Catching my Breath

It has been a bit exhausting around here, but I guess that is good. That means I'm feeling well enough to get a lot done. Finally today I have a little time to catch my breath.

I have so many blog post ideas and things I want to share but just haven't had the time. Hopefully I can eventually get to sharing more health and art posts with all of you.

This is just a little bit of what I've been up to...

busy in the art room. Lots of projects going on and many hours spent on these bags.

Had to test one out. Worked good. :)

While I was working, K went fishing with the boys. (Her grandpa and dad.)

She caught 2 huge northern!

She thought it was pretty cool to catch dinner and feed her family for free. Yes, it was all free, she even got her own bait... dead minnows from the lake. Worked like a charm. Tasted great and she never felt bad for eating the monsters. :)
Other than working on design projects and work orders, I've been busing co-leading close to 60 VBS kids in crafts, hosting a church/bible study class weekly at our house, getting our vegetable garden in, cleaning out our strawberry patch, painting group, several kids are always stopping by, K's been going to her second Bible school event and of course there is still a lot of time spent cooking healthy meals. So that is just a bit of our craziness lately and why I haven't been a better blogger.

Hope your summer has been off to a good start. We are sure enjoying the warmer weather!

Outdoor Fun

A little fun we've been having lately...

What age doesn't like to fly kites?!?

Kaelyn is so excited for the kite festival that is coming up in June. Hopefully the weather will be good for it.

With Kaelyn out of school for the summer she was able to go with me to my doctor's appointment. We made a mother/daughter date out of the day and it was so much fun. We both love being out in nature...

She got into posing! Ha, ha!

Such a peaceful place to be. ♥

Oh and I wanted to mention, these are such fun outings that require very little to no money. Kites ~ a dollar each, nature hike ~ free, fun time spent with the kiddo ~ priceless!

Hope your week has been off to a good start.

Thankful Momma

Wow! What a crazy couple of weeks it has been. Health wise things have not gone so smoothly in our household. I've had some road bumps in my own health journey and you would think Miss Kaelyn's health has been tied to a yo-yo. First flu bug for her then better then issues with external allergies that led to suppressed immune system that caused her to pick up more nasty bugs from school, cough, temp climbing to 104... scaring her mom, then temp dropping but then having horrible ear pain and temp back up again, then to clinic, try new meds only to have a nasty allergic reaction to new med and then off to a very busy ER. Thankfully our kiddo left the hospital with a smile... sooo different from our arrival.

After all those events and sleepless nights, all I wanted for mother's day was a calm day at home with my family and no more health drama. 

Earlier in the week, kale chips were a must when K started feeling a little better after her crazy high fever.

Kale mixed with coconut oil, cilantro, turmeric and sea salt then bake. A favorite snack!

Mother's day, so far so good...

Hubby spoiled me in more ways than one and grilled us an amazing lunch. Thank God for holding the rain off until we were done eating! :)

David tried something new~cooking salmon on cedar!

This boy is certainly good with wood! It was the best salmon we've ever tasted! I think he should cook like this every Sunday! ;)
We've had a much better day today. Health still isn't wonderful, but better. One week left of school. Hoping K can make it through this week!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommas reading this and those with "Momma" hearts who are struggling with infertility or those who have lost a child. I know Mother's Day is not easy for you. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

And a special Happy Mother's Day to my mom and mother-in-law! Hope you are having a great day! Love you!

Logo Designs

I've had the pleasure of doing some fun custom requests lately. One was creating a logo for an annual golf tournament in Minnesota. I usually give my customers around 8 design options to choose from. What was unique about this one was the group picked 3 of my designs to use on different media. I usually wouldn't suggest someone choosing more than one option for a business as you don't want people getting confused on what your brand is but being this wasn't a normal business different designs would work for them. I was glad they liked several of the options! :)

Here are the three chosen designs:

When purchasing one of my logos, you get several design files. One of the most important is the vector file, which is needed when taking designs to print shops. The vector file allows for clear printing at any size since vectors are made up of lines. This kind of file can also easily be used to make decals and other such media.
If you are interested in having a logo designed or have any questions, shoot me an email at enduringarts@gmail.com. I would be glad to work with you.

Easter Glimpse

Our Easter didn't go quite as planned due to a death on my husband's side of the family. But we were still blessed to have some good family time. We had misscheduled one of the events and didn't realize it until we were just going to leave the house so we decided to still go out and we ended up seeing the movie Heaven is for Real. I had read the book and Kaelyn had read the children's book. We didn't know how K would like it since it isn't an animated movie but we decided to risk it and take her with.

{image via google}

We rarely go to the theater. Seriously, like we're lucky if it's once or twice a year and it just worked out we were able to go twice this month! The movie turned out to be great! Kaelyn also really enjoyed it. When it was over she actually said it was her favorite movie, even better than Frozen, a movie she loves! When I asked her why she liked it better, she said in a "duh" kind of voice, "Because it talks about Heaven!" That made me smile. It was a wonderful start to our Easter weekend.

I didn't know if we would be dyeing Easter eggs this year, but Hubby insisted since K's heart was set on it, so he took care of that project.

She was one happy little girl!

Easter day was church and a wonderful family get together. Lots of yummy (& healthy) food, card games, an egg hunt and enjoying the heat! The weather was gorgeous! (Crazy to think we could get snow again tomorrow! Boo! But I will gladly take snow rather than the terrible tornadoes some people are getting.)

And here is a random shot from a couple nights ago that I thought was so cute...

drawing time with dad. ♥

Hope you have a wonderful week!

A Beautiful Love

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and celebrated the most perfect love. Yes, Jesus's love for us is beautiful and perfect. His dying for our sins and rising again is truly amazing! I am so thankful the Holy Spirit will forever be with us if we allow it. His command to us, 

"Love each other as I have loved you." John 15:12

In a world of sin, that command isn't so easy to do. We can try our best but His love is perfect.

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind around here lately but hopefully in the next few days I can get a few photos posted from our Easter festivities.

Natural Cleaners & Sticky Residue

I haven't bought a cleaning solution in years. Instead I make my own. It is so much better than using toxic chemicals and it's cheaper too. What do you need? Just baking soda, vinegar and water for an all purpose cleaner. Simple. I use it for cleaning everything. I did have my first problem with the solution when taking some old stickers off my daughters four wheeler. First layer came off fine, but there was a nasty residue that just didn't want to come off. I was determined to get it off naturally. The missing ingredient was coconut oil. Yep, sprayed on my all purpose cleaner then I put on some organic unrefined coconut oil (it has so many awesome uses!) and was able to scrape the old stickers off a lot easier! Yay!

{rubbed coconut oil on top of the sticker after it had been sprayed with the all purpose solution}

The four wheeler looks so much better without the outdated stickers. We were able to sell it at a children's sale for triple the amount we paid for it plus made extra money that was donated to the Children's Miracle Network. Awesome! It is so much fun finding great deals and making things look better for a small amount of money. I probably see too much potential in things sometimes. My husband thinks I need to downsize. Hmmm. Guess I should flip a few more things.

Back to the natural cleaners. With Kaelyn back in doors lately due to cooler temps, I found stickers being put where they really shouldn't be. And of course they are the STICKY stickers. The kind where only the top layer comes off. Urrr. Was not happy to see it on the door and window. We've had a number of them on the fridge. Kaelyn learned her lesson when I told her she had to take them off and she struggled for a long time. Out came the all purpose solution with baking soda, vinegar and water and it took care of the problem easily.

Yay for no more stickers! Boo for the snow that came. That's South Dakota weather for you.

Drastic temp changes.

Last week as I had posted, Wednesday did turn out to be a gorgeous day. 77!

Five days later...

34 degrees (that wasn't the low of the day) and it is snowing. Quite a bit more snow came today. Shucks. So looking forward to the warm weather sticking around for awhile. The one thing I want to stick!!! :)

I don't really measure the ingredients for the cleaning solution but it is close to this if you want to make your own:
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup baking soda
fill the rest of a spray bottle with water

*try adding coconut oil for removing tough sticky residue

God is Good...

Always.

{image via google}

We were given the opportunity to see God's Not Dead last night. (Thanks mom and dad!) It was filled with great points about faith and evolution. I encourage all believers and non-believers to go see the movie if you get the chance. During the beginning I was thinking it was rather depressing and didn't really see why people thought the movie was so great. But the depressing part came from the people who didn't believe. They have no hope for the future and many are just plain evil... not thinking of anyone but themselves and their own happiness. It just seems to me that life with God is so much brighter, even if you are going through something bad, you at least have hope for better things to come; the living word is filled with encouragement and direction.

Have you seen the movie? If so what are your thoughts about it?

Spirit {art prints}

Hello all! Looks like we are blessed with another beautiful day. :)

The weather forecast for tomorrow is above 75! I sure hope they are right.

{Spirit Horse Art Print}

Just wanted to share that prints of "Spirit" are now available in the shop. I cropped off the pink painted portion from the original mixed media piece (shown here) so it would go with anyone's decor. Just in case pink isn't your color; not sure why that would be. Ha, ha!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Good in the Ordinary

There is something wonderful about good, ordinary days. That is how I would describe our weekend. We didn't do anything all that exciting, yet it was a very good weekend.

Kaelyn and I did more experimenting in the kitchen and the results were all good. One creation was a gluten, dairy, egg, and nightshade free pizza. It had been over a year since I've had a pizza due to our allergies/intolerances and last week I was really wanting pizza so decided to experiment and create my own that would work for all of us. It turned out surprisingly good and Kaelyn requested we make another, so we did. :)

Saturday was painting group. K was a little under the weather but woke up Sunday morning saying she wanted to go to church. :) The weather was GORGEOUS so after church we all spent time outside enjoying the warmth. No jackets and almost all the snow is gone. Yay! The snowstorm that was supposed to hit last Thursday and dump 6-8 inches missed us!

 So we had fun outside with Cal!

Hoping this week goes just as well.