There are many things in life one won’t know about them­selves until they try some­thing new.

For instance, I did not know that I was capa­ble of draw­ing realistic-looking objects and peo­ple until later in life.

Grow­ing up dirt poor and all that it brings with it can be pretty harsh.  So many of my child­hood mem­o­ries are of learn­ing com­monly known things the hard way.  I remem­ber way back in sec­ond grade after being teased by the other kids, I made my self a promise; If I ever had kids, my kids would never have to live with shame of not know­ing things.  As a par­ent I have made a con­certed effort to help my kids become well-rounded beings.   I con­sciously try to help them find and develop as many of their tal­ents and skills as I can.  

A lot of things I have learned about my self have been, in-part, a result of mar­ry­ing an awe­some man who sup­ports learn­ing and grow­ing — not just for our chil­dren, but every­one in our fam­ily.  Once, I did an art project with the kids, after my hus­band saw what I had done he sur­prised me with oil paint­ing lessons at a local art col­lege.  In that class I cre­ated two paint­ings that sur­prised every­one includ­ing me!

The first oil paint­ing I did was The Abby, 22 x 24 inch can­vas board, and the sec­ond was from a pic­ture of 11 month old Romeo and his reflec­tion on the storm door, 14 x 17 inch can­vas.
Teach­ing my kids has really inspired me to try a mul­ti­tude of cre­ative activ­i­ties.  Although at times, with four kids, it’s been hard to allow my self the time to “get in the zone,”  lately I am find­ing longer stretches of time for myself.  So maybe I can post some of the things I try my hand at and  -just maybe — I could inspire some­one else to try some­thing new.