Isn't this a painting by John Everett Millais lovely? I personally love seeing autumn leaves on the ground. I don't get tired of them until, oh, maybe February or March.
For those of you who might be new to my blog (dare I hope I might be attracting new readers, with my pitiful irregularity of postings?), and just 'cause for others, I thought I'd do an update on what I'm doing with my life these days.
I consider my main job to be helping my wonderful mom, artist and homemaker, who is single and teaches Latin at a small Classical Christian school. She's done more than her share of housework raising and teaching me and my five brothers over the years. Now I'm glad to be able to help out with the endless dishes, laundry, cleaning, cooking, errands, and keeping house for her and my three brothers still at home. With two brothers still not driving, I also get to take them to school, work, and church and sports stuff. I have so many hats which I'm still learning to juggle, and sometimes it turns into a humerous mess! But what better practice for being a patient wife and mother of a big family someday! ;)
As to cleaning, I should mention I don't do this nearly as much as I should - mainly enough to keep things in somewhat decent order. So I'm not in too much danger of being like Mrs. Joe (see previous post) just yet, except in attitude, as when I just cleaned the bathroom mirror to find it covered with with water splatters! Tell me, reader, if you have ever cleaned a bathroom mirror or metallic faucet, do you not sigh just a little to see the shine covered with spots?
Once a week I help out with a Bible memorization program for kids at our church, called AWANA, and have enjoyed getting to know my group of third-grade girls this year. After the Christmas break, I'll be helping with a Good News Club, which involves sharing the gospel, Bible stories, missionary stories, and songs at a public school after classes once a week. I'm excited about that!
Aside from reading and writing, I've been doing all sorts of fun and crazy things, like learning how to make a kilt when my bagpiping brother needed one (those things are tricky to make, but so expensive to buy!), sewing tea cozies, making my family cheesecake just because, and helping my youngest brother compose a limerick about Spam for his teacher. :-)
I never know what I'll be called on to do next with such an artistic mother and creative, off-the-path brothers!
Wow, thank you for that quick reply and in-depth answer to my question! I guess I somehow lost track after you had finished your studies.
ReplyDeleteFrom the glimpses you provide of your personal life, it seems so homely and artistic it's really worth it's own story! Have you ever thought about writing something (semi-)autobiographical? Or have your different stories been just that all along and we just couldn't see it?
Yep, sorry I forgot to mention graduating with a B.A. in English. I could have done grad school, but wanted to be able to spend time with my family while I can. :-) Pretty soon all my brothers will probably be off to the four corners of the world, (or of the states, or of Texas, which has quite distantly placed corners, actually!) and then we'll lament our too-clean, too-quiet house indeed!
ReplyDeleteOf course parts of my own story are woven into my tales of fiction. But I'm not telling what they are, to protect people involved. ;)
I've thought about doing an autobiographical sort of big work at some point in my life, but for now this blog must suffice. I'll try in the future to to more what-I-did-today, what's-been-going-on-here sorts of posts. I have days when I feel what I do is not very blog-worthy, but probably that's me being lazy. I would guess that a little creativity, plenty of thankfulness, and some time dedicated to writing can turn anything into a post.