Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Hope is a Verb

I've only seen the first half of these photographs, and the tears are running down my face.  Wonder, pain, beauty, faithfulness, despair, the inevitable forming of the stories that might have branched out from every one the images--but above all, Hope.  And Love.



Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Waiting for the Paint To Dry

For months after we moved into this home, Lincoln would proudly take any visitor upstairs to "see his pink room."  And it isn't just that it was pink.  But it was this pale, sickly pink wallpaper with antique floral bouquets and pearl strings all over it.  And definitely pink carpet.  

For the past year, I've been talking about painting the boys' bedroom, and discussing my ideas with Lincoln for a Charley Harper-inspired woodland mural.  Is it a mural when it goes around a whole room but is more of a motif than a detailed surround-picture?  

After awhile Lincoln transitioned from showing off his pink room to asking, "Mommy, why haven't you painted my room yet?"  

And the truth is because I've been afraid of this project.  We have lathe and plaster walls with multiple layers of wallpaper.  They are the opposite of perfectly smooth, straight surfaces.  Then there's all that paint PREP, that isn't really painting.  Ugh.  And then what if my painting hand does not match my imagination?  I have a very particular, precise style I'm going for here.  

And then I realized two things: yes, plan such a project for Spring Break, when it's ok to span across multiple days and I'll have the help of my hubby; and just get over the fear.  Dive in and create something on those walls that will be on no other boys' walls, ever.  It will be awesome.  

So I'm not finished.  I'm waiting for the paint to dry.  But the first coat is finished.  And the rest should be easier.  And more fun :0)





Thursday, April 3, 2014

Chopping Days

April has arrived, which means Chopping Days have begun!  

Chopping days happen every year at the border between winter and spring, when I get the itch to help the sunshine dispel the snow and ice ASAP.  So it's not a calendar date which begins this Event, and it isn't (officially) celebrated beyond my driveway.  (But I'm sure there are other Choppers out there--North Country winters drive us to some drastic measures.) 

They begin with a certain intensity of the sunshine, punching microscopic holes in the ice that slowly grow and connect and make the ice noticeably weak.  Chopping Days begin with a low boil in my blood that insists we go outside, and inevitably I stomp around with my boots to see if the ice is old enough yet.  

And when the time is right, I just go at it!  Make way for spring!  Make way for picnics!  Make way for play!

Plus there's real satisfaction in swinging a mattock around and smashing ice...especially when those ice chunks are immediately fashioned into an ice palace by my boys, so thrilled to be outside in fleeces and helping the spring come faster :0)