A lot has happened in our lives and family since that time.

We survived a “pandemic” and three graduations (two high school and one college).

My husband left a ten year position at Terumo while dealing with the physical side effects of Lymes disease. Being free of a factory job has opened a door back into ministry, in a rather glorious way, and is leading a congregation of Filipino Christians here in Maryland. He is currently working four jobs; as a substitute for the local public school system and a few other side jobs.

I started a new “career” at Lowes. I have moved up from lowly part-time cashier to become the full-time PRO-cashier for our PRO department at Lowes, mainly working with contractors which are in on an almost daily basis and often several times a day. The social side of me loves the job. The physical side of me needed the regular hours, having crossed the half century mark.

Our oldest daughter has flown the coup and is out on her own, the boys are flying through college and our youngest daughter is thriving in high school.

I’ve become an orphan of sorts, my mom having lost a battle with cancer in November 2022. (My father passed in 2017.)

I kept promising myself I would come back here again and strive to write more consistently. Maybe 2023 will be the year… I have one “goal” for my year: Be not idle. I have been far too addicted to my phone: the draw of social media and mindless games have been a distraction from living life. As I wage war against the addictive phone I have turned back to reading, and painting again (actually finishing a commission, displayed in this post, I began in 2017!) and trying to do better at keeping up with household chores. Who knows, I might actually pick my cross-stitch back up again, that is something I haven’t done in 25 years… or quilt… learn to knit…

…is that my ADHD kicking in?

In the comments below, introduce yourself if you are new around here. If you are reading this in your inbox, click on the title of the post and hop over and say hello!

I seem to always come back to this space on my birthday every year. As I grow another year older so does the old blog.

This year I have redesigned and I am hoping to go in a slightly different direction, not quite starting over but definitely moving away from where I have been.

As God keeps pulling me in the direction of doing more art, I decided that my blog needed to go that direction as well.

There is more I need to do around here. I want to separate the Gallery up into several different galleries, separating them by subject matter. If you visit the Folio page here on Hiking Toward Home, it will take a while to load all the thumbnails, also if you double click on an image it will enlarge.

I am looking forward to this yearn being more productive. I finally feel better mentally and feel like I have more energy and am more motivated to get stuff done. We have hooked up them cable TV and watching HGTV is making me actually WANT to finish unpacking and decorating my house. Yes, we have been in this house for two years and it STILL looks like we just moved in.

How Mango spends her days.

I have been going through the Lysa Terkeurst study Made to Crave with a group of ladies at our church.

While listening to others speak about different kinds of addictions related to food, not just the over-eating but also the two extremes that can overtake a person too like not eating or eating and purging it. As the phrase “drug of choice” was thrown into the fray of words, I asked God if I had a “drug of choice” and I was surprised by the answer and immediately realized I had a bigger problem than I wanted to admit to.

We all have something that we turn to instead of doing what we should. That hang-up we keep going back to and can’t seem to get away from, it could be lots of things, over-spending, over-eating, hoarding cats (which I’m sure my husband thinks I suffer from- no wait- I enjoy, He suffers), etc. Addiction comes in all sorts of forms not just drug addiction, alcohol addiction, smoking, vaping and things that are physically bad for you.

What are we not giving up that we know we would be better without?

I’m finding that my drug of choice is not food as I once thought it might have been. I’ve been eating pretty healthy and making good portion choices but there is still something missing that is keeping me from being healthy and reaching my goals.

My Drug of Choice is not that spectacular or shocking.

It’s sitting in my chair.

It’s doing nothing.

It’s sitting still while using excuses like: I’m reading, I’m studying, I’m working on my computer, or I’M BLOGGING…  The reality is: these things are not ACTUALLY being accomplished.

The hard fact is: I am avoiding things that make me move. Grading papers, Doing laundry, Washing dishes, Cleaning the bathroom, Running the vacuum, Dusting the shelves, Unpacking boxes… (Yes, two years after moving in, I am still unpacking.)

There was a time when I needed to be “doing nothing.” A time when I was recovering from depression and I needed to take it slow and rest. However that time has morphed into just being lazy and doing nothing. I no longer feel the weight of the world and the heaviness of depression daily like I once did. Praise Jesus! So that is not a viable reason to still be sitting around and not working and not being active, especially within my own home.

I need to leave my laziness on the alter and ask God to help me kick this addiction.

One of the Fruits of the Spirit is temperance, also known as SELF-CONTROL. I find though that there must be some effort on our part to put it into play. We need to access it and act on it. Prove to ourselves we have it by putting action to it and seeing its benefits change our lives.

Do you have anything you are secretly addicted to?

Will you join me today in kicking our addictions and giving them to God?

The keystone was shaped like a head and the upper corner stones sat out from the rest of the stones and looked like horns; it even had eyes.

I could never look at it without this stoney animal staring out at me.

Now I have another “problem” mantel.

I LOVE the fireplace, though I dream of painting the brick white.

It actually isn’t the mantel that is weird or makes it odd, it is the ceiling above it.

Why would anyone do this?

We are not even sure why it is formed this way.

But it drives me nuts and I have no idea what to do with it when it comes to decorating it.

Ideas and suggestions are very welcome… leave them in the comments. Pretty please?

I have had this fear for a long time,

…a fear of messing up or wasting good paper.

Good watercolor paper is expensive.

I have fallen into the trap of buying the cheaper paper far too many times. I can’t count the times I have used cheaper paper and had it begin to disintegrate when I was close to finishing a painting. I was disappointed again when it came to my sunflower; the paper began to disintegrate as I was going back and adding details and lifting pigment. I have learned the hard way not to use junky paper. Canson XL is not worth the heartache.

So why do I keep going back to cheap paper?

It has come to my attention recently that it is due to a lack of trust in God.

Yes, it may sound a bit off the wall but stick with me and let me explain.

God created me and called me to be an artist. Why do I keep NOT trusting Him to supply my needs to do what He has called me to?

As I sat there disappointed and staring at the mess the sunflower had become due to the paper falling apart under my brush and God asked me why I didn’t trust Him.

What?

Yup. The thought, not my own, came to me that by continuing to use cheap paper (instead of the paper that I used all the way through college and know I can trust not to fall apart -paper that can handle being thoroughly soaked and does not disintegrate when lifting excess pigment and can withstand some scrubbing with a brush) I am really not trusting God to meet the need of having good paper to paint on.

He keeps leading me to pursue my painting… why would He not meet the needs to do that?

A Quick story…

I had been asked to paint a backdrop for our church’s silent drama team, Speechless. I began to work on it and the day I needed to finish it up was the day I was T-boned by a lady in her brand new SUV and I spent the rest of the day/evening/night in the ER. So a good friend of mine finished up the painting where I had left off. Praise the Lord for artist friends.

Later, Speechless presented me with a Thank you note containing a gift card to an art store for doing their backdrop. Guess what I spent it on? Yup, ARCHES paper. No more Canson XL paper for me.

God provided THAT paper; why wouldn’t he supply more? Instances like this confirm to me that I am on the right trail and going the correct direction.

I will stick with the more expensive Arches and rely on God to provide paper for me as I follow His lead down this trail.

I am educating only one child at home

.

My youngest daughter, the cats, and I are enjoying our quiet mornings together while the rambunctious boys are enjoying the local public high school. So far the school year has begun quite nicely.

While the kids are back in school, so am I.

I signed up for a Watercolor Summit class taught by a few artist I follow on Instagram. I am working at a rather slow pace. Even though my degree is in fine art it is always good to have continuing education.

One of my favorite exercises so far is the color mixing exercise. To mix colors and find the new colors that they potentially make. It is a task I could do a lot of and eventually will but I will reserve it for days when I want to do something mindless and just need to play.

Currently, I am working on several pieces and I am finding I need to work a little on each and put them away and come back with fresh eyes the next day. Besides, didn’t someone once say that variety is the spice of life? The following are still in process and unfinished.

I love the beach and I like the delicateness of Palm trees with their long slender leaves. However some of the hardest things to paint with watercolor are water, clouds and palm tree leaves. So I am taking my time and working until I am happy with it and then walking away instead of continuing to push to just finish it in a hurry.

The Iris I began some time ago. It started off a bit more maroon than purple so I am reworking it a little.

The other morning I woke up and the very first thought I had was not my own. It was the Lord saying,” work on THIS today”. I usually find that when my day starts like that and I follow … it usually goes better than normal.

Do you ever have mornings that begin like that? Do you follow His leading? Share with us your story in the comments below.

In Part 5 of my journey back to art, I mentioned a few books and studies that influenced me to move back toward my art. They all have one message in common: Figure out what your God given talent is and use it! As I was drafting this post it occurred to me that to individually review each one would be rather repetitive due to that fact that they all share the same message presented through words of different people.

One book that got my attention I have mentioned here a lot. You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream; Opening the Door to All God Has for You by Holley Gerth was a wake up call for me in more ways than one. Not only did Holley’s words speak to my heart about pursuing the talent which is God-given but my very own words challenged me as they stared back at me off the page.

The rest of the books and video series are as follows:

Restless by Jennie Allen (book and dvd study)

LIFE after ART by Matt Appling

The Truth Project, a video series produced by Focus on the Family (especially the section specific to Art)

A Million Things by Emily P. Freeman

Finish by Jon Acuff, and his Instagram feed for regular motivation to stick to it.

I was also inspired by a few other bloggers also. You can read about it here where there are links to their specific articles that pushed me along.

I also had a few dear friends question why I had ever given up art to begin with.

One thing I have learned: when God is trying to tell me something or lead me in a particular direction, the message always comes from several unrelated sources. Not just anybody, but from unrelated trusted brothers or sisters in Christ, a message preached, or even a book and the Holy Spirit “highlights” something for you,

Is there anything you are dreaming about? Is God sending you the same message from a variety of places?

Won’t you share about it in the comments below?

Just an update for everyone on my recovery.

On Monday, April 30, I was T-boned in a CR-V, which was a loaner from a dealership while they were working on my Odyssey.

I praise God for His watch care over me. The airbags and seatbelts did what they were designed for and I came away with nothing broken and no internal injuries or head injuries. Things could have been much more worse than they are.

I am suffering from major whiplash. Whiplash is no joke. I truly though I would be going right back to work, (nothing was broken right?) and boy was I wrong. Today is the second day out from the initial accident and I woke up barely able to turn my head. My neck and back are sore, as are my left shoulder, arm, clavicle, and my left hip. I have bruises where the seatbelt was across my lap. My rib cage hurts and it hurts to breath.

I am truly grateful for all well wishes via text messages and on social media and prayer offered on my behalf. I am overwhelmed with the outpouring of love for me through this ordeal.

I have been blessed by messages from my sisters and brothers in Christ from around the world, including those I have never met in person but I interact with on Instagram. There is a special couple that live in Asia that I look forward to meeting one day in Heaven if I don’t get to meet them here in real life. They are both fantastic photographers and if you want some beautiful shots in your feed go follow them on Instagram, @William_tanhl and his wife, the lovely @MrsJoyful.

The good thing is, I can still use my right arm with no issues so I am hoping to do some painting while I recover.

Thanks again for all the love and prayers.

I was a cool “project cup” I bought at Starbucks. The cup comes apart so that you can design the insert.

This past New Year’s I made a resolution to finish one project a month.

The first project took me two months to complete. It took me way too long to finish, as my time painting usually ends up at the very bottom of the “To Do” list that never gets completed.

I finally finished it and it has been delivered to its intended owner.

My design was inspired by an Instagram post from @Coastal_Living.

The original photograph is by KickaWitte/Getty Images of Kauai, Hawaii.

I had to make two separate attempts of this painting as my beloved ZuZu decided to use the first painting as a scratch pad while it was drying overnight.

I liked the second attempt better in the long run any way.

Inserted into the cup, the completed project looks like this:

It has been a long time. I know.

It was MY plan to get back to blogging over the summer and God had other plans.

Our family lost my father this summer through unexpected tragic circumstances and that kind of dictated how we spent our summer.

We are back into the swing of school and have stepped out on faith and put one in school and have two left at home. Our oldest is finishing up her last year in the local college and has plans to transfer to a university after graduation in the spring.

So last November… We didn’t just move.

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

We have never owned our own home before. I am looking forward to blogging about decorating it and making it ours.

It has been quite a process, this moving business. We have accumulated so much stuff in almost 25 years of marriage.

This move has and continues to force us to face our STUFF and downsize and decide what we really need to keep and what can be purged.

A year later and we are still trying to wade through all our “wonderful treasures” that we seem to not be able to delete from our lives.

We moved from a four story house that had a full walk in attic and basement which were both full of clutter and books and stuff we have dragged halfway around the world and back again.

Our new house is a bi-level which is really a glorified rancher with an extra basement room. I always said I would never want to live in a bi-level but… this one captured our attention with it’s huge flat yard, shorter paved driveway, and wood fireplace and is perfect for us and is an answer to so many prayers. One being “Lord, please help me to clear the clutter.” I am still struggling with that one.

Our new home has a school area/studio area in the basement. I am overjoyed about this. I finally don’t have to clear school completely off the kitchen table to put our dinner on the table. Sigh of relief.

I am looking forward to using my new studio space more. Though we have been here a year and our house still looks like we just moved in. So many boxes.. still … in almost every. room.

There are things that have gone missing over our 14 moves that I am looking forward to finding as I unpack each box.

I am sure I sound like a broken record to many as I have yet to really reach any of the goals I set years ago in my blogging and art and life in general. But I am trying really hard to move forward and get out of the slump and now I have several Gorgeous Girls who are cheering me on and encouraging me forward in many areas of my life. I am so glad to have their support. God has greatly blessed me with some very good friends in Christ.