Forced Family Fun....

I am a lover of the arts.  I love music, artwork, museums, plays, musicals.... all of it.  And, I am determined to share and cultivate this love with my family.  Whenever we are planning to go someplace, I look up all the "sites" to see.  I get excited when I see the word "Museum" listed under places to visit.  When planning we often will sit around the dinner table at night discussing our upcoming trip and what we are excited to see and do.  The conversation usually goes well until I manage to slip the word "museum" into the conversation.  And if I dare mention "art museum" all conversation stops.  Usually my son groans out loud.  My husband is a little more motivated to keep me happy, so he usually says things like "Oh, that might be nice"  which is code for I'd rather stab a fork in my eye but I'll do it to make you happy.  Now, I'd like to say that I let my guys off the hook and tell them we won't do the museum, but then they will never have the chance to fall in love with art they way I want them to.  Plus-- I like that we will experience these things together as a family-- or as my son refers to it as, "Forced family fun time."

"The best way to truly understand art is to experience it."

A few years ago we went for the first time to Washington D.C.  Imagine my joy-- the national Mall if full of museums-- most of which are free.  Oh happy day.  And, they are not ALL art museums, they  also have the National Air & Space Museum, Museum of Natural History, and the National Museum of American History.  So off we went to the mall museums to spend time together while exploring history and art.

This was the only piece of modern art Keagan really liked.... and I'm sure that had to do with his love for math and legos more than anything else.

Jeff and Keagan started to amuse themselves by renaming the statues.  They called this one "When Weeble Wobbles Fight"

This one they entitled "Angry Rabbit."  I'm not sure why,  it looks more like a dog to me....

This one immediately became known as the "Death Star."  I'll give them that one as that's the first thing I thought of as well.

And they both laughed forever over the renamed  Bob the Blob painting

They failed to appreciate Van Gogh - "Why is his face green?  That's one scary looking baby."

They like Renoir a little better-  "At least I know what it is"

Monet was dubbed "very girly"

They tolerated the statues far better.  Below are a couple of my favorites:

Little Dancer, a wax statuette by Degas

The Reading Girl by Magni

Keagan took one look at the portraits in the Portrait Museum and asked "What's with their hair?"  Ummmm.... I'm not sure.  Maybe it was really windy back then?

Sigh... But I keep trying because art is a great way to grasp history.  It encourages creative thinking. It forces you to look at things from a different perspective.  It encourages an emotional response.  It expands your view point.  It celebrates beauty.  It spurs imagination.  It gives great insight into different cultures. 

"A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind."

This year we were able to travel to Europe.  My great hope was that maybe, just maybe, A love of art might be birthed on this trip.  I mean, after all, we were going to see some of the greatest works ever created.  Everywhere you turn you find art, music, drama.

I think we were all a little fascinated with the street performers in Barcelona. They can stand very still for a very long time.  And their costumes are amazing.

I had a proud mom moment when Keagan posted a photo of the Cathedral in Barcelona with a caption of "Loving the architecture in Spain!"  Yeah..... maybe we are getting somewhere.

While in the Norte Dane de la Garde, looking at all of this splendor, Keagan was fascinated with the little boat mobiles hanging from the ceiling.  OK......That's what you see in the midst of all this?  Hmmmmm..... 

The first thing spied while in the cathedral in Pisa.... you guessed it.  The mummified body.......

The statues in Florence.  "There's a lot of naked here...."  And, yes there was a lot of naked, so I guess I give that round to him.

We all were impressed with the artwork at the Vatican.  We had a fantastic guide who had a masters in Art History and she was very good at explaining what we were seeing as well as the meaning behind it all.

In this photo, I caught Keagan listening to Bon Jovi instead of the tour guide in his headset....

But all of us enjoyed this amazing group of musicians in Dubrovnik.

All in all, I don't think that either one of my guys will love the arts as much as I do.  But, I do think they will at least have some exposure to it, and maybe they will at least appreciate it a little more.  If not, I'm sure we will have nights where we sit around and tell stories of the times when we had "forced family fun."

Most of all.... let love guide your life

"Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss."

Last Friday I missed an opportunity.  It was grocery shopping day (my least favorite thing to do).  I had a lot of things to accomplish so I was rushing through trying to gather everything so I could move on to the next item on my "to do" list.  As I was coming to the end of the store, I noticed a young man in the isle that I was in.  At first glance, he looked kind of scruffy.   I continued on to the next isle.  He came into the next isle, and for some reason I began to try and discreetly study him and his actions.  He looked like he wasn't feeling well.  Truth be told, to me he looked like he was coming down off of a high.  Shaky, twitchy, shifty.  I watched as he carefully, with shaking hands, lifted canned food off the shelf, looked at it, looked at the price, and then put it back.  He did this over and over.  Selecting the cheapest items he could find to keep.

I continued on to the next isle.  I'm getting the feeling that this young man needs some food, but doesn't have very much money, if any at all, to pay for it.  I began to feel an enormous amount of compassion for him.  My heart was moved to help him out.  However, fear seeped in as well.  I had a silent argument with myself-  What if I offered to help him buy food and I offended him?  What if I had misread the situation?  What if I embarrass myself? Should I even give him money?  On and on.  Finally, I decided that I would take the chance of  embarrassing myself and possibly this young man, rather than let him go hungry.  I dug around to find what cash I had in my purse and turned around to go find him.  I looked and looked.  I circled the store for 15 minutes looking for him.  I couldn't find him.  At this point I'm almost in tears in the middle of the store.  I decide to quickly gather my last few items and head to the check out line.  I was hoping to get through the line quickly and maybe catch him out in the parking lot.  Outside, there was no sign of this young man.

"I believe God wants us to love others so much that we go to extremes to help them."  Francis Chan

I never found him, and I continued on with my day, but my heart was heavy.  I don't know for sure what was going on in this young man's life, but I can't shake the feeling that I missed an opportunity.  All because I let doubt and fear slow me down.  I was/and still am so disappointed with myself.

"To often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the  potential to turn a life around."

"Some people are hurting so bad you have to do more than preach a message to them.  You have to BE a message to them."

I truly believe that it is my responsibility to bless others.  Not only financially, but with my time, my prayers, a smile, an encouraging word, whatever I can do.  I love the following verse:

"May the master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you."
1 Thessalonians 3:12

It so describes how I feel about my life.  It describes how I want to be, so full of God's love that it just spills out all over the place.  I have times of wonder.... I stop and look around at my life.  God has blessed me abundantly, overwhelmingly, and beyond what I could have ever dreamed.  And, I just want to share it. But, even feeling this way, I often fail.

"Some believe that it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found.  I found it's the small things.  Every day deeds by ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay."  Gandolf,  Lord of the Rings

"Never worry about numbers.  Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you. "  Mother Teresa

I fail because I doubt. Other times, it seems like the needs out there are so big, so many, that I become overwhelmed.  After all, I am just one person.  What if what I have to offer isn't enough?  What if I screw it up?   It also means that I have to open myself up to  the possibility of being taken advantage of.  Not everyone who I help out may "deserve" it.  But you see, the point isn't whether or not the help is deserved.  The point is this:

"I want people to see Christ in me.  I don't even care if they know my name as long as they get to know my God."

So, I'm going to keep trying. I'll probably fail more often than not. But here's my challenge to myself and to you:

1. Pray that God will help me (and You) to see others through His eyes and not our own.

2. Be the kind of person that makes others feel special.  Be known for Kindness and empathy.

3. Do what I can and let God do the rest.

4. Finally, and most importantly:

          "Most of all, let love guide your life." Col 3:14

I'll leave you with a few engravings found at Arlington national Cemetery:

I pay good money to feed the deer....

It's probably no secret that I think Pinterest is about the single most amazing internet invention ever!  It's like having every great amazing magazine right at your fingertips.  You can save all the cool art projects, decorating ideas, recipes, and clothing combinations for future reference right at your fingertips.  I am in love.  And I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I may even love Pinterest more than coffee or food.

Anyway, I've been madly pinning all the great fall ideas.  I've spent time creating the perfect fall porch "scape"  and putting pumpkins and fall looking stuff around my house.  Now, because I traveled a lot this summer, the deer had decimated my front garden and it was looking rather sad.  So, putting some hay bales and pumpkins out there helped to make it look more like "Hey, it's fall  and things are supposed to look a little dead"  instead of "The deer have come through the midnight buffet every night for 4 months and have munched everything down to the ground and then they laid on it."  I also decided to put out some cute little scarecrows to maybe scare the deer off.  It was looking so good and I was excited to share photos on my blog.

I haven't been able to take photos because it rained a couple of days and then I was too busy and forgot another day.  This morning I go out to take photos and this is what I found:

Starts off pretty good.  Front porch still looks nice.  

Garage door area is better.  The mums look good and I'm ready to go out and start todays project of painting our garage doors.

Front garden.  The bright oranges look nice in there.  Gives it a little color.

Wait, why is my scarecrow listing off to the side?

And I seem to be missing a few pumpkins......

And here are more photos of the crime scene

Hmmmmmm..... Ok scarecrow, you're fired!  Score: Deer 120 points, Yolanda 2.  Nice. At least the decorations on the front porch are fake.  Try and digest that Bambi!

So, I hope the deer enjoyed their expensive meal. Sigh...

Speaking of food,  here's some photos of what I fed the humans in our family this week.

Pasta with a greek yogurt smoked salmon sauce.

Macadamia Nut crusted Opah with roasted cauliflower & tomatoes.

Balsamic glazed Sea Bass with Onions & Tomatoes,  and green beans

Pears baked in puff pastry and blue cheese walnut stuffing drizzled with honey.  Although this looks good, no one really liked the stuffing.  So it should probably be listed as a food fail.

Mini French Vanilla Apple cakes.

I Never Run with Scissors...

"Exercise is done against one's wishes and maintained only because the alternative is worse."

I own a treadmill because I like food.  I say this often, but it's true.  To be truthful, I loathe working out.  As far as I can tell, that workout "High" doesn't exist for me.  Ever.  Ever.  Ever...   I work out so that I can continue to do the things I like to do (which involve food, travel, food....)

"I never run with scissors.  Those last two words were unnecessary."

"If my body is ever found dead on a jogging trail, just know I was murdered and dumped there."

And, just to be clear, I don't run on the treadmill.  If I ever had to run for my life I would probably die.  If you want to go running with me, you'd better be prepared to walk... a lot.  The whole running thing isn't happening for me.  But I can tolerate walking, so I do the whole hamster wheel thing in the basement, because I'm not going outside looking like this.  I also lift some light weights and do some yoga because some "expert" decided that you needed to do have the trifecta of cardio, strength, and balance to be healthy.    Oh Whatever.  I just want to be able to continue to enjoy eating my macaroni and cheese.

"If I could have a super power, it would be the ability to watch people work out and then absorb their health benefits."

I admit to standing there in my workout clothes wandering how many calories I just burned putting them on.  If there was any other way to keep my body healthy, I would  probably do it.  However, there's not a shortcut.  It's funny how exercise helps you live longer because whenever I exercise it makes me feel like I'm dying.  Also, did I mention that I hate it?

"Act enthusiastic about exercising and you will be enthusiastic."

This is what some perky, young thing said to me.  Okaaaaay.  So, someone else said that it is better when you work out with someone.  Fine.  Now Jeff and I get up out of bed at an ungodly hour (at least for the night owl of the family-- which is me) , put on our workout clothes and stumble down the stairs. Now, it should be noted that I'm not allowed to have coffee before I work out, so that's already one strike against it.  I grab my phone (because we all know that I have the best music on mine), and hit the "workout" music playlist. And yes, in the quest for acting "enthusiastic", I created a whole workout music playlist.  Jeff jumps on his elliptical and I start up my treadmill.  So that I don't get bored I switch around the various "routines" that are plugged in, all of which are programed to vary the speed and incline of the machine in order to optimize my workout time.  Lately I've been trying to have a better attitude about all this.  Trying to make it at least a little fun.  So now, my morning treadmill machine workout has turned into the "Yolanda" show, complete with the pretend microphone.  Much to my husbands dismay, I now walk, sing LOUDLY, and sometimes dance my way through the routine with songs like Beyonce's Single Ladies, Sweet Emotion from Aerosmith, Superchicks Hey, Hey, God Over Money by Bizzle, Respect by Aretha, Bring Me to Life by Evanesence and everything in between.   Needless to say, it is probably a somewhat loud and painful expansion of my husbands musical repertoire.  I don't know if this has made the whole exercising thing any more fun for me, but I do kind of enjoy the somewhat bemused expression on Jeff's face.  It's still hard and sweaty work.  But, I can reasonably enjoy my food, still fit in my clothes, and walk and explore while traveling,  so for me it's a successful endeavor.

"There really is no secret.  Hard work and discipline are what you need to succeed.  This applies to EVERYTHING.  There is no secret or shortcut that will get you around this."

So, I told this whole convoluted story for this point:  Success takes work.  It seems like we all want to find the shortcut.  Take the easier way.  However, some things in life just take work.  That's all.  Take my husband Jeff as another example.  Jeff is now reaping some of the rewards in his career because of hard work (and God has blessed us). He started out at the bottom 24 years ago.  It has taken 24 years to reach the level that he is at.  It also takes a lot of hard work to be at  his current level.   If you think he can now sit back and relax you do not understand what it takes to be in a position of leadership in an organization.  He works hard every day.  He does email, sends texts, takes work phone calls while at home and while on vacation.  He strives to do his very best at all times.  I am proud of him. I am proud of all the hard work he does.

If you want something (either to fit into your clothes, or to run an organization, or whatever else you may have dreams of doing), then you've got to be willing to do the work involved.  Not only do you need to willing to do the work, but you need to find some way to have some enthusiasm for it.  Be committed.  Be consistent.  Work hard with enthusiasm.

And since my very shallow goal is to be able to eat and travel, I leave you with a few photos that show you why I work out.

So I can do the shark cage adventure with my son and some very big Galapagos sharks.  That is Keagan's flip flop you see tied to the rope. Sharks are curious so we were trying to lure them closer.  I think the ungodly smell of the shoe made them keep their distance.

So I can go out and snorkel with these amazing creatures.  As cool as I think the eels are, they do not share my enthusiasm at me having found them. 

So I can hike on trails like this.

Oh, and did I mention so I can snorkel?

So I can climb the steps in the theater where Paul Spoke in Ephesus.  I swear it was 180 degrees there (not really, it was only around 90, but HOT).  Very, very amazing experience!

So I can eat amazing Baklava in Greece.  I only took one photo, but we managed to eat about 3 or 4 different types of Baklava while there.  And it was Yum!

So I can eat amazing food in Greece!  The Calamari was amazing!

So I can do the stairs in Sorrento (luckily we were going down).  It was a looooong way to the bottom.

So I can climb the stairs in the Colosseum in Rome with about 100,000 of my closest friends.  And yes, I know that was sarcastic. Whatever.

So I can eat Gelato in Florence.  And in Rome, and in Pisa, and Sorrento, and Venice.......

So I can climb the 300 stairs to the top of the Tower of Pisa.  Notice my son was still smiling at the top.  Me, not so much.   More like sweating and breathing hard.  But it was worth it.  Besides, we went down and had gelato.

So I can climb the 200 stairs to the top of the Notre Dame de la Garde in Marseille.

So I can eat Catalonian chocolate in Barcelona.

I believe I will go walk some more......