Artie

Artie has come out of hiding! And a ton of other things.

Artie=Easel
Hiding=Storage

The kids are lovin Artie. I'm so glad they dig drawing and painting.


Come out of hiding...oh yes I started unloading the storage sheds this past weekend. My house is now packed to the gills with stuff. I'm fighting a cold still, dealing with some personal issues that are draining and also watching my 2 nephews this week (except today) so I'm feeling a bit tired. I've had mad vision about all that I want to do but not much time, energy or opportunity. But what I have got to do this week is spend some fun time with my nephews.

My sister, a single mom, is in school from 9:30-1:30 monday thru friday right now. I took the boys, Eric 12 & Jonathan 8, for spring break. My sister and I have a somewhat rocky relationship and so I have not had much of an opportunity to spend as much time with the boys as I would have liked sadly. But this week I've got to talk to them about spending more time together and they said they would like that. I need to figure out how to incorporate it into my life but we are really just going to think of them as our kids. I'm thinking I'll pick them up once a week after school and bring them to our house and we'll all play and take walks or play outside and then they'll eat dinner with us and be taken home afterwards. Maybe once a month we'll have them spend the night.We're even thinking how we can perhaps take them on vacations with us periodically (we don't go but once ever couple of years but they've never been!)

My sister and I are complete opposites, I'm not kidding. My dad use to tell people we're like the colors black and white, completely different. But I love her and I've tried to keep in touch with her but at some point she didn't want that anymore. I have a lot of compassion for her and her sons which is mostly what has driven me to pursue them over the years. She was married at one point and the guy took off and basically started a new family with someone else. The boys know this, sadly. And of course I'm sure come the questions and conclusions mostly unspoken, "My dad doesn't love me anymore, he has new sons." It makes me cry just to type this because once again the pain in this world is...

At any rate, I hope to include more stories about our day to day activities with my nephews in them. And I desperately hope us pursuing them and loving them in this way will effect them in the long run.

As a teen I had a tumultuous relationship with my parents. At one point the city appointed two social workers to come and take me out once a week. We'd go to cofee shops usually but they'd also take me out to lunch or whatever. What I remembered the most about them is that they asked me questions and listened to me. They wanted to know about me. They taught me that there are people that really care about my likes and dislikes and just want to get to know me. They were so instrumental in my life.

I hope in some way that my little family has that effect on the boys, God I hope so and that is my prayer.

Btw, my parents and I are reconciled and we are close. I love them dearly but I personally had to resolve a lot of "things" for myself before I could get to the point of forgiving and acceptance. Just needed to throw that out there. And thanks for listening to my verbal ramblings about what's on my mind.