3M: Did you see the Solar Eclipse?

Did you see the eclipse? Well, actual, look in a box and see the tiny dot of the shadow of the eclipse because apparently if you stare at the actual sun you might go blind? We did, thanks to Jon who is always on top of such things...

It started as a tiny circle of light, with just a little sliver cut from the edge and by the time the sun was setting it was a true crescent shape....

Everybody went about their evening business waiting for the announcements to come check it out again....

We all thought the evening light and shadows looked weird and reading up on the info off my Kindle Fire, it said that leaves from the trees create a natural "pinhole" camera effect and cast crescent shapes in the shades and sure enough.....

Last time I did this was on the basketball court at Lincoln Elementary, kind of fun to do it again and with my kids!

IF: Sight

Have you ever been to a Middle School track meet? They take all day and are about  95% taking in the sights in front of you and then cheering your kid on for about two minutes of actual running! But a great place to sketch!

3M: I'm really starting to like yoga! !

Monday Morning Musing=MMM=3M

Okay, this is more of a "Monday, Afternoon, Musing" but that somehow just does not have the same ring to it!
I'm late because I just got back from yoga class, after which I whisked over to the little market across from the studio, getting a few things for dinner for the next three days, got home, remember to pay a bill online, somewhat on time, bed is made, laundry is been moved along and I fed Grandpa lunch ( who lives on another house on the "ranch"... and I got to say such a productive morning has a lot to do with, well my Monday morning included yoga!

I am soooooooo not the person to be extolling the spiritualness of this ancient Eastern philosophy... I will only bow down to one God and his son, but like so many things in this world I put modern yoga in with those things that are of this world, but as long as I know who my only master is and that he has given me every breath I bring into my body, yoga can be beneficial. ( a deeper explanation probably is coming in another 3M post.
But today, the reason I think yoga is a very good thing for me!

1. You have to be in the moment to do yoga.  I have the "rep" of being absent minded, but in reality, it is more that there is sooooo much in my brain that on occasion something has to fall out! At the gym, my body can be spinning, or rowing and my mind is a million miles away, probably thinking up a new illustration or story for a novel. Yoga- you have to be thinking the whole time or you will fall on your head. Thinking how to do a yoga pose, "All" the voices in my head are occupied, I am by no means "centered" all the time, often have "monkey thoughts" as Anne my instructor calls them, but I am getting better at it and can only hope it will help me focus at other times that would be beneficial. As is the continuing insistence to breath!

2. You are greatly aware of your body in yoga. Now if you are a gorgeous, long and lean beauty that might not be such a bad idea, but if you are short, stumpy and on the round side, you might not want to be aware of every part of you from head to foot. I sure dont! Sadly just as I am writing this a public service commercial came on, stating that 6 out of 10 girls will drop out of physical activities like gymnastics, soccer, swimming because of body image issues. I think it is time we all step out whether we are our "ideal image" or not, and stand, or swim or run or swing or bend in yoga poses together and teach our daughters to do the same. We are more then how we "think" men see us! Cause I know a lot of great guys who would probably like to go play with us! ( Not sure how that sounded!)

3. Yoga is a great way to unfold yourself. I need to start out the day doing sun salutations, a series of moves that wakes up the body and gets the blood flowing, because the rest of the day I will be sitting in bad posture on my bed, typing away, or at the dining room table or at the drafting table or better yet, sitting on a preschool size chair at school or standing for long periods of time on the playground. When I go to yoga class, it is like I unfold myself and am not surprised that in my pre- yoga days I walked around like the "Hunch Back of Notre Dame"!

4. Yoga is a vehicle that helps me remember to mediate......on God! I am sure that there will be some who read this who think says that is heresy, but I don't. I have been a Christian for a long time in more free thinking circles. As an art therapy student I stood in a circle while everyone else  focused on the "light", I prayed to God.  As an artist I have been encouraged to tap into the energy of the universe, I have tapped in to the power of the creator, who created me, gave me the talents I have and instructed me to use them for the good of His kingdom. As a Christian I have been thrown out of a church because of taking figure drawing classes with nude models and been informed I can't teach children and have a problem with pornography. The result of that is we and our friends, who were also deemed "unholy" for various reasons, started another church and I kept on taking figure drawing classes, but that is another post as well. The point is, there are lot of things I have done in my life, other Christians might think are not right, but I have always judged them through if Jesus were to pop in the room while I was doing my morning yoga would I feel ashamed and the answer is no I wouldn't and beside he is already there everyday and wants me to use my talents for Him and I have to take better care of my body to do it!
Mediation in my opinion is "empty prayer" it goes no where, there is no power in it, in college, in my philosophy book I wrote " a sinner on his knees will accomplish more than a philosopher on his tiptoes." There is not a free energy source in the universe for us to tap into, but there is a God in the universe who is waiting to hear our prayers, our fears and our requests and I truly believe He urged me to find this little yoga studio ( which thank goodness, mild on the spiritualism with great teachers) and to learn some tools to help myself center, to focus, to treat my body better and to give my brain a challenge, because I have learned that in exercising if it ain't fun it will Not get done!

A Troll under a bridge...

A Troll under a bridge, or in his mother's moldy dark basement had nothing better to do than mess with my google account, again! So if in the last couple of days, you thought I was advertising women's whole body tattoos or found that Moonflower Musing was removed for "suspicious activity" it was NOT me and again my sincerest apologies! I think I have wrestled control back and hopefully as my husband has been saying, which inspired this little doodle last night- "the pasty white pimply troll" will move on or better yet, get a life!

Prom: Here and Gone

Prom was last weekend, and here in our rural school, where the senior class is only 35 students, everybody is invited, otherwise there wouldn't be enough for a fun party!

The girls pretty-fied themselve before the gang came over to take pictures against our old outbuildings and blooming fruit trees...

But the ligth did not cooperate, the evening a little too late, but we did the best we could, chasing the shadows...

The girls were all beautiful and the boys were very handsome...

But no one knew where to look with so many cameras clicking...

The light winning out and the party about to start, everyone headed to their mom or dad's nicer rides...

And let us parents know that the "photo op" was over!

Springbreak 2012: A Day Spent at the CIA

So many museums to see in Chicago and so little time, so we divided and conquered! Well, actually, I informed my family that I would be at the Chicago Institute of Art for most of the day and when they were done at the Field Museum, they could come find me. Half way through, even went across the street to a cafe to rest up and sketch the lions at the entrance, before going back in for another round...
Once inside, I had to focus, still too much to see in in one day, so took the grand staircase up to the second floor...

Where walking into the first gallery, I was instantly "awe" struck with....

Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877

Gustave Caillebotte
French, 1848-1894

The surrounding walls filled with wonderful painting...

including many Renoirs....

Including this one, his 5 year old son actually the model. Apparently Renoir was so taken with the boy's red locks of hair, he refused to cut them and used his son as a girl model often, until the school the boy was attending insisted his hair should be cut....

Walking through the Renoirs into another gallery are Monet's Haystacks...

several of them, are on one wall and his water lilies are on another. My second trip to this particular gallery that day, I dragged daughter #2 and told her how Monet would set up half a dozen canvas and move down the line as the light is changing, she didn't seem very impressed.

Past the Monet's there were other galleries full of Degas...

I told daughter #2, that Degas really didn't like women that much and liked to paint  them from unappealing angles with not very attractive under lightening, or voyeuristically as if he was spying on them through a keyhole. Don't think that knowledge impressed her either.

I showed her Van Gogh's bedroom...

telling her that it took many years to develop the style he is known for today, for several years painting much more traditionally, as did his friend and nemesis- Paul Gauguin who also painting the pheasants of France...

Before the inhabitants of Tahiti....

And then there was the Toulouse La Trec gallery- so fun...

All the galleries were  so filled with paintings I had seen before in Art History books, famous drawing and prints had to pour out into the halls between the galleries, in front of me two little prints by Durer! (note the date, these things are 700 years old and doesn't he have the coolest signature!I love Durer!!A great illustrator of story ..

Okay, did I mention I love art! More to come later, this was just the second floor and not even all of it- just European Art! Still got the artwork closer to home tomorrow!

Springbreak 2012: took the train to Chicago

We dragged the girls on a train to see the Midwest. I don't know if that was cruel and unusual punishment, they did...

But these kiddos have spent their entire lives on the west side of the Continential Divide, up north as far as Idaho, down south as far as Mexico, out west all the way to the coast, up and down the California  and even farther West to Maui.

East of the Rockies, they have been an hour past 1-25 near the Pawnee Buttes. Not acceptable to their mom, not so big of a deal for their father, okay, I kind of dragged him too, but they have roots in the "fly over " states and well it was the last Spring Break that Daughter #1 would be here for, she is off to college in the Fall.

So we boarded Amtrac, in Grand Junction Colorado, it was a four hour drive north to get there and took the scenic train over the Rockies, this is the Glenwood Springs Depot, near the historic hot springs and Colorado Hotel where word is a "teddy bear" was left on Theodore Roosevelt's pillow on one of his visits.

We also went under the Rockies, through the Moffat Tunnel...we were like underground for 15 minutes, thank goodness on the way back I was noozing and Jon did Not wake me up.

We went through Nebraska in the dark, but the sun came up in Iowa, such wonderful rolling hills, trees in bloom and bud and wonderful old farms and a great observation car with big windows and tables to sketch at...

I looked up the word "valley" for its the synonyms....

for valley - a long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river.
We have...

vale- a valley

dale - an open river valley (in a hilly area)
glen - a narrow secluded valley (in the mountains)
gully - deep ditch cut by running water (especially after a prolonged downpour)
holler, hollow - a small valley between mountains; "he built himself a cabin in a hollow high up in the Appalachians

I think 9 out of 10 townships we past in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin had one of the above endings, my favorite, Wis Dells- the only Starbucks we found advertised on I-90 or I-94, when we rented a car to head up to my family's "neck of the woods" in Minnesota.

It took a day and a half to get to Chicago... crossing the Mississippi in daylight, thank goodness...

We finally got to Union Station in Chicago and after a "first taxi" ride for the girls...

We settled into our hotel and after freshing up, went out to explore downtown Chicago, the place to start? The Hancock Observatory, of course!
Here is a 360 degree view....

On the way up, the elavator proudly announced it was the fastest in the world- sure made our ears hurt!
Jon's parents both grew up in Chicago in the 20's and 30's, his grandfather worked for Spiegels, a now defunct but well known department store and his mother grew up downtown, spending much of her time in Lincoln Park and family lore has it that as a little girl she went to see the blood splatters the day after the Valentine's Massacre.