moon, gardens & clay

Lantern house for candles that I made in my class.

Ezra likes it and the girls keep stealing it for little creature games.

It's a full moon, I can feel it, there is weirdness all around. Also it's as bright as daylight at night, that was another hint. It's been pretty up & down around here. Mostly down as we've done the sick routine over the last two weeks. School expectations got ignored by all of us and it's been a slog getting back into it. Same old dilemma of books vs. stuff we want to do. Yesterday we did bookwork and today we had some fun. Ivy & Jeremy are playing simple but beautiful duets on their violins, a lovely milestone in their learning as far as I'm concerned.

Ella recently finished the Magic Treehouse book "Dawn of the Red Dragon" (#37) and it was beautifully illustrated. We all loved the pictures so we used it for our "art inspiration" this week. We drew & painted interpretations of gardens and traditional looking Japanese houses. When we finished with that we attempted some rudimentary Haiku and short poems. It was sunny, fun and relaxing. We might even have learned something, who knows?

I've been spending a few hours, several times a week down at the guild. I'll find any opportunity to announce that I belong to a guild. I think it used to be more meaningful in that you actually had to be trained in the particular trade before you could join. It's taken more focus than I'm used to to go there and practise, rather than create. It's a very different mindset with different rewards and frustrations. Several times I have thrown and recycled my clay all evening. I don't always have the willpower to destroy it all though and will keep my favorite item to turn into something.

A work in progress

Still on an artsy note, I volunteered to be part of the committee putting together the kids summer art programs this year. I didn't contribute a whole lot (yet?) but it has been fun to be in on the process and be able to provide some feedback about my children's experiences in the courses.