bee brave

A few short years ago, my husband started taking beekeeping classes at the local university. That lead to buying two hives, which lead to swarms and re-queening and the never-ending building of more boxes and frames. And lots of honey.

Today we have four hives in varying sizes. One is very docile (aka: lazy) and the other three are busy and ANGRY. They particularly hate me. Every time I venture near a hive I get a few bees beginning to buzz and head-butt me, and eventually they chase me through the yard as I run yelping away.

They scare me.

But they are also kind of awesome. Did you know, for instance, that all the bees you see flying around are female? And that their stingers are actually ovipositors (egg-laying thingies) that don't work because they are suppressed by the queen's pheromones? It's pretty cool actually.

Still. I dislike the head-butting. I don't know where the panic comes from--being stung certainly sucks but it's not THAT bad. It's more of a instinctual reaction on my part: I hear buzzing near my ear, and suddenly my legs are carrying me far, far away.

Well anyway, yesterday was full of bee-related activity. I felt like drawing a bee, so I drew this:

Right about the same time, my middlest wandered near the hives right after my husband had dropped a frame he was inspecting (FYI--bees do not like being dropped). He had a bee land right on his eyelid and it stung him before I could smack it off. Poor kid. He was a trooper, though. After some understandable tears, he put on his veil and helped my husband inspect the last hive, which was way braver than I would have been. This morning, however, when he woke up he looked like this:

Yikes. Now he's a bit high on Benadryl but otherwise fine.

The moral of the story? I like bees…in theory. I like books about bees, and drawing them. I enjoy honey. But dang. I just can't seem to get to the point where I want to help with them, despite the cajoling from my husband. Unlike my eight-year-old son, I am a bee wimp.

life, interrupted

Oh, hi. 

It's been awhile. I know. I'm bad. Here's a story to make up for it. 

Once upon a time, on a day during which I was frantically baking sheets and sheets of cookies for our Christmas party, I got an unexpected phone call. It was the assistant pastor from our church (aka my brother's father-in-law and our good friend) calling to tell me that our worship leader was leaving unexpectedly, and could I take over? 

Sure, I said, hardly believing what I was saying. We talked a bit more. I hung up. I stared at my shaking hands, disbelief coursing through me along with a good bit of adrenaline and panic. I started to do the math in my head. Saturday night. Two services Sunday morning. Wednesday nights. Thursday night practices. What am I doing. I am not cut out for this. I'm not an awesome singer. My guitar skills are…okay. My husband is going to have a heart attack when he realizes how often I'm gonna be gone. What if everyone hates me. What if I fail. 

And then…quiet. I felt suddenly like God was saying, "You wanted to be directed, I'm directing you. You aren't good enough for this task, but I'm going to use you despite your own weaknesses." I had peace. 

WELL. I still have peace, but I also have a whole lot more to do now, and my creativity has been channeled primarily into finding new music, goofing off on the ukelele, and trying to figure out slide backgrounds and something to do with the hideous fake plants on stage. 

But I have had time for a few non-worship things. Like:

Exploring.

Quite a bit of painting. 

 Lots and LOTS of bike riding. 

Running through a probably unhealthy amount of colored powder.

Birthday cake making. (This was a favorite--My niece requested "A rainbow cake with white frosting and gold everywhere and unicorns on top." Challenge: accepted.)

I guess I'm not as frantic as I thought. It's more that I have to choose to either do things, or to blog about those things. It's kind of either/or right now with everything, so I choose life. 

On that happy note--see you in six months! Ha. 

Christmas Summer

One of my friends from church, who is fairly new to Florida, told me that her daughter claimed that here there are only two seasons: Summer, and Christmas Summer.

*Sigh*

It's so true. We had a lovely chilly Thanksgiving, and now for the beginning of December it's back to shorts and t-shirts for us. So we make ourselves feel Christmasy by watching our favorite Christmas movies (Elf, It's a Wonderful Life, and LOTR are the top three), covering the house in flurries of paper snowflakes, and generally making our home look kind of ridiculous and, according to my kids, "so awesome."

I've also been busy making little presents for the littlest family members. Like these little mermaids for my niece…

And this little quilt top for my nephew, which was made out of the extra blocks I had from making the exact same quilt for my youngest. I kind of love that both the youngest of three will have the same quilts, and despite my reservations about quilting again, I really enjoyed getting back into to sewing.

I feel like this month is already flying by. I wish it would stop doing that, I want to enjoy it! :)

Giving thanks

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. I know we did. For the first time ever the five of us celebrated Thanksgiving in our own home, and it was very special for all of us. We relaxed, we wrote out things we were thankful for this past year, we watched westerns and Top Shot, we had a fire going all day (thank you Lord for a chilly Thanksgiving!!) and all in all had a great day.

Here's hoping all you people crazy enough to go Black Friday shopping stay safe! Next stop, Christmas…YAY!

normality achieved

I think I am almost back to normal, now. Maybe.

I've been trying for weeks to get back into a regular routine with school and chores, which is not easy when you've got a lot of non-normal stuff going on. Like camping out a friend's parents farm and riding horses (not me) and zip lining, and driving an airboat.

Well anyway, the house is (mostly) clean, the kids are caught up on schoolwork, and I've been able to start drawing and painting again.

That last one cracks me up. I don't know what made me tack that hat on at the end, but it made me and my kids laugh and also gave me all sorts of ideas for a series.

Also, after a year of quilting hiatus, my youngest has requested a bigger quilt for Christmas, so looks like I'll be back in the sewing saddle again as soon as my fabric arrives…I'm actually kind of excited to quilt again. I guess a year off was a good enough break to make me stop detesting my sewing machine.