Some folks have complained that I am in none of my pictures. Well here is me last week on our way to eat at a downtown Houston restaurant 'Arista' before going to the Alley Theatre. NOTE: I have worked out how to make earrings to match my necklaces - it is so easy and satisfying I can't believe it took me 33 years to find this art!

10 years later

Mark and I will have been married 10 years on May 12. I think of someone married for 10 years as old... but I think of me as young. I still feel 19 (for the longest I felt 15, so at least I am growing up a little).

Mark has arranged a wonderful 2 days for us to celebrate. We are going to Houston to stay at the Four Seasons! We will be dining out and attending a show at the Alley Thursday and then the Opera on Friday. On Friday day we are going to do the things in Houston we love to do - visit the art museum, sit in a coffee shop or two, perhaps go to a movie. And of course we will eat out. I am so impressed that Mark arranged this all for us. He is not a detail guy. This is the perfect way for us to celebrate 'us' - being in the city we love, doing city things.

And we will be home in the Texas country for a weekend with kids that will be glad to have us back.

(Matthew and Lily both protested at our plans... but I know they will have fun with the rotation of people from our church coming to stay with them day and night.)

I want to be on record: I love being married to Mark Cole.

This is my dad when he was little.  

I like the lightness of this one. It reminds me of a rainbow. 

I am using gesso in my art now. It makes for a nice soft image (doesn't at all suit my house... so if anyone is looking for some light colored art I have lots more of these....)

For arts and crafts we are using 'The Little Hands Art Book' by Judy Press. In this book there are lots of simple to follow craft activities for 2 to 6 years olds. Here the kids are showing examples of their 'puddle art'.

Here are some other projects we did - Lily's paper dolls and Matthew and Lily's paper houses. The houses have thier details drawn first, cut out and glued on. (I cut out Lily's house and paper dolls for her)

Here is one project that we modified from that book. It took a few days to complete: A Flower mobile. The kids painted paper plates on one side, let them dry overnight. Then they painted the other - swirling the paint around with brushes and adding silver paint. When both sides were dry Matthew and I drew flower shapes on the plates and cut them out. We hole punched one petal on each flower and strung them up on a clothes hanger, spacing them out so the hanger doesn't tip.

Matthew working on his itty bitty wire sculpture. It involved shaping wire and sticking it into a play dough base. It would have been bigger had we had more play dough, but I could only find a tiny amount, so had to adjust the scale of our art work accordingly. This project reminded me to always have my supplies stocked up! I mean what mom runs out of play dough?

Lily's itty bitty wire sculpture. 

Lily and here buddy Ellie in a car with Chuck E Cheese. Lily first met Ellie when she was about 9 months old and it took her a number of months to warm up to her. By about 18 months she called her first doll after her. They are now such good buddies. Lily takes a long time to warm up to people in general. Lots of the little girls at our new church try to befriend her, but Lily doesn't show much interest. I was wondering if she is shy... but with the choosen few she is out going and lots of fun. Perhaps she is the type that just doesn't have many friends. Now we live out of Houston we don't see Ellie much, but when we do she her, it is like we were never apart. It is sweet to watch.  

Last week we went to Chuck E Cheese. Here is Laura enjoying Bob the Builder ride. She is enjoying her little life more and more each day.  

Late night school

Midnight Sunday evening at the Cole home, I am again reminded of the freedom that homeschooling allows us. Matthew has learned that if he does something the night before he doesn’t have so much to so the next day! This evening he did Bible with his dad, then when I came down from my evening painting at about 10:40pm he was ready to do phonics and literature! So we now only have to do grammar & math to do tomorrow.

I can see this becoming a trend. Both Matthew and I are night owls and we really are not accountable to anyone but Mark and God. We could easily get lots of school done in the evening.

Some may worry about Matthew finding it hard in later life in holding down a real job that expects him to be at work at 8 am…. Well my response is that while habits are being formed now they are not set in stone. He could adapt to waking early like all the other night owls through history have done. He is learning discipline in other areas of his life and will be able to apply it to waking, if he has to. Alternatively, the world is changing, technology is advancing. Money can be earned from the comfort of your own home, ideas can be developed at any time of the day. Sometimes Mark gets up to write at 3am and returns to bed at 5am. Matthew’s generation will have even more flexibility than we do. We can’t even imagine the freedoms he will enjoy in the work world.

Freedom, flexibility – these are things that thrive at the Cole Academy.

We decided to go to Houston today. We got in the car and on the way decided our plan of action: Picnic lunch, Butterfly Exhibit at the Natural Science Museum, Jamba Juice in the Village, Half Price Book Store, a park, a little shopping at the Mega Marshalls on West Gray (I promised Mark I would only look at the household stuff - I need some pillows for our upstairs bed), dinner and maybe a treat. 

After a picnic lunch we went into the Butterfly museum. The butterflies were out in full force. We were able to identlfy at least 6 off the sheet they gave us.  

Up close and personal. 

Yep, it's a butterfly. 

We went to a park around the corner from our first house in Montrose. Of course my kids had to swing for 70% of the time there. 

Look at how high I can go!  

The girls got tired! But there is still time for dinner at Skewers and ice cream at Baskin Robbins.