Yes, it’s HIS birthday and no less than his 81st. Impressive!

For the entire month of February he has been invoking his privilege of being “The Birthday Boy” by bringing home from the store all his favorites denied him the rest of the year. (Don’t believe that story for a minute! He does all the shopping!) He has brought home brownies, iced with rich white frosting, ice cream, huge cinnamon rolls covered with thick white icing, large bags of roasted almonds and ordered Dominoes pizza delivered.  He even announced to me after a lovely dinner at Carrabbas, complete with a rich, chocolate dessert of some title, he was going to stop by the store on our way home. He came out with cookies, 100 in the package for only $10.

But the moment I began to feel guilty for having given up baking when our children left for college then got married…(all married within 9 months of each other, by the way! That will be another blog!) was when he brought home his”Birthday Cake” this week.

Hey, there’s nothing too good for my husband’s birthday, is there? Actually, he bought them himself yesterday. I asked him why he didn’t buy the nonpareils. Our children will understand and laugh at that question. I used to bake and never failed to top off “whatever” with multicolored nonpareils. Done!

Nonpareils on everything was a tradition at our house as were artificial flowers. I learned early on that a bunch of plastic flowers or one or two alone, strategically placed here and there, could bring a certain élan  to our “They had the same furniture while in college” decor. Once I discovered a neat little hole in the sheet rock wall in our breakfast room. Our daughter said “Stick a flower in it, Mom!” which I did. Problem solved and with creativity.

Back to “The Birthday Boy”; I could not be more proud of him. Upon retiring ten years ago he re-entered Dallas Theological Seminary and completed his studies started way back years ago. In 2009 he graduated, walked across the stage and everything, at the DTS Commencement. When he received his beautiful Diploma in the mail a few days later he came running in to tell me he had graduated first in his class, With Highest Honors. He added the caveat, “But don’t tell anyone.” Who me?

Since March 2012 he has been diligently working many hours every day as an online Missionary for Global Media Outreach, teaching and counseling hundreds across the world. He is incredibly devoted to his ministry to our Lord Jesus Christ.

David is also a highly competent electronics audio/visual hobbiest, having worked his way through several years of college in the field, custom designing home systems. He keeps up with every new trend in electronics. (But I had an iPhone before he did! Ha!) AND he is our resident computer guru. When my computer acts up I just yell “David”. When he enters the room it corrects itself. No kidding. Ask him. I think my computer is afraid of him. He can be tough when needed, just ask our children and Grands.

I know my blog is advertised as an art blog, but David did pay for me to go to college and art school. Justified!

I could go on, but I need to go buy some nonpareils or I could send David to H.E.B.

Lately I’ve noticed that dust has settled in comfortably on my paint palette, easel and other art supplies. The  accumulated dust hasn’t gotten too deep because I brush by it with a flurry everyday headed to Facebook or Pinterest and it scatters some.

I didn’t think much about it until I noticed that someone had written “Paint Me” on a sticky note and stuck it on a blank panel sitting on my easel. Hasn’t he ever heard of painters block? Creativity is a fickle thing and comes and goes at odd times. Yeah, I’ve been told many times or read it somewhere that true creativity comes “in the doing” of the project, not in the “thinking” about it. I’m a good thinker and I’m a reliable artist…….IF I’m given a deadline to meet. I’m good at meeting deadlines and I’ve proven it over and over in my former life as a commercial artist. But give me all the time in the world and I procrastinate until all my paint tubes go dry and I have to make a trip to the art supply store for new paint. By that time the art market has changed and no one wants paintings of bluebonnet fields….at least not until next spring in Texas.

Which brings me to my new decision; I commit to do 30 paintings in the month of March. That’s almost one per day if there are still 31 days in March. For a week now I’ve tried to come up with reasons why I should NOT commit to such a thing. I even messaged a friend and asked her to talk me out of it, PLEASE! I thought she would understand and sympathize since she has done this 30-30 madness thing before but I haven’t heard back from her. I’m on my own.

Last September I actually did paint 30 paintings that month and had planned to participate in the January 30-30 Challenge, but decided to go to Disney World for a week instead, right in the middle of the month. No artist could catch up after all that time away. Right? But as some of you know, our son ran the Disney World Marathon and we couldn’t possibly miss that. When we got home my husband and I felt like WE had run the marathon, also, and promptly came down with respiratory ailments which took weeks to go away.

Here is a stack of my 30 art panels…all blank and ready to be made gorgeous with my wild acrylic colors.

You have my permission, in fact, I invite you to talk me out of it, but otherwise I’m committed. I love deadlines.