Being Creative in the Middle

I shared a friend's blog posts yesterday to encourage others to be inspired! Her October series "In The Middle" have prompted me to change one of the last places to get real attention and re-arranging in our home; the room that I always put last on the "to do" list, for various reasons. Mainly because everyone else's rooms and the main living areas took precedence first, plus I was cooking a lot of family meals and kept very busy teaching these past twenty years here in the cottage. BUT before I write about the master bedroom and post photos, I have to back up a few months.

Being in the "middle" years means the nest empties out, bit-by-bit. Ours began emptying about seven years ago. When our third child transferred from a local college to go to a state university this summer, I knew I had about two-to-three weeks to re-do his room, which needed repainting. I also needed to bring down a daybed (from the attic) to have ready for this same son, and other guests, before my part-time Spanish teaching schedule kicked in. Working on that project kept me from missing him too much. This is key to making it through another transition: Don't just "keep busy," but stay productive creating new spaces in each new stage of life.

Dear son's kitty was not at all happy that he was moving.

protesting at his feet and clothing bag ~

This is what was left after we moved our son to the university and an apartment he is sharing with some of his old friends. The stack of books is new to the room, but everything else needed an upgrade. We were blessed to have leftover paint from other projects, so I didn't have to buy one thing. Not one thing for the transformation.

I mixed peach, white, with a few spoons of blue paint to make this lovely, beigy-blush hue

I even repainted our daughter's high school daybed and our son's old, small desk an espresso brown, to better co-ordinate and give a richness to the new room.

I then "shopped" a storage area of our laundry room for some art to re-vamp and put on the walls. I painted the frames the same espresso color to go with the furniture and drapes that were left behind.

And that, my friends, is how I spent the last couple of weeks of my summer vacation!


Javamom

In The Middle

I wanted to share a friend's blog with you all, then tell you that her timing could not have been more perfect to breathe new life into my creative bones. I'll post the last message from October, because it also includes a giveaway.

This is for those of us in the middle years ;-)...I love this gal...have known her for a long time but have only gotten to meet for coffee, great conversation, and sharing of hearts just once. You may want to go back and read all of her Oct. posts, though. She is a gifted writer and creates beautiful art. Be inspired!

A Season of Harvest


I'll be back to share the details of my new creative energies thanks to Sheila's prompting.

Thanks for reading,

Javamom

Garden Update

Sparsebeard and our 13 yo son ran the weedeater and weeded the garden well all around the edges on Sunday evening. It looks so much better out there, now!

The tomatoes are "regrouping" and setting new blossoms, while one or two small tomatoes are ready almost daily.

The onions do not like the 100 degree plus temps. Who can blame them. We planted them late, and decided to see how long they would make it. We've thoroughly enjoyed having them with our meals or in recipes. It's just so easy to send one of the boys out to get some when needed, and not have to worry about lack of indoor storage space. Now I need to pull many of them and hang them to dry.

The cantaloupe are plentiful this year, the largest we've ever grown! We just have to be careful not to pick them too soon.

The peppers are doing extremely well, especially the Habañeros. Something (grasshoppers?) is eating the tips of the jalapeños.

We are out of Garrett Juice. We have been able to keep an organic garden but we need to purchase more to mix this fantastic stuff to keep the veg strong. We have our own healthy compost pile, but this combination product has other ingredients already premixed in.

The sweet potatoes are vining everywhere! I've never grown sweet potatoes, before, so just buried some chunks just for fun. I grew up digging and eating white potatoes. This will be a nice addition to our table at mealtimes.

The crookneck squash is still producing, but has slowed down quite a bit.

A stray sunflower popped up amongst the melons and we let it grow.

It's really too hot for many herbs, now. We've been hitting over 100 for several days, now...but the mint is thriving, and the lemon balm is growing. The cilantro is skinny and unhappy, as is our parsley. The basil is doing great! The oregano is low to the ground and not growing much at all, but at least it is not dying!

Leaf cutters and something else are getting to Sparsebeard's grapevine that he has been babying. I'll have to take new pictures of our two different varieties of vine. They grow and spread so quickly that any pictures I have of them do not show how large they are today.

I'll close by recommending a friend's new blog. Sheila writes prolifically; beautiful spiritual applications are included, too. In this post, she shares about her garden in suburbia and overcoming her fear of bees.

Enjoy, all!!


Javamom

Did you know...

...that duct tape (even a small square or two) can stop a dryer drum cold in its...tracks...?
...
...
...
...
...

~ No, I'm a brunette! ~

Thankfully, Dread Pirate Sparsebeard saved the day!

Hi my name is Javamom and I temporarily repaired a slightly ill-placed, almost embarrassing tear in our youngest son's favorite jeans so that he could wear them to one last function...

[cough, cough]

This 'n That

Our daughter got the job she has been pursuing, now that she's old enough :-). She starts on Monday. She'll officially get her driver's license in about two weeks.

Oldest son finally got his fund raiser letter finished so that I can get them in the mail. He was recruited to work and train at a youth discipleship camp this summer in Scotland. I've been busy making mailing labels, and becoming frustrated by the word processing program.

We got almost all of our son's graduation invitations out. It is almost like sending Christmas cards...there are always a few unfinished, not quite addressed envelopes lying about. I hope we can find the correct addresses and get them sent! I do not want to see them six months from now tossed aside in a card box on a shelf somewhere!

I'm still collecting memory and blessing letters in order to make our graduate a hand bound, hardcover Blessing Book.

I organized all my plannings and details for May-June in a binder today. It has multiple sections in it with the following labels:

Homeschool Graduation Plans/Needs:
~Bind J's Blessing Book
~make handbound journals for some graduation gifts
~Plan joint reception with son's friends
~Scan photos (about 60) for graduation slide show and write the voice-over script
~Arrange slide show in power point
~Dry Clean graduation gown
~Attend Senior Banquet
~Invitations to close, important family/friends for the banquet
~Get J's senior pictures printed (he procrastinated...the photographer with photographer
grandparents...)

Scotland Mission Trip details
~Manage mail
~Purchase tickets
~Check on status of passport

Final Prep for co-planning and chaperoning the Senior Camping Trip

Bookbinding and Mending/Restoration Projects:
~I won't type them all here, but I have TEN on my calendar!

Speech camp for our final three students ?

Family summer trip together to south Texas

Review New Spanish Class resources and possibly teach summer school where my hubby teaches English and lit.

College Prep info and updating and submitting of all transcripts for DD (who wants to go the dual-credit route) and DS (who may stay in Scotland and take a gap year).

Sign dd up for entrance exam and for a summer class at one of the local colleges. Find myself another bookbinding class for late summer. I will actually have a degree for this with two more classes under my belt.

Well...

Now you know why I'm too busy to blog most days. I apologize.

Pray for lasting energy, safety, and open doors as my family pursues all these things this summer!

¡Muchas gracias!

Javamom

Artistic Pursuits

I've enjoyed time together with some of our friends and my daughter, painting tiles for a friend who is stepping down from leadership of our homeschool co-op. The Lord put the co-op idea on her heart twelve years ago, and she's retiring this post in part because her youngest graduates this May. She is, however, continuing to lead the Christian Homeschool Prom.

All of the tiles are to go in her laundry/craft room in their new house. We had such a good time talking, laughing and painting together. It's like the old-fashioned "quilting bee" concept.

The photo above shows two tiles I painted (one on behalf of my son, who studied Biblical Precepts with this leader/teacher). The one on the right was painted by my dd.



Everyone did an excellent job!

This was our big summer project, finishing out and faux painting a huge part of our former garage area into a more inviting dining room and family room.

We gave away some old Queen Anne chairs, to make more room for our dining room table, so the seating issue out there is still a bit of a problem when we have family movie nights. Truthfully, though, there are still a lot of books that need a bookshelf to sit on, so the project is not quite finished. Several boxes of books still line the walls!

I won't even talk about the flooding of the room back in June when we got so much rain, keeping us from putting down the laminate flooring we bought.