Ryan's Court of Honor

Ryan's Eagle Scout Court of Honor will be held
Sunday, July 20th at 5:30 PM
at the Pomerado building

Some of these boys have been waiting a very long time for their buddies to finish up. It will be exciting to see them all honored on the same evening.

Back row: Trevor, Nathan, Brian, Blake
Front row: Nick & Ryan

More Beauty from Marianne

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 18 is one of my favorites! Shakespeare captured beauty and made it eternal through his writing.

Today we are blessed to have digital photography. Not only can we preserve the beautiful things in life, but we can share them with the world in a matter of moments.
Thanks to Marianne's eye for beauty, her creativity and her patience we have some beautiful photos. What an amazing thing to have:

An image of Marianne forever almost 12.

A flower that will never fade

A glimpse of Cammi at age four. I love the way her hair glistens in the evening light, the expression on her face and the fact that her cute outfit was a favorite of Marianne's when she was little!

Thank you Marianne for showing me the beauty all around!

There is Beauty All Around

My children constantly bring beauty into my life!

Evan finished his temple masterpiece.

Here are some lovely self portraits of my beautiful girl!

She assures me that she is not really sad, but just posing for a more interesting picture.

Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tell them dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for being ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;

Landscapes plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise Him.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Artists in Training

I love homeschooling my kids and I am fairly confident in my ability to teach them. There are lots of things I don't know, but with the Lord's guidance I have been able to learn and prepare myself to teach my children. And I am especially grateful for teachers and mentors who bless the lives of my children!

Although I am not an artist, I want my children to have an artistic education. Over the years, I have been able to learn quite a bit about art history. We have many art books in our home. I give my children lots of opportunities to create with all kinds of art supplies. We have visited many art museums and galleries. I even got out of my comfort zone last summer when I took a fabulous art workshop for parents from my talented friend Angela. I can support, encourage and inspire, but I know that my children need an art teacher!

All four of my children have taken art lessons from another wonderful artist named Kara. This week Kara gave her students an amazing opportunity. She took the kids to the temple for some on-location art lessons. Kara is not a member of our church, but she surely sees the beauty in this holy place.

Here is Kara and her class in front of the beautiful San Diego temple.

Here is our hero John! On Monday, the temple was closed. That meant the kids were trying to draw from outside the locked gates. It wasn't the best view, but then John came along. He unlocked the gates and invited the class to come and draw on the temple grounds.

Our artists are hard at work. Notice that Evan is sitting apart from all of the girls. I guess he just wants a different point of view. We all have different perspectives and that makes life exciting!

Now the kids are busy painting their drawings. I can't wait to see Evan's finished work of art, but I know that the lessons he is learning along the way are just as important. He is developing a love of learning and working hard to do his best. Most importantly, he is becoming aware that as children of the Ultimate Creator and Author of beauty, we are all artists.