24 hour vacation

Providence is lovely, especially in the fall. Ornamental grasses with their full furry flowers, leaves scattered on the sidewalks, brilliantly painted Greek Revival homes (much like my friend's where we stayed) adorned with pumpkins, mums, and kale. Ahhh...

24 hours later, I'm back home. Refreshed? No, as the trip is 4 hours, one way. Refueled? Yes. Old friends, good conversation, and great food (I had ALL my favorites...starting THE diet today). However, the highlight of my 24 hour vacation? A phone call home. My 2 yo daughter told me with bubbling enthusiasm about her day with Daddy. I caught all the important words in her babbling run-on sentence: apples, wagon, horsies, neigh-neigh, yee-haa! Piecing them together, I concluded that they went apple picking at an orchard and got a horse drawn wagon ride to boot! To finish our conversation, she told me that she missed me and, in her adorable pronunciation, wuv you, mama. ~sigh~

Before I left for my mini vacation, I introduced my girl to watercolors. She loved the process of wetting her brush and swirling in the paint, wetting the brush again, swirling in the paint again, wetting her brush...you get the idea. Even though very little painting was done, she was still mastering a skill, a tool, that will aid her in the painting to come. She delighted to discover the water changed colors as she swirled and wetted her brush. Of course, I changed the water several times in order to avoid that unavoidable murky gray concoction.

When I sit down at my bench today, rather than cranking out finished pieces one after another, I will choose a technique and work to master and explore that technique. Today will be less about production and more about discovery. What will you discover today?