Summer is here! And after the whirlwind of end-of-year school and soccer activities how wonderful it feels to press the pause button on our life and live at the pool, eat watermelon for breakfast, lunch and dinner and not have to live by the clock...at least for the moment. Fall will come and the boys lives will take on their somewhat separate paths doing all the things they individually love as 2, 5 and 8 year old boys. But for now I love watching them " be brothers" ....yes fights and all! I have a continual pile of Legos in my living room floor. What is it about boys wanting to eat cereal all day long?And I'm learning to judge what exactly is the coolest jump you can make into a pool. Oh how can I forget the fishing and catching critters.
I'm finding most of the things my husband and boys love never even crossed my mind growing up as a girl. They are my adventure and why I know God has a sense of humor and surprise giving me 3 boys! I will probaly never get them into one of my dance classes or love looking at fabric samples with me hours upon hours. Bringing them into my world is a lot harder than me joining them in theirs, like watching them fish at the lake.
Which is what I find so special and a surprise to me in my art, especially my fish art. We all somehow connect there. The boys love picking up a paintbrush with me on the deck and critiquing shapes and colors. My husband makes my boards and tells me which types of fish I should paint. And recently painting has made me think of my mother's father, the avid fisherman and outdoorsman in a way I never have before. Honestly fish would have been the last subject matter I would have chosen to paint. They didn't really mean anything to me and I don't think I ever really looked at them closely. But now they are more than " fish". Their colors and shapes are beauty in an unexpected place. They remind me of the beach, the lake, the places our family share so many joys and memories. They connect me to the world of my boys.
