Eleven Eleven Eleven: yes yes yes yes yes yes

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Today is a day to honor our Veterans, two of which are my Dad and my Dad-in-Law. So happy Veterans Day to all of you; we’re grateful for your service and sacrifice.

Pictures in our back yard this morning ...

... and over the back fence:

Today is 11/11/11. In binary computer talk that’s yes yes yes yes yes yes. (Yep, I studied computer programming once upon a time, in days of yore. And yep, I am an artist who actually enjoys math. Hence the neverending skirmishes between my left brain and my right brain.)

Thanks to all of you who have been checking in on me for the last month or so since my last post. It’s been a busy month! I’ve been working with a client who ordered a large print of one of my paintings for a model hotel room in Baton Rouge, and may order a whole bunch more of them to put in guest rooms still under construction; the decision hasn’t been made yet, but a pretty exciting prospect, as far as my art goes.

Still trying to keep up with Roadie, our Catahoula puppy who is now one year old. We don’t know his actual birth date, but according to our veterinarian’s estimate, we decided his birthday was Halloween. Easy to remember. And for the last four weeks we’ve been helping out our next-door neighbors; he’s been working Mondays through Fridays at a construction job in Arkansas, and only able to come home on the weekends; she has a job at a doctor’s office in town; the school bus doesn’t come out this far, so I’ve been driving their girls (10 and 14 years) to their respective schools in the mornings and occasionally Paul or I bring them home in the afternoons. Fourteen-year-old Haley stays after school a lot for cheerleading activities, and her mom picks her up, so most of the time it’s just ten-year-old Morgin and I in the car for the 30-minute trip home. I think every artist should have a one-on-one talk with a ten-year-old from time to time. Pretty fun.

Our taking-to-school and picking-up time is at an end today ... their Dad is finishing up with his long-distance job today and will be home now to drive them. So no more excuses; time for me to get back to work! 

It’s now officially three months and two days since I posted my last finished painting on my Just the Paintings blog. And -- even though it’s Friday and I usually prefer to make new starts on Mondays -- I figure, what better day to get back to the easel than yes yes yes yes yes yes!

So ... I’m going to ignore any canine shenanigans that may be going on in the back yard, the mountain of laundry (mostly caused by muddy doggy feet), the dusting that’s needed doing for at least two weeks so one more day won’t matter, and get myself back to painting, painting, painting!