Projects and Plans for the Summer

This being the first summer that no summer school assignment came to me from the district office,  I am a little nervous about the financial part of all this, but God moves ahead and I anticipate His continued grace to  work this out to His glory.  With that said, I will trust Him to provide for us as we continue to keep our head above water in this volatile economy. Back to school, for me happens the last week of August...so
...What’s a girl to do?


Sleep, soaps, sunbathe….NOT



 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (NLT)
11 Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. 12 Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others




How about this?

Write, paint and draw, submit stories, read, encourage, reunite with many great friends, drop several pounds, blog, tend my garden, walk 3 miles a day, organize and purge my “piles” that collect (already got a jump start on that one), plan for the fall, hang out on day trips with my Sis, two weddings, listen to music, hopefully go see Les Mis at the Ahmanson, take a few short trips with Ted and Corey, make my zucchini quiche (definitely not on my diet), stay healthy mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Some “s” things I will keep doing: continue to meet with my small group and Starbucks…skinny latte for now.

ART/WRITING 

Project #1: is still my children’s story, “A Worm’s Eye View.” Writing  a strong “proposal letter” and separating the text from the pictures for presentation is my next challenge. Most publishers have their own “in house” illustrators. To sell my book, I am doing double duty promoting both the story and my own art work. For me, the artwork is the story; each picture was divinely brought  to me and developed with clear intention. While drawing out each picture,  the journey kept me busy mentally, helping me focus my restlessness after losing Timmy into something tangible.  It’s a joint deal. With the encouragement of writing mentors, I am changing a few words in the story to make it more kid friendly, but other than that, buffing  it up to a sparkling shine and sending up a  prayer as the postage goes on the submission envelopes, is this summer's priority.

Project #2: Greeting Cards. A Toad, A Vampire, B.L. and T., (just what you think) and Fireflies. What do they have in common? Developing a series of six cards for each character, my colored pencils stay sharpened and my scanner is hangin’ in there. (Can’t say the same for my printer…but got a new one on sale at Fry’s). A mega-list of card publishers sits in my inbox. What is special about this project? Corey is helping me with some of the aspects of this. Photo Shop is still a foreign language but Corey surges through it like a dolphin in the surf. Corey and I need as much bonding time as possible to help ease the tensions the last few years have brought between us. If nothing comes of these, it sure has been fun so far.

Project #3: A very long time ago, in fact sometime during college I think, I did an oil painting of a working barn and a rushing stream; it's inspiration coming from a National Geographic picture shot somewhere in the Northeast part of the country.Working with oils before, I  find them messy, expensive and it takes way too long to dry. I gave that medium up. The picture though, I am proud of this painting and it hung forever in our living room until the fire. It was not all the way destroyed but damaged quite extensively. Checking out a  few places that “restore," I found this also to be very pricey with no gaurantees.  So, what I propose to do is to recreate it again, but use watercolors instead. Posting my progress on this blog will keep me accountable to finish this project.





Those are Corey's fingers poking through, very brittle and dirty. (the painting, not Corey...lol).

Did you know there will be colors in Heaven we don't even know about?  Cool! 

 Project #4: is a secret. Sssshhhh. It is art…for a friend. Enough said until the reveal…

Hopefully all the above things will keep me busy blogging as well. Towards the end of summer is Tim’s birthday in which we celebrate it with “Timmy Day.”  Actively involved once again in planning our 2nd annual NephCure Walk, mark your calendars for October 29th. There is much more to be said about that…and I will!

Proverbs 10:5 (NLT)  A wise youth harvests in the summer,but one who sleeps during harvest is a disgrace.  (I think that goes for a middle aged woman on summer break too).




Take a "Trick or Treat Trek" for NephCure!


What are you planning? Comments encouraged here!

Psalm 90:17  May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;

establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.