Kept me Safe at Night - Part 2

I've been staring at my childhood nightlight a lot the last two days. It's a funny thing how desperately I needed light on as a kid while I slept, especially when you consider how much as an adult I can't stand any light being on at all. My sleeping style these days? It's all under cover. Sometimes it feels like I may have some oxygen deprivation issues, but it seems I'll choose darkness over breathable air any day.

I finished my owl nightlight painting. I loved painting something I've cherished for over forty years. It resides on the very desk I'm typing at at this very moment. Still watching over me after all this time.

"Kept me Safe at Night"

I began adding reflection marks.

I gave the flowers some shadows.

I added more shadow and colored additional leaves.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

I'm running a big sale on my paintings through the end of August. Almost everything in my gallery is 60% off. I'm only keeping my most current work (paintings on page 1) at the listed prices. If there's something you'd like, please let me know by message or comment so I can manually adjust the price. Thanks!!! http://www.dailypaintworks.com/artists/kali-parsons-3935/artwork

Kept me Safe at Night

My big guy moved out today. Suffice it to say that I feel weird. He's twenty, so it's not like he's not an adult and all, it's just strange. Good strange. And then my head jumps to something altogether different, I think to distract myself. I find myself putting on my detective hat and feeling quite sure that I will now solve a years long mystery. Yes, they mystery of which of my sons is not as tidy as he should be when he uses the toilet. Now if my little guy is smart, he'll have error free toileting from here on out so that his older brother will solidly be the suspect, whether the guilt lies there or not.

We shall see....


And I started a still life painting for a class I'm taking. The owl is my childhood nightlight and the flowers I picked from my yard. I love when nature plants beautiful things and surprises us!

I had set up my still life scene with two
colors of scrapbook paper in the back
laid upon a white towel. I then set up
my owl nightlight and the flowers.

I started by painting the background.

I did a quick sketch with watered down black
paint of the objects I was painting.

I painted over them with white so the colors
would show more easily and brightly.

I added more white to the owl and then
began adding the teal tint. I also painted
the flowers.

I added even more details including the
crystals that cover the owl's body and
let the light shine through.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

I'm running a big sale on my paintings through the end of August. Almost everything in my gallery is 60% off. I'm only keeping my most current work (paintings on page 1) at the listed prices. If there's something you'd like, please let me know by message or comment so I can manually adjust the price. Thanks!!! http://www.dailypaintworks.com/artists/kali-parsons-3935/artwork

Tricky Chicks

My chickens, they're jokesters.


"Gasp! She's dead!" I go through the gate with sadness filling my heart and walk over to check on my chicken who is on her side, legs splayed, eyes closed...surely dead as dead can be.


And every time they jump up and scamper off.

Who knew chickens played possum?

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Shedding a Little Light on Things

I've been the guinea pig for a lot of my husband's photography lately. He's really quite amazing and carries about a million kazillion facts around in his head. He also has the habit of talking to himself while he's working on something which makes it so I'm privy to said facts.

Today the facts were all about photographic lighting, f-stops, and other such things.

The thing is, I have absolutely positively no idea what he's talking about. And as he goes on and on spewing out brilliance all I'm hearing is the teacher voice from "Peanuts", so I burst out laughing.

You know what happened next?


Dave: "OK, now I need to tell you about it all over again."


And he did!

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Thrift Store Dress

I went thrifting over the weekend and found the most adorable little spring/summer dress. It is fabulous and will go great with my cowboy boots!

But....

Due to my laziness I was unwilling to shave (as I thought I oughta) so the perfect weather Sunday went on its merry way leaving only cold and raininess in its wake.

So I wait. And I reconsider the concept of laziness as I gear up for a lovely and sunny spring weekend ahead.


Another lefty challenge painting!

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Eggcellent!

It happened! One of our chickens finally laid an egg!!!!!

It's not a huge egg, but it's a perfectly fabulous egg. And tonight we shall dine on this mid-size oval eggstraordinaire.


Hard boiled? Nope.

Over easy? No way.

Poached? Not a chance.


No, this special egg will be scrambled and divided into four equal servings.


I just know it'll be eggcellent!


P.S. Painting an egg with your left hand when you're right handed is much harder than you'd think! Loving my lefty challenge!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

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Bandanna Love

Bandannas.

They might not play a huge role in your home, but at the Parsons' house...they're superstars.

How many ways can we use a bandanna? Well, here's ten just off the top of my head.


1. as a cloth napkin
2. to blow a nose
3. outfits for our dogs
4. a tool to attempt to control my hair
5. a mask when we're working with sawdust, etc.
6. a spill sopper upper
7. a potholder when doubled up
8. a dust cloth
9. something to "whip" your brother with

and our dogs' favorite...
10. a chew toy


Bandannas...I highly recommend them.

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Kid Love

Because we're both competitive and dorks, this is how our husband/wife texting goes.


But first, a little explanation.  I was just leaving work and I'd driven my car instead of riding my bike so I could bring some stuff home with me.  And since I had my car I agreed to pick my little guy up at the bottom of the big hill that leads to our house.


Dave:  "Sucker"  He was stalking our iPhone locations and he figured out what I was doing for the kid.

Me:  ":-P He was lucky.  He caught me just as I was leaving work.  And, yes, I'm a sucker.  But he loves me more than he loves you! :-)"

Dave:  "Yeah, but I'm making him taquitos."


Dang!  I think Dave may have just won this "kid love" round.

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Front Porch Friend

There's a toad that lives on our porch.  I walk out at night to get our cats in (coyotes have been hanging in our hood lately) and there's always a toad right there.  It's a super friendly toad in that I'll-tolerate-you-picking-me-up-and-I'll-pee-just-as-a-matter-of-routine kind of way.  And there must be some great eatin' 'round these parts because over the last month that toad has gone from small to medium to BIG. 

I brought this up to my family and went on and on about my amazement.  And they were utterly and completely unimpressed.


Family member:  "There are three different toads.  A small one, a medium one, and a big one."

Me:  "Oh."

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Seashore Dreams

Every day I get home from work and have to clean the sand from between my toes.  It's one of the many perks of teaching young, delightful kiddos who love their sandbox.  This past summer is the first summer in forever that we didn't go to the beach or some sort of lake house or something like that,  and I must be feeling it because I actually delay my toe cleaning just a wee bit while I close my eyes and pretend I'm just getting back to my room after a day of fun in the sun.

Seashore dreamy bliss....

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Three Years of Creating

It was three years ago today that I began this adventure in creating.  I'd come off of a particularly challenging school year...and by challenging, I don't mean bad.  By challenging I mean filled with many, many opportunities for learning and growth.  I had been so focused on my role as teacher that as summer started and I should have felt relief, instead I only felt lost, unable to find myself again.

So one day I just started creating.  And I haven't stopped.  And I'm forever grateful for that challenging year.  What a gift it was!

Thanks for going along with me on this wonderful journey of mine.


P.S. When I created this door painting I was thinking of how when one door closes and another opens, which door we choose when we have an opportunity, and whatnot.  But then I realized that I'm not all that deep, after all.  I just happened to be listening when the creative bubble rose up in me. 

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Barbed Wire - 2, Kali - 0

I was in two battles today with barbed wire fences.

Battle #1:  I was slipping through the strands of barbed wire with the kid to go recover a rocket.  He got through fine.  Me not so much.  My pants snagged on one of the barbs which threw my momentum off, my arms went a'whirling, and I got two lovely scratches on my left hand from some particularly rusty barbs.

Battle #2:  On the way back after recovering the rocket we were going over another barbed wire fence.  The kid got right over and offered help.  I held a post with my bleeding hand and took his hand with my other.  I stepped on the fencing and as he pulled me up he lost his grip, and I fell back...WHAM!...on my shoulder.  All in front of a small crowd of people.

While #1 is now my reason for having a Monday morning appointment to get a tetanus shot, #2 gave my dad excellent footage to capture with his quadcoptor he had circling above.


And the Oscar goes to....


And it's OK to laugh.  I am.

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Tea Time

I sat at a coffee shop sipping my tea.  Dave had a muffin and coffee.  We played a game of gin rummy.  It was perfect.

And then it got just a bit more perfect.  A wee little sparrow landed right at our feet, looked up, and...well...begged.  In an oh, so cute kind of way.  I tossed it a few of Dave's muffin crumbs and it happily hopped about retrieving them.  I'm pretty sure it smiled and winked its thanks.

Lovely, lovely....

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Not so Smart After All

My kid is smart.  Smarter than the word "smart" it turns out.

The other day I was closing the back door of my car and I managed to clip my left hip bone in the process.  Hard.  I still have a mark.

Anyway, here's how the ride in the car went.


Little guy:  "What just happened mom?  You had a funny look on your face."

Me:  "I hit myself on my hip bone when I was closing the door."

Little guy:  "Not smart, mom."

Me:  "No kidding."


A few minutes later.


Me:  "Dang, that really smarts!"

Little guy:  "What are you talking about?"

Me:  "My hip bone."

Little guy:  "'Smarts' is the stupidest word ever for that.  You should say it 'stupids'."


Kid has a point.

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Talking to Strangers can be Quite Delicious

It's what our parents all warned us about, but I find it rather delightful.  And, guess what, sometimes it has the nicest consequences.

A month or so ago I was standing in line to check out my groceries.  I could overhear a conversation at the next register.  The cashier was asking the customer how his day was going so far and the customer had a lovely story about volunteering at a school park doing landscaping.  And then he mentioned my school.

So I'm standing there thinking, "I should go tell him I work there and tell him how thankful I was for his kindness."  But then I lost my gumption as I passed him and kept walking out to my car.  Full of regret.  Kicking myself in the shin.

As I put my bags in my car I figured I'd look around to see if I could possibly have a second chance at it.  But no, no sign of him at all.  I hung my head, took my cart to the cart return, turned around, and there he was.  So I went up to that young fella, told him I'd overheard him (stalker, crazy lady that I am), told him my connection, and proceeded to thank him every so much.

And guess what...he was doing the volunteer work as part of his employer's mission to help the community.  And then he gave me a card with a code on it and said when I put the code in, something wonderful would show up in the mail.  And today it did!  I'm three nutritious bars richer, and I feel super warm in my heart.

So go talk to a stranger.  Turns out it can be quite delicious.

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My Food is Safe

You know how with a lot of families parents go to great amounts of trouble making special meals for their picky children?  Well, our family's not like that at all.  Nope.  Dave and the boys are easy and they'll all eat pretty much the same thing.  I'm the one who's the problem child. 

I'm always eliminating certain things from my diet, deciding I'll only eat this type of thing, and it always has to be prepared in a very particular way.  Oh, and it's a moving target.  They never know what is on my "yes" or "no" list on which day.

But, there's a big perk to this, I tell ya.  My food is totally safe.  Safe from midnight snackers and such, that is.  No one ever eats my leftover veggie sandwich that's covered in jalepeños.  No one is the slightest bit tempted by my odd flavors of yogurt.  And no one ever, ever, ever even considers taking a nibble out of my bags of chia, hemp, or acai berries. 

Being weird definitely has its perks.

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More Psychic than I Wanna Be

I'm pretty close to my kids.  No doubt.  Many, many years of mostly relationship building stuff and here we are.  But sometimes we're just a little too close.  As in psychically close.

The big guy was heading out to meet someone about some potential work.  I was in the kitchen when he came to the bar to talk to me.  I looked at him as he sat on a stool.


Me:  "You look nice."

Big guy:  "You can only see a little of me, mom."  Ya, it's hard to give the guy a compliment.

Me:  "Well, from what I do see, you look nice.  Except you better zip up your fly."


Now, could I see anything on him below his chest?  Nope.

Was his fly indeed open?  Yup.

Did we get just a tad freaked out?  You bet.

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The Curious Incident of the Early Morning Pit Stop

So here I was, sitting at my kitchen table this morning.  It was still pitch black outside and everyone was still asleep.  Everyone except for the dude driving by in his truck, that is.  I heard him drive by, slam on his brakes, put it in reverse, and then park.

Creepy!

I moved the curtains over just a bit and peeked out the window.  There the truck sat, directly in front of a neighbor's house, headlights on, engine running.  Our neighbors aren't there these days as their house is currently a construction site with all the amenities.  The truck sat, and it sat, and it sat.

Creepier!

I went into my laundry room which had a better view of where the truck was.  I pulled the blinds down just enough to look outside.  The truck still sat.  And then I noticed the port-a-potty door opened, a guy walked out, got in his truck, and drove off.

Creepiest!


I've been trying to get into this guy's head all day.  Was he just driving along needing to "go" and had a hallelujah moment when he saw that port-a-potty?  Could he really not wait till he got where he was headed?  Why on earth would "going" in a port-a-potty, which must've been squid ink black inside, be preferable to just finding a bush?

Ya, I don't get it.


Oh, and whoda thunk I'd be blogging about port-a-potties twice in one week?  Not I, but there ya go.

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Superior? Compensating?

That moment when you follow a hot rod into a parking lot and realize that your Prius is far superior.

Yup, that's what happened today.  As Dave and I pulled up to a parking garage this afternoon there was a shiny black Corvette just in front of us.  It pulled very slowly up the abruptly slanted entryway, its clearance nothing to shout home about.  With our windows closed the sound it emitted was something to behold...I could feel the vibration due to what must have been a wacky and insufficient exhaust system...and as they pulled around a corner and passed the first row of parked cars, the rumbling set off a car alarm.  "BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!"

<Insert Dave saying something funny about "compensating" right here.>

My Prius?  Well that blue baby of mine zipped right up the hill with no clearance issues.  It passed the row of parked cars using only its battery and was practically silent.

Yup, superior. 

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Love Notes

Most days I have the pleasure of reading love notes to students that their parents have sweetly placed in their lunchboxes.

"Have a great day!"

"I love you so much!"

"You are wonderful!"

And the kids LOVE it!

I can't help thinking of when my kids were younger and they utterly and completely rejected my lunchbox love notes, and, quite frankly, insisted that I stop.

Of course it was when they were in middle school.  Ya, so I was late to the lunch love note writing party...perhaps now that they're in high school and college I need to give it another go.

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