Dirt- now that's fun.

I know I've posted pictures of the kids playing on dirt piles before. Probably even this same one, since it's the biggest one in the area- though its height has been greatly reduced as they use the dirt for projects around the school.

People might look at these pictures and think, "Wow, it must suck to live there.The funnest thing those kids can do outside is climb on dirt piles? Those poor kids. And where are the trees and scenery? What a sad part of the world."
























In some ways, I can see how that might be true. I mean, our country moved the Lakota people from the Black Hills, covered with pine trees, water, and unique flora and fauna. I love Mount Rushmore as much as the next person, but am kind of appalled that we carved a permanent National Monument into something that was sacred to another people. Anyway. (I was watching Avatar while I typed this, can you tell?)
























As with many Reservations, the people were moved to the poorest land in the area, both literally and figuratively. But while others may look on the residents of this part of the country with pity, I think there are many good things here too, including the view to the horizon in every direction.

 I like to think the kids are getting a rather unique experience, one that they probably won't get living anywhere else while they are still children. Maybe if we could afford to live on a ranch in the middle of several acres of land, but that is very unlikely to happen.



















In this small community, I'm not worried about my kids getting hit by a car- even out on the nearby (seven miles away) freeway, you might only see a car every five minutes in the middle of the day. I'm not worried about my kids being kidnapped (besides the general cautiousness any parent has). While some communities on the Reservation do have problems with alcohol and drugs, where we live is relatively quiet and friendly.
























My kids can walk to and from school every day by themselves. There are lots of friendly dogs and cats outside to play with (without my having to take care of them or house them- bonus!).

Look at Eli's face. It's hilarious.

Someday I know we will be moving- there isn't much job security where Joseph works, and in the higher grades the school has very low test scores, etc. There will be good things about moving, but I know I'll be sad about the loss of wide open spaces and rural living.























For now, I'm glad our kids will have these memories!




















Oh...and this picture is just here so you can see Elora's new glasses. Aren't they cute?

Sedimentary, my dear Watson.

Easter weekend we took a spontaneous little drive (about 20 minutes away) to the Cheyenne River to look for fossils and cool rocks. We've been here once before; that time the kids were all decked out to take a dip in the river, but this trip was solely for finding rocks!
When I was a kid I had a pretty good rock collection; often when my dad would go treasure hunting I'd be hunting the ground for rocks and fossils. I still haven't realized my dream of finding a cache of trilobites, but I won't give up yet.
However, South Dakota is a place where there have been several complete dinosaur skeletons discovered, so one can dream! Last time we were here Elora found a pretty neat fossil, so our hopes were high.
We started off with a picnic underneath a bridge-it's crazy to thank that this whole area can be covered with water, though we've not seen that in the years we've lived here. See Eli saying, " cheese" with his mouth full? Yummy.
























I was there too, don't worry. And see? I finally have a picture of the boots I got for Christmas:

Joseph actually took several photos of me, but Eli was photobombing all of them with his constant exclamations of "cheeesseee!" and his huge grins. Silly little boy.




































We had a fun time looking around for rocks and fossils! I found lots of small rocks that had cool configurations, but no impressive fossils. There were a lot of these on the top left that looked like they'd broken up and been stuck together again, , and small shells held together like in the top right example. It's hard to tell, but the bottom right corner rock was a pretty purple!

















Okay, so this collage wasn't put together very well, but here's a pic of the few small ones that I brought home with me:



















Joseph and the kids found lots of neat rocks too. Most of Joseph's favorites were huge but he still thought he should take them home. These are a lot bigger than they look here; it's hard to tell with Joseph's big cave man hands!
The top left one is his fairy rock a la "Spiderwick Chronicles". The three orangy brown ones all look like fossils of some kind; maybe impressions of bones or eggs? And the third down on the left definitely had some porous bone-like material to it. I like the spongey-looking yellow one the best.



The bottom right is Josh's find.
The circles on the edges might be shells or something?

 

 

The coolest find of all? An empty old turtle shell.



As I was looking at these photos of our family walking  through the gloomy yellowed landscape, under the overcast sky, I was reminded of a photo I'd taken the first spring we were here, near a lake by Faith. A friend on facebook said that it reminded her of the swamps where Frodo and Sam had to wander outside of Mordor, in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, though she quickly said that she was sure it was much nicer in person.




This isn't that picture. This is still by the river.
Can you tell it's spring? Me neither.

I laughed at that description, though I prefer to think it looks more like the shores of Lake Lacramose, portrayed at the beginning of the movie, A Series of Unfortunate Events. Maybe it's just the artistic side of me, but I find that I kind  of enjoy the implication of a melancholy landscape in a lone and dreary world. Heh.
Take a look:

This picture would be perfect if the branch wasn't
right in Elora's face!

Jonah enjoying the mud.




 

Josh must have found something!
Or he's sulking because he can't go in the water.



Daddy and Elora scope out the rocks



Looks like daddy founds something!

 
Of course, Eli kind of ruins the dismal world illusion, with all his cute smiles!  His biggest problem was being constantly derailed from going into the river. He did enjoy throwing rocks and breaking them , as well as discovering the rare stick with which he could walk.



 

Finally it was time to head home!



Maybe sometime around June this will all be green.

Easter Stuff

I have at least half a dozen posts waiting to be finished, but I guess I'm always waiting to see if anyone else is going to comment. I don't know why.

So, Easter.

We did the stuff we always do: decorate eggs, do an egg hunt, find stuff Easter Sunday. It's funny, most of the pictures I took when we were dying our eggs look like the kids were miserable and bored. Really, they were having a lot of fun- they were just really concentrating. This was Eli's first time getting to participate, and he had a lot of fun!

 

Easter is pretty much the only time we get out this tablecloth.
 It's easier than newspapers.

 

 

Poor Joshua, it takes sooo long, doesn't it?

 

 

Ah here's a better one. See, Josh, it's finally changing color!

 



I had a more sober one of Elora too,
but then I made her smile so at least one looked happy!

 

Oh yeah..I was there too!

In the end, we got a handsome bunch of eggs for the Easter bunny to hide.

 

 

That was all done Friday morning; that afternoon we went and looked for fossils and rocks, but I'll do a  seperate post about that. Saturday, we went to an egg hunt at the park in Faith. This year they were actually going to have a hunt out where we live too, but we decided to attend this one instead for various reasons, including tradition and the need to go to the grocery store!

Elora and Josh waiting for the 5-8yr old hunt



Jonah and Eli have daddy to help them find eggs

Afterwards is the best part: eating candy and playing on the toys!

Eli adored the playground
(he probably doesn't remember the last time we were here!)

Later, Elora bawled that she'd spent her whole time hiding
 and eating candy, and not playinig on the toys she wanted.
Silly girl.

And the next morning, there was candy in our house! Happy Easter!

 

 

drawing and text

I mentioned in a previous post that I've been seeing a lot of artwork with the incorporation of words, and I'm fascinated with it! It's always been around, but where it used to be you'd see it in planning sketches for bigger works, now it is becoming the art itself. Sometimes it's labeled as "creative journaling", other times it borders on scrapbooking; either way I think I'd like to try it myself.
I've always been good at the technical aspect of just drawing a picture, but I've often been envious of those who are more inovative and good at the creative side of things. This feels like something I could really do, as I've always been a journal-writing person and a lover of words.
Anyway, I thought' I'd show you some examples that I really love, before I show you anything I might do.I would love to give credit to the original artists for all of these, but some of them I just couldn't find a name. Sorry.
So, this first one is an example of mixed media/collage, using old book pages and paint. I've seen tons of these, and love to look at them. However I think I would feel to guilty destroying a book, even if I bought it at Salvation Army or something. I love the contrast of the sketchy flowers, the realistic girl, and the linear print here. It's a dictionary page, and the word at the top is "daughter". Awesome!



Colette Leisen

This next one is much simpler, a way to write down ideas but with an illustration. I think I'd like to try doing things like this more often in my journal, instead of just typing or writing it out plainly. The only downside is it looks a little too much like a motivational poster to be hangable fine art, but it would be lovely in a journal!


Mandi Lee, copicme.blogspot.com

Here is another one that is perfect for journaling, also from the same artist and website, simple and fun:

Mandi Lee, copicme.blogspot.com

This one is more of a fine art piece. I love it! I really like the unfinished look of a lot of these examples:



Dominique Fortin

This one is definitely an art journal example. I really like this one; my problem is I'm always afraid of ruining a nice drawing by writing on it, though I admire it in others. That's probably why I like it.



Pam Carriker
 

This one is more collage-y like the first one. It makes me think a little of cutsie crafty scrapbook stuff. But it's actually not cutsie, it's a little strange and dark, so it's awesome. Wouldn't this be a cool card to get from a friend?

Jeanne Oliver

This next is very simple; a complex tree rendered into a flat pattern. It wouldn't be nearly as attractive to me without the verses found beneath. This is kind of what I was thinking of when I did the drawing with the two boys, and the song lyrics a few weeks ago:




elybrid23 (flickr)

I am completely in love with this following painting. Probably because, as you know, I myself am rubbish when it comes to doing watercolors. This drawing is perfection in itself, but with the words that make it into a memory, I just want to sit and stare at it for hours. Love.

Kate Johnson

Finally, I love this. Another that looks almost unfinished, but I admire that. I have a tendancy to overwork and overfinish things, and I wish I could just stop like this sometimes, and leave it up to the imagination, but withe the look that it was intentional.


Florian Nicolle

So what do you think? Do you like these, or is it really not for you?