My Sketchbook, my Life

just cause...

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Even the most disappointing and heart breaking things in life

can still be made beautiful..

what is a child?

One of my favorite quotes about children is by Francis Thompson.  I don't know many who has illustrated the magic of childhood so perfectly.  Can't you just imagine a child at play while you read his words?

(oh, and the art is available in my etsy shop!- you can get it with the quote, or customize it to your child's name!)

Know you
what it is to be a child?
It is to believe in love,
to believe in loveliness,
to believe in belief;
it is to be so little that the elves
can reach to whisper in your ear,
it is to turn pumpkins into coaches,
and mice into horses,
lowness into loftiness,
and nothing into everything,
for each child has its
fairy godmother
in its soul.

journal entry....3 {joy in the journey}

Another new painting.  I have discovered I love taking the talks -or quotes- that inspire me, and turn them into a picture that I see in my mind.  This one comes from Pres. Monson's talk in the October Conference of 2008.  You can read it here.

 One of my favorites parts is when he says:

 

"Send that note to the friend you’ve been neglecting; give your child a hug; give your parents a hug; say “I love you” more; always express your thanks. Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.

Friends move away, children grow up, loved ones pass on. It’s so easy to take others for granted, until that day when they’re gone from our lives and we are left with feelings of “what if” and “if only.” Said author Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”

Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows."

-Pres. Monson

 

Somedays I forget. 

Somedays it may even be hard to find. 

But if you think about all that you are blessed with... no matter your circumstances- I am given so much...we all are.  Our Heavenly Father loves each of us, and wants us to be happy.  It seems like lately I have been looking too much at what I don't have, or what is not going the way I think it should, and I don't choose to see all that He has given me, and how much happiness I can have, if I choose to see it, and accept it.

And sometimes to find it- I have to give it away.  I am finding that the more I do for others, and help those that I love, that greater joy that I find.

 

 

God's love...

Just felt like trying something a little different today.  The quote is from President Uchtdorf's talk this past conference.  If you haven't read it yet -check it out here.   It is a must read.  I love it.

The quote reads:

Think of the purest, most all-consuming

love you can imagine

Now multiply that love by and infinite amount--

that is the measure of God's love for you

 

.

for the birds

I have really been into birds lately.  In fact I have made that bird painting into a set of three.  I wanted to make it into a set that represents the stages of a childs life. 

First we love them. 

...not even from the first moment we see them.  No, it starts before that.  not even when we first feel those little flutters in our pregnant bellies.  No, it starts even before that.  I think the love first begins to grow in those moments that we know we want to have one of these little miracles in our life. 

Then we help them dream.

...helping them discover the world around them- the things they love and the things the world has to teach them.  Encouraging their dreams and imaginations, reassuring them they can be whoever, and whatever they dream of becoming.  Nothing is out of reach for them.  They can touch the stars.

Time to help them grow. 

... maybe the hardest moments as a mother.  Those moments when they step out and spread their own wings.  Ready to try out new things in this world they have created around them.  Having to take a step back and watch them go, encouraging and assuring them they can become who want to be. 

 they will be able in my etsy shop in the morning!

inspiration {cont.}

I just want to finish a thought I had about my last post.  I had one other quote by Elder Packer, that I have hanging in my studio.  It gives my hope, and inspires me to create what I feel I should create, and to follow my own road, even if it is sometimes the "road less traveled".

The greatest hymns and anthems have not been composed, nor have the greatest illustrations been set down, nor the poems written, nor the paintings finished.  When they are produced, who will produce them?  Will it be the most talented and the most highly trained among us?  I rather think it will not.  They will be produced by those who are the most inspired among us.  Inspiration can come to those whose talents are barely adequate, and their contribution will be felt for generations;  and the Church and kingdom of God will move forward just a little more easily because they have been here.  Some of our most gited people struggle to produce a work of art, hoping that it will be described by the world as masterpiece! monumental! epic!  when in thruth the simple, the compelling theme of "I Am a Child of God" has moved and will move more souls to salvation than would such a work were they to succeed."

 

inspired?

inspiration

I {heart} music.

 

I have loved it since I was a little girl.  I remember sitting at our piano probably when I was about preschool age, making up songs and singing to them.  I remember my mom asking me "where did you learn that song"  and proudly in my mind it was my masterpiece.  {shorty after this I believe I started piano lessons} 

I have been thinking about the piano lately.  A very untelevised thing about me, was I played piano really well.  No, I mean, ReallY well.  Now I am definitley not tooting my horn, because, you see, after the 11 years of study and practice, and dedication it took to get that way.  I gave it up.  And to sit down at a piano now after all these years of not playing, it is soooooo frustrating not to be able to play hardly anything at all.  Because I remember how I use to be able to play, and to see how much I have digressed- it is shameful.  I was telling Mr.S the other night, that this is one of my biggest regrets in life.

I have been thinking alot about the talents we are given from our Heavenly Father, and how sometimes we just toss carelessly aside the gifts we are given.  I feel saddened now, and I do see how what we are given, can be taken away.  It remindes me of this quote by Elder Packer:

"Whence comes this gift?  And gift it is.  You may have cultivated it and developed it, but it was given to you.  Most of us do not have it.  You were not more deserving than we, but you are a good deal more responsible.  If you use your gift properly, opportunities for sevice are opened that will be beneficial eternally for you and for others."

{I am working to reclaim this gift.}

 

okay that went to a slight tangent but here is where that was coming from

I have been listening to this song on a huge dose of repeat the last few days.  Ever do that?  Fall in love with a song all over again... I am learning to play it on the piano. 

Beatles:

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

 

Well to me music is a source of inspiration - and this week it help me create these.  (they will be in my esty shop soon!

 

journal entry....1 {patience}

 

Patience is a virtue... a virtue that I do not do very well at.  I think of Heavenly Father, and the perfect patience that He has, that He is able to work with me & help me when I lack the patience myself.  I see how the little trials of daily life are little chances everyday to try to develop this celestial virtue- this quality that escapes me so frequently. 

Even more than the daily life- the heavier trials I am, and have been going through in my life- how they have changed me into who I am today... but still I see how much patience is going to be needed to fully endure them.  Elder Maxwell said "Part of enduring well consists of being meek enough, amid our suffering, to learn from our relevant experiences.  Rather than simply passing through these things, they must pass through us and do so in ways which sanctify these experiences for our good."

I read this and I look at my life right now and I see really how much patience is the key in order to succeed- to endure well.  If there is ever a time that has tried and tested my patience beyond what I think I can do- it is now.  So I pray every night that Heavenly Father will help me learn how to more fully develop this gift of patience.... this quality that has for so long eluded me.  And then I had this experience one night as I prayed:

Me:  ...Heavenly Father, if thou could please help me to hurry and learn patience.....

silence......realization what I had just asked......

silence.....humility.....

understanding.... 

I stopped- realizing what I had just said... and if there was ever a time when I have felt the patient, sense of humor I believe our Heavenly Father has - it was at that moment...   a laugh escaped my lips, as I contemplated my need to "hurry and learn patience"....

I saw my folly, and understood.  And I truely, at that moment, felt Heavenly Father smile upon me too-

I believe He laughed along with me.

"There is no way to go around life.  The only way is to go through.  How... could the Lord teach us patience without the dimension of time and without also providing for us the relevant experiences?"

-Neal A. Maxwell (Not My Will, But Thine   p.11)

 

 

Thought of the Day

So, I have this book that I have made.  And in it, I write down inspiring quotes that I find, as I read books.  Messages that I love, or words that "speak" to me at that time.  I have so many that I love, that I had to start keeping them together in this book of sorts that I have made.  I love my book.  I even print out amazing talks that I love.  Then if I am having a rough day, or just need to be reminded who I am, I can go to this book, and it has words from the Prophets, Apostles, and my favorite scriptures.  I add to it constantly.  So I thought I would share.  I thought I would try leaving a thought a day (or day or two).  Things that I have found as I have read and studied the scriptures, and books written by the apostles.

So here is today's:

"I testify that in the eternities, as we look back upon our little span of existence here on this earth, we will lift our voices and rejoice that, inspite of the difficulties we encountered, we had the wisdom, faith and the courage to endure and press on."

-Joseph B. Wirthin (Press On)  

((-LOVE this book!))

A New Season...

Yep, I'm back.  I have debating within myself if I really was going to keep this blog going.  But if not any other reason, than it is one other thing I can do -instead of doing what I am suppose to be doing. 

Summer is over-and autumn is here!  I Love FALL!!  Which means ...Schools Back in.  I am experiencing for the first time life with all the kids in school all day.   I have been enjoying the time to really figure out what I want to do.  Some days the hours go by so fast, I don't get half of the things finished I had planned to while the kids are at school.  But then there are those days that the minutes seem to drag on and it seems forever before the clock will tell me its 3:30, and my home will be filled with the level of commotion that I am use to.  It has definitely reinforced to me that I am moving on to the next stage of being a mother.  No more little ones at home.  No more cribs, no more diapers, no more tantrums in the middle of Walmart... but no more rocking to sleep, no more midday naps together, no more tugging on the legs because they want to be held.  I don't feel sad, just a definite feeling that a season in my life has ended and a new one begun.  I am excited to be here, I am excited to watch them grow up.  I am excited to help them discover their talents, their passions, and to help them grow through a more independent time in their life.