Vote for Art

Since November is upon us, and the elections are around the corner, I figured I'd have a little fun. I thought I'd look into the various forms of art that are used to encourage voting, stuff that has shown voting in the past, and the different forms used.

Posters have always played a big part in voting art, and we've seen plenty of them. Mostly, they are non-art...just words. Sometimes the words are displayed in an artful way, something to catch your eye, but I'm going to try and find just the fun ones, with more than just words. Let's see how many of these you have seen. Hopefully this will lighten up your day, and get a positive spin on the voting process...who knows. grin.

This one seemed very apt -- my family loves rubber chickens, and I'm sure they'd vote for one...lol


I liked this one because it was very simple --

This one seemed cool about the times when women were trying to vote. I would say the artwork was much more complex back then -- people cared a little more about the details than they do now.

I thought this looked alot like those old 60's and 70's posters of love with the letters arranged like this. Kind of cool.

I first thought of a Hershey's kiss when I saw this, but I'm not entirely sure it's point. Probably along the racial sides...

I liked that this one was to the point!

This is another one about the time of women suffrage. Nicely done.

I thought this was one of the better one's for Sarah Palin that I'd seen. Kind of the art deco look -- there was a similar one for Obama as well, but I couldn't bring myself to add it...sorry.

I thought this was really neat with the flag. I enlarged it a little, and it's made it a little blurry, but you can still see it. I'm not sure what they mean by fighting fear...

This, while being an Obama poster, is still kind of cool in the way it looks. It could be anyone in the photos, but I like the shapes.

This last one is just cute with the dogs. I'm sure many of you have your own cute pets that would have worked as well. I liked it.

All in all, these were just some of what I found, but as much of the non-blatant partisan ones. There were many names that I didn't even know were associated with the presidential nominations, many things from past years. I just hope that we as a nation continue to use our freedoms and continue to vote, so that we have many more years of collections to view.

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Bringing Leaves Inside

The beauty of leaves can be something enjoyed inside your home. There are many ways to do this, and that is what I was going to talk about the last time when I was looking up leaf art. I was really amazed to discover that there was actual leaf art -- but that was then, we are on today.

One of the first things everyone thinks of is a wreath. The picture above is the one on my door. It happens to be silk, but I've done the same thing with real leaves before. My sister-in-law has grape vines, and while it takes some work, it's fun to see how they turn out.

You can also make placemats with them. Take a sheet of construction paper, the leaves you want to use, and wax paper. You put the wax paper on each side of the construction paper with the leaves arranged how you want and then iron the whole thing. It's not long lasting or permanent, but it's fun for kids.

I've also seen the leaves by themselves ironed in the wax paper and hung on strings in the window. You can get the foam rings and fill them with leaves (poking the stem in) and use them as candle rings or centerpieces, or even a wreath that way. It's also fun to make rubbings of them -- make several and make a collage.

I have a lamp that is an empty Mason jar which has the bottom come out so it can be filled with objects. I'm tempted to fill it with leaves to have them in my room and add their glow to the light.

We have a huge maple tree in our front yard that just glows this time of year. The leaves are a rich mixture of yellow/green/gold and rust. The tree is right outside our bedroom window, and it's as if the window glows on the inside. It's gorgeous.

It doesn't have to be a fancy or big thing, it's easy to enjoy nature's beauty and art in your life. Just bring it inside.


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Leaf Art

I had fully intended to write about fall leaves, and how glorious they are with their colors and the brilliant shades we only get to see at this time of year, but in my search for something to use as a picture I discovered something else.

Or should I say someone.

Kazuo Akasaki.



Kazuo Akasaki is a Japanese artist who developed a whole different way of creating a picture or painting. He uses fallen leaves as his medium and creates pictures that are amazingly detailed.

Some of his work takes more than six months to create. He was really struggling with making a living until one of his pieces finally won first prize at a competition which enabled him to continue creating his unusual works of art.

What is disappointing is how little information there is about him. I can't find a website that's his, there isn't a Wikipedia entry for him -- nada. Sigh. It made me look deeper (several pages into Google...grin) than normal, but I still couldn't find anything.

What I did find, was that there is a tradition of leaf art in Japan and China. Nguyễn Văn Duy is a gentleman that does the same type of work. He is Vietnamese and found himself interested in the leaf work.

Fortunately, I was able to find more of a description/explanation about what the leaf art entails. What shouldn't surprise me is the length of time it takes to prepare the leaves. They have to gather them, dry them, boil them, and in Mr. Van Duy's case, dye them. His work differs from Kazuo Akasaki's work in that he uses pigment to enrich the colors of the leaves, adding more color and brightness to his creations. They draw the outline of the painting they want to create, and then match the leaves to it.



It's apparently felt that Kazuo Akasaki's painting are too somber...too dark in color.


While I think it would be easy to like the brighter colors, I think Kazuo Akasaki's paintings would be fascinating, and perhaps if he used the brighter leaves, his paintings would be just as bright. I'm not sure if he uses the same techniques that the other gentleman uses. Perhaps his treatment takes some of the colors out. Regardless, I find the whole idea fascinating!

There is, of course, the whole idea of painting ON a leaf -- much like painting on a pumpkin or saw blade -- but that would be for another time.

Next time I'm going to explore some of the things we 'lay' people can do with leaves to create art. Enjoy!

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To Pay or Not to Pay?

Okay, my thoughts for today revolve around museums.

Almost all large cities have a museum of sorts to boast of. Most of them have more than one, because they seem to separate the natural and historical from the fine. (Arts...lol)

Personally, I've never been inside a regular museum. I grew up in California, too far from anywhere to go through one. I think it's funny, now that I think about it -- I never went on any field trips to one in Oakland or San Fransisco. There are several fine ones in San Fransisco, and a Children's Museum in Oakland and BART is great transportation -- so what was with that? I think I know. I'll get to it in a moment.

There are a several fine one's here in Utah. There are ones on the University campuses as well as the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. UMFA as it's also known, has an extensive gallery currently showing works by Monet, Picasso and items from private collections.

While it would be cool to go see them, there is one little item that gets in my way -- cost.

If you're an adult, it's $15! A child is $10, unless age 6 or younger. So if my family (which totals 9) were to go, it would cost upwards of $100. Just to walk in the door.

I think I mentioned in an earlier blog how there are low cost alternatives for families, and I feel it's worth bringing up again, especially in light of how our economic times are even tighter...

My favorite place is the Museum of Church History and Art. First reason is it's free to the public! There is no time limitation, and there are many galleries to go through, including hands on areas for children. Second though, is the art.

It's chuck full of gorgeous pieces of work that change from time to time. When Elder Packer's display of bird art and carvings were there, our ward was able to have a private tour with his son. It was astonishing, I hadn't even known he was an artist!

Right now it's showing a variety of exhibits. Photography of the church, Something Extraordinary, which is a collection of things relating to the Relief Society, History of the Salt Lake Tabernacle and the last one is art pertaining to the primary song, I Am A Child of God.

These exhibits are fun to stroll through as a family, or just a date night with you and your spouse. After gazing at all the wonderful items, you can walk across the street to temple square and enjoy the late fall beauty there. And, if you have a few dollars to spare, you could walk over to the mall and grab an ice cream. It's all good.

My point here, is I'm not sure the justification of the costs of the public museum. Yes, I know staff have to be paid, buildings maintained, art protected, but it creates a vacuum. Where does the average person get to view art? How does the everyday person learn to appreciate the finer things in life if they cost just to gaze on?

I know there are many arguments either way, and I'm sure there are important points to ponder. But for today, I say the museums should be available to all. At least once a year there should be a free day, or discounted day. Doesn't art belong to the people anyway?

I think it does. I hope you'll take the opportunity to discover some for yourself. Make a day of it -- take the family for family night. Enjoy the beauty and creations around us. You'll find yourself enriched and filled.

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A 'Mazing' Art

When the nights turn chilly, leaves begin turning red and gold, and a nip is in the air, you know it's gotten to be that time of year again -- fall. It's a time eagerly anticipated by some for reasons far different than most of us -- it's because of the corn.

I'm not talking about eating corn, I'm talking about corn mazes that have cropped up around the country over the past 40 years and grown into a cultural past time no one would have dreamed of when I was a kid. My boys love going to it every year, the schools do field trips and they love it. Apparently if you build it, they will come. In droves.

I read that they started growing popular in the 1970's, but perhaps that was in more rural areas where they had farms. Since I grew up in a city during most of that time, I never heard of them. In fact, I hadn't heard of them until I'd moved to Utah and was going to college. I thought they were a fad...seemed like everyone was making their corn fields into a maze to make money. There are many across the nation, but I think the ones local are among some of the best.

There are lots that have American Themes...Like this one of a Chevy car...

and this one of the Special Olympics...


Actually, I thought it was cool that Farmers had a way to subsidy their income -- farming is a tough life. So, I thought I'd highlight some of the best in Utah.

The one at the very top is out in Syracuse. It's called the Black Island Farm maze, and this year they are spotlighting the Ronald McDonald House. You'll find most mazes either sport a personal signature or are sponsored by someone or support a cause. It's kind of cool how people work together.

This David Archuleta maze is down at Thanksgiving Point. I don't know, I think he's a cute kid and all, but isn't this stuff going to start going to his head?? lol



There is another one in Pleasant Grove that's well known for it's usual theme of Jurassic Park...


Some of these are definitely art -- and it amazes me how they do it. I mean, I guess they graph it out and have a computer design it -- but how do they know what they are doing on the ground?? Sometime I'll have to go watch someone make it so I can understand the process. It's mind boggling.

The one in West Jordan has a Halloween theme and looks like a wild run...I sure wouldn't want to try it. And they definitely look like they take hours to go through!



While these mazes would be fun during the day, apparently most of the fun comes at night. I'll never understand why most people love haunted houses and haunted mazes! I don't like to be scared, and I don't pay to have someone come up behind me and make me scream! sigh. I know, I'm just a spoil sport. I figure my kids can go have all the fun they want, but I'm not going...


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Ahem -- Blog Action Day!

In having a conversation with a friend back east the other day, she made a statement about the working poor. Ir reminded me of the early days of my marriage when we had 7 children under the age of 9 and only one income coming in... Our children didn't go hungry because we had supportive relatives and sympathetic church leaders.

But there are many that do. Many that go to school with a piece of bread to last the whole day, or perhaps nothing at all until dinner. Little children that cry because their stomachs hurt.

Around Thanksgiving, there is always a big push for the foodbanks and homeless shelters. All of which are good, but recently I've noticed that the Scouts do food drives during other times of the year. I'm grateful that someone has thought that the poor need food year round.

The working poor have actual jobs, usually somewhere to live, but income doesn't stretch much past that. They scrape for every cent to try and feed their families. They are proud -- sometimes it's hard for them to take help. They don't feel like they are charity cases. But they don't like to have their children cry either.

This friend was telling me that she teaches a primary class in church. When she tells her church leaders that a child was crying from hunger in class, events are put into motion that ensure the family has food going home with them that day.

Everyone likes to go on about this country or that country needing our help -- usually showing pictures of starving children. Many people have no idea of the need here in the states, especially during these hard economic times. The price of food has gone up, making it even more difficult for these people to get what they need.

You have starving children in America that cannot get aid those across the ocean do. They are families that don't want handouts, so they don't get food stamps. Food stamps also have income restrictions, and take a lot of time to work with. Sometimes these people don't have that time. They are families that don't have extended family or anyone around who can help them. Perhaps they have been forced to move due to loosing their home, or a job -- how many people lost jobs last year due to the car industry? Too many to contemplate.

So on this day of thinking beyond ourselves and our needs, let's remember our neighbor. Our fellow citizens. Our working poor.

Is there a charity in your town or neighborhood that you can contribute to? Do you know a family that is struggling in this way? If so, take some time today and do something for them that will ease their load. A plate of cookies would be nice, but a couple cans of food would last longer and be healthier. Why not both? A couple of loaves of bread...a couple jars of peanut butter and jam...a case of macaroni and cheese.

Produce from your garden.

All of us have things we can share. We just need to see the need and be willing to give. There are many who need it.

The Beauty of Tradition

In Relief Society a couple of weeks ago we had a lesson on traditions. It was titled, Righteous Traditions. Many of us think of traditions as those things we do as a big family thing -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, reunions, etc. The lesson pointed out that there are other traditions that are much more important; family prayer, family scripture study, Family Home Evening, etc. It was an enlightening lesson, and I appreciated it's value.

Today, because of the date (Canadian Thanksgiving, if you don't know), I'm reminded of the regular family traditions. Have you ever thought of the art and beauty involved? Sometimes that could be taken sarcastically if your family is one that doesn't get along, so it's an act of chaos control to keep everyone from killing each other before the day is over.

But if your family is made richer by the regular traditions that help keep the family ties strong. I came from a multi family youth. I don't really remember anything deeply traditional about any of the families I lived with other than celebrating Christmas. How each Christmas was celebrated was different, so there were no real traditions in my mind.

When I moved in with those who I call Mom and Dad, I discovered they had many traditions. By the time I went on my mission, I came to count on those traditions as a way of knowing where they were and what they were doing. I felt like I was back home for just a moment, and felt their love close. I remember having a conversation with my brother when I called home, and listing off all the things they were doing. He was totally surprised that I would remember what he thought were trivial things.

To me it was beauty and art. The beauty of family and the rich ties that bind through hard times and good.

We are entering the season of family activity. We have traditions that start with Halloween and go through the week of Christmas. Traditions that include decorating our home, remembering those who live outside of the state, and joining together with extended family.

They are times I treasure and look forward to every year. To a girl that grew up without traditions and such love in her youth, these times are like mana from Heaven.

Today we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. It became a tradition because my husband served a mission in Toronto, Ontario Canada. He feels he is an adopted Canadian, and so I've tried to honor that feeling by holding a small Thanksgiving dinner on that day every year. We have tradition of using china, crystal, quality silverware and cloth napkins on Thanksgiving day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner. These items are indications that we are recognizing the day as being different -- special.

When I went to Hawaii last year, the family was getting ready to cook a turkey, even though I was gone. They didn't have much with it, apparently -- I have girls who will only cook if forced...lol -- but they knew it was important to keep up with tradition.

Kind of reminds me of the movie Everafter where the little girl tells her new stepmother that they need to wait -- "It's tradition!"

As we start to decorate our homes in celebration of fall, the gorgeous colors the world shows for it's farewell to summer and the wonderful family gatherings ahead -- you might ponder what traditions you have as a family. Are they good traditions that bring everyone joy? Do they enrich your lives? Do they draw you closer together?

I wish everyone a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving! I need to go put the turkey in the oven...

Coming up on 300...

I really never thought I'd get this far. When I started blogging I wasn't sure how long I'd be doing it -- I wasn't even sure how the blogging thing would hit the public. I've blogged on other places before I found blogger. Now I'm looking at 300 posts, and it amazes me.

I figured for my 300 celebration, I'd refrain from doing 300 of something, because that would simply take forever...lol. So I will highlight throughout the next couple of weeks the blogs that I admire. I'll try to hit 30 of them, but we'll see how time goes...

I also thought I'd do a contest, but since I still haven't got the prize to my last contest winner (not the book tour), I think we'll hold off on that. sigh.

Have a good one...

The Art of David Lindsley and Jared Barnes

In mentioning how wonderful I thought Liz Swindle's work was, I received a comment that the reader thought David Lindsley was very good. I thought, gee -- another one I haven't heard of. So I did a little research on him, and discovered he's the illustrator of Rachel Ann Nunes's series Daughter of a King.

I loved the cover of these books the first time I set eyes on them. I felt that he had captured the feeling of the books so well, and his style is somewhat innocent in nature -- bringing that feeling across too.

I looked up his website, and while there isn't much about him -- other than he's been at this for a long time and is obviously quite talented -- it gave me a view of his wonderful work.

He does a lot of old style pictures...children playing with the older push toys and dressed up in play costumes. I would call them romantic pictures of an era long gone. That is also what I mean by innocent. The faces on his subjects are fresh, clean and free from the world. They are inspiring.

I hope you'll take the chance to look into this artists work and explore it on your own. If you haven't seen one of the books at Deseret Book, you might go investigate them as well. Rachel Ann Nunes is a wonderful writer, and these books are ones that every young woman should read. (And older ones too.)



I have tried in vain to find out more on this artist, but he is rather reclusive (apparently) in nature and there isn't much out there other than how to buy his work! We know that he works exclusively in oil, and that he paints many subjects. There are several of his about the Savior that are wonderful to look at, I especially like the one of him holding a little girl in a white dress -- she looks ready to climb off his lap.

His colors are warm and inviting, and the feeling you get in looking at them makes the world seem far away. I think his work would definitely fit in any LDS home.

In exploring the internet for information on David, I discovered a relatively new artist, Jared Barnes. He does an amazing job as well. His work shows depth of feeling and I'm excited to see how well he does.



It seems the more we delve into the world of art within the church, the more we find to uplift and inspire.

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An Amazing Talent

During Conference weekend, channel 5 will run various little spots in between conference session. Sunday, they ran something right after conference that we ended up watching -- it was a portrait of everyday people.

Or so they said. Ordinary heros...people you'd be able to relate to. Sort of...

The first person was the girl who is Junior Miss Utah...and it was cool -- her whole platform was modesty in dress. It was very impressive. The second clip was about two brothers who played the roles of Joseph and Hyrum Smith this past summer in the Nauvoo pageant. Kind of fun to see how they were very similar to the real two brothers in size, age, etc.

But it was the final segment that had us spellbound. It was about artist Liz Lemon Swindle, and her amazing portraits of the Savior. The picture at the top is one that she's still working on, titled Come and See. She paints with oils, and her canvases are some of the largest I've ever seen. This one currently under way is as tall as she is and looks to be at least 15 feet long... Talk about life size!

But the focus of the show was her feelings about her painting, and her depictions of the Savior. She was asked to go to Africa and do some paintings about the orphans there. There are so many orphans as a result of the HIV epidemic, it's heart breaking. She brought a young man with her to be a model for Jesus, and they showed several scenes of him playing with the children, dressed as Jesus. It was touching, and wonderful, and her first work is of a young boy being held tenderly in Jesus's arms.

What really gets my attention with her work, is the fact that most of her portraits show the Savior smiling or laughing, like the one at top. I find that makes him more real, somehow, more someone we would know and be able to relate to. For some reason it makes him touchable.

Her use of colors, the sheer size of her work, all of it works together to draw the center of attention to the Savior and His eyes. She is extremely talented.

Apparently she was able to study wild life under famed wildlife artist Nancy Glazier, someone else I've never heard of. I'll be doing an article about her at another time, her work is amazing too -- though I have yet to find a personal web site devoted to her bio.

Anyway, Liz Swindle became famous for her wildlife before she started on the Savior. She mentioned in the show that she has a clear feeling as she paints -- and if there is something not right about the painting, she can feel it and works at it until it feels right. She knows no one knows the look of Christ, but she feels her attempts are pleasing enough that the spirit lets her know. She feels great peace inside her workshop as she's painting, and I can't imagine a more wonderful talent and gift.

I wish I could share more of her work with you, but I can't seem to locate any wildlife paintings. I guess I'd have to delve more into the internet or library to find them. (Or perhaps an art gallery...grin)



The work I'm more familiar with of hers are the portraits of Joseph Smith. There are a couple of books put out by Deseret Book that include her paintings, and they are truly wonderful. I just had no idea who had done them.



Above is a painting she did of Nephi and a boy. She talked to the young boy who was going to be her model, and asked him about his feelings on Nephi. It became apparent that Nephi wasn't just some guy out of the Book of Mormon to this boy -- Nephi was real. Just like a hero who lived next door...

If you get a chance, go to her site and look at her work, read her inspiration and thoughts about them, and bring some peace into your life. It's a wonderful break from the chaos of life around us.

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Help!

Okay...I got a new background, and promptly lost my blog list! I had several that I was watching and now I can't go visit them...If you know I visited your blog somewhat regularly for the past couple of months, would you please leave a comment so I can come back and find you? Especially from It's Like This... I'm going to go through withdrawals!!! ARGH!

Okay...I'm calm now...

The Demise of What?

I heard about something on the radio that I figured would make a good blog subject. There is a display down at the Museum of Arts on the BYU campus about the Demise of Modernism.

I thought...what?

Here's the quote from the site:

"This exhibition traces the sea-change that took place in American art in the late 1960s. In the early `60s, the most influential works in the art world were large canvases streaked by abstract lines and forms. The small circle of artists who created these late Modernist works, and the critics and curators who supported them, were considered the supreme art authorities. But by the late `60s, a group of young artists were challenging the very foundations of Modernism. During a time of great social and political upheaval, when many previously disenfranchised groups demanded the right to be heard, the Minimalist and Conceptual artists assailed the established authorities of the art world. By 1970, this group of young revolutionaries had overturned the very idea of a single art authority and upset many other assumptions about the nature of “high art.” This art revolution wrought deep and enduring changes in how artists create their works and how the rest of us think about them. "

Uh huh...

Minimalist and Conceptual artists. Have you ever contemplated what those terms mean? Minimalist apparently dealt with objects more than canvas. It was more about shape and color than medium. Interesting. I guess that is something that would really interest you if you were into design or decorating...

Conceptual on the other hand, is in my way of thinking, along the whole Chinese art theory that I mentioned in an earlier blog -- that being everyone views things differently and no one will paint the same thing alike because they imagine or think of it different from the other. They encouraged using words, music, object, etc., because it would help the mind imagine and conceive. I think that's where performing art came from -- like what is in Legal Eagles with Daryl Hannah. Possibly also where the poetry pits came into being...the whole mood, thought and feeling part of art.

On the other hand, modernism -- much the same as abstract.

The man in the photo at the top is Jackson Pollock, perhaps one of the more famous modern abstraction painter that became famous for his "drip style". There was a movie made about him and his chaotic genius, called Pollock, but I haven't really studied much about him. I looked him up on Wikipedia, and turns out he is another one of the tortured souls that suffered from alcoholism.

Picasso was a Modernist Abstract painter. He is probably the most famous -- depending on who you talk to.

Once again, it begs the question -- what is art? I think there was a lot of artists in the 50's and 60's that felt they didn't want to fit the mold of standard or traditional art practices and went crazy.

I'm not a big fan of the art form, and I would never purchase anything dealing with it -- but I'm sure it opened wide the imaginations and minds of creative people all over the planet, and we are given a larger choice in range of values, quality and vision of art.

The world has never been the same...

World's Best Mother-in-Law

Now it may sound like I'm trying to make points or do some brown nosing here, but I'm really not. She really is. This woman has done nothing but try and help us our entire marriage. I'm not saying she's pushy (but she'd be the first to admit she sometimes is) I'm saying she is concerned.

When she married, her husband was 9 years older than she and a recent convert. They struggled really hard because he had been married before and had child support. The ex was always taking them to court to increase the amount of that payment, but she was such a good organizer, that it could never be awarded because the judge would know exactly what their income and outgo ratio was.

She had 5 children that she raised on basically a shoe string, sewing their clothes, remaking clothes from their father for Sunday, canning everything she could, growing everything they could. When they had a chance to sell their house and move to a bigger one (the one we live in now...grin) she pushed the move because they lived really close to a canal, and my husband almost fell in when he was a baby.

They did a lot of the work on the house themselves (and never really stopped...lol), remodeling and remodeling until the house really doesn't resemble the original very much. I have to say I have mixed feelings about it...the original house had more bedrooms! grin.

When my husband was in school, she decided to start working. My father-in-law finally had a stable job, but it wasn't a very high paying one and she knew if she wanted any kind of life after retirement, she needed to work too. She started out as a secretary, and then moved to the educational system. By the time my hubby was graduating high school and going onto college, she was working on a masters degree. She ended up being an administrator and making quite a name for herself in the high school circles for being a good teacher (people STILL remember her) and vocational advocate.

When my hubby and I got married, we were able to have a house because of her. (Many times we wonder if we should have done the apartment bit -- but hindsight is always that...what if) It was a small house with two bedrooms, but it was perfect. They had started a remodel on it because it had been in bad shape -- so we inherited the remodeling bug.

Throughout our years of marriage, there have been many different times when we've been in financial difficulty, and she's always been there, able and ready to help us. She has handled all of that aspect professionally, there is a line drawn between family and money -- but it all works out to the satisfaction of both parties.

Recently, their ward has been encouraging the three month supply. (I'm sure that sounds familiar to most of you!) In fact, since her ward is mainly made up of retirees...they have asked them to help their extended family get theirs in. In contemplating that job (she has 5 children with 31 grandchildren and innumerable great grandchildren -- she has since been widowed and remarried a man who has several children of his own) she decided that instead of taking a long trip this fall (she loves to see the fall leaves and has been quite the world traveler most of my marriage -- when the twins were born she and her hubby were in China...grin) she would help her children and grandchildren get their three month supply during the case lot sales.

We were the beneficiaries of this project, and went shopping with her on Monday. Man oh man...we weren't the only ones; the girl at the cash register said they had 9 carts come through! But when we added up all the one's my Mother-in-law had purchased for the past week, she had already done up to 11. (We had three, stacked high)

As we got home and ended up piling the items in our family room because the storage room hadn't been cleaned out yet -- our project over UEA...sigh -- I reflected upon how much she has given us, and helped us over the years. She may not be a saint, but she's getting there, and I know we are most grateful that we know her and have her in our lives. And not just because of what she is able to give us. She's a sweetheart and my children are very thankful to have their Grandma!

So, here's to you, mom. It's not mothers day, it's not any special occasion other than we want the world to know that we love, appreciate and thank you for all you do.

SWAK!