, a doe, and a black squirrel.

We three families have been coming to the same location for almost 10 years now, and this is the first time we’ve been to the cabins since Clarence’s passing  almost a year ago (that I posted about here). I know in my heart he would be so proud of his kids, and happy that our families are carrying on the “Bass Lake Traditions”   Sorry sweetheart, but the fires kinda suck now. That will always be dubbed “your thing”.  We love and miss you.

After the four wheeling…. we swam

 

We ate….

We played in the sand…..

 

We started a bon-fire ….

 

We let the kids make s’mores…..

And just generally let the kids be… well…..    KIDS!    (Including my hubby in the back, there.  lol)

Wall Art

 

As you all know, I spoke about adding on to our home here and we finished construction in March.

 

There were several planks left over from the flooring, and my was racing what I could do with them.  I have a wall that needs some perking up, maybe I could make some sort of wall art with them, right?

I’m sort of disappointed in myself at how I didn't do so well at tasking pictures of the process…. but I thought I would share the finished product with you.

The planks have a slight veneer to them so I started with sanding them a little bit. My first layer was some Raw Sienna oil paint and them some Burn Umber.  It’s the first time I worked with oil paints and my thought was it would stick to the cracks and grooves of the wood.  I’m not sure how well that actually worked, but I liked how it turned out.

While the paint was still wet, I was able to use some pop bottle caps and some canning lids and twist into the paint, wearing off the paint in the different circle shapes.  I used the same technique with bubble wrap and let it all dry. 

I then painted the bubble wrap with some green, and stamped that on. The bird house is actually cut out of some tissue paper and the tree is a stamp.

 

I tied string around each of the three pieces and added some beds to two of them.

 

And this is the finished product.   I think I need some vinyl flourishes or something between them or around them or something.   Honestly, let me know what you think~!     Criticism as well~!

Summer Fun

I’ve been so bad with posting on my blog lately. My blog was originally created to keep as my “creative forum” and to keep in touch with all the lovely ladies I’ve met through art – journaling and mixed media. And then Facebook came along and my blog has taken a sever hit.  So I’ve decided – why not merge the two and post my blog links on my Facebook, right?  (everyone say Right!)

 

Summer so far has consisted of some four-wheeling with the hubby and our youngest son……..

 

Lots of “grandkid time”….  Uncle Alex and Ryleigh…

 

Some cocktails on the deck with my daughters-in-laws… while our men work

(Carrie)

 

(Jess)    

 

The kids love it when we actually have those moments to sit and relax on the deck, because it means they get to PLAY~!

(Ryleigh and Chayse)

 

(McKenzie and Chayse)

(Zoey and Ryleigh)

 

My dear husband has been better about watering the garden that I have and thanks to his efforts, I have some beautiful blooms~!

I think I even saw the dog winking at me over their beauty.

 

My lovely art chicks… I PPROMISE….. My next post will be some art. Despite not posting or sharing…. I have indeed been creating, ad of course continually being inspired by all of you~!

Weekend Deals

I’m a little late in posting about the weekend,  but better late than never, right?

So we had a pretty awesome weekend. Friday night, my hubby had band practice so my twelve year old son and I took advantage of the time and caught a movie that Dad didn’t want to see.  We saw Robin Hood and I loved it~!  I was really surprised that he did too, since it was more “war strategy” than I had anticipated.

We left there – swung through Dairy Queen and finally stopped at the tattoo shop to ask for my “vision” for a new tattoo to be drawn up. (By the way.. the not very successfulness).

Saturday… we dropped our son off to spend the night with his cousin, Sami, while we headed for the casino in Greek town. And for the record….. I did all the winning and came home $20.00 ahead even after dinner, gas and gambling, We left there and picked up my parents from Detroit Metropolitan Airport after a 3.5 week long cruise.  They were both whipped and Dad got that funky cruise ship stomach virus while there and was quarantined for three days!  I’m glad they are home, I know they are, too.

Sunday…. after picking our son back up again, I actually talked my hubby into checking out some GARAGE SALES~!  We don’t do that often… and I never have with as much luck as I did then!

We ended up with some Americana decor… a basket, (I have a slight basket fetish…) some scrap book stuff, a blanket for going to the race track on the weekends, some brand new, never worn shoes, and a brand new music stand for my son’s guitar music.

The best deal yet…..  was a bike for our sweet grand-daughter, Taryn…    for FIVE DOLLARS!    Now she has a bike for Gran and Papa’s house.

 

Lastly…. I’m currently reading the Diary of Anne Frank.  She said something in her diary that really hit home for me.

 

“Paper is more patient… than people”

I love it~!     So true… in so many ways….