At The Park

My crocus are starting to bloom. The rose bush is coming alive agaon. The cherry tree... well it's showing early signs of spring. This Sunday was a grey and totally overcast day. But it was 60 degrees! So we went to the park to go for a walk around the lake and have some fun on the playground.Jack insisted that he wear his helmet in the car on the way to the park. Henry enjoyed a snuggly and relaxing walk from the comfort of the stroller.

Jack loved the hills. Even the few times he crashed and burned he was laughing the whole way. (Maybe it helped because the one time he fell we were laughing at him so hard, his feet flew right over his head- you'd laugh too!) At the playground Jack enjoyed playing spaceships with Daddy. While Henry and I discussed the finer qualities of mulch.

Meditation is hard

I'm here to break some news. If you're Type A, slightly OCD and have an anxiety disorder- meditation is really friggin hard!

I'm assuming meditation is really hard no matter what because turning off your thoughts and turning in to your breath is no easy feat. But when you approached meditation for the first time, as I did, thinking to yourself "I'm going to meditate the shit out of this." You're doing it wrong!

A friend of mine who also has difficulty with anxiety had a panic attack every time she meditated for 7 months (and she meditated daily) until she figured out something that worked. Apparently there's an app for your iPad- she loves it!

Anyway, so I'm treating meditation like it's a race to be won and I'm failing miserably. To the point that I'm basically avoiding meditation all together. (This was about a month ago.) Then I got my umbilical hernia diagnosis. So I decided to lay off the urdhva dhanurasana and focus on meditation. Where in the universe proved that it knew exactly what I needed. Physical yoga is something I have, I love and I always want to work on. The only way to force me to focus on meditation is to take away my 'crack'.

I was talking to a very dear friend the other night about meditation (which he's been doing for 10ish years) and he said something truly profound: Meditation is like being in a river, sure you can try to swim up stream, but that's exhausting and fruitless; instead simply stand in the river and allow that which is upstream flow down to you.

Finally, it clicks! Am I suddenly transcendent? No. Is meditation suddenly easy? No. But instead of trying to meditate. I just try to sit and clear my head and relax my breath and see what happens.

Brilliant!

How Eric Carle and Vincent van Gogh teach recycling

I was going to save this till Monday, but I just couldn't wait!

Friday was a busy day! I'm finally feeling pretty much better from my earlier hernia surgery. So to celebrate in typical Emily fashion I took on entirely too much at once.

I saw a "Make art like Eric Carle" blog somewhere in the vastness of the web, but I don't remember where I saw it so my apologies. But since I don't remember where I found it other than the inspiration to do the project and to use an Exacto to cut the shapes out the ideas are entirely my own so that's something I suppose. (If you've done an Eric Carle project feel free to link it up.) First, I took down the reigning space painting from Jack's room and decided to reuse the canvas. I do this ALL THE TIME. 1. because artists have been reusing canvas for centuries and 2. because a good canvas is not cheap! You should sand down excess paint and rough the surface before 'clearing' the canvas. (Photo credit, Jack)

Second, you recruit some slave labor... I mean... a helper to paint over the original work in Gesso.

Then you celebrate your artistic victory.

Streak some paper (Eric Carle uses high quality tissue paper but you should really see how he does it- trust me, you WANT to click that link!) Construction paper with acrylic paint was what I chose because it's sturdy, easy to cut and easy for my pint-sized assistant to work with.

Then take a breather while you watch 'the boys' work together to saw off the legs of your bar stools. (Because I asked, not because they're trying to destroy my barstools or anything).

Then you watch Jack finish painting his dragon and help him glue the fire in its mouth. This was a great project- but if you don't want to do some of the mache yourself don't try it with a 3 year old! Hah! We had a blast with this one! Jack asked me to make Night Fury from How to Train Your Dragon. He loved this project from start to finish.

After putting the kids to bed I busted out my brand new Exacto and new fangled cutting board thingy and got to work. I free-handed my cuts but what makes this brilliant is you could pretty easily print a coloring book page and cut the shapes and then trace them on your painted paper.

After a great debate on facebook about the color the background should be, a Starry Night inspired background won over the white and black options I had thrown out there. So I got to work with some watered down blues, greys and a black.

I 'glued' the shapes on to the canvas using a matte medium, which is basically paint that is clear so it was the perfect glue and top coat for this project. Then I added some crayon to create atmosphere around the planets. The final photo is the best we could do but really does not do the thing justice at all.

I need a better camera... I think I'm one of the last hold-outs to get a D-SLR. Tell me I'm not alone!!

And If you're thinking to yourself "She never added Henry's 11 month picture, you're right! But it was not for lack of trying. Every. Single. Photo. I took was total crap, bad light, out of focus, so frustrating! (See my earlier comment about a new camera.)

Living Vicariously

If you were to tell me that I was trying to get my son to become an astronaut, I'd tell you "You're not wrong."

If he does blast off to outer space he will be groomed to believe it necessary to listen to Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride. Why?

10 points if you can tell me why!*

Also- if you're thinking "She forgot Henry's 11 month pic!" You're right I'll be adding that to this post ASAP!

*points are irrelevant.

Cherry Bomb

Jack understands and appreciates Joan Jett.

My recovery bed got a little crowded this evening!

It's an honor just being nominated!

But if you guys could hop on over and vote for me, I'd sure appreciate it!

Happy Hump Day!

Change is Coming!

Henry is barely using us to walk. Fingertips touching fingertips while he does laps around the room. (Come on, buddy!) He's pointing at things, which is my fave thing because it's a physical manifestation of his curiosity. It's as if he's saying "What's that? What's that? What's that?" I love it!I'm now 24 hours post-op and I'm really plesantly surprised at how good I feel! I took a shower this morning and read the boys some stories and I have done it all without any pain-management drugs! (Love those, btw!)

My stomach is still a little orange from the Betadine, so please feel free to admire my Oompa Loompa-ness!

Onward and upward!