Thor and my many projects

It's been a while since I showed a picture of Thor here, or sort of updated about my life life. And so I am going to do that later on in this post, so if you aren't interested that is fine, but here is the warning statement.

I know this is weird to kind of bring up, but I realize I haven't really set the record straight or anything, but, uh, I don't know how to say this, but um, well, my son, well, his name is not really Thor. Did you know that? I guess probably you did. I mean, this is a blog and people have pseudonyms for their children all the time on blogs, but I didn't really start that way. Beatrice is really named Beatrice, but mostly, I call her Beezus, or Bibi, or Bea, or Little Bea. And Lucia Paz was really named Lucia Paz, but we call her Lucy almost exclusively, and Lulu when I am feeling really maudlin. But Thor is really named Thomas Harry. I did petition for Thor. I was very pro-Thor, but saner rather less Nordic-obsessed minds prevailed. Thomas is my father's name and Harry is my father in law's name. (Yes, we are those people who cannot come up with names on our own.)

Still, around these parts, Thor stuck. And by these parts, I mean, me. I still call him Thor, and so does my sister. Anyway, I hope Thor stays alive here, despite me telling you his other name. I will always refer to him that way here, and I encourage you to do the same. Protecting my children's privacy at this point is kind of moot. At least, protecting one kid's privacy and not the other two is ridiculous. So, welcome to your nightmare, kids. Yes, I will probably blog about your first zit, but it will be a meditation on the transience of life and a self-reflective existential crisis, so you can just tell your therapist I was narcissistic, not cruel.

This morning my family and I had an amazing brunch at Mommicked's house.  I have probably gone on and on about how I love her before, but I do. She is funny, insightful and a damn brilliant woman. She also makes me snort/laugh, or snaugh, if you will, and she is an incredible knittress. In honor of Thor's eczema, she made us dairyless quiche and also managed to put sausage in every dish, which is an amazing feat of which vegans and carnivores alike might appreciate. When Sam and I became engaged, his nephew asked me if I liked sausage, because I couldn't be in this family without eating sausage. I assured him that I dug sausage. I do dig it. Very mucho. When I mentioned earlier that she is an incredible incredible knittress, I meant it. And well, she made these for my children, and one for her own beautiful daughter, but the picture came out totally grainy, or grainier than these, and the children are almost indistinguishable from one another, and I also don't want to show her beautiful daughter here for her own privacy reasons too, so I took these when I got home. Still, well, just what can you say, but WOW, aren't they amazing?

Viking children stunned into silence by the awesomeness of their knitted helmets.

Playing "Got Your Horn" which is huge in the Valkyrie playgroups.

Thor playing the tambourine of Valhalla.

Incidentally, Thor, I realize, is wearing a onesie made by Rach of Warm Whispers. I have four onesie/shirt things made my Rach for Thor. They are all amazing. You can purchase one for yourself at her Etsy shop called Grandy and Baa. She is really not paying me for that. I just happen to think that she also is quite amazing.



In other news, October was fucking exhausting.

There I said it. I am still recovering from blogging every day.

It wasn't that I didn't love blogging every day, because, yeah, part of me loved being in blogger mode, but my "other stuff" time was sort of caught up in the daily blog thing, and still life 365 takes a lot of time. I mean a ton of time and energy and emotions, and then my art time was enmeshed in the Sketchbook project, which I wrote a few months ago and painted all last month. The whole thing. And what I mean by the whole thing is that I am kind of done. That feels pretty damn good. To set goals and accomplish them. I can kind of get addicted to goal setting. I know it must seem maniacal to people on the outside, but I am a listmaker by design. I think my cells set evolutionary goals, then cross them off. (No eating with fingers. Check. No grunting at husband. Check.)


I am very good at getting things accomplished. It might be a new superpower, which I will add right there along with super smelling in usefulness. But there was this naggy feeling all month, like I was forgetting something. Don't forget not to forget. And I couldn't quite make out the image in my head. What am I supposed to be doing after all? Right, not being on line as much and being more present for my family.

I also joined Twitter not to long ago (@StilllifeAngie) and I added a shitload of more blogs, mostly art blogs, but some new babylost blogs, to the reader feed. I also seem to be enjoying following on-line drama unfold whilst not really knowing 1. anyone involved, or 2. what the actual debate is about. So there is that. I guess what I am trying to say is that in some effort to quell my on-line fucking around time, I actually managed to ramp it up quite a bit, which is ridiculous and sad.

I do so much online crap, and then before I knew it, I was signed up for both NaNoWriMo and Art Every Day month, which are both daily challenges, for the month of November. NaNoWriMo actually stands for National Novel Writing Month. Yes, I am writing a novel in thirty days. 50,000 words. What? Why are you looking at me like that? Shit, I know. I KNOW.

Art Every Day Month (AEDM) challenges you to create a piece of art everyday of the month. EVERY DAY. FOR A MONTH. I know. I KNOW.

For AEDM, I created a wee 5" x 5" watercolor book and am selecting a word/mood that describes my day and painting it. I always post my art on my still life every day site, if you are ever interested, because that is also another challenge I signed up for this year which is Creative Every Day. Still, I actually am loving both these challenges. I am focusing on writing that isn't about my grief, which is good for me, and the AEDM is actually kind of focusing my art a bit. I am painting ONE gesture watercolor a day of a word that describes my mood. And I love it. One painting, not fifteen, or whatever I do, to express something. It is kind of like writing a haiku every day when you are used to writing lengthy epic poems about wars in which wooden horses hide men sneaking into a city-state because of a beautiful woman. Which is what I usually end up doing, hyper-creating. This is focused and it ends in less than a half an hour. It is really an amazing practice for me--spiritual and artistic. And the writing is the same. I am disciplined and it is good to remind myself of that. I have a goal for the day--1600 words, and then when it is done, I am done writing. I type and write quickly, so this is actually not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Plus, it has managed to get me off-line a bit more. All in all, I don't feel stretched. I feel fitted. (Did that even make sense?)

Anyway, one more thing, Jenni from Demeter's Feet is hosting an ornament swap Remembering Together: Holiday Ornament Swap for babylost parents. It is non-denominational and involves our baby's names--both creating and receiving an ornament, so there is a creative aspect to it. It is really an awesome project with a cool twist, so go check it up, sign up. The deadline is November 15th, so tout de suite, people.

And since I have shared some Thor Viking pictures, I am going to share one of just him, eating bacon.

Actually, he is just sucking on it. Don't judge.