I caught Logan playing Leap-Pad, so he held still enough for me to draw his head. I need to keep practicing so that I can capture the posture of their little bodies as they play…

I’m totally loving Amanda’s sketchbook drawings of the little girl growing in her tummy, and as I sit here typing with the laptop in my lap it is jumping all over the place because of the little legs and arms in mine.

I am officially huge now. I got a babysitter for the afternoon so that I could run errands unhindered by out-of-the-womb children. I went three places. At each of them someone asked me when I’m due, accompanied with something like “It looks like it could be any minute!” I do make a very conscious effort not to waddle. Brenna even knows about it and when she is with me out in public will drop back behind me every so often to analyze my walk. She usually has very encouraging things to say–that I’m walking perfectly normal. I wonder if her coaching would have helped thwart comments today?

Probably not.

Oh, and for the record, I’m not due ’til March.

And the only way I can draw my kids is if they’re watching TV.

I’m very out of practice with figure drawing, but I decided I needed to branch out a little and try. This small scale works pretty well for me. I need a lot more practice though.

Thinking is hard work-in fact the very hardest that human beings are ever called upon to do. It is fatiguing, not refreshing. If allowed to follow the path of least resistance, no one would ever think.
Mortimer Adler

But, it is in thinking that we find meaning in the mundane repetitive tasks of life. I’ve been volunteering at an 1880s living history farm. It’s quiet and peaceful–and it’s hard work. You have to keep the fire going if you want to cook something. You have to go get eggs from the chickens or analyze the pantry contents before making a meal. You treadle the sewing machine pedal up and down over and over and over to piece a quilt or mend a shirt. And you have to think about what you’re doing while you’re doing it. The slowing down is time consuming, but for me it seems to create such a connection to the act of living.

There are so many things that we simply take for granted. We live in such ease that we can go without thinking. A lot of the time our lives are governed by expediency and just going through the motions.

But, by thinking about the what and why of even the smallest things, we can create so much more meaning in our lives. We can conciously choose and create our circumstances if we stop to think and ponder and meditate…

My discussion group was wonderful and empowering and inspirational. I am so excited to be embarking on this adventure and building real friendships and to be spending time with women talking about positive things. And thinking together.

That’s pretty cool.

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end in life.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

I really firmly believe that every single person ever born has a mission, a purpose for which they were created, something they alone can do.

And I think God gives us hints and glimpses of our unique and individual missions through our passions, dreams, and abilities. We have to listen for them. We have to be looking. We have to find our center and quiet place…

It is often hurdling the distractions that is hardest. There is so much that is blaring loudly telling you what to think, how to look, what to eat, how to be, what to watch…

I’m preparing for the first meeting of a book group I’m starting with a purpose of helping us each create a meaningful family culture that lays a solid foundation of truth, fosters a love of learning, and gives us tools we need to fulfill our own unique missions in life and help our children find and fulfill theirs.

I just gave a few articles out with the invitation for this first discussion. Want to join in? Here’s the first one. The second is here, but I don’t know if just anyone can get to it because it is in the member section of the Art of Womanhood site. (You can register free of charge and have access to the article if you really want.)

I’ve felt like I needed to start this group for a while, but the time just wasn’t ever right. I was released from my big church responsibilities, so that frees up a lot of time (Now I get to play the piano for the choir!). All that was left was overcoming my self conciousness that everyone would just think I’m wierd, and working up the courage to just do it. “If you build it, they will come.” People have been coming out of the wood work asking to be a part.

I know teaching and discussing my thoughts with women is part of my mission. I’m passionate about that. I’ve jumped one hurdle.

How about you?

Over the next few days I’ll post the little drawings that I’ve neglected to post for soooo long. I’m no where near the three per week that I was shooting for, but I do have some.

And now I’m at a loss for words.

Well, I’m getting excited for our baby to come. I always wonder how people have lots of kids. I think I’d like 6 or 8, but being pregnant that many times? YIKES! I certainly don’t feel like this is the last little person that needs to come to our family, but my hips and sciatic nerve sure would like to be done with all these streching, shifting invasions of alien beings. And my ankles would like to come back home too.

Oh, and it’s going to be a boy. I don’t think I’ve said that here yet. Brenna is destined to be just like me. I am the oldest of 5 with 4 younger brothers. In a lot of ways relating to women still feels like speaking a foreign language. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a sister? Oh I want Brenna to have one someday…

So, it’s been nearly a year since I attended Denyse’s workshop and was inspired to organize Blockswap. I have one of the charity quilts totally completed, but the other is still just a pile of blocks.

I took these photos of the completed one on a sunny day way back in November. Photographing quilts is so hard!

Here’s the whole thing, but blurry:

Here’s a detail of the front. You can really see the amazing quilting done by Gina of the Quilter’s Buzz and Threaded Pear Studio. The modern swilrs are so perfect. Can you tell?

Gina pieced the back, which is wonderful as well.

We really need to get this thing sold and the donations made. I really apologize for how slow I’ve gone on this. Any suggestions on getting good photos?