A brief glimpse of our family life

At times it seems that life here is boring and blahh….. and then other times I wonder if others have the same color in the characters of their family as we do.

Sunday morning I took a photo of the men of the family preparing to worship. To quote me “before worshipping the creator you are going to kill the created”…. It’s the never ending battle of squirrel vs man and in our house the men want to win. Unfortunately it wasn’t a winning day that day- or maybe if you are the creation it was fortunate.

Weekly, of recent I have watched the evolution of the converses. Did you know that you can get converses custom made??? I didn’t, but do now thanks to #3. He, being a poor deprived child has to do them himself, and he does. First was the red on the side, then the 14K gold around the toes and band, then he moved on to chrome. It is a ever changing scene. Today it was almost jeopardized by skid marks on the linoleum until I realized that converses have white rubber not black- he and the spray paint may yet add new color to our life.

#3 is not alone with the spray paint can. Our youngest has followed in his footsteps of customizing. For him this week it was the plastic soldiers. We are studying WW2 so he wanted some tan soldiers, so he set up paintshop on the side lawn and went to work. Unfortunately the paint ran our before the men, so he moved on to blue and then I think black. I think the soldiers will soon go AWOL from paint fumes and confusion of which army they are in. He is having fun and creatively using up excess paint. Better soldiers than walls- recently there has been a rash of grafitti on business walls in town- so sad that kids lack imagination that is productive not destructive.

We are gearing up for an active fall. We have become a soccer family again- our first time as a traveling team soccer family so we don’t know what lies ahead. It was kind of fun to see the guys out in the drizzle playing away- fun as we were safe and warm in the “soccer mom van”. School is up and running and we are adjusting to the new routines and tweeking what each child has need of at this season of their education. And I am prepping for an art class I’ll be leading at co-op. it is exciting and fun but also requires a lot of prior planning as it’s a art room on wheels- all has to be transported and accounted for as we are working out of a Sunday school room. This year its about 40 kids so it will be a bit more of a challenge. What always amazes me is how the same material is available yet the outcome can be so radically different because of the creative tendencies of each child. Some dive in, others are hesitant. Some pile on the paint, others dab and poke without confidence. It was encouraging to be reminded that even the masters did not keep and enjoy every work of art that came from their hands.

Life continues on amidst the killing of creation, or attempts to, painting of footwear and footmen and stepping up the pace of life here in Toney. Blessings to you.