clearing the cobwebs!

They've been collecting around the edges; in the nooks and crannies-along the seams and joints. I could see them collecting but was helpless to do anything about them!
I detest messiness.
I can rarely tolerate a meals' collection of dishes in the sink and begrudgingly turn a blind eye to a weeks worth of dust.
So it's no big surprise that I find myself more and more annoyed by the collection of cobwebs across my blogger!
The poor place hasn't been truly attended to in many a month. It's amazing how neglected it can become so very quickly! The spiders joyfully have moved in and taken up residence in this little-touched window~
So today, I am cleaning blog! I've blown away the top web of unuse and am plucking away at the depth of collected neglect as I type.

Please note; this neglect hasn't been a response of laziness.
It is rather, due to my attention being strongly drawn elsewhere!
to teaching; traveling; to encausticamp and encaustikits. To pbsartist site development (talk about neglect! whew!) and to much needed personal work development.
These have all been very commendable distractions mind you, but distractions nonetheles that have kept me from my much loved posting passion :)
so I determine to make it a top priority for awhile. With big things looming and bringing my thoughts and heart to these contemplatioins, I will have much to express in these 'pages'.

What things you say?!
I am coming up on my one year anniversary; yes, I've been married a year. Wowzers what a ride it's been.
EncaustiCamp is looming on the horizon just a mere 5 weeks away.
I've been busy painting an adorable mural for the nursery at my church.
My two middle boys are taking off for a walkabout in Australia in just 15 days.
And, my oldest, the one in Hawaii pursuing his life's direction, turns 21 on the closing day of EncaustiCamp :)
It can't be missed that the youngest, and my step daughter are absent from this list of doings and coming ups. Thankfully! They are both, knock on wood!, busy just being where they are right now; soon to be sophomore and senior in high school.
So one by one I'll work my way through all these happenings; dissecting, discerning and diliberately sharing with all of you.
Sometimes it is easier to just live in these things and plow through to the next. I've been a victim of this get-er-done living my whole life and I've intentionally committed to taking time to be thankful, contemplate what's come to pass before looking forward to what's to come and sharing in the thanksgiving with whomever it applies.

So I return. I'll step back, breathe deep and let life percolate. Then I'll let it all spill out onto these pages and come together as the story of me; of my last year and coming months anyway!
And, I'll clear away these nasty ol' cobwebs! :) in love. trish

guest room

I've never had a guest room before. When visitors would come to stay the boys got condensed into each others rooms to make pillow space for the temporary bodies. I've acquired one this summer. Furniture is being rearranged, carpets deep cleaned, windows washed in this hollowed out space. It's beginning to look like a blank slate rather than a vacuous hole that is missing its true substance. Where are the football jerseys?! Where are the tossed wrappers, dirty clothes and discarded golf cleats?!

It's not a pretty place; I am having trouble establishing a personality for the space. I can't seem to get myself around cleaning away the red, panther pride wall color or the collection of Jolt cans on the shelf. Three walls remain pristine in their boring bland white. The alchemy of teenager and visitor worthy space is still in process.

But there is definitely some pleasure in this creating. In the cleaning out corners, dusting desk tops and lying on the floor gazing at the ceiling in this uninhabited region of my cozy home I feel warm joy seep into my cells. God has a plan. The world carries a guidance system. I trust the enfolding of a life; touched by the unfolding of others' lives-fleetingly or forever-to take one where the path leads. And, creating a space in an empty 10'x12', envisioning its use in the coming years, blissfully musing my eternally positive thoughts for the future, brings me peace in the changing of life. I think I will come to enjoy my room for a guest~ in love. trish