Playing with Acrylics

Since we have been doing acrylics in art class I have also been expirementing with acrylics at home. I am having so much fun with them, I love mixing colors on and off the page. This is of a castle in Germany... at least I didn't trace it (:

Happy Birthday again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Pope Benedict XVI
Happy Birthday to you!!!!!!

We have been discussing and loving two of his writings lately, Deus Caritas Est and Sacrumentum Caritatis, and so I can quote him for his birthday. This is is from Deus Caritas Est:

Charity, furthermore, cannot be used as a means of engaging in what is nowadays considered proselytism. Love is free; it is not practised as a way of achieving other ends.[30] But this does not mean that charitable activity must somehow leave God and Christ aside. For it is always concerned with the whole man. Often the deepest cause of suffering is the very absence of God. Those who practise charity in the Church's name will never seek to impose the Church's faith upon others. They realize that a pure and generous love is the best witness to the God in whom we believe and by whom we are driven to love. A Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is better to say nothing and to let love alone speak. He knows that God is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8) and that God's presence is felt at the very time when the only thing we do is to love. He knows—to return to the questions raised earlier—that disdain for love is disdain for God and man alike; it is an attempt to do without God. Consequently, the best defence of God and man consists precisely in love. It is the responsibility of the Church's charitable organizations to reinforce this awareness in their members, so that by their activity—as well as their words, their silence, their example—they may be credible witnesses to Christ.

Isn't that cool?????? So again,
Happy 80th Birthday Pope Bendedict XVI!!!!!!!!!!!! We love you!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is Risen, Alleluia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do watch this, it's awesome!!!!!!!!!!

Good Friday

We adore Thee oh Christ and we praise Thee

Because By Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Pope John Paul the Great

Seeing as tomorrow is the second anniversary of the death of our beloved Holy Father John Paul II and I absolutely love him, I'm going to try to pull together some kind of post. Be warned, if you actually plan to read this thing, prepare yourself for a discombobulated and crazy conglomeration of interesting facts, stories etc. That said, let us begin.

To begin with, for anyone interested in learning more about JPII, anyone who knows nothing about him but wants to learn something, or anyone who wants to see an incredible movie, find some way of seeing this, it is more then worth your time. It made me laugh, cry... and love Pope John Paul II. In fact it was mostly this movie that put him on my list of confirmation names. And I now am completely stuck trying to decide between him and St. Paul.
Anyways I also enjoy attempting to draw him as you may have noticed in these two previous posts. This evening I drew another picture of him, as you can see on the left.
Lastly I can't go without mentioning two years ago when he died. Not that I have incredible stories to share, but I watched hours of news coverage that did share incredible stories.

His life story is amazing, but I'm not the one to tell it, there is the movie that I mentioned above and there are dozens of books to explore.

Okay I warned you it was going to be a discombobulated mess, but there you have it.

Playing with Watercolors

This my attempt to draw a picture of me from the Roman Holiday party. It didn't work. I traced it before I did the watercolors so everything is in the right place, but it still doesn't look at all like me (:

Underground Church

Last Friday after co-op I accompanied two of our homeschool friends to their parish to participate in an event known as the underground church. It was a lot of fun. We got there early to set up. That included taping plastic on windows and doors, stringing rope lights through the stairwells, having a " duct tape war", watching a number of my friends play basketball (and they are really good) and enjoying some pizza before the main event began. The game is meant to emulate to some extent the experiences of the early Christians and it works like this.

Once the rules are explained and everyone has been taken over the school (the scene of the event) all the lights are turned out, and it is really dark. Then the kids wander over the school in search of first the "priest", who will give you a very short bible quote on a piece of cardboard to memorize, then the "church", who will give you a ticket, both of which are represented by adults. Once you have both your memorized bible quote and a ticket you bring them to a certain room, turn them in, recite your quote and get two points for your team. But when you have your bible you can get arrested by the adults who represent cops. If you are arrested then you are taken to the kindergarten room where you must stay for five minutes. At the end of two hours the team with the most points wins.

It was fun, even if it was very hot, and I'm definitely hoping to go next year.

Mirror Lake

On our way back from Duluth way back in June we stopped in a little town called Mondovi and admired the view on a small lake there called Mirror lake. While there we took numerous pictures and I drew what you see on the left from one of those shots. It is supposed to portray one of my cousins sitting with Frank, but it didn't quite succeed. (:

The Bat and the Nightingale

This was our assignment from this past week; to use the same techniques I mentioned earlier to rewrite the Chinese fable: The Bat and the Nightingale. My version titled "An Uncooperative Concert" is shown below.

On the majestic banks of the River Li, which flows through China, there was once a great forest in which resided many creatures. Although any of these creatures might make very interesting subjects, this tale tells of only two of them, of a bat and a nightingale.

The bat was a nocturnal animal, that is he slept the daylight hours away and patrolled the banks by night, in search of mosquitoes. The other was a nightingale. Although she also was nocturnal, it was just about the only thing she had in common with the bat. Singing was her main occupation, and she sang beautifully, so beautifully that the emperor himself came every night with his royal entourage to hear this tiny bird sing. Unfortunately all this attention made the nightingale quite vain and her neighbor the bat, who was a sensible if unattractive creature, began to feel the effects of it.

After her nightly concert for the emperor she always delighted in insulting and nagging the bat. "You lazy bat!" she would say "I sing nightly for the emperor and his court, and all you do is laze around and eat mosquitoes. You are of no real importance, you should learn to make yourself useful." The bat said nothing. Unhindered, the nightingale' s monologue flowed on, the bat however remained silent, because he was unwilling to engage in argument with such an overly loquacious creature. On the quiet dark banks, later that night, he concocted a clever plan, which would show the nightingale the necessity of talents other then that of singing.

As usual, the emperor came with his typical company to hear the nightingale sing. Seemingly the concert would be the same as it always was, but in reality there was a difference. The bat had stayed at home, comfortably waiting to view the upcoming spectacle. In the branches above the audience mosquitoes swarmed. Unabated by the bat, hungry, called together by the presence of a group of humans, or in their minds food, they pounced. Havoc quickly ensued. Singing on, the nightingale did not notice the courtiers backing away and then running for cover. As the first mosquito pounced on him the emperor jumped, because he was a very small and very thin man his jump was quite astoundingly high, squealed and took off as fast as he could. He was a nervous excitable being and his movement consisted in a cross between a series of nervous jumps and frantic running, he reminded one of a very short grasshopper.

The nightingale then realized she no longer had an audience and seeing the bat hanging lazily on the branch of tree guessed the reason. Humbly she said to the bat "I'm sorry, I should have realized your importance in the forest instead of bragging about my talent. Will you forgive me?" Since the nightingale was really sincere and
because the bat was a kind creature, he did forgive her and from then on they acted in cooperation with each other and thus lived happily ever after.