The "lost weekend"..............................

I've been a little quiet, here, sorry about that. I feel so out-of-the-loop but stuff happens. I came down with a nasty bug last Thursday and it really hit me hard and fast! I had to cancel the whole weekend which included my art reception on Friday night; was in an art exhibit at the Albany Art Room with two of my dear friends, had to cancel Part II of my collage workshop, on Saturday, but most importantly had to postpone my annual Mother's Day brunch which I so look forward to. I was looking forward to my daughter-in-law's first Mother's Day celebration with Sophia and family. Am I whining here? Maybe a little I guess. Our bodies have a way, at times, of telling us we've been doing too much; maybe we're vulnerable and pick up these nasty bugs as a result. Who knows but we get it and can get it from anywhere at any time.

I had some time to put it all in perspective to let myself slow down and even though I was sad to miss out on so much, my thoughts turned to the fact that all my loved ones are okay and could still enjoy their time together. I certainly didn't want to share my nasty bug with everyone that I love :) I have reschedule the brunch for next weekend so I can still look forward to the time with everyone.

I'm not much of a TV person (except my favorite show is The Office) and my husband is a news junkie. Because I was pretty immobile, this weekend, he had the news on a lot that I could hear and see. I mean I know what's going on, in the world, but don't like to be barraged with it all the time; it feeds my mind and I just wish I could do something about what I'm taking in. I get very frustrated. But, I have to say, listening to so much news, this weekend, kind of snapped me out of my sadness thinking on what I was missing out on. Go figure!

During this time, my thoughts went to the people in Tennessee who are still trying to recover from the devastating floods, the oil spill that cannot be contained, people who have illnesses that can't be healed in just a week or so. The mind works in strange ways but our thinking patterns can help us heal - can't they? They can kind of "snap us out of it" when we're thrown some curves. I'm probably not expressing myself very well but felt the need to "blow this stuff out".

I do hope you all had a good weekend; Happy Mother's Day to all of you. We don't have to have children to be nurturers; that's a topic for another time. I promise I'll address that in future :) But; we all have or had mothers to think about on this weekend. Mine just turned 90 a couple of months ago! Anyway; hope you enjoyed your time.

I did get a little blog visiting in, this weekend, and hope to catch up more this week. I'm feeling a bit stronger today and with each day will get myself back to "normal" whatever that is :)

I've uploaded pictures here of some journal work I did before I got sick. These are journal exercises from my online class which was sketching our figures, writing over the faces, and we used a new medium......Conte crayons! I love them. I tried one exercise in black and the other in sepia. My favorite is the sepia color; the black is okay but a little harsher. The crayons are like butter and they do need a fixative; I used non-scented hairspray. We were to doodle with a white gel pen; I really enjoyed this activity. I'm so hooked on journaling now!

Well; I've taken up much, too much, of your time here. But; I guess I needed to spill out my words. :)

Hope you are all well and safe; enjoy the week ahead! I've missed you!

Much love - Marilyn xxoo