Much to learn, much to do

My own snippets...

I'm enjoying having a bit of extra time.  Even little things were too much for a while there, with so many kiddo things to be thinking about and helping with.

I had noticed my Mother's Day flowers were sprouting new leaves by the time they were about ready to go to the garbage, so I saved a couple of the more vigorous looking stems.  I consulted a super plant-smart young man I know and asked him if there was a way that I could encourage them to grow, and maybe make my own rose plants.  (I should note that I've purchased and planted I believe 5 rose bushes since we moved here, and none have survived.  I seem to have that effect on many plants, which is why I enjoy things that take pretty much zero effort and just do their thing, like the bushes on the north side of our house that my husband doesn't appreciate but I love because they were one of the first things I planted here and they still look fabulous.)  Anyway, this young man taught me about rooting powder.  Up till today the stems have been in water, but I finally got some rooting powder a couple days ago and now they are in potting soil.  Here's hoping I did it right and that it actually works.

I want to practice drawing.  Two of my siblings took art in high school and they can do amazing things, so I feel like maybe I have some of that in me somewhere.  Our art projects in Vanguard this year were especially fun and inspiring, enough to make un-artful little ol' me want to do and try more.  In Webelos we've been working on our Artist badge, and we had this lovely lady in my neighborhood come to talk to the boys.  She talked about her journey to becoming an artist.  One thing I thought was especially fun was that when she was little her mother would draw beautiful faces with lovely hair and a stick figure body.  Then her mom would challenge her to finish it with nice clothing.  Our artist put together these great art kits for the boys, gave them some drawing advice (like start small, because it's easier to draw smaller versions of things), and we walked them outside for another part of the badge - draw something in nature.  They were excited to show off their drawings to her and have her oooh and ahhh over them.  Anyway, she got me thinking even more about it.  Jamie has a book he brought to our marriage (from his days working in a craft store) called "Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain" that I started working through 7 years ago (I know that from the dated drawing attempts that were in the book).  I guess I should have kept going then, because then I could be using those amazing skills now, right?  While I was flipping through it the other day I noticed a spot where it mentions Leonardo da Vinci.  Apparently he only did art the last 10 years of his life, and he spent the first 2 of those years working entirely on learning to draw, knowing how important it was.  I checked out a book by the same author on color, and I caught this quote by Van Gogh:

I have lots to work on this summer.

Cleaning out so we can work on the basement is a huge priority.

Lots of planning for Vanguard, both for the portion I teach and since I'm the group advisor now.  That's been a lot of fun so far.  Every time the other group leaders and I meet  there have been so many great ideas and a lot of sharing back and forth.  I'm really excited for the year.

I've got a stack of books that I need to set some goals to work through (mainly for Vanguard).  As soon as Vanguard was done I started reading "Watership Down" again, but told myself I had to shoot for 50 pages a day.  The first two days I hit that.  The next few days were far more each day.  I have a few that have been at the top of my list for a few years ("Daisy Chain," "Precious Bane," and "Villette"), but there are always things that need to be done first, and I think it will be the same again with others I need to read, like "10 Great Souls I Want to Meet in Heaven" and "7 People That Changed the World" for Vanguard preparation.  I really love reading about all these greats!

I'm glad we have so much shade in the backyard.  The girls are swimming right now and I'm typing away.  Guess I need to bring my books outside with me and let them play in the water all day every day.

I've also told my girls that we need to work on some good home/work habits during the summer so when things get busy again we'll already have those in place and maybe they'll stay there.  Maybe?