May Act Three: The Rainbarrel

So, a year ago one of my co-workers commissioned me to paint a rain barrel for her. I had painted one before for the St. James Art Show several summers ago and had sworn I'd never do it again unless I got paid. Well, now I'll never do one again for any amount of money! Well...maybe $1000, but anyone that will pay that is crazy because no paint will ever permanently stick to one of these barrels!

For the first 4 months that I had the rainbarrel, it sat in my garage untouched. I had told my co-worker that I probably would not be able to work on it immediately because I was busy getting ready for camps. Well, then I got pregnant and was nauseous for three months and broke my foot and it was 100 degrees all summer. Come fall, I finally got around to sanding, priming and base coating it, at which point we brought it inside. In the process of bringing it in from the garage, some of the base and primer got scraped, proving once again that no paint will stick to this surface! I lost all motivation and it sat in our dining room through Christmas. Then ABRAM arrived! And I thought I had been busy before! I was off on maternity leave but was so busy I didn't have time to work on the barrel until right before coming back to work. I went and stayed with Mom and Dad for a week, so while my mom played with Abram, I painted, and painted and painted.

First the brick base.

Then the mortar joints and the "well" on top.

Then started the foliage for the lillies, tulips and roses.

Dad worked on the rose foliage for me. By the end of the week, this was all we completed. So I brought the barrel home and worked on tulips for about 3 weeks straight, one hour at a time in the morning while Abram was napping. This became very tedious. I was really glad when I was able to move on to the grass, lillies and roses.

I knocked the lillies out in one weekend....they were rather difficult, but I developed a pattern and it got easier as it went. Then I finally got to the roses, the last of the flowers, and they went rather quickly. I had given myself an "end of May" deadline, so that this would be completed before camps started. And I did it! Here are some pictures from various angles.

This little hummingbird was the finishing touch!

So after a year had passed, a pregnancy, a birth, a broken foot a summer of camps, and hours of painting. It's finished and I'm $250 richer.

And this is how I really feel!

May Act Two: Camping

Well, not really camping, but we stayed in a very nice humongous cabin on the Blue River with our small group from church. It was really fun! Abram did well, slept thru the night and napped well in this pack n play and experienced his first camp fire! We went kayaking one day while our friend watched Abram. Curtis had not tried that before and he really enjoyed it! This was also my first Mother's Day! The guys got all the girls pretty flowers and cooked us an AMAZING breakfast! It was a wonderful weekend...thank you to Paul for arranging it for us.

This cabin on the Blue River is owned by Missy Bush. She is working on a website for renting her cabins and I will link it once it's available. The place was very nice to stay in and I've recommended that we use it for our staff retreat this year! So peaceful!

We hadn't traveled with the pack n play yet and it worked very well!

I know these are a bit hard to see, but so much more representative of the experience than the pictures with the flash. Abram seemed mesmerized by the fire...as we all are really.

Dean, Rayla and Alicia by the fire.

I'll post a kayak picture as soon as Donna gets it to me.

May Act One: My Irises

There have been lots of pictures taken in May and most of them fall into four distinct categories. The first being "My Irises." They really need no captions. I always tell people that whenever we sell this house, we must list it in mid-late April, so that people will see this when they come to look at the place! They are so beautiful and smell heavenly. I love them!

4 months!!!

"We're doing this again already?"

"Well, good luck taking pictures of me smiling real big."

"I did that last month..."

"This month I'm just gonna chill here in the chair."

"And stare at things other than the camera..."

"Or the crazy big people making funny faces and weird noises at me. Why do they do that?"

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go!

I returned to work full time on April 19th. It was a day I was simultaneously looking forward to and dreading. My first week back was a short one because of Good Friday. Now I'm almost through my first full week. It's wonderful to reconnect with the kids at work and to play with them. A month of playing with those kids and I think I'll lose that last bit of baby fat! Everyone seemed really happy that I'm back, so that feels really good.

Curtis's mother has come to stay with us through the baseball season, which is a huge blessing. It is wonderful to be able to leave the house knowing Abram is loved and well cared for. It's also nice to have some company since I'm usually home alone with Abram in the mornings and Curtis is usually home with Abram in the evenings. We'll have to figure out another arrangement come fall, but I'll worry about that a little later in the summer.

So the return to work has been pretty smooth. Pumping at work is a pain, but necessary if I'm going to continue breastfeeding. I'm not planning on introducing solids until closer to 6 months, so the pump is a must! I don't think too much about Abram while I"m at work because I stay pretty busy, but when I get home the guilt kicks in. I do feel bad being away from him for such a long stretch during the day. He's this perfect little gift that God has given me and it feels wrong to leave him and carry on with my life like nothing has happened. I pray for the day where I will be able to raise my own children.

Until then, I make the most of every moment I have with my son. He was very "chatty" when I got home from work the other night and Curtis got a video of some of our "conversation."

Abram's First Easter

Curtis and Abram both looked pretty handsome for church! We went to the Friday evening service because it fit best with the feeding schedule. Abram was good during the service...although he doesn't sleep through them anymore. He'll probably have to go to the nursery soon...he'll have more fun and we can concentrate better on the message!
We went to eat dinner at Tumbleweeds after church. YUM!

The Easter Bunny arrived on Sunday afternoon, bringing her haul from home! We'll never need to buy this child any presents...and he's still going to think that's what is supposed to happen every holiday.

I liked the Giraffe Easter basket.

Hobo tried his hand at being the Cadbury Easter Bunny.

April Showers Bring Mushrooms

We've had a record rainfall this April in the Kentuckiana area. 20 inches...the previous record was 13. We had a stretch of weather where it's rained everyday for almost 2 weeks straight. It was still raining when I took this picture of the gage and I think it was about full when Curtis dumped it.

Our unfinished walkway off the deck was a swimming pool. The boards floated out from the gap under the gate. We thought the garage might flood but the waters receded between downpours and the garage stayed dry.

Water was flowing in over the bottom rail of the fence...I can't imagine what our yard would look like without the fence and irises blocking the run off. We would have zero grass!

The great thing about warm, wet weather is that mushrooms LOVE it! Curtis went out 3 times right around Easter and found a total of 27 morels. That's 27 more than we've found the last two years.

They were VERY tasty! :)