Daffodils in the new home

Yesterday I took a break from unpacking and sketched the first daffodils blooming at the new house. I only spent about ten minutes on it, but really enjoyed doing it! I have to get back to pursuing my goal of sketching every day this year. This past week I've not done so well...

I'm part of an online art group called Everyday Matters, and there is a weekly challenge of something to draw. They are currently at week #157 or so, and I just recently joined. Therefore, I am going to be doing some of the older challenges mixed in with other things! Here is #1- a shoe. The daffodils fit #76 (flowers) and #124 (something yellow).

Stuff everywhere!

These last few weeks have been pretty (!!) hectic and stressful, but with the very generous help of an amazing number of friends, we moved into our new home this past week! We spent the first night here Saturday. Whew! Now we are surrounded by boxes and trying to figure out where to put everything. We've determined that we are going to release a lot of these things that we haven't used in years to bless others, and we're going to start using things we've "saved for a special occasion."

One example is the nice china that we got as wedding presents- we've hardly ever used it! Why is this?? I've decided that it's silly. Of course, now it's all in boxes and I need to find a place to put it where I can get TO it in order to use it, but that's all in good time.

Meanwhile, why did I save that beautiful tea dress from our wedding tea 21 years ago when I've not been able to fit my left elbow into it for, oh, 15 or 16 years?? I've got the husband! I don't need the dress to remind me of the special occasion. But it is so beautiful...

This home is at least 32 years old, just a few miles out of town, surrounded by pecan trees and a couple of ponds we're welcome to fish in, daffodils are already blooming in the front and there are crepe myrtles at the corners (I can't wait to see what colors they are!) and azaleas near the house. The house itself has more space than we had, and a wonderful place to homeschool! We've been assured by many friends that our neighbors are wonderful, and we've already seen evidence of that. How God has taken a very stressful situation and used it to bless us mightily!

The back yard:



And here's the combo den, school room, tv room, family room. Take a look at the shelves! Of course we've already filled them and have boxes of books leftover to figure out what to do with... :



More good news is that our email address stays the same and so do our cell numbers. The land line had to change, but that's okay! We're blessed. David caught 6 fish yesterday, and we had them for supper last night after church!

Come visit in a few weeks after we've had time to sort out everything!

Some new paintings

A couple of weeks ago I did some small paintings that I really enjoyed. I had so much fun I think I'll keep doing some this size. They are about 5"x7". I think I'm going to put the one with the butterfly up on my Greeting Card Universe store and Cafe Press. Neither of the originals is available for sale, but prints of the butterfly one are.