10 things I know about babies:

1. Newborn babies are the best babies to hold because they don't care who holds them.

2. Babies are soft and sweet and are nice to snuggle.

3. Babies can be very, very loud and they don't care who hears or if it is time to be quiet.

4. Babies are a lot of hard work to take care of and they require your commitment.

5. Babies grow more in the first year than in any other time of their life.

6. Babies are partial to their parents when the reach a certain age- usually within the first year - which is why number one is true.

7. You can not spoil a baby.

8. Babies smell. Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good.

9. Babies don't care if you're tired.

10. Babies grow up very fast.

I had a dream about painting last night.

It was a red, pink, and white painting with hearts and lace and love. I kind of remember a person in the painting but I'm not 100% sure. It was kind of abstract. I think a heart formed a torso of a woman.

Except now I see I doodled it backwards. The torso heart should be red and the skirt black with a black background.

I dreamed about painting last night.

10 things I wonder about are:

1. I wonder what my boys are doing when I'm not around.

2. Why is it easier to criticize and find the negative than it is be complimentary and positive?

3. Why do people assume you want a white Christmas? I don't!

4. What does the face of God look like?

5. What will it feel like when I die?

6. I wonder who will remember me 100 years after my death?

7. How many souls are there?

8. Is Heaven crowded?

9. Why do we have to have cellulite and stretch marks?

10. What should I paint today?

I Love Ralph Marston Daily Motivators

I'm not sure how I found Ralph Marston's Daily Motivator site but I love it! And you will, too! Check it out.

Here's what Ralph says today:

Keep going

When you have a long way to go, keep going. When you’ve almost reached the goal, keep going.

Success is achieved by those who simply do whatever it takes to keep going. All it ever takes, is taking the next step. 

When you’re frustrated, make note of your frustration and keep going. When you’re tired and weary, take time out for a little rest, and then keep going. 

The real joy is in the journey, so give yourself the joy of making that journey. Pick yourself up, again and again, and keep going. 

You know full well that you can do it, so do it. Remind yourself why you’ve chosen to get there, and keep going. 

You are a bundle of beautiful and unique possibilities. Keep going, and bring the best of them to life.

— Ralph Marston

Poem of the Day: Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for death by Emily Dickinson


Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

Poem of the Day: Edgar Allan Poe

A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

10 things I should have learned by now:

1. I should have learned how to use comma's by now but I'm dreadful at putting them in the proper place.

2. How to cook.

3. I can not change anyone else. I can only change me.

4. Geography.

5. To be soft spoken in times of frustration.

6. I should have learned how to control my emotions by now.

7. Spanish.

8. Spend wisely. Save money.

9. To play the piano. I took so many lessons. But, sadly, I stink at it!

10. To always send a thank you note.

Poem of the Day: Maya Angelou

Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou


Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman


Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.


I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman


Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.


Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman


Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.


Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman


Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Poem of the Day: e e cummings

may i feel said he 
by E. E. Cummings


may i feel said he
(i'll squeal said she
just once said he)
it's fun said she
  
(may i touch said he
how much said she
a lot said he)
why not said she 
  
(let's go said he
not too far said she
what's too far said he
where you are said she)  

may i stay said he
which way said she
like this said he
if you kiss said she

may i move said he
is it love said she)
if you're willing said he
(but you're killing said she

but it's life said he
but your wife said she
now said he)
ow said she

(tiptop said he
don't stop said she
oh no said he)
go slow said she 
  
(cccome?said he
ummm said she)
you're divine!said he
(you are Mine said she)

Poem of the Day: William Butler Yeats

Brown Penny by William Butler Yeats

I whispered, 'I am too young,'
And then, 'I am old enough';
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
'Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.'
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.

O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

Poem of the Day: e e cummings

i carry your heart with me
By e e cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

10 places i have lived:

1. Refugio, Texas

2. Lubbock, Texas

3. Corpus Christi, Texas

4. Austin, Texas

5. Fort Worth, Texas

6. Bedford, Texas

7. Park City, Utah

8. Grapevine, Texas

9. Euless, Texas

oops.

10. to be determined at a later date

2012 - Year of Poetry

I'm a long time member and contributor to House of Shine. One of the rituals we have is naming our year. It started in 2009. In 2009, it was the Year of Art for me. I promptly jumped into my company fitness competition and art was pushed aside. The one thing I did do for art in 2009 was sign up to attend a workshop in February, 2010.

So, when 2010 rolled around- it was the Year of Art, Take 2. I attended the Robert Burridge Workshop and that helped educate and inspire painting in 2010.

And, this little blog of mine.

2011- Year of Love. What a great year! Amazing! Seriously. Wow.

After such a great year, it was hard to think of what else I could even want in my life. I pondered several things and finally settled on the Year of Poetry being inspired by Sarah Kay's Ted Speech and I have heard that poetry is the language of love so it just seems natural. Hopefully, it will inspire some painting as well.

What does the Year of Poetry mean? It means I will read poetry, write poetry, think poetry, speak poetry, hear poetry! I will even taste poetry somehow! I'm going to study the classic poets like Whitman, Frost, Cummings and Poe. I'm going to look to women poets like Plath, Angelou, and Dickinson. And, I'm going to revisit one of my favorite, fun writers, Shel Silverstein.

I'm going to revisit styles of poetry- the haiku, free verse, prose and more. I cannot say how many poems I will write or even if the ones I do write will be any good. I don't have a goal or a plan other than believing that something good will come from my Year of Poetry.

10 things I know about snow:

1. Snow sparkles in the light like a million tiny diamonds.

2. Snow is wet which would be could if you were dying of thirst but bad if you just wanted to be dry.

3. Snow is cold. Freezing cold to be exact. At first, it might be refreshing but after a while it's out and out numbing.

4. Snow is ugly when it mixes with mud. It's grey and dirty. And not sparkly.

5. Snow falls down light and fluffy sometimes in tiny flakes and sometimes in big, fat flakes.

6. When flakes group together, a few things can happen. If you gather them together in blocks, you can build a fort. Then you can gather them together in balls and have a snowball fight. And sometimes they crush together on their own and they're like a mean gang set on destroying everything they can weigh down.

7. Snow melts and creates ice. Ice is slippery to walk on. And, especially if you live in Texas, to drive on.

8. A lot of people like to ski on snow cutting through the air speeding down the side of a steep mountain creating that whooshing sound as they go. I am not one of those people.

9. Snow makes me want to crawl in bed with a big fuzzy blanket, a warm man, a hot cup of tea (or is it a hot man and a warm of cup of tea?), watch movies and snuggle all day.

10. Snow cones on a clear, sunny day are a beautiful thing.

10 things I wish for 2012.

1. Love

2. Peace

3. Health

4. Creativity

5. Music

6. Laughter

7. Wisdom

8. Kindness

9. Wealth

10. Love

I know! Love is on there twice but you can never have too much love- receiving and giving.