The "Tween" Years

Olivia has informed me that she no longer wants me to paint a mural of Tigers and Lions hidden behind bamboo and palm trees on her bedroom walls. Instead, she wants a teen's retro look. We found these at Target's $1 bin and they're the perfect colors she wants for decor in her room. We'll be painting the walls a pale blue, and then painting geometric shapes (wide stripes, arrows, different sized circles) in bright green, blue and purple. Much easier for me, too, than painting that mural. :D She's growing up! Some of her biggest concerns now are wearing her hair long and straight (no more pony tails), clothing, and being popular...I so wish girls weren't so concerned with that one. I'm hoping to get started on the painting this weekend. I'll post pics of the final project.

Kara's Blog Challenge: "Writing about Addictions"

In my last post (on my other blog) I talked about my addiction to smoking, and my endeavor to quit, but I’m going to expand on “quitting bad habit” here.
Smoking is one of those things for me that has become over the years just part of my life, like it’s part of who I am, because I let it consume me. I started as a teenager and gradually get to be a heavier smoker as years went by. A few times I made attempts to quit, but never seriously. While pregnant with each of my children, I semi-quit. Would go for few weeks, even a few months, without smoking. But never gave them up for good. Now I realize I DO NOT want cigerettes to define ME. That’s not who I want to be. Many changes are going to have to be made. Changing routines. Getting physically fit again. Before marrying Steve I stayed so much more fit, a big part of it from loving to dance and going almost weekly. But, when you’re married to a great guy, you stop going to the bars and dance spots. I look back and can see how I’ve physically declined, not just from lack of dancing, but I haven’t done any physical activity to replace it. So I am going to have to start an exercise routine of some type to counter smoking and get back into shape. I’m going to start Yoga today, and thinking it would be a good idea to start walking a few times a week at least. Starting out a little light I know, but don’t want to get burnt out in the beginning.
As for giving up other things…I totally relate and understand about Kara and her parents. I never got to know my father (if you can call him that) until I was 18. I made the effort to drive an hour and a half to see him almost every weekend for a couple of years. I always called him, not the other way around. And soon realised that he always had something to blame me for, whether it was a mistake I was making (or not) or something one of my half brothers had done. For heaven’s sake…it couldn’t be that they had done anything…it had to be my fault. I stopped contacting him for a few years, occassionally calling maybe once a year or so just to see how everyone was. Then finally, after about 2 years with no word from him I called and got the news. It was November when I called, and my father told me that one of my brothers had been killed in an auto accident in MARCH of that year. I was so upset that no one even bother to tell me. I decided then that I wanted nothing more to do with him, and I haven’t heard from him since. It’s been about 12 or 13 years now. Occassionally I’ve thought about them, but have refrained from making that contact, because I know it would only lead to more heartache. My hope is that no one thinks they need to inform me when he goes, because sadly I don’t even want to know about it. As far as I’m concerned he is nothing to me, never truely has been and never again will be.

Steve T's Rants: Grammar and Spelling: The Scourge of America's Youth

Steve T's Rants: Grammar and Spelling: The Scourge of America's Youth
Wow, what a soapbox, Steve! lol...had to throw that in. :D I agree my dear, but I must expand on it a bit. I agree that this is becoming a major problem with our youth, and must wonder how it is affecting, or will affect, their work initiative; non-the-less their ability to converse properly in a general social setting. But, what I'm seeing on message boards and chat sites is the inability to spell, horribly improper grammar, and the non use of puncuation by ADULTS! There is one lady in particular that springs to my mind when this subject comes up because she is worse than any I've seen she is on one of my favorite message boards she is a daily poster and she types much like this with no punctuation at all or only at the very end of an entire paragraph that hasn't not been spelling checked or grammar checked at all and is all time talkin bout her virtual bar and whatis your fav drink?!!!!! Oh Lord, this woman drives me nuts! It only makes me think that she has a real bar open at all hours and has no education. And then, these are the same people who will post jokes about how all Tennessean's are hillbilly trash, with no education, talk like they have a cleft palate, and breed insestuasly. I so want to call on these people in the public forum and speak my mind.
To further the insult on the ineffecient learning of grammer and spelling, I must comment on the schools where our children are NOT always being taught correctly. I believe that for the most part teachers are doing a good job with the English language classes, though I'm sure there are discrepancies. I mean, if a teacher doesn't speak properly, she/he isn't going to teach properly either. One gripe I had this past school year was with our daughter's class on the introduction to foreign languages. The book for the class was structured to give the basics of four different languages in one year of study. This in itself is not sensible and would become confusing to a child, and very little can be learned of each language. While studying for the first language, Spanish, I learned that she is not taught the Spanish alphabet, puncuation, or verb/noun tense. I believe to learn any language these are the three most important aspects to be learned. I hope and look forward to being as much involved in her school this coming year so that I will be more aware of not only what's being taught, but how it's being taught.

Welcome to my little SPOT in cyberspace!

This is my first blog, so hold on to your britches and join me in some creative endeavors. Here I'll post thoughts, feelings, my debatable thoughts on art, life, society and politics. But mainly, we'll discuss art....particularly the art of Scrapbooking.