Life is difficult . . . sometimes

This has been a very difficult season. Over the past three months, we lost three beloved members of our family. Following a broken hip and surgery in June, my mom had to enter hospice and lost her fight for life on July 23. In the first week of August, we had celebration of life services in our family circle for both my mom, age 90, and another great grandma, age 96. Both of these strong-hearted women had fallen and broken their hips within a week of each other, and they died within a week of each other. Even though we are so thankful that neither of them is in pain anymore, it is excruciatingly hard to lose your mom. And then this past week, the much-loved father of our daughter-in-law, died suddenly of pancreatic cancer. We feel like the earth is shifting beneath our feet. Yet it is in times like these that we know that God is walking through the pain and muck and overwhelming sadness with us. We are people of faith and we are holding on to God’s promise of good in our lives.

And we are actively living out this hope. In the midst of the grieving – exactly at the time when they say not to make any big decisions – we have joyfully stepped into the world of a puppy. On August 23, we picked up our newest family member, Clare, age 3 months, and she has quickly established herself as the center of our household. We are in week two, and our other dog, Kirby Puckett (age 13); and cats Zach (age 18) and Bailey (age 5) are coming to terms with this new intruder and there have been some occasional moments of calm in the house. Thank goodness! 

And I'm beginning to emerge from the brain fog of the traumas of this summer, and picking up my brushes again. It is a delight to be back in my studio and able to finish a painting started in the July online class with Artist Alicia Farris. It has been 6 weeks since that class, so it’s such a joy to be able to re-immerse myself in Alicia’s lovely watercolor techniques and complete this “face” painting of a contemplating woman. This painting used a limited palette of only six colors – three warm and three cool. Consider This, 9” x 11” on 300 lb. hot press watercolor paper, reflects the light and vibrant colors of a woman in deep thought.