Table Topics Tuesday: A Work of Art

Seriously, if it weren't for Shannon, I would have nothing to say these days!!!!

But she's given a little topic here for today - favorite works of art. MMMmm... ever since my mom took me to the National Gallery of Art in DC, I have been an art fan. I tend to prefer impressionists over more modern stuff. My favorite painting from that trip was Renoir's Girl With Watering Can - I think the girl reminded me of myself, and the blue in her dress was so beautiful. Still one of my all time favorites.


BUT... if you were to ask me my favorite Artist? Hands down - Norman Rockwell. He captured life in America in perfect detail. The humor, the struggle, the triumphs, the losses. I could never pick just ONE favorite, but here's some I love.

Christmas Homecoming
Can't you just feel the joy and excitement of this family?

Surprise
Look at the teacher, you can almost see the tears welling up. And though you can't see their faces, you know every single one of those kids is beaming.

Girl With Black Eye
The disaproving looks of the principal and teacher, versus just how
very pleased she is with herself!

Can't Wait
See the picture on the wall behind him? Little guy with his soldier dad, looking up with awe and respect and love. See the boy scout uniform on the chair? So desperate to be just like dad.

Freedom of Religion
This one is from a series of "Freedom of" paintings that he did. They were war time posters, reminding us why we were fighting.

Freedom From Want
Another in the same series, this has become the iconic "American Thanksgiving" picture. Did you see The Blind Side? When Mike wants them to sit around the table for Thanksgiving. You know this was the scene he had in his mind.

The Runaway
Pretty much tells a whole story right there.

Rockwell usually visualized the picture he wanted to paint, and then had models pose for him, and then would paint using the photographs, or the people there in his studio. I think the man had his finger fully on the pulse of America.

Gr8 Questions

Shannon tagged me for a meme, and just like her (she?) I haven't done one in.. forever. So I thought I'd take a minute before I start my day to answer hers, and create some new questions for you!

What was the 1st car you drove?

A 1983 Plymouth Horizon.. just like this one. Go ahead,

I'm prepared to handle the jealousy you feel right now.

Who is your favorite author? - That's always hard for me. I'm not really a loyal author follower. 9 times out of 10 I can't even tell you who wrote the books I like. There are some Christian authors that I've enjoyed over the years - Janette Oke (way back in the day), Karen Kingsbury, Terri Blackstock, Lori Wick. Then of course someone like Jane Austen. But my two all-time favorite books were written by Judith Viorst and Fred Gwynne.

Do you collect anything? If so, what? - So interesting a question to ask since that's been a central discussion lately between me and Mr. B. He has an... um... EXTENSIVE collection of Star Wars and Star Trek stuff, and an EXTENSIVE collection of stuff relating to NASA. But for me. I collect spoons, mugs and snowmen.

What is your favorite vacation destination? - Oh there's a million choices, but if I were to say where I would like to go, RIGHT NOW...I would say I'd like to go to Banff and Jasper... rent a cabin and just relax.

What season is your favorite? What is it about that season that you like best? - Fall fall fall fall fall.... the smells of fall - cinnamon and soup and falling leaves and candles and pumpkin.

What song can you listen to over and over and never get tired of hearing? - LOL Beth by Kiss

At what age did you receive your 1st kiss? 14

What fast food restaurant is your favorite?

So... now I have to think of 8 new questions....

ok

1. If someone gave you $500 and said you had to spend it on yourself, what would you get?
2. What's one of your pet peeves?
3. Would you rather dust or vacuum? Why?
4. Did you have a pet growing up? What was it? Name? Funny or favorite story about it?
5. Favorite guilty pleasure?
6. When people in a group express an opinion you don't agree with, do you speak up or just keep quiet. Do you wish you reacted differently?
7. Should white be worn after labor day?
8. What's one "talent" you don't have but you wish you did?

Ok... now I tag people... muahhaaaaa haaaa haaaa. But actually I'm not really in a tagging mood... so... if you're reading this, you're tagged!!!!

Jesus... Hollywood Style

I love it when little kids pray. I love that my brother used to use this really high pitched voice when he prayed and he would pray for EVERYTHING. "Tank you por da forks... tank you por da pwates... tank you por da carrwots...." ad nauseam.

And now, when Gert prays, she pretty much hits the high points (Dear Jesus, thank you for this food, thank you for this good day) but it's her sign off that I love. "In Dear Jesus Name, Amen"

I can just hear it... someone walking up to Jesus....

"Who ARE you?"

"Jesus..... Dear Jesus."

House Update... or "The One Where It All Goes South"

We hit a few snags.....

Vent(ed)

Let's begin with 2 observations:

1. According to ... um ... everyone ... our country has a problem with childhood obesity.

2. Teachers are limited in what kinds of "punishments" they can serve up when a kid isn't doing what they should.

HOWEVER

Making kids miss recess seems SOOOO counterproductive to me. As a mom of 11 years and someone who's been around kids longer than that, it seems that quite often, the unwanted behavior is a result of kids with too much energy. So why, oh why, would you put the in a position to not only NOT expend some energy, but even worse, store some up????

Apparently Miss Gert didn't get recess today because two of her classmates had some sort of issues at "Calendar Time" (something about having some trouble with addition of coins). I need to get the full story from the teacher, but I'll tell you what I know from experience. Gert is a very good student and does well in school. But when Gert doesn't get enough exercise during the day, she has trouble falling asleep. When she has trouble falling asleep, she has trouble waking up. When she has trouble waking up, she has a hard time getting it going at school, and that's when she ends up making decisions that aren't the best. So in her case, the punishment ends of punishing her at a later date.

Teacher friends... PLEASE explain to me why this seems to be a favorite form of punishment. And do you often punish a whole class because of a failure on the parts of one or two students? Am I completely off base here?

Determination, Thy Name is Gert

Gert's school had a roller skating outing last night. I haven't been on skates in probably 25 years, but I wasn't just going to sit and watch. That Miss Gert has never skated also gave me reason to put on some skates and help.

Of course, being the blonde that I am, we had to stop at Target on the way to get some socks. Whoops.

I wish beyond wishing that I had video of Gert trying to skate. I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time. And in the interest of full disclosure, at the beginning she was laughing too. Classic one leg goes this way, one legs goes that way, and BOOM. Having been 25 years sans skates, I wasn't totally sure of my own ability to stay upright, so we made quite a pair. It took us at least 20 minutes to get around the rink the first time. Pretty much every step ended in a fall for Gert. At times there were falls within falls. But she kept getting up and kept going.

It was during our third lap that the falling started to be not-so-fun. She hit her bum and elbows hard a couple times, and started to cry a bit. (I promise at this point I had stopped laughing) I suggested maybe we sit down for a bit and rest, but she would have none of it.

So we kept going. Falling. Bumping. Standing. Skating. Falling. Standing. Falling. Skating. The tears started to flow harder as she got sweaty and tired.

I again suggested that we take a break but again, she said no. She kept going. She kept falling. Then she fell and whacked her head. At that point I took over and said "Gert, that's it, let's take a break." But the thought of stopping made the tears come harder. She did not want to stop. At this point, my own tears were starting to flow. Tears of extreme pride. So proud of this little girl who was NOT going to stop until she figured out how to conquer the task at hand. Despite pain, she kept going. I was so amazed. And yet, there were tears of sadness - seeing my baby get the crap beat out of her by some shoes on wheels. But we kept going and going. Friends stopping by to cheer her on. Other parents commenting on her determination. And dear friends, by the last lap, she only fell 2 times. And then she was ready to go. She had to do it on HER terms.

I have never been more proud of that girl.

(For the record, I managed to NOT fall the whole evening... but as we walked out to the parking lot I didn't realize there was a curb, and biffed it. SOOOOO me)

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In house news - the COUNTERS are in!!!

I know... More House Stuff

What can I say, it's kind of consuming my life right now! But I've been WAITING for this step for a while and it turned out even better than I imagined!

More House!! No Opinions Required!

We're making steady progress here! Almost all the tile work got done this weekend. That's a big step! Here's a look at the new bathroom.

Horses and Donkeys and..... oh My

Essie had a bit of a freak out this morning. She forgot to put on a bra. She who fought me every morning last year about HAVING to wear it now is freaking out because she forgot. There was drama... there was crying. There was her little sister in the backseat attempting to make comments about the situation.

To the little sister I said "Hey, hush. You don't have a horse in this race."

To which the little sister replied "Nope.... just a slow moving donkey."

Something Pretty to Look At

My friend (sometimes when I type that I have to think "Fri End" in my head to spell it right)... anyways... my friend Shannon wants us all to share those whom we find "easy on the eye" and I thought I might play along.

I don't really have a particular order for these... but we'll start with

Prince William. Who'da thunk a guy with such a homely daddy could turn out THIS good. But... then you look at his mama and thank God above for dominant and recessive genes...




The next guy satisfies 2 of my favorite things - and AMAZING voice and the ability to look GOOD dirty. Mmmm... I started watching Deadliest Catch just because Mike Rowe narrated it. And yeah... I'd probably think about buying a Ford just because he hawks them.

Who am I kidding. No I wouldn't. He's good, but not THAT good.






Now... there HAS to be an older man in the group. Someone distinguished and with a great accent. Hmmm..... OH YEAH!! Sean Connery. YUM!!!!






Ladies - is there ANYTHING hotter than a man being a daddy? Yeah... ok... maybe a couple things, but you gotta admit it's still really hot... and Jason Bateman does it SO well. Plus there is the added bonus that he's been on my list for probably... 25 years?





And finally... you go to the movies these days and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a good looking guy (I'm guessing though you'd get thrown out of the theater cause of that whole "dead animal" issue... but if you don't get thrown out of the theater for bringing a screaming 2-year-old to see Eclipse and sitting in the front row, then I don't see that the theater has much of a leg to stand on.....) At any rate, I decided to look outside the world of "Hollywood" and grab a hottie from the past... the REAL Almanzo Wilder. Just imagine if he could have smiled for the camera and not had a shirt on. Oooooooooo.


Ok.... so there's my 5. How about you?

I Promise I'll Blog here soon about Something...

But in the meantime... weigh in on staircase preferences!!!!

I really CAN make my own decisions... I just like input.

"NEED INPUT" - name that movie.