Art in the Park

At the very same park where the great mother daughter picnic took place, our church sponsored "Art in the Park" last Sunday evening. A friend at church talked me into face painting and I discovered that I had a latent face painting ability. It was exciting. I got a kick out of a girl from Guatemala who very seriously asked me to paint her 2 little strawberries on her cheek and red star with a black dot in it on her forehead. They turned out really good except that the star looked more like a poppy. I didn't do all of these, but here is a sample of our work:

Walking on the Beach

Maria, June 2006

When the Queen Mother was here for Edward's graduation, she presented Maria with a very special birthday present. Below you can see her watercolor interpretation of the photo above. This is something I think she will treasure for years to come!


Maria with watercolor by Grandma, May 2008

Home Sweet Home

One of my goals for this year is to get this house whipped into shape. Part of this involves putting pictures up on the wall. The holiday yesterday gave us the perfect opportunity to work on this: John told me it doesn't take a rocket scientist (ie. him) to do it, but yet. I wanted his input. These photos which I took of Edward, Maria & Bridget(above) last summer are now above the computer so I can stare at them whilst I blog. I'm happy with them. It actually looks like someone lives here now.

The Queen Mother has hassled me :) for years about the Picasso we had up in our living room. It is from his Blue period and I have always liked it but she didn't think it was "pretty" enough for a living area. I am glad to say I will continue to like it in my bedroom where we have blue walls. We also put up a print from Cape Cod and other pictures. In all we hung 13 pictures so I guess we're here to stay now.



The sad little blue man was replaced by the tulips painted by HRH.

The Sands of Time

A friend of mine took a trip to Israel & Jordan in October for 2 weeks. She asked me to pray for her before she left - 2 weeks is a long time to be so far away from your family - so I did. I was thinking later that I should have asked her to bring me back some dirt or something because that would have been cool to have some actual dirt that might have been around in Bible times, but I didn't think of it at the time. She brought me back something even better - colored sand in a bottle - I don't know how they got it in there like that - from the archaeological site of Petra in Jordan. I put it next to Oma's Bijbel.

Something for a Cold November Day

The Queen Mother's Squash Soup
2 med squash (summer or acorn)
1/2 t. curry 4 c. chicken broth 1/2 t. dry mustard
1/2 c chopped leaks 1/2 t. ginger salt pepper

More or less of the ingredients may be added. Can use both types of squash.Place on cookie sheet: whole, unpeeled squash in 375 degree oven for 1 hour or until soft. (Test by piercing w/knife) Remove from oven and cool. When cool (or warm) peel squash and core. Cut into chunks and place in sauce pan w/chicken stock, leaks and seasonings. Simmer for 1/2 hour. Blend hot soup in small batches in the blender. Correct seasonings. Freezes well.

I made this for my kids a couple of weeks ago and told them all to pretend like they were eating squash baby food. It does have a bit more zest.

Light in the Dark

The Lord is my light and my salvation-- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-- of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

This morning, John & I went to the prayer meeting for the Riverfest this afternoon. The theme this week is "Art in the Park", but as it is a dark, rainy day, we're going to have it in the Warehouse. We prayed this morning with Psalm 27 in mind.

A few years ago, I went to hear Diet Eman, author of the book Things We Couldn't Say, tell her stories of working with the Dutch Resistance in WWII. I will never forget her and how her faith motivated her during this time. When I asked her to sign the book, she wrote in letters that reminded me of my own Dutch Oma, "To Julia, With Psalm 27, Diet Eman." And now Psalm 27 reminds me of the terrible times the Dutch had to go through in WWII, but how their faith in God sustained them.

I think we shouldn't be afraid of a little rain today.

The Great Purple Jewel

I know I said I would reveal the secret in the comments, but since you may not remember to go back and look, I'll post the answer here.



The purple round thing is a bowling ball covered by purple glass beads. It's actually garden art made by HRH The Queen Mother, but since she first told me it was a bowling ball, that's what I see when I look at the picture. I'm thinking it will look better when I see it in real life.

Side note: The Queen Mum is not a bowler.

The Round Purple Thing

Any guesses as to what this is? I will reveal the secret in the comments in a couple of days!