A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

F is for Family

The background is from Mother Night by Denys Cazet.

The family is from Wheels on the Bus (a Raffi Song to Read book) illustrated by Sylvie Kantorovitz Wickstrom.


I love the way this picture turned out. The family is the point of light in a dark world.

The question is, are they coming or going? Are they refugees fleeing a greater darkness? Or are they arriving home after a long journey?

Whichever it is, I see them pausing to look at their house.

In statistics, an outlier is an observation point that is distant from other observations.

I don’t think of my little family as outliers, though. I think of them as looking at home.

 

A to Z Blogging Challenge

E is for Escape

Jennifer Trafton Peterson, author of The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic and her brand-new book, Henry and the Chalk Dragon, explained her writing process something like this — “I think of a picture that makes me laugh, something funny, and I write to it.”

When she read aloud a portion of Henry and the Chalk Dragon last fall at Hutchmoot, the annual gathering of Rabbit Room peeps, it was the funniest thing I had heard in a long time. Of course, I immediately pre-ordered the book.

It arrived the other day. Every time I see it — and I set it in a place I would see it often — it gives me impetus to finish the book I’m currently reading so I can dive headlong into Henry’s adventure. Yes, it was written for 3rd grade boys, but I can’t tell you about a time that I’ve been more excited to read a book.

Henry and the Chalk Dragon has absolutely nothing to do with my “E” collage, except that I used the Jennifer Trafton method of creating. I sat one day with a pile of pictures spread out before me and thought about which ones would be funny together.

One of the results was this one — a butterfly chasing a pig.

It made me think of Monty Python’s Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog, when the knights were in denial of the danger, but it quickly turned to “Run away! Run away!”

My picture depicts a narrow escape from the Bloodcurdling Butterfly of Baoithein.


Fence and bunny from Catch Me, Catch Me! A Thomas the Tank Engine Story illustrated by Owain Bell

Fleeing pig from The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf illustrated by Keiko Motoyama

Butterfly from — I’m so sorry, dear illustrator, I don’t remember!

A to Z Blogging Challenge

D is for Danger

Rabbit from A Boy Who Wants a Dinosaur by Hiawyn Oram and Satoshi Kitamura
Train tracks from Catch Me, Catch Me! A Thomas the Tank Engine Story illustrated by Owain Bell
Lego guy from Lego City: Snow Chase — Scholastic Books
Extraneous bushes from ??

Ways to deal with danger (note — not all these are optimal):

  • See it. Recognize it.
  • Be immobilized by fear/horror.
  • Yell for help.
  • Be the help.

Things to do in the wake of tragedy (note — not all these are optimal):

  • Nothing.
  • Weep.
  • Clean up.
  • Prepare against further tragedy.
  • Push back with good.

Yesterday my Facebook news feed held horrific images from Syria.

I don’t do well with horrific images.

In fact, I turned off the television for years after seeing bodies floating in the Kigali River during the Rwandan genocide.

Mary was asking me about my memories of the Vietnam War era the other day. I told her that Time Magazine had images that I can’t erase from my mind.

I never watched Schindler’s List because I knew I couldn’t handle the violence of it. Someone told me that you get sort of used to seeing a Nazi pull out a gun and shoot someone in the head. I never want to get used to that.

At the same time, I don’t to be unaware, sticking my head in the sand. I read the news avidly.

I want to push back against the darkness in the world. How can I do that?

At the very least, I can champion for good with my words.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Life

C is for Christmas

That moment when you realize that there really is a Naughty/Nice list.

I fell in love with this little girl when I saw her, head in hands, sitting in the overstuffed chair. Who can’t relate to what she’s feeling?

One of my sons, when he was in the midst of a bad day, used to ask, “Why does everything bad happen to me?”

Some days just feel like that.

But, as Anne Shirley said, “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”

We’re always sitting on the cusp of a new day.


The little girl is from The Terrible Thing That Happened at Our House by Marge Blaine and illustrated by John Wallner.

Santa — and I love the grim look on his face, like he’s thinking, This is the downside of my job, but I’ve got to do it — is from Sandra Boynton’s Christmastime! I have been a HUGE Sandra Boynton fan since I first picked up a “Don’t let the turkeys get you down” mug at Logos Bookstore on Marshall Street in Syracuse in, maybe, 1980. I think we still have it. Once, probably 20 years ago, we drove to Stamford, NY, where she had an exhibit at an art center. She autographed some board books for us, but mostly I wanted to meet her. When I found her book at the thrift store, I felt a little sad that someone abused and discarded it.  At the same time I was thrilled at the chance of giving it new life in scenes like the one above.

The flooring in the room is from Ox-Cart Man (illustrator – Barbara Cooney).

The wallpaper is some leftover origami paper.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Life

B is for Buzz

A few weeks (or was it months?) ago, I sat at a little diner with Amy. It’s rare that I get to spend time with her anymore because I’m staying with my father so much. I had messaged her that day — “I’m going to be in Greene this afternoon. Do you have any time?”

We sat and talked for two hours, just sharing our lives with each other. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Amy? The openness and honesty of our conversations is always so refreshing.

In the course of our little tête–à–tête, Amy told me about a paper she was working on for a class she was taking.

“It’s a pretty big project,” she said. “I have to write a symbol paper.”

“What’s a symbol paper?” I asked.

“It’s a paper about a symbol,” she said.

Frankly, I’ve never been good at symbolism.

When I took a Flannery O’Connor class last year, we had to read “Good Country People.” In it  (spoiler alert), the main character, Hulga, has her wooden leg stolen by smarmy salesman. It turns out the leg was a symbol for something — I don’t even remember — but the whole time I thought it was just a leg.

I recently finished Ted Dekker’s Martyr’s Song in which ravens circle frequently and a dove alights at opportune times. Evil and good — that symbolism was a little too blatant for me. It felt forced.

Amy had chosen bees as her symbol. She and her husband have a hive, and she told me about all the places bees crop up in literature and art.

Suddenly, I was seeing bees everywhere.

Seriously.

In the dead of winter, of course, so they weren’t the live, buzzing, stinging, gathering pollen-and-nectar variety, but there they were, tucked into pictures in so many of the children’s books I had rescued. A bee seems to add a touch of realism to any garden picture.

I started collecting bees, too, along with my rabbit pictures from books. Bees show up in my cards with some frequency now.

But it’s prudent that I leave the symbolism aspect to Amy.


The card above is one of the first I made with bees in it. The big bee in the lower right corner (and the word “buzz”) is from Ezra Jack Keats’ book Over in the Meadow. The big splash of flowers are from a pop-up book that had been discarded because, as is the true fate of most pop-up books, it no longer popped, but was ripped on nearly every page. The other two flowers — the purple one with the bee visiting, and the yellow one behind — are from books that I forgot to make note of. Dear illustrators, please forgive me.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

A is for Anticipation (part two)

I mailed this card to my friend, Shannon, whose blog, moving honestly, is a most aptly named blog. The barn is from a falling apart copy of Ox-Cart Man, written by Donald Hall and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Honestly, I’m not 100% sure where the bunny or the background came from. I’m pretty sure that the rabbit was in an over-sized scribbled-in copy of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The snow scene — I just don’t know. I should keep better track of these things so I can give appropriate credit.

But here it is — April 1 — and I woke up to snow.

Every day, my father looks for blue skies. “Do you think we’ll see any blue skies today?” he asks every morning, peering out the window, not unlike my rabbit, wishing that he wasn’t seeing snow.

I left the house early this morning. My husband knows how stressed I have been lately and offered to hold down the fort so I could do something fun. I made plans to meet one of my children for breakfast.

My drive was beautiful. Snow clung to the trees and mist hung like a curtain on the hills. I finally pulled over to take a picture.

“Fred” treated me to breakfast. When we were going through the line, I answered a trivia question and won a free blueberry muffin from the chef. He rang wind chimes over the register when I told him the correct answer. His glasses were modeled after Elton John’s — white and rhinestone encrusted. I tried to refuse the prize because he had given me a hint.

“No, no,” he said, “I only told you what I wanted to tell you.”

He smiled, handed me my muffin, and started singing. It wasn’t “Good-bye Yellow Brick Road.” “Fred” says he sings all the time.

We went to a craft store after breakfast. I needed more Modge-Podge for my collages.

“Do you want me to ask where it is?” “Fred” asked.

“No,” I said, ” I think I’d just like to wander and find it.”

So we wandered, not in any order, sort of serpentine.

A man in the poster section called to us. “Hey! Look at this one,” he said to us as we walked past. He lifted a poster out that showed a silhouette of a cowboy riding a horse against a backdrop of red sky. “My wife knows this guy. She used to live in Wyoming.” The man was older, wearing a red flannel shirt and a NASCAR cap, and glasses with photochromic lenses — and he was pleased as punch that he was that close to celebrity.

“That’s pretty cool,” “Fred” and I both told him.

We continued our lazy search for Modge-Podge and eventually found it.

When I finally got back home, my dad asked if I had seen any blue skies.

“Not today,” I told him.

“Are we going to see blue skies sometime?” he asked.

“Tomorrow,” I said.

He’s living in anticipation of those blue skies. I know they’ll come. Sooner or later.

But for today, I’m going to live in the moment. I’m going to eat a blueberry muffin given to me because I knew something about David Cassidy, and revel in the fact that I met a man whose wife knows the guy on a cowboy poster.

It’s a good day.

 

A to Z Blogging Challenge

A is for Ambush

or,
A Preview for my 2017 A-to-Z Blogging Challenge

My topic for the A-to-Z Challenge this year is my kitschy collage artwork.

Sometimes I think of it as quirky; today it feels like kitsch.

I’ve planned out every day except one. J is giving me problems.

And some days, like A, I had multiple to choose from.

This was my initial A.

AMBUSH

I have two self-imposed rules for each card.

  1. No two pictures from the same book.
  2. It must tell a story.

I used to have a rabbit rule. A rabbit was to appear on every card, but I nixed that one. Rabbits can be hard to come by.

In the above picture, the monkey is Zephyr from Meet Babar and His Family (Laurent de Brunhoff),  the Lego Santa is from Snow Chase, a scholastic Lego book, the little boy is from Mother Goose Treasury, and the background is from Little Polar Bear, Take Me Home! (Hans de Beer).

You can make up your own story to go with it. I know what mine is. The collage definitely suggests a story.

But the picture bothered me. The boy’s scarf is blowing one way, and the Lego man’s beard is blowing another. Zephyr is actually standing on the polar bear but his head is hidden by the snowmobile. So I got this bright idea that I would “fix” the picture.

I added some greens to hide the scarf and partially mask where Zephyr is standing.

I wasn’t happy with the final product.

Oh, I’ll still send the card to somebody.

Just for laughs.

And because I know enough people who don’t mind imperfection.

But A is no longer Ambush.

Tune in next Saturday to find out what it is.

A to Z Blogging Challenge

Theme Reveal

Today is the theme reveal day for the A to Z Blogging Challenge.

This will be my third time doing the challenge. (This morning I re-released the posts from the other two years.)

In 2015, I just gotten back from Laity Lodge in Texas and my posts more or less revolved around that experience.

In 2016, still grieving for my mother, I wrote posts about her, dementia, caregiving, and such.

For 2017, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but struggled to find a label for it.

For some months now I have been playing with the art form of collage. I find children’s books that are in a state of disrepair, cut out the pictures, and make new pictures, mostly on cards.

I mailed a bunch out as cards to friends and family without scanning them to save the art, but now I scan what I make so I can remember.

At Christmas, I made a little picture for each family member that served as their place-card at the dinner table.

The more I do, the more I learn.

Cheap paints run. Note how blue Rabbit and the The Velveteen Rabbit are in their encounter in the lower right corner. The blue paint has just been a stinker for me. It ruined more pictures than I can say.

Cheap paper wrinkles when it’s glued. Some books have great pictures, but the paper is so cheap it’s almost not worth the time cutting the picture out.

Heavy glossy paper doesn’t glue well either. Pictures from pop-up books and the covers of coloring books just don’t want to stay stuck.

For April 2017, my A to Z Theme is Quirky Collage. A collage a day  — plus words, because I find them inescapable.

Hope you enjoy!

A to Z Blogging Challenge

Zaengle

Z is for Zaengle.

As much as I loved my retreat at Laity Lodge, I love even more coming home. I am blessed with a family.

We’ve been looking through old pictures here.  The photographs are needed for slide shows at milestone events. A wedding. A high school graduation.

Sometimes those years feel like a blur. We worked so hard. With so little sleep. It wasn’t always fun, but it was always good.

Here we are with four children. I ran out of hands at two. That’s why God invented backpacks and strollers.SCN_0094Five children. We would go to Myrtle Beach, driving through the night so the kids could sleep and not complain about the drive. It meant that Bud and I started every vacation exhausted. But it was always worth it.SCN_0075Six children. Five boys and one little girl. Family pictures were nearly impossible because of all the squirming.SCN_0001Eight children. Two girls at the end (shown here in the middle) to help even the score. Although it’s still not even. And I don’t believe in keeping score.Family picture 12-10I don’t ever want to take for granted this community of Zaengles.

But I also love that, in Isaiah, God addresses both the childless woman (Isaiah 55:1) and the eunuch (Isaiah 56:3-5), essentially the childless man. He promises them blessing beyond family.

Family is a rich blessing, but it’s not the only blessing. Blessings come in all shapes and sizes.

I’ve considered it a blessing to reach the end of this challenge — the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge.

Mark Twain said, “Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.”

Thoreau said, “An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

Joseph Addison said, “A contented mind is the greatest blessing that man can enjoy in this world.”

Euripides said, “Man has no blessing like a prudent friend.”

Walt Kelly said, “Every burden is a blessing.”

But then, Lou Gehrig — my favorite baseball player ever, in the greatest baseball speech ever, said, “When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it’s a blessing.”

Which brings me back to family – MY greatest blessing.

What’s yours?

A to Z Blogging Challenge

Yarn

Y is for Yarn.

Jennifer Trafton Peterson taught me to crochet at Laity Lodge.

Every time her husband announced the crocheting time and place, he called it knitting.

This is how I felt.Not really.

It just made me laugh. He was close — it had something to do with yarn.

I once had a friend teach me to knit. I completed one mitten. One very lonely mitten.

IMG_6304[1]Jennifer taught me to crochet and I’ve completed nothing.

It still takes too much focus when I crochet for it to be relaxing.

And that’s what I was going for — relaxing.

But my hands start cramping up.

And my handiwork looks uneven.

And my eyes start complaining.

So I walk the dog instead.

Now that is relaxing.

Maggie
I like to walk Maggie