homeschooling update

I thought I would give a little update now that we are about eight weeks into our homeschooling experience. All in all, I would say it's been a very smooth transition for both of us. Elizabeth largely keeps to herself while she's working, which allows me to get my own work done around the house and kitchen.

The way that've we chosen to set our schoolwork schedule for the week is a list organized by subject. She mostly picks and chooses what she wants to work on at any given time, although she's getting good at spreading out things like math, that are more effective when studied daily. We've tried to spread out extracurricular activities so she's only really home all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

On Mondays, she's been taking a metal working class our local art school. On Wednesdays, she volunteers at her old elementary school and has violin lessons. And most Fridays she visits some of her middle school friends at their high schools for lunch. She still misses being around her friends on a regular basis, but she enjoys the schoolwork that she's doing. Most weeks she's done with her work by Thursday afternoon, which leaves Fridays to take field trips or watch movies relating to her studies. She has more time for personal reading, she's been teaching herself to play various songs on the keyboard, and she has more time to spend on painting.

The photos above are from our excursion to the Reynolda House Museum of Art last Friday. Their new exhibit, The Artist's Garden, was a wonderful treat, full of American Impressionist paintings. After we had our fill of the museum, we wandered the gardens. Well, I wandered; Elizabeth mostly read. And somewhere in there she talked me into an Art-o-mat purchase of "modern cave art".

a morning with Rembrandt

Elizabeth and Paul are both great fans of Rembrandt so when we heard that Rembrandt in America was coming to the NC Museum of Art, we knew that we needed to take a morning to visit the exhibit. Today, Paul conveniently had the time off from work for the holidays so we took a break from our Christmas celebrating and headed an hour down the road to see Rembrandt's work. Of course, they wouldn't actually let me take pictures in the exhibit so you'll have to go check it out for yourself, but suffice to say we had a wonderful time. And the rest of the museum wasn't bad either. They even have a great room of American artists including many NC artists which really drew Elizabeth's attention. A pause in the middle of the holiday craziness was a marvelous idea...now on with the rest of the show!

on the town

pictorial journey through our date last night

If you're local, you can find all these fabulous spots here, here, here and here. Oh, you can find more about the art-o-mats here, and my obsession with them here.

corners of...glass

When I posted a "corners of" post last, I had a thought that it might become a weekly series here. Alas, two and a half months have past, and I'm finally getting around to another one! But here we are...and here are my corners of glass.

When I was much younger, I remember watching a movie which showed one of the characters blowing glass. Watching the glowing hot lump of glass turn into a beautiful vase, I thought that was surely the most fascinating, and brave, form of artwork I'd ever seen. With one glassblowing class now under my belt (when Finn was 3 weeks old, no less!), I'm happy to leave glassblowing for those less afraid of blowtorches and molten glass and admire the few pieces that I still have from my class. And of course, those I've acquired from other fabulous glass artists.

Hanging over our breakfast nook bay window, glass orbs from a local artist.

The way the light bends and changes through the texture and color of the glass can be amazing sometimes.

The "extras" sit in a bowl on a library shelf. Only 2 of these are from a local artist, one is from Asheville and the other is from a trip to Italy. (The green wool ball in the back is from our trip to Ireland.) I love how seeing these pieces can transport me back to where I was and what I was doing at that time.

A funky little artistic piece made with copper and glass hangs in our kitchen window, a reminder of a fun Christmas party gift exchange.

This next piece sits in my bedroom window. Made from stained glass and copper, it is part of my art-o-mat collection.

And one of the remainders from my glassblowing class, a long, skinny doggy. :)

And a pile of beads. I've intentioned to make them into a ceiling fan chain pull, but that clearly hasn't happened yet.

Even Elizabeth's gotten in on the action a little bit with this glass she covered at yarn camp last year. It looks beautiful with a candle inside!

corners of...pottery

I recently came to the realization that although my blog's name calls us an art family, and I frequently share our family arts and crafts, I don't often speak of mine or Paul's artistic interests. I thought I might start sharing a bit of that here and there as the opportunity affords itself. Foremost I keep this blog as a journal for my kids so I thought they might enjoy someday seeing these posts about the art that filled their childhood spaces. Or maybe they will flip past these journaling pages wondering why I spent so much time talking about my knitting and the art on our walls. Who knows!

My first artistic passion blossomed out of my custody arrangement when Elizabeth's dad and I first split up. I really needed something to occupy my Tuesdays, when Elizabeth spent the evening with her dad, to take my mind off the current situation. What started out as a one-time class to explore throwing pottery, an art form I'd always admired, became 3 straight years of non-stop pottery classes including a 3 month stint taking one-on-one lessons with a master potter. I don't think that all those lessons brought me to any level of expertise, but I'd never been able to truly lose myself in any type of art before, regardless of the finished product, and to find that deep relaxation which comes from practicing a true artistic passion.

The following pieces are scattered throughout our house, although this is less than 1/4 of the pottery in our house and most was made by me, except where otherwise notated.

{hand-built polka-dotted mushroom}

{Elizabeth's face bowl, reminiscent of local tradition}

{wheel-thrown bulb vase}

{first raku piece, with metallic glaze}

{a print I made for our kitchen

from a photograph of of a vase I threw}

{pottery in our headboard,

furthest on right was a gift from South Dakota}

{crystalline pottery from Seagrove}

{Paulie's pottery mask}

My most treasured new piece of pottery is this pendant that Finn made me for Mother's Day this year. How thrilling to have my littlest make me such a sweet piece of pottery! As his first piece it certainly holds a special place in my heart.

Although I truly enjoy and have grown immensely through pottery, my life now as a working mama to 4 little ones doesn't leave much time for pottery anymore. I'm ok with that for now since I've found other creative endeavors to keep me busy. I know that one day my arms will be less full and my hands less busy and I'll find my way back to the world of pottery on a regular basis. For now it just fills me with joy to have pottery around the house, in these corners.

art in my mailbox

The most beautiful and extraordinary piece of mail arrived yesterday.

But before I get to that, I should mention that this is an amazing technological time in which we live. I have a group of wonderful friends across the US, even the world, whom I've never met, yet they are the most supportive, creative, hands-on blogging mamas. I may never meet some, or most, of them in person, but they are intricately woven into the fabric of my life and encourage and inspire me in so many ways.

Similarly, social networking tools, like Facebook, have done the same thing with people who used to be a daily part of my life. I love seeing where my high school and college friends are now and the lives they've built for themselves. Even more than that, I love seeing a glimpse into my husband's past life, "meeting" his friends from college and his early career days. One friend of his in particular (actually, I think they weren't very good friends back in their college days, although they had the same circle of friends) reconnected with him over Facebook and then started following my blog. She and I would have conversations over his status updates, and we soon became friends ourselves. I have never met Jodi in person, but I can tell you this, she's an amazing mother, artist and friend.

About that beautiful and extraordinary package that appeared in our mailbox, this stunning card which she made, then wrote a lovely note inside.

And that was just the beginning.

Out of a lovely brown organza bag, appeared this gift. A place to record our cherished memories and important dates. There were pictures of our family, meaningful quotes, and bits of beautiful color and texture everywhere.

I know my pictures don't do it justice, and as Paul says, you can't get it's full effect without feeling it anyway. But trust me, this will be a cherished piece of art in our house.

See more of Jodi's incredible work here and here. Thanks again, Jodi! We truly love our gift and are honored that you would share your art with us in this way. :)

the art of creativity

The most recent issue of Hip Mama, on creativity, really struck a chord with me. As an self-described "art family", creativity is something we live out in our daily life, not just in the moments we spend with charcoal and pastels. This quote in particular really spoke to me:

"My kids keep me creative. As mothers we are forced to improvise our existence to meet the chaos of life. A creative mother sings the scrapes and bruises away, makes sushi pizza as requested and takes their babes on fantastic voyages just before bedtime. Kids press our imaginations beyond the limits of reality. They help us find art in every breath." ~ Rose Norton

Don't get me wrong. Much of the day our creativity plays out like this:

*learning the ins and outs of watercolor pencils

* bathroom science experiments

*knights battling in the window

But just as often, our creativity is in this form:

*new bread recipes, enjoyed fresh from the oven

*watching Mozart - Die Zauberflote Fur Kinder (a live stage version of The Magic Flute) in German

* made up songs to help weepy, cranky or obstinate little ones laugh

Five little Finnegans jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Mama gave him arnica and Mama said, "No more Finnegans jumping on the bed"! Four little Finnegans jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Mama gave him arnica and Mama said, "No more Finnegans jumping on the bed"! ...and so on.

Passive creativity, as I like to think of it, is more of the backbone of our life rather than the creative goals or projects we consciously plan. But it really isn't all that passive, is it? This choice we make in every moment, at many forked points during the day, to take the road less traveled by dancing our way creatively through this parenting process...this life.

weekend with family

Paul, Finn and I ventured down to visit my brother's family in Charlotte this weekend. We were excited to see, not only family, but a show of my brother's photography in a Caribou Coffee near downtown.

Finn was able to eat his morning snack under Uncle John's photography. Very cool! We even walked away with these two prints for our upstairs bathroom. (I always keep a link to his flickr photostream in my sidebar if you ever want to see what he's shooting.)

After visiting the coffeeshop, we headed out to Aidan's (my oldest nephew) last soccer game of the season. He was very serious about his sport, which was so cute since I often see 3 year olds on the soccer field more interested in picking daisies on the sidelines.

Paul was happy to hang out cuddling with Aidan's little brother, Aren.

While Aidan played soccer, Finn and Aunt Michelle hunted for special leaves near the field.

I just loved this shot of him checking out the leaves and seed pods on the tree above him. :)

Then he found a bench under a beautiful red tree. How could you resist picking those?!

Ok, Grammy and Grandad, here are all three of your adorable grandsons looking clean and happy before bed.

The above shot lasted about 3 seconds before Aren crawled off and Finn and Aidan cracked up laughing.

They had the best time together all weekend.

Then Uncle John read everyone a bedtime book, and we lamented again that we aren't able to see them enough.

Thanks, John, Michelle, Aidan and Aren, for a wonderful weekend. Mom and Dad, you can't complain for at least a few weeks that you haven't seen enough of your grandkids on here. ;)