Shelley's 1st canvas drawing

For a different and fun GNO (Girls' Night Out) event, a handful of my friends decided to go to Spirited Art to paint. At Spirited Art, each artist is given a canvas, paints, aprons and all the supplies including a teacher to help you paint on canvas. You can choose a night where the whole class paints the same item as the teacher walks you through every brush stroke to make. Also, there are other nights that are open nights for you to choose which scene you want to paint. You freehand with help from the teacher as you go. We went on an open night. I have dabbled in painting only a few times and that was on my kids' bedroom walls and never on canvas. My Madeline and airplane rooms were quite easy compared to this. I was actually nervous and frustrated at times but still had fun.

I learned how to paint on canvas that night and how to mix paints to get my new colors. I was only given the primary colors of blue, red and yellow to begin with. All my shades of green were blended by my hands. I decided to paint birch trees. Originally, I wanted to paint this neat little cottage with bike on it but opted for the trees instead. If you've seen my bedroom, I planned for it to complement my decor in there. It's final hanging place ended up being on the upstairs hallway near the living room. The colors matched perfectly!

While painting on canvas, I realized quickly that this was not a gifting from God for me. I was given others. :)

I am happy with my drawing though and proud to have it on my wall as my first original painting.

The picture of the double birch trees shows the original drawing that I copied from Spirited Art on the right and my own on the left.

What do you think? I think I have the painting bug now and am looking forward to going back. I really want to attempt that bike drawing. Here's a picture of the original that one day I WILL copy.

Tai Chi

This week, I had the opportunity to attend a two day Tai Chi for Kids conference here in Knoxville. There was loads of planning involved to get me there. First and foremost, I needed to find a sitter for the kids. My sweet friend Meagan graciously agreed. She and her 8 month old daughter, Lydia came over Thursday and Friday from 8:30-5:15 both days. I was very thankful to still have the kids' pack and play that my sweet mother-in-law gave me 10 years ago before Andrew was born. I still have a booster seat, baby toys and gates. I know it definitely helped Meagan. She was such a trooper to go from being a mom to 1 to caring for 5! I am so thankful for her. The kids were great too! I let them have their Fall Break those days and they played all day. I could tell by the time I got home today that the younger two were missing me most. Hannah mostly. She's been hugging and kissing me since I walked in the door. It was good for me to get a break too to realize that I do enjoy being with them and teaching them daily and miss them when I'm gone.

Thursday was filled with lots of teaching instruction and practice. My legs and back ached terribly by the time I got home. At the advice of the Tai Chi Master Trainers, a long soak in the tub and some pain reliever helped me sleep. I honestly haven't felt those spaghetti legs since I ran 8-10 miles when training for the half-marathon last year. I also have never done 6+ hours of Tai Chi in a row. Imagine the position you are in when riding a horse. Now, imagine you are in that wide stance standing and moving around for hours on end. It hurts! Well, it hurts those of us who don't do Tai Chi very often.

I had misconceptions about Tai Chi, especially what the other teachers would look like. I envisioned them all slender and young and some of Asian decent. WRONG! The majority of the teachers were all over 50, grey haired, some overweight and your typical looking American. What surprised me was how they all kicked it in Tai Chi. They were amazing. Tai Chi requires recertification every 2 years. Most of these students were actually teachers getting their recertification and not newbies like me.

On Friday we had a written test and were required to practice the full Tai Chi form in front of the Master Trainer, Dr. Paul Lamb from China. That sure had my blood rushing, but I did it! I received my diploma and am ready to start teaching Tai Chi for Kids. My focus will be the homeschooling community. There are so many possibilities and a great potential for a second income. My next step will be to get my CPR certification again and then I'm ready to go!

Maybe by January, I'll be ready to share some stories of what my first few classes have been like. I'll keep you informed.

By the way, the Tai Chi I learned was started by Dr. Paul Lamb called Tai Chi for Kidz. It was designed for health. Created to increase kids' concentration, strength, mobility and inner health. It is a slow form of martial arts. It is NOT a form of religion and is not done with any contact of other students.

40th birthday

Thank you all for the sweet birthday cards, calls and wishes. The Lord gave me a beautiful sunny day with bright blue skies, a little breeze and highs in the low 70's. My favorite kind of weather. We went to our weekly PE class for the kids this morning, then the library, and Chick-fil-A for lunch. Tonight, we are going out for dinner and the kids will head to AWANA. After dinner, I plan to head to Target to buy a new video camera with my birthday money. Yea! Now I can post more videos of the kids. Maybe I can get another one of Caleb singing some new Queen song that he learned from the Muppets on YouTube. That crazy boy.