Mom, What Can We Do Together?

"Mom, what can we do together?" Sydney asks.

I hope she continues to ask this question.

I hope she continues to want to spend time with me.

I hope she will continue to want to do something together.

We went to our "Bernina Basics" class together on Saturday.  So we learned basic basics.  In the first hour and a half, as both of our stomachs were protesting vehemently for food and our mouths were parched, I took notes on needle sizes and types, thread types, and Sydney listened and laid her head on the table.  At last, we were able to take a break and run to the convenience store together for a snack and a drink.  Ahhh. . . one of Sydney's favorite things to do together is have a snack and this was no exception.  The second half with our satisfied tummies, we learned how to clean the machine and do some basic stitching.  "Let's make a baby blanket for Jasper!" Sydney says.

So we have our first goal together.

A baby blanket.

And after a little mishap with Toby the beagle stepping on the foot pedal . . .

{which I knew how to take care of because of our Bernina Basics class}

we completed our first sewing project together.

Our community is in a baby boom this summer.

So together, Sydney and I plan to make pink and blue

snuggly blankets for the new babies in central Meade County.

Now I am ready for my Artistic Mother project #3 {I think}.

Photos/Text copyright 2010 Jodene (Jodi) Shaw.

South Dakota Summer. . .Saturday??? How about Monday?

So life got the best of me and my intentions for a Saturday post flew out the window with a boring list of to-do's and ta-da's and yada-yada's. . .

But Father's Day in the Badlands was a fun day trip for us ~ beautiful day and beautiful scenery.  Playing tourist in our own backyard is something we do alot of lately.  Realizing what is right here is a treat.  It's all about "embrace your place."

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We ate the best bacon your taste buds could touch at The Red Rock Restaraunt in Wall.  So I am passing the word along that if you want an excellent home-cooked breakfast, it is the place to stop.

Wall Drug is one of those places you have to stop at because of all the billboard signs along I-90. . . you'd always wonder if you didn't stop . . . and then after you have stopped . . .well, you don't have to wonder anymore. 

We live in our little place on the ranch often oblivious to the amount of tourists that come to South Dakota.  A couple hours at Wall Drug gives a clear picture of the importance of tourism to our state's economy.  My kids loved the toy store . . . and so did every other child that was passing by on I-90 that day.  I was content to hang around in the bookstore.  That would be me. 

A great day with a great dad for my kids & me.

Jim & I are both blessed with great dad's of our own.

Happy Father's Day!

Do you have memories of Wall Drug or the Badlands or Father's Day tradtions?

I'd love to hear your comments!

Where Bloggers Create Party

My Creative Space

is a glimpse of my vision for a studio

someday

but for now is a corner in my kitchen

organized in my Grandma Edna's buffet

made for china, silverware, tablecloths and placemats

But instead holds my supplies

for writing, scrapbooking, painting, photography.

And an old TV stand rolls out with

writing resources 

volumes of my journals

photoboxes

And being a mom, I share my space

which is my dining room/kitchen table

with a creative 3 year old named Erin Grace.

Simple.

Small.

It's where I am right now.

And it's my own corner of working out my inspiration.

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Here is another view of my creative space:

http://jodeneshaw.blogspot.com/2010/06/peek-into-my-creative-space-work-in.html

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Here are two posts of creating and sharing with my daugthers: 

http://jodeneshaw.blogspot.com/2010/06/here-she-is.html

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http://jodeneshaw.blogspot.com/2010/03/artistpassing-it-on.html

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Copyright 2010. Jodene (Jodi) Shaw

Here She Is

Ok, so here is one of my first mixed media projects inspired by

Kelly Rae Roberts' {www.kellyraeroberts.com} book Taking Flight.

Learning techniques to use for the projects I have stored in my brain and sketched in my journals.

Experimenting with how to take photographs of art...this is a large piece I could not scan.

To me, the wings represent a transformed life.

Metamorphosis.

A woman becoming who God created her to be.

Not necessarily an angel.

But a woman.  Becoming her true self.  Intended self.  Completed self.

Incorporating my heart with "Embrace Your Place".

I browse all of these other BEAUTIFUL blogs of talented writers and artists and photographers.

Get a bit intimidated about sharing.

And overwhelmed with the vision of where I want to be versus where I am.

But . . . I love what I'm doing and that is what is important.

And it is so good to want to never SLEEP because I have so much LIFE I want to live.

So much to create.  So much to share.  So much to write.

Part of "embracing my place" is the season of motherhood and being an auntie.

Which means that these four lovely girls around me

want to do what I'm doing.

They are inspired to paint and create.

And that is a beauty in itself.

Watching their process of expression and communication through art.

Which encourages me in my vision of where I want to be.

Because I see Erin's chubby little hands painting with enthusisam with beginning strokes.

Just a step toward what she will someday create.

We all have to take a first step.  And then the next.

And the next.

And the first are not always the best.

But they still are beautiful.

I love these creations by the girls in my life, my daughters & nieces.

And like the girls who sometimes copy what I do,

I use a book to learn the new steps and techniques.

So that I can develop my own style.

Through this process of transition in my life

Over the past few years,

I have scrapbooked, journaled, and photographed.

To record the transition of discovering my true heart.

And the shedding of the false selves that I created to portray

What I though would be pleasing to others.

Finding that our true self is what others want and need from us anyway.

And that a loving God gives us grace and forgiveness and love and helps to tear away

the masks we've created which is often a painful process

but is so freeing in the end.

It's been a desire of my heart to communicate that through various forms of art.

To perhaps lead others in recording their stories.

This is part of discovering and walking that process.

It will be an adventure to see what doors open

And which ones I choose to walk through.

"If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36

My hope is that any work that I do {writing, photography, art, loving my man and kids}

tells the story of the life and freedom I have found . . . free indeed through Jesus Christ.

Copyright 2010, Jodene (Jodi) Shaw.

Looking Back at Cranes

Cranes. 
Looking back in my journal I found an entry March 31, 2010.
I've posted lots of art and photos lately ~ but not from the depths of my journals for quite awhile.  I'm feeling called to share today out of that depth, out of the authenticity of my personal writings, to be risky in that.  Because somebody else needs to be encouraged in their own authenticity. 

Birds are a theme of my life.  A delight.  Leading me to lessons...so here's my journal on cranes...

Last day of March...my baby is 3...her first Easter egg hunt...she naps.

The cranes are returning...another sound of spring that causes my heart to ache.  Why is it that the sounds of spring...the robins, meadowlarks, the cranes, geese and frogs surface this ache, this longing in my heart.  A home-sick feeling.  I am aching in my spirit, longing.  For what?

Lord, I look up at the cranes.  They are in a cyclical formation like a tornado going nowhere all flapping furiously, frantically expending all sorts of noise and energy, yet it seems going nowhere.

I'm searching for something in all of this.  This spring.  This ache.  This feeling like I'm circling, but not going anywhere.

And then I sense this as I write . . .

They can be silly in their wing-flapping circles and yet they still do get somewhere.  They get distracted and start going in circles.  But then they get their bearings and go again.  They all are looking for someone to follow--for someone to just take the lead...not really wanting to be the leader and yet not really trusting anyone else to be the leader either.

Leading can be lonely, exhausting, scary and uncertain, but it also can be really living out in the front--life and wind all hitting you square in the face--with the view clear and unhindered. 

"What if nobody follows?" is a thought.
"What if I go the wrong way?"
"What if some follow and I lead everyone off course?"

And yet, perfectly imperfect the cranes still get somewhere--they still get going in that northward direction and find their spring~summer nesting grounds.  And so can you.

And like the cranes, there are times for flying and times for nesting.  There are times of flying in circles wondering who to follow and times to just break out and be the leader calling others over your shoulder to "come north".  And if no one follows, double back and reassure them that "it's ok, come on, we are heading north, I can feel it."

Copyright 2010.  Jodene (Jodi) Shaw

{The photo is of geese over our ranch...the cranes were too far away for my camera to reach...and ironically, as slow as they appeared to be moving in their confusion, they were too fast as well.)

Little House Reflections

DeSmet, South Dakota.  May 2010. 

My childhood is full of memories of traveling east of the Missouri River to visit my Grandpa Tommy and Grandma Edna south of Ree Heights, SD, along with visits to my aunts and uncles and cousins.  Nostalgia seems to fill my lungs when I cross the river and take a deep breath.  In addition to those visits, hearing the theme music to Little House on the Prairie or picking up a yellow copy of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book stirs up an immediate lump in my throat of sweet childhood memories.  I thought my parents, Phil & Linda, were perfect just like Charles and Caroline Ingalls ~ Pa and Ma.  I imagined that I would grow up and marry Michael Landon.  I cried when he passed away.  The romance of Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder was the first I ever read in These Happy Golden Years and the first I remember watching on television.

So all of that goes to explain why I literally was holding back tears several times on Tom's class field trip to DeSmet last month.  Learning experience for the kids, yes.  But for me as a mom . . . it was traveling back to a time of innocence and wonder and heroes. 

The real trigger was when we were nearing the end of our tour and the sweet guide asked the kids if they would like to hear Laura's voice.  All of the kids were eager to hear.  And there was me.  Standing in the middle of 9,10, and 11 year olds leaning in close to hear a cassette tape of an interview in 1952, with Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I had never heard her voice.  Right away, I am misty eyed.  As she spoke, of her beloved dog Jack going to the "Happy Hunting Grounds", I looked up to the ceiling and rapidly blinked my eyes.  Out of the corner I caught a glimpse of my 10 year old son looking sideways at me with a crooked little grin on his face.  Later on the way home, I said, "I almost cried when I heard her voice."  He said, "I know, Mom, I saw you," with a smile reserved for a mom from a son who thinks maybe she's a little silly to cry over the oddest things, and yet still loves her anyway.  Yes, I know, I am a total museum and history nerd . . . but over the top when it comes to Laura.  It is almost like she was a great grandmother whose voice I had never heard.  I was like an Elvis fan at Graceland, but I was in DeSmet, South Dakota.

Old memories of watching Little House on the Prairie on a black and white television in a 1972 trailer house, reading my faded yellow copies of Laura's books and a trip with my mom, brother, Aunt Shirley and cousins Tom and Troy to see the pageant of Little Town on the Prairie in DeSmet, SD on the hottest day of the summer.  New memories of traveling with my son and his class and all the other moms and grandmothers sharing their own "Little House" memories.  Making new memories with my own kids as we are reading Little House in the Big Woods each night before bed.

As an adult, I have a new appreciation and respect for her.  I share a passion for writing of life on the prairies of South Dakota.  Of remembering the details of life...the difficult and the delightful.  Sharing my stories.

Good times.  Do any of you have memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder books or watching Little House on the Prairie?  I'd love to hear!  Post a comment.  Share a memory.  Let me know you visited!

P.S.  If you've read much of my blog, you will notice that "embracing your place" and "savoring life here and now" and "finding beauty in the moment" are a theme of mine.  In celebration of that, I'm considering celebrating my state ~ South Dakota with a weekly post for the summer. . . "South Dakota Summer Saturdays".  . . . so even though this is not Saturday. . . this post would be an example. . . what do you think?  Any thoughts about that?  It will lean heavily on the western portion of the state...because of where I live.  But just sharing a thought I have . . .

Photos:  Tom and me. My niece Katie.  The Big Slough with DeSmet in the background.  L.I. Wilder quote engraving.  Kids driving the team to the schoolhouse.  Example of a corn cob doll like Laura had in Little House in the Big Woods. 

Copyright June 2010.  Jodene (Jodi) Shaw

A Peek Into My Creative Space & Work in Progress

Savor the seasons of life. 

Bloom where you are planted. 

Don't blink. 

Embrace your place.

*All of these phrases reflect a corner of my heart to be shared*

Over the past 2-3 years, I have been intentionally looking

to embrace and behold the beauty in this place that I live. 

The people.  The location.  The time of my life.

My family.

Shaw Ranch.

White Owl Creek.

South Dakota. 

Many people drive through the prairie of South Dakota and see it as a desolate place of nothingness. 

But with it's sparse trees, wide open rolling hills, and vast sky of vibrant sunrises, sunsets and star-filled nights ~ desolation and nothingness could not be further from the truth.

The full richness of this prairie is one of the things that I desire to portray in my art, photography and writing.  To celebrate this prairie.  The beauty of savoring it with all five senses.

So, this work-in-progress "Prairie Song" piece that I am working on is

a celebration of the sounds of the prairie. 

And I've included a little peek into my creative space...

the corner of my kitchen...

my bird books~3 had belonged to my Grandma Marj...

my Grandma Edna's buffet

{that holds art/photo/writing/scrapbooking supplies

instead of dishes, tableclothes, placemats and silverware}

360 new pages of patterned paper bliss {K&Company}

Kelly Rae Roberts' Taking Flight book ~see her at http://www.kellyraeroberts.com/

my singing toy robin from my friend Shelane...

my Stampin' Up rubber stamps from Shirrise...

an old Coca-Cola bottle crate from a yard sale

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle {www.eric-carle.com} is

the book I use as a framework to "tell my own story of metamorphosis"

and is also an inspiration of collage art.

My creative space.

Photos, Prairie Song art and text copyright 2010 Jodene (Jodi) Shaw.