wayfaringwordhack | Entries tagged with friends

I am having one of them. Just to give you a couple of the highlights, without entering into all the personal minutia:

On Monday, we had a picnic with many of our friends at a local park, and one of the boys, an 8 year old, went missing. He was playing down at the creek with one of my boys and some other kids, he decided to climb back up to the play area by himself. And he failed to tell anyone a) that he was going to the creek with the other kids in the first place, b) that he was leaving the creek. Without going into the topography, it is hard to explain what happened and how scary it was (a missing kid is ALWAYS scary!), but the boy got turned around somehow and fell into a steep ditch. It took us over two hours to find him, and it was, in fact, the municipal police and a government search and rescue team that finally located him. Needless to say, that evening I was completely wiped out. It didn't help that my own son had not asked for permission to go play there. We often play there--have even camped by the creek--so I wasn't afraid for him; it was the lack of communication that was upsetting.

Tuesday morning was kind of a blur; and the afternoon cleaning for friends to come over, then having those friends over, theh family football (soccer). The evening was hassle with insurance (not me dealing with it personally) for the knee-surgery that J wanted to get done in his time off, but the insurance kept giving him the run-around. He is now going to have to postpone it until this fall.

Wednesday started off like a day at the races with J wanting to have an intense (philosophical) conversation over breakfast before I was even fully awake, and I had to rush away from that to a friend's house so I could teach her to make bread, and then I had to rush from there without even having lunch to a prayer meeting that I was leading. Once home at a little after three, I finally ate and then had to fix supper early for J to take on his night shift.

I was looking forward to finally relaxing in the evening but was faced with...um, let's just summarize by calling it a plumbing problem. It involved a brown eruption, blocked pipes, gloves, lots of disinfectant, two bottles of Drain-O type products, and good ol' manual (gloved!) labor to clear out. Oh, and a garden hose. And a scoop. Ahem. All that spilled over (excuse the pun) into Thursday, and we didn't even sit down to lunch until 2p.m.

Is it any wonder I have a stress/fatigue-induced fever blister? Since I am mentioning health, I will just say that I FINALLY got around to making an appointment with a dermatologist today about a persistent itch I have had on my back for the last two or so months. I know I should have taken care of it early, but it is one of those things.... *sigh*

Annnnnnyhow. All that to say, I WAS going to start posting about the art prompts my family and I are doing but just thought I needed to get the other stuff off my chest first. And now the ramble has gone on so long, I can't possibly put all that info here. I will copy over, piece-meal, the posts I have made about our "Artful Prompting" on the art forum because when my access runs out to the community, I will lose those posts forever.

I had a most amazing thing--a bright and happy thing--happen to me, and I think the world needs more trumpeting of news of that sort.

My art course just wrapped up, and there is a paying community alumni can access once it is over. I decided because of the financial and time burden, I would not be continuing. I said my goodbyes and expressed my appreciation for the course and my fellow students...and woke up to a message from one of the other students saying she would like to offer me access to the community for a year. She said she appreciated my contributions so much over the courses, all the time and effort that I put into helping others, that she didn't want to see my time with them end. I was very touched but felt I couldn't accept. Yes, the money is one issue, but the time-involvement "required"* is even more of a hang up for me.

Before I could graciously formulate my refusal, she went ahead and paid it, telling me that she did not expect me to be there all the time, no obligations.

I was so honored and touched by her gesture and the outpouring of love when the others knew I would be continuing.

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*There are no requirements, but I am not a half-measures person when I commit to something and I put a lot of time into something I am dedicated to seeing through.

How hard it was to decide whether or not to stay in Lebanon as things escalate. Finally, J and I decided I would come to Cyprus with the kids. I am with a friend and her three kids, too, and we are waiting for news of what to do...Return to our husbands in Lebanon or take our kids back to our home countries (France for me and Switzerland for her).

The kids had the crud just before we decided to leave, I had the crud during the decision-making process but felt a bit better when we flew out, and now it seems the crud wants to hang around some more. (Fatigue and stress make great bedfellows with illness.) It makes it even harder to be lucid and definitely harder to parent well. Thank God, D and her kids are with us because it is a big help to have someone come alongside and share the burden.

Many of our friends left, but plenty stayed behind. I had planned to stay, too, but I feel I am needing to yield a bit more to the wisdom of others and not think I can know or handle everything. Especially not how much trauma is "good" for my kids. That might be an enigmatic statement, but I don't have the energy to unpack it right now. Anyhow, I left our home there with the intention of going back and now I regret the way I packed accordingly. C'est la vie. And we, unlike so many others, still have that life.

J had to remain in Lebanon for work. After Macron's visit to Tel Aviv, there will likely be more attacks on the French embassy in Beirut, but this time the Lebanese army and police should be better prepared for it. :/

Sprout turned 13 the day we arrived here. Well, we arrived--after much delay--on the 21st, but we were still at the airport when it ticked over to the 22nd. I wished her happy birthday, then, and we tried to make Sunday a bit special for her. I don't think it did much good. And J's birthday is today. The kids are bummed about not being with him.

And as I say each little whingy thing, I am eternally grateful that we are all well and have the funds and "right"* nationalities to get out of dodge. Although my nationality is not always well seen, and D always introduces me as being French, which flies a bit better in these parts than being American.

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*Lebanese nationals are refused in many countries, they tell me. So many that I know are always trying to get dual citizenship with another country. The guy I sat next to on the plane was telling me of all the countries where maybe he can buy a passport or him and his family.

This has been a crazy month. I thought to have some downtime between the end of my drawing time and the start of my painting class, time I could spend continuing with my drawing practice, improving and cementing what I learned. But life had other plans. I got exactly one drawing in.

With the two Easters celebrated here in Lebanon and Ramadan, the school attended by our kids' friends was out for three weeks. So, we were inundated with invitations and activities. We went to a big Easter egg hunt in a park in the mountains, fossil hunting, lots of informal playdates, dinner with friends, and on and on. And our kids worked several times on the fort they have built with friends at a nearby creek. We also loaned (and are still loaning) our car to J's Lebanese cousin, G, because her son is using hers to attend his internship. I periodically have to borrow our car back and that weirdly makes me feel like I can't because I don't want to put G out.

I also had crowns put on my top two front teeth by the most unprofessional dentist I have ever visited in my life. It was a process so long and painful as to become almost comedic in its sheer badness. What should have taken a week, maybe two, ended up taking a month. The dentist said, "See you in 20 years," but I fear we will have to see him sooner. Not for dentistry--that will never happen again--but because he is a spearfisher and J is a spearfisher, and the two of them plan on spearfishing together. And the dentist would like to invite us out to dinner at a good fish restaurant he knows. Maybe I can ask J to get himself invited in the family's stead while the rest of us are in France for the summer.

If it isn't enough to have to fix my teeth, I have to get new glasses, after only a year of having these. Progressive lenses are expensive! And the fact that I have to wear the glasses all the time now means that I am getting to where I can't stand the weight of my current frames. My nose is constantly sensitive, and I feel my nasal passages are being pinched, meaning it isn't so easy to breathe. So, I sprung for some reallllllly light frames. Only I didn't ask the price first. OUCH. But I really think they will be better--and I am stuck with glasses for the rest of my life--so I went ahead and got them. They should be ready next week.

In the past month, our Internet went out twice, a week each time. And of course, my online painting class started just when I really needed access to the Internet.

So, I lay all that groundwork to bring up the thing that was really hard.

Amidst all that bustle, not one but two families in our circle of friends here had their kids (one seven and the other four) diagnosed with brain tumors. The 7-yo ( a little Lebanese girl) is reacting well to medication. She'll have another MRI on the 3rd to find out what the next steps are. But the 4-yo (an American boy) had to have emergency surgery. It went amazingly well, and I was able to donate blood for him.* They are still waiting on the pathology report.

This is such a hard, terrifying thing for the families to go through. I cannot begin to imagine the fear that gripped (and still grips) them. It seems silly and self-centered to say how we have been affected, too, but yes, it *has* affected us and our kids. It makes it hard to be in a good state to get things done.

We are going back to France for the summer in less than a month now (eep). I need to get myself together so I can prepare for that and take care of some remaining logistics. It is going to be a quieter, more relaxed time there, but we already have two birthdays lined up--one a camping trip--plus visits to the south to J's family. Also, I know from experience, there are going to be other things to either do or field, which for my personality is exhausting. Still, I am looking forward to being a bit of a hermit when permitted. Also, we travel before my painting class ends, so I will have a week of that to do in France. One of the logistics is figuring out the Internet situation. Do we get a router for 3 months and then resign or try to do everything off a mobile phone data subscription?

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* I don't know if I already blogged about this--what stays in my head as something I would like to blog about and what actually makes it into pixels is hard to keep track of--but giving blood in Lebanon is a nightmare. I tried to give before, only to be told I didn't have enough blood. When I asked what I could do about that, the answer was nothing. I then, a week later during a personal blood test, asked a lab tech (a young 20s something woman) why I couldn't donate, she told me, "Women are not desirable donors." Ugh.

Since then, I have also heard about people being turned away because the hospital didn't want European blood, another didn't want American blood. Just turn around and go home if you have ever been to Africa...

Seeing as it has been a year since our arrival and I--unlike my family--do not have French* citizenship, I had to go downtown to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get my Iqama (visa card) renewed. Thankfully, it was a pretty straightforward process.

The whole family came along (but they waited in the car), so we went to the National Museum of Beirut afterwards. My phone is charging now, and I am too lazy and cold to stand by it and send myself files, which means a photo post will come later. If at all. :P

We then went out to eat and ran into several of J's colleagues since the restaurant we chose was right across the street from his work as well as being next to the museum. Makes Beirut feel like a very small place.

And now I am happy to be back home. I wanted to go to the art store and do some groceries, but the above activities were quite enough for one day. But that only means I will have to go back to town again soon. Tomorrow, H and I have an art date. I suggested we stay at my place. The weather is incredibly mild,** and we can sit in the garden and do art and chat while watching sunbirds dart amongst the hibiscus. Sounds like a plan!

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* Their cards have a 2-year validity

** As I tried to tell the clerk who took care of my application at the ministry, this time last year, I was frantically crocheting myself my fingerless mittens because it was so cold. I say "trying" not because of the language barrier, but because she could not have cared less. :P

There are some delightful things about this apartment so far:

We have hibiscus growing along the front porch, and they attract Palestine Sunbirds. So pretty! and they have nice vocalizations. I don't have a good lens for capturing wildlife, so have a short video:

Watch on YouTube

Since it has been a bit rainy, we haven't had a chance to be out in the garden much. We did rectify that today and spent a lot of time pruning, removing unwanted volunteers (like a wild rose bush that was trying to smother the hibiscus and gaining on the lawn), and mowing the "grass."* have friends living just across the street, and N (the dad) came over to loan me his battery-powered pruner that came in very hand for cutting off branches from a dead orange tree.

J bought a weed-wacker to take care of the lawn because of the odd shape, rather than a lawnmower. Along with that tool, he brought home a passionfruit vine and a seedless grape vine.

And after doing all that, we took a bagful of clementines into the house and juiced them. We filled up a jar for N and his family, too. :D

The most delightful thing of all has been our upstairs neighbor letting down** a bag of goodies for us.

Not once, but thrice! First it was some sort of fried bread with an anise flavor, then cookies, then a fried sweet flavored with orange-blossom water. We sent back some crustless cranberry "pie" and some olive oil oatmeal cookies and some drawings that the kids did. :)

Lebanese beignet.jpeg

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*I am pretty sure what we have all over the yard, in addition to all the arums, is Bermuda Buttercup or Oxalis pes-caprae.

**At first I thought a bag had caught on a snag and had a string come unraveled. But then we noticed that it kept jigging and dancing up and down, as if a fisher were on the other end, wiggling a baited hook. :P It really tickled the kids.OK, it tickled all of us. :D

So far, these neighbors are perfect! They are an older couple and are quiet. LOL. I can hear their TV when I wake up, but it is not blaring or anything. Other than that, we barely know they are there, and that, with the garden, makes us feel like we are in a house instead of the bottom floor of a 5 (or is it six?) story apartment building.

Had an art date with H today, in which there was no art. But! There was goal setting and just overall nice conversation while her husband took our kids to a nearby park. H and I decided to set goals to achieve within the next three months; but for the most part, I want to get my stated stuff done by year's end. If I don't, no biggie, of course, because we are going for a three-month stretch. I want to see if I *can* accomplish things by certain dates to judge how much, if at all, I struggle with the time frame and so forth.

So, I came away from the date with the following goals, divided into three creative areas (I should have put "finish cardigan" in there :P ).

Fiction:
Write three chapters of TKB by Dec 31

Writing and Illustration:

- Find photos (online) of 5 people to use as inspiration and paint them in an illustrative style for children's book in prep for the character design workshop on Dec 12.

- make a blank insta-book ('zine) for our trip this month in which I can do travel-inspired sketches in. My goal is to make one, but I think I would like to do two: One with plain white paper and another with different colored backgrounds/underpaintings (probably gouache) that I can sketch or paint on if so inspired by color, mood, etc on location. (This is going to happen around 19-27 Nov)

Fine Art:

I would like to work on art in general as well as illustration, and to that end, I aim to make three landscape paintings (small, and on paper if I so desire) before Jan 31. My end goal is not to have something to hang on our walls, but I would like if I made something I was happy to display.

When I got home, I did some character research and then started on a landscape exercise (acrylic on toned paper with a red underpainting). I hope to finish it up tomorrow, but here is what I got done tonight.

Acrylic is not easy to photograph, and of course, I have the added difficulty of taking a pic at night AND having a crappy phone camera. You can squint and imagine it is focused. :P This is from a photo taken at the park where L and kids went to play today. They stayed at the playground this time, but we usually take the path featured above to a stream where the kids like to build forts and catch crabs and newts and toads, oh my!

Thank you, thank you, thank you

asakiyume for the awesome jaguar postcard and the beautifully evocative letter about your trip. I felt like a part of me was there with you. <3

...and voilà feet in flipflops here in Lebanon.

asakiyume will understand why.

A little factoid, apropos of flipflops in Lebanon and the way people view others: I can wear flipflops and not be judged because I am white. My Haitian American friend, S, will not wear flipflops in public because many Lebanese treat her like she is "help" because of her skin color (and flipflops are supposedly poor people's shoes). A very unpleasant side to life in Lebanon is the live-in help culture. Some day I will try to take a photo of the "maid's room" in our flat and talk about this, to me, shameful part of how the 'rich' live here. But this is a happy post and not the place for it.

I have been talking for years about wanting to illustrate my children's stories, and I work on that goal as life allows. Which sometimes is not very much. It is too easy to push it aside in favor of more urgent things.

However, my friend H shared an announcement about an illustration workshop happening next week. J* convinced me to sign up for it. And I asked H to sign up, too. I need handholding. :D

So now we are waiting to see if there is space for us. If so, we will be in class Monday-Friday (35 hours) next week. Should be a big boost to make headway with all these dreams.

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* Whether H and I get to do it or not, I want to take a moment to praise and thank our husbands. As soon as I started hemming and hawing over it, J said I definitely should. Then he messaged L, H's husband, and said, "I can do childcare these three days, can you take the other two?" We have six kids between us. :D

It is no small thing to have spouses who love and believe in you and actively seek to make your dreams happen. H and I are so grateful for ours. <3

Current Mood: loved
Current Music: The Goodness of God

Look what

eller sent me in the mail : a lovely postcard she painted and had printed. I love the graphic style, line work, and color choices. :D. When FarmerBoy got it from the mail-lady he called out to me "Mom, you got something beautiful! Wait until you see it!"

Thanks,

eller . You made my day. :D

Doesn't that sound better than Procrastination? Well, maybe. If you take off the "stress" part.

With the kids, I have been re-watching some videos I found years ago when we lived Egypt, The Forger's Masterclass. The kids (the two older ones anyhow) have been very interested in seeing different artists, even if they don't agree with the styles.

Sprout does not like Hopper's view of the world, his fascination with isolation, frex, but she did feel inspired to let go of her own "realist" tendencies after seeing the episode featuring Fauvist André Derain. Farmer Boy was excited to channel the "wild beast" style, as evinced by the plein air painting he did during our group outing* yesterday. You can glimpse the painting on the ground by his feet:

As an aside, look at this lovely eyed ladybug our friend, P, found. We have a lot hatching in the house right now, but they are mostly the classic 7-spotted variety and some of the yellow 22-spotted ones. Too bad I no longer have my macro lens.

Seeing as how I tend toward Sprout's realist tendencies, though I have nothing on her literal mind, let me assure you, I decided to have a play with color this afternoon and did a Fauvist rendition of a photo J took when we lived in Sancerre, antechildren. I primed a cut-out of a cereal box with gesso and used gouache. The painting is about the size of a postcard, so I had no pressure either size- or materials-wise. :P It was fun. I am planning on trying some portraits. It was interesting to note that my natural hair watercolor brushes did not want to lay down the paint nicely but synthetic brushes had no problem. Some YouTube tutorials had mentioned that watercolor brushes had too much of a tendency to hold on to the water and I can now testify to that.

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*As much as I love snow, the poor forest really suffered for the heavy load they bore this December/January. The paysage was positively apocalyptic.

Neither J nor I have ever been big News Year's Eve celebrators, so it is rare that we do anything special. On NYE, J was in bed by 22h00, but the kids were still awake and excited. We went up to their room and read lots of stories, and Ti'Loup longingly expressed a wish to set off fireworks (prompted by Bobby's 5th birthday with his Grandpa Bob in the book Now One Foot, Now the Other by Tomie dePaola).

"We have sparklers," I said. "This is a special occasion; let's use them."*

Which, as you can imagine, was met with great enthusiasm. Except by J, who did not want to get out of bed to come sparkle in the New Year with us. :P The kids danced in the snow in front of the house with their sparklers, then we went to the cross that is set up at the entrance to our hamlet and said a prayer for the New Year. We are blessed to be alive, to be together, to be healthy, to have shelter, to have grace:

( More Family Fun and Traditions under the cut )
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* I have never found sparklers for sale in France (OK, I haven't looked super hard), so I have hoarded these from Egypt.

** A silver lining to losing old friends is that, by moving along, we have made new friends

*** For those who don't know, Farmer Boy was born with a squint. He had surgery a couple of years ago, but he still needs to wear a patch 3hrs/day on his right eye to make the left one work more.

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends.

I am grateful that many of our dishes had ingredients grown here in our own garden. I am grateful we got to eat outside. I am thankful for my family's good health.

What are you grateful for this year?

Our family is going to be facing some changes in the next year and I would like to share about those things. However, my entries will be locked because of the nature of what I will talk about. I think I figured out how to create a new filter at last. :)

So: If you want to be on the filter, or want to make sure I do NOT put you on it, please let me know.

As I mentioned some time ago, I have some new friends on DW, but I don't necessarily know anything about you. My entry here (this is acces-only for my privacy as well as yours, which I understand means anyone on my access filter can see it; if you cannot, let me know) was an attempt to gauge interest or involvement in who I am and what I might have to say. I did not and do not want anyone to comment on something they do not feel like, but if I am not sure who you are (by this I do NOT mean your real name, where you live, etc.,) I will not be putting you on the new filter.

Thanks for your understanding.

I have so much and not enough to say that it is quite overwhelming to sit down and think of typing up an entry. But I miss my friends so much that I feel I have to, even as the thoughts of "who cares, loser, when you just pop in and out of peoples' lives at your convenience?" threaten to drive me away.

But that is dramatic hogwash. So.

I may not post and I may not read ( I haven't sat down at the computer except to order emergency items or birthday presents since, well, whenever it was I posted my last entry. Months, I'm thinking), but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking of you all. For those who celebrate Thanksgiving in November, I hope you all had a peaceful, refreshing, replenishing, filling day.

*hugs*

...or ten. :P

When I saw these oblong stones at the lake this summer, I thought of you,

pjthompson, and those cute feet you posted, so this is for you:

Junebug is a little over three weeks old now, and we are slowly but surely working our way into a new rhythm that accommodates the newest* arrival into our family. The beginning was a little bit rough because he had jaundice, which made him lethargic. He slept too much, didn't eat enough, which made him want to sleep more, and so on and so forth. And I did not know! I was sure he was sleeping too much, but for once I didn't give in to my paranoia and turn to the Internet to try to find out why. So, I wasn't aware of the downward spiral he was on until we took him for his 8-day check-up. Thankfully, waking him to breast feed at regular intervals and giving him daily stints in the sunshine helped get him back on track. It was rough going for a while because we had to set alarms throughout the night to wake him and make him eat.** He is waking on his own now, and that is a lot more restful for this momma's mind and body.

To make things more interesting, J got the flu and was out of commission for a little while. On the upside, Sprout only had a brief "ill spell" with a couple of days of fever, and I got a minor achy throat, followed by a cough and phlegmy chest. Nothing too bad. Junebug, however, seemed to get the worst of it in that he is pretty stopped up and it has lasted more than a week. The poor guy really doesn't appreciate having his sinuses rinsed, but that is the only thing to do at this point, says his pediatrician.

Sprout loves her baby brother and has a plethora of nicknames for him that she came up with herself, among them Juney, June Buggy, Juicy, JB... It isn't all roses and pet names, though. Her shapeshifting (now more identity shifting) includes being Junebug, an obvious desire for more attention.

And because I did say this was a hodgepodge post, please read this entry by

asakiyume and sign the mentioned petition if you feel so inclined.

Speaking of news and true reporting, this weekend promises to be exciting in terms of protests. Expats are being advised to limit their movements and stay at home if possible so as not to be caught in riots, etc. Looks like the upcoming elections are going to bring a return of "excitement" to our lives. ::sigh::
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* newest and last, I want to write, but Sprout informed me that we are not yet finished making babies because we failed to deliver the asked for sister. :P Not that my 3 year old gets the last word on this topic.

** Despite these problems, Junebug is nowhere near being labeled as failing to thrive, like Sprout was. Breast feeding is going much more smoothly this time, and he is quite the chubby baby.

A day late. And a dollar short?

I had a very busy weekend, and last night we had dinner with friends, not getting home until after midnight.

I did work on my chapter, but it needs another quick pass before being ready to share.

Instead, I shall show a snippet of something else I was working on this week.

This piece is hard going for me because I had such a strong flash (inspired by an awesome poem by an awesome person), and I know how I want it to turn out. I've been hesitant to start painting because I fear what I want and what I'll do will be so far apart that I'll despair. Today, with lots of physical and mental shrugging, I finally starting laying down the paint. It will be what it will be, and I'll doubtless learn from it. I also scanned the sketch and photographed it so I may be able to salvage it digitally if I completely fail at the watercolor version.

Current Music: Sea Wolf - Old Friend

Despite the simplicity of the design I came up with, my wrists weren't very happy with the papercutting. I wasn't thinking about my tendonitis but about my very dull cutter blade when I decided to keep my image simple, and I'm glad I didn't try for anything more delicate.

The logistics of where to cut and what to keep were quite entertaining, and I might like to try more of this technique.* However, I won't be doing so until I get the proper tools for it, including paper that lends itself to cleaner cutting that what I used.

Paper-cut Donkey, blue construction paper

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* Note to self: Make sure to do really big images and keep tiny, painstaking cuts to a minimum.

( A favor under the cut )

I highly recommend this post by

asakiyume: An Hour with Junot Diaz.

I'm still thinking over some of the stuff she quotes.

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The Wayfaring Wordhack

Valises in Lebanon

Entries tagged with friends

You know "Those Weeks"?

Goodness Shines Bright

What to do?

Life

A day out

D is for Delightful

An Art Date

I've Got Mail!

Biting the Illustration Bullet

What a delightful surprise

(Stress) Diving into Art

A New Year's Beginnings

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

A head's up

I Abide

Give me five

A hodgepodge of things

Snippet

Donkeys, Day 8

Writers and Readers