Painting with Zoe #1

I told a few people about the paintings that I'm working on. I feel like this one is finished. The last [bottom] image is the final piece. I had this canvas sitting on the coffee table with a pencil because I was going to sketch a composition for it. Before I got to it, Zoe picked up the pencil and made her own marks. I really liked her lines so I painted them with a dark brown and then interpreted the rest of the space as an abstract landscape.
Having Zoe draw on the canvas really jumpstarts the painting process. Her mark-making is unlike anything I could do. My painting teacher would ask us to paint "with wild abandon" - try to let go of insecurities and technique and process and the pressure to paint the world's best painting. Since Zoe tends to do most everything with wild abandon, even eating a grilled cheese sandwich is a messy adventure, helping me with art is a great activity.
I think the title of this is Tree Canopy. It's a collaborative painting.

My KCMO T -shirt still fits!

Lemons

Today I processed a bag of lemons. I zested them all and then put half of the zest in the freezer and dehydrated the other half. Then I removed the rinds and put the lemons through the juicer. I have about 3 cups of lemon juice which will make a nice batch of lemon bars and a future lemon-flavored concoction to be named later.

Looking Out

I did not make it to the gym today. I'll have to go in the morning. I've made a deal with myself that I will try not to do any housework on the weekends. 5 days of cleaning is certainly enough. So today I did several loads of laundry AND hung everything up in the closets. I took care of the grocery shopping, the dishes and even cleaned the carpets. All of the little toys and books and dolls are put away and I organized three very chaotic drawers. The garbage is outside and the mail has been read and recycled. I am looking forward to climbing into bed and sleeping all the way through the night.

Growing Up

It is nearly the end of my birthday day. I am tired but unable to fall asleep just yet. I'm hoping that a little typing will quiet my mind. At the end of my Tues/Thursday kickboxing class we always do a short meditation which is my favorite part of the morning. The instructor tells us to listen to the music and to not think about anything. Which, she always says, is very hard to do. But try anyway. I always find myself thinking about something, but it must be in a compartmentalized way because when she tells us to slowly sit up [we lay flat on mats] I always feel like I've been asleep. So I often try this same technique at night - just fall asleep thinking about nothing. Sometimes it works; tonight not so much.

I noticed that the daffodils are returning at our house! The early Northwest Spring is one of my very favorite things. It is always a surprise to see flowers budding in February.

I've been thinking about my goals for this year. It might seem like a new concept for me, but it's really not. Since I have had a baby for the past year and have been in school for the past four years and before that my goal was really to graduate from college someday, for many years I've simply been trying to keep it together long enough to make it to a place where I could set some real goals.

I have some really good ideas.

Bread

I've been baking bread for many years. I've tried many variations and recipes but my favorite is still a standard, white loaf. My favorite thing about this particular bread is that it toasts beautifully and makes the World's Best Grilled Cheese Sandwich. It almost doesn't matter what kind of cheese you choose, the bread is so delicious when it's grilled with butter. Being the process-oriented person that I am, I thoroughly enjoy the few hours bread baking requires. The steps are therapeutic. I like the measuring of ingredients - both science and intuition. [Is it raining today? I might need a little more flour and a warmer kitchen.] The yeast rises in a small, blue bowl and makes everything possible. When the flour and warm milk first come together you have to put your trust in them. This is one of those moments where you just have to believe in something. I always mix dough with my hands. My mixer has a dough hook but it looks like it's torturing the dough as it drags it around the bowl while the mixer growls rawrr rawrr rawrr rawrr. No, I choose the quiet peace of my hands and the gooey mess in a green bowl. After some time those simple ingredients become a non-sticky ball of bread dough. And it needs to be kneaded. My small sense of acomplishment [dough!] is overshadowed by the work ahead. My brain selects a random song lyric and repeats it so that my arms and hands have help keeping a rythym. As I push and turn, push and turn, push and turn, it's helpful to hum something repetitive like "you can stand under my umbrella-ella -ella-a-a, under my umbrella-ella-ella-a-a" or even "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, the medicine go do-own, the medicine go down." And then finally I reach a magical moment when I can tell by looking at the dough [it's not stringy] and pressing it gently [it springs back] and feeling it in my hands [it is not dry, but not wet] that it is ready to rise.