Two little black and white kittens with white mittens on all eight feet!  They are about seven weeks old tomorrow, both boys, but from different litters.  One is three days younger and significantly smaller.  Their names are not yet settled on, but I'm pretty keen on calling the smaller, short-hair with semetrical white socks and gloves Maestro or possibly Micestro.  He certainly has a singing voice!  The other is more enigmatic - long-haired, he looks a ruffian, but has this knack for the pounce, the stalk, and the "scared cat in an alley" look.  He's daring and a bit of a loner.  I thought "Sinbad the Sailor" was a fit at first, Papa suggested "Duster," since he looks like that household tool, or "Smoke," "Smog," or "Spook" for his gray-black-brown long coat.  Maybe "Hawkeye"...  We'll see.  They are in the mud room for the time being, but their vocation will be mice-hunting Barn Cats.  First they need to grow big enough to be predators, not prey...

nope.  this is not about Michael Phelps.  i'm talking about brush strokes, specifically the ones you use for a type of decorative painting called "tole painting."  my grandmother is teaching me how and yesterday and today i've been practicing the manuevers of the round brush comma stroke.  not much progress yesterday, but after a good night's sleep and a run this morning, i filled the rest of yesterday's second  huge sheet of freezer paper and started a fresh page.  i'd been experimenting on the other two pages, but it hadn't looked like anything very pretty.  but on page three, something seemed to click.  it is so neat how God makes brains and hands and people and gifts and all the stuff that goes into being a creative human made in God's image.  so i painted three flowers with strokes from the tole painting book (plus a few improvised ones).  the hard part is controling your hand so the brush comes up slowly enough to make a really thin point at the end of the stroke.  when i painted before, i just made as many strokes as necessary to fill the space; tole painting uses the right brushes and strokes to get that shape on one pass over.  it has a much smoother, cleaner look.  lots of fun and more of it tomorrow!!!

A few places we've been of late:

Today we went hiking.  Not at $$ Seven Falls as originally planned (an atrociously long line of slow-moving cars at the entrance was quite persuasive), but rather up Mt. C-something (a local favorite on the cooler northern face of the canyon).  The trail was well-built, not too steep, shady, with beautiful views.  You could even see Seven Falls from one of the lookouts.  Then the more tourist-y Helen Hunt Falls, which had a water feature, but was also more crowded, steep, and hot.  So I recommend the Mt. C-something hike, except it's undergoing a lengthy trail remodel starting Monday.  Photographic evidence of our trip:

L to R: Evan, Sarah, and Colorado Springs


Seeing Seven Falls (behind me) for FREE!!!



Sarah and Evan



My adorable younger sister, Christa!


Water rushing toward Helen Hunt Falls

Marie.  She left yesterday.  She stopped by for a few days on her way cross-country from Vancouver, BC to Georgia.  It was great to see her again.  God has blessed me with wonderful friends.