Anyone Still Here?

04.07.23

It has been a long time since I visited this space, much less write in this space. My last entry was my 49th birthday, in 2019.

A lot has happened in our lives and family since that time.

We survived a “pandemic” and three graduations (two high school and one college).

My husband left a ten year position at Terumo while dealing with the physical side effects of Lymes disease. Being free of a factory job has opened a door back into ministry, in a rather glorious way, and is leading a congregation of Filipino Christians here in Maryland. He is currently working four jobs; as a substitute for the local public school system and a few other side jobs.

I started a new “career” at Lowes. I have moved up from lowly part-time cashier to become the full-time PRO-cashier for our PRO department at Lowes, mainly working with contractors which are in on an almost daily basis and often several times a day. The social side of me loves the job. The physical side of me needed the regular hours, having crossed the half century mark.

Our oldest daughter has flown the coup and is out on her own, the boys are flying through college and our youngest daughter is thriving in high school.

I’ve become an orphan of sorts, my mom having lost a battle with cancer in November 2022. (My father passed in 2017.)

I kept promising myself I would come back here again and strive to write more consistently. Maybe 2023 will be the year… I have one “goal” for my year: Be not idle. I have been far too addicted to my phone: the draw of social media and mindless games have been a distraction from living life. As I wage war against the addictive phone I have turned back to reading, and painting again (actually finishing a commission, displayed in this post, I began in 2017!) and trying to do better at keeping up with household chores. Who knows, I might actually pick my cross-stitch back up again, that is something I haven’t done in 25 years… or quilt… learn to knit…

…is that my ADHD kicking in?

In the comments below, introduce yourself if you are new around here. If you are reading this in your inbox, click on the title of the post and hop over and say hello!

Another Year Older…

03.16.19

I seem to always come back to this space on my birthday every year. As I grow another year older so does the old blog.

This year I have redesigned and I am hoping to go in a slightly different direction, not quite starting over but definitely moving away from where I have been.

As God keeps pulling me in the direction of doing more art, I decided that my blog needed to go that direction as well.

There is more I need to do around here. I want to separate the Gallery up into several different galleries, separating them by subject matter. If you visit the Folio page here on Hiking Toward Home, it will take a while to load all the thumbnails, also if you double click on an image it will enlarge.

I am looking forward to this yearn being more productive. I finally feel better mentally and feel like I have more energy and am more motivated to get stuff done. We have hooked up them cable TV and watching HGTV is making me actually WANT to finish unpacking and decorating my house. Yes, we have been in this house for two years and it STILL looks like we just moved in.

My Drug of Choice

12.04.18

How Mango spends her days.

I have been going through the Lysa Terkeurst study Made to Crave with a group of ladies at our church.

While listening to others speak about different kinds of addictions related to food, not just the over-eating but also the two extremes that can overtake a person too like not eating or eating and purging it. As the phrase “drug of choice” was thrown into the fray of words, I asked God if I had a “drug of choice” and I was surprised by the answer and immediately realized I had a bigger problem than I wanted to admit to.

We all have something that we turn to instead of doing what we should. That hang-up we keep going back to and can’t seem to get away from, it could be lots of things, over-spending, over-eating, hoarding cats (which I’m sure my husband thinks I suffer from- no wait- I enjoy, He suffers), etc. Addiction comes in all sorts of forms not just drug addiction, alcohol addiction, smoking, vaping and things that are physically bad for you.

What are we not giving up that we know we would be better without?

I’m finding that my drug of choice is not food as I once thought it might have been. I’ve been eating pretty healthy and making good portion choices but there is still something missing that is keeping me from being healthy and reaching my goals.

My Drug of Choice is not that spectacular or shocking.

It’s sitting in my chair.

It’s doing nothing.

It’s sitting still while using excuses like: I’m reading, I’m studying, I’m working on my computer, or I’M BLOGGING… The reality is: these things are not ACTUALLY being accomplished.

The hard fact is: I am avoiding things that make me move. Grading papers, Doing laundry, Washing dishes, Cleaning the bathroom, Running the vacuum, Dusting the shelves, Unpacking boxes… (Yes, two years after moving in, I am still unpacking.)

There was a time when I needed to be “doing nothing.” A time when I was recovering from depression and I needed to take it slow and rest. However that time has morphed into just being lazy and doing nothing. I no longer feel the weight of the world and the heaviness of depression daily like I once did. Praise Jesus! So that is not a viable reason to still be sitting around and not working and not being active, especially within my own home.

I need to leave my laziness on the alter and ask God to help me kick this addiction.

One of the Fruits of the Spirit is temperance, also known as SELF-CONTROL. I find though that there must be some effort on our part to put it into play. We need to access it and act on it. Prove to ourselves we have it by putting action to it and seeing its benefits change our lives.

Do you have anything you are secretly addicted to?

Will you join me today in kicking our addictions and giving them to God?

Another Weird Mantel

10.17.18

A few years ago I lived in a house that had a mantel with what looked like a long horn steer head in the middle of it.

The keystone was shaped like a head and the upper corner stones sat out from the rest of the stones and looked like horns; it even had eyes.

I could never look at it without this stoney animal staring out at me.

Now I have another “problem” mantel.

I LOVE the fireplace, though I dream of painting the brick white.

It actually isn’t the mantel that is weird or makes it odd, it is the ceiling above it.

Why would anyone do this?

We are not even sure why it is formed this way.

But it drives me nuts and I have no idea what to do with it when it comes to decorating it.

Ideas and suggestions are very welcome… leave them in the comments. Pretty please?

Disappointment and Trusting God

10.01.18

I have had this fear for a long time,

…a fear of messing up or wasting good paper.

Good watercolor paper is expensive.

I have fallen into the trap of buying the cheaper paper far too many times. I can’t count the times I have used cheaper paper and had it begin to disintegrate when I was close to finishing a painting. I was disappointed again when it came to my sunflower; the paper began to disintegrate as I was going back and adding details and lifting pigment. I have learned the hard way not to use junky paper. Canson XL is not worth the heartache.

So why do I keep going back to cheap paper?

It has come to my attention recently that it is due to a lack of trust in God.

Yes, it may sound a bit off the wall but stick with me and let me explain.

God created me and called me to be an artist. Why do I keep NOT trusting Him to supply my needs to do what He has called me to?

As I sat there disappointed and staring at the mess the sunflower had become due to the paper falling apart under my brush and God asked me why I didn’t trust Him.

What?

Yup. The thought, not my own, came to me that by continuing to use cheap paper (instead of the paper that I used all the way through college and know I can trust not to fall apart -paper that can handle being thoroughly soaked and does not disintegrate when lifting excess pigment and can withstand some scrubbing with a brush) I am really not trusting God to meet the need of having good paper to paint on.

He keeps leading me to pursue my painting… why would He not meet the needs to do that?

A Quick story…

I had been asked to paint a backdrop for our church’s silent drama team, Speechless. I began to work on it and the day I needed to finish it up was the day I was T-boned by a lady in her brand new SUV and I spent the rest of the day/evening/night in the ER. So a good friend of mine finished up the painting where I had left off. Praise the Lord for artist friends.

Later, Speechless presented me with a Thank you note containing a gift card to an art store for doing their backdrop. Guess what I spent it on? Yup, ARCHES paper. No more Canson XL paper for me.

God provided THAT paper; why wouldn’t he supply more? Instances like this confirm to me that I am on the right trail and going the correct direction.