winter afternoon

A week or two ago, I looked out my window to see this beautiful scene of the sun breaking through the clouds and glowing on the golden grass, with brooding clouds filling the sky behind it. I rushed to grab my camera, and snapped off this shot just in time, for the sun quickly returned to it's shrouded existence behind the clouds and the brilliant light was gone.

It was only 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon, but in the winter it gets dark so early, that the clouds covering the sun made a huge difference in the scene:


































I brought my camera with me as I went out to get our mail, and the day quickly fell into the shadow of evening as I walked there and back.


















As I walked, I kept having that Simon and Garfunkle song going through my  head: A Winter's Day, in a Deep and Dark December. I am alone. Gazing from my window, to the street below, on a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow..."
Also, this one; "I look around, leaves are brown and the sky is a hazy shade of winter." 
I love how music can be modern day poetry.























While I am often annoyed that I can never order a pizza, run to the corner store for milk, or stop by DQ for a Blizzard, I know I will miss the beautiful solitude of evening scenes like this one when we eventually move away someday.






































PS..this is posting while I'm on vacation to my parent's home for Christmas and my brother's wedding shortly after. Hopefully we'll have lots of fun things to post about when we get back!

Deep and Dark December

This last month my Artist's Magazine had an article about painting snow. I realized I hadn't tried that yet with my markers, so I decided to give it a try. In the article, there were two paintings that I especially loved. The first was on the cover, and I loved the style and the bright colors. Unfortunately this version I found on the internet doesn't portray the colors very well, but there were a lot of bright blues and oranges, to which I've always been attracted. It is "View From the Air, A Passing Cloud" by Stephen Quiller.

 The second was a much less grand scene, but no less captivating. It showed a small glimps of a forest in winter, and looking at it you can feel the stillness of the winter air, almost as if you were there. As you probalby know, I've always loved paintings and photos of trees, and this one was especially captivating. It is titled "Winter Interior" by T. Allen Lawson. I could just sit and stare at this all day:



































So for my experiment in drawing snow, I combined elements from both of these paintings. Since I don't have any photos of winter scenes readily on hand, I loosely based my drawing on the tree painting, and my color scheme and loose style on the mountain painting. Part of that was because my gray marker was running out..which was actually kind of fortunate so I had to pursue other avenues for my colors. It turned out great! As usual, the colors aren't completely accurate in this photo, and the sky actually blends together much better to the naked eye than it does here. Also, I swear there is not any purple on the foreground trees, so I don't know why it's showing a purple squiggle at the bottom of that first tree; and the sky is lighter and warmer than shown here. But it's not too bad.

























This feels like a scene you might find up Cedar Mountain near where I grew up, and I can practically smell the fresh mountain air. It feels like a warmer day several days after the snow had fallen, hence no snow on the trees themselves. I'm reminded of the ski trips we went on in middle school (the only six times I've ever been skiing.) I had to restrain myself from adding more details to the trees, because I was trying to keep it as loose as the styles I admire, rather than overworking it like I usually do. At first I had started drawing people too, but I decided I just wanted a landscape this time.
What do you think?

What month was that again?

Wow, so what happened to November? It seems to be one of those in-between months, doesn't it? While it does have it's own holiday of Thanksgiving, it's really not as big as Halloween (which starts off the "holiday season") or Christmas, the biggest holiday of the year. At least that's how it's always seemed to me, since we've never done anything really big for Thanksgiving.
So I tried to think of exactly what happened this month, besides my having to wash more dishes than usual:


 

I finally turned to my photos of the last few weeks, which were by no means extraordinary or exciting, but which revealed all the little moments that fill up our days and add up to...something. Sorry, I was trying to think of something profound to say there, but I guess I'm too tired.

There was the momentous occasion Elora and Josh got to vacuum the living room. They were pretty excited about that, and even cleaned up willingly just for the chance to run the thing. Haha, jokes on them.

 


And Eli learned to suck his thumb without poking himself in both eyes simultaneously. He is our first thumb-sucker in the family. I know lots of people do all they can to prevent their kids from picking up this habit, and while I might be regretting it when we're trying to break him of it at age three, right now I think it's awesome that he can soothe himself! Also very cute.

 

 
Elora is still doing great at school (is this starting to sound like one of those family Christmas letters?), and is learning everything by leaps and bounds! I just have to brag on her a little bit...she's been reading chapter books that are second grade level, and learning so much. What a smart girl. Here she is reading to her brothers (ignore the messy kids' room):





In November we finally had our first snow of the year! I think it's so funny that we're so much farther north than you folks in Utah, and we're supposed to have a harsher climate than those in the Northwest, yet we outlasted you both on the storm front! Haha. It was absolutely freezing (highs in the teens) when the snow came, but after a few days we were finally able to go check it out. And, you know, taste it.

Hmm, needs a bit more sugar.

Eli was drowning in this snowsuit. His feet barely reached the crotch!

We got around to decorating for Thanksgiving after the day was over. Part of the problem is that Elora is in school all week, and she's my little craft person! Josh and Jonah show little interest in the creative arts unless Elora is there to do it too. So hand turkeys it is. (Jonah looks so old in this picture, don't you think?)




The Christmas decorations actually went up before the end of November too. I know, you hate me. But Joseph was going to be gone the first weekend in December, and we're leaving for my parents' home the week before Christmas, so we wanted to get it up as soon as possible.




 
See what I mean about November going fast?!
Finally, if you're interested, I thought I'd include this instructional video on how to get a two year old to eat his dinner. It used to work on Joshua too, though now that he's four he's not quite so malleable.


















Happy Holidays!

October happenings

What happened in October around our house? Of course we had Elora's birthday. She got to help decorate her awesome heart cake, 

 

 and we brought some delicious treats to her class (Recipe courtesy of our Betty Crocker wall calendar). I'm not very good at creating culinary beauty, but these sure were tasty!

Halloween cupcakes, complete with candy!

This  month Joseph has been taking a free EMT class at his school, with a handful of other staff. He's really excited about it, and having fun learning how to help in emergencies. One day he got to bring home the board to which they tie children in an accident, and he practiced with each of our kids.

I kind of found it disturbing to see Jonah this way; lets hope he's never in one of these for real!

 Maybe we should get one of these to keep around the house for misbehaving kids? Then Elora got to go to class with him to let other people practice with her.

 

 

The downside to the class is that it is held every Saturday (all day) and Sunday (afternoons) until December, and it's no fun to not have Joseph home on the weekends. Plus he's supposed to have experience riding in the ambulance based out of Eagle Butte, so they're thinking of transferring the last month of classes there, meaning he'll get home even later at night...as in eight pm or so. He also is supposed to pay for some of his own equipment, and pay for a big test at the end. 

 

I just hope he passes the test  so it was all worth it! Joseph thinks having this accreditation might make him more of an asset in other rural schools when he applies to teaching positions in other states when we want to move.

This month we also did Elijah's blessing at church. Wasn't he a handsome boy? I think he looks so old in this photo, and so serious. I love how his eyes slant down just like his daddy's. He was about six weeks old in this picture.

 

We had all of the Halloween activities this month as well. We decorated pumpkins right before Halloween, and everyone did a great job!

 

 

On Halloween day, we dressed in our costumes and went over to the school where they have a Halloween parade, or at least that's what they call it. 

 

We got to sit with daddy, who let his hair down for the occasion.

 

Yes, Jonah was there too, right by Cousin It:

 

 

 For the "parade", they call everyone up by age category- preschool through high school- and they walk around the gym to some Halloween music, like "Monster Mash", "Thriller", and "Ghostbusters".  Our preschoolers started out walking with Daddy, 

 

but soon our two Supermans had a great time running around to the music, unlike the other participants who all just walked slowly in a big circle:

 

The preschoolers all got two dollars each, while the other age categories were judged on their costumes, with a first, second, and third place awarded. Elora was a witch, as were four other girls in her class (with only seven girls total, that's a lot of witches!) But somehow, she won first place for her costume! I guess maybe because it was colorful or quirky or something? Almost everyone there had mostly black costumes. Anyway, she got $20 for winning! Sweet. Doubly sweet because we didn't have to buy anything for it: she was happy to wear the same costume she wore two years ago.

 

 After the parade they had activities in the other gym, from face painting to balloon animals. Joseph was in charge of a frisby throwing booth, While Elora and Joshua had fun making caramel apples. I couldn't believe one of the teachers was running a Bobbing for Apples booth...seriously, are they trying to spread germs? It wasn't very popular.

 Then around five, they had a dinner for everyone, after which we went trick or treating in the neighborhood around our house. It was a great Halloween!

Finally, Joseph has spent a lot of time this month cuddling with Elijah. He's very fond of telling people how he can lay down in the couch with the baby, and the baby will quickly fall asleep under his father's expert care. I have captured video evidence of what really happens when Joseph helps the baby go to sleep....