Crabapple jelly

If you’re seeing this photo and nodding your head up and down in acknowledgment, or you’re shaking your head side to side and tsk-tsking, either way, you’re right – I’ve got nothing right now, at least not in terms of pottery or anything clay related and it doesn’t seem like the situation will be ameliorated any time soon.  I couldn’t bear the thought of writing a blog post without an image though, because I am such a visual person myself.  As a child, I always digested the pictures before reading any text.  Even after reading passages from a book, I would have to back track and make sure that the illustrations supported the text.

I can’t seem to find a rythym.  It’s not like I’m sitting on my duff either.  I’m volunteering, being a mom, designing a business card for the Colorado Potters Guild, helping my F.I.L. configure a wordpress site for his high school classmates and alumni, am embroiled in “math-gate” at my daughter’s school and yes, have even made crabapple jelly – something I’ve always wanted to do.  It’s about time the squirrels weren’t the only ones to benefit from the bounty that our crabapple tree produces every year.  The recipe is pretty simple – a ton of crabapples, water and sugar.  Just google crapbapple jelly and pages of recipes appear magically.

In the meantime, I have agreed to substitute teach at my daughter’s school for the next 4 days, while the 5th grade students (my daughter included) and their teachers go to sleep away camp till the end of the week to bond.  If I sound bitter, I’m not – I’m actually grateful for the distraction.

Just today, I was out walking my dogs in the park and listening to a podcast featuring art coach, Bruce Baker and I had to laugh.  He mentioned how artists can often times get lost in ideas and that when the monkeys start chattering too loudly in our brain, it’s time to shut them up and just go to work – creative people have a tendency to over think stuff.  Luckily, the park was empty today since it was a rainy and drizzly one, so when I laughed out loud embarrassingly at his remark, no one was around to hear me – except my dogs and they love me unconditionally.  I’ve become lost in my head right now.  That’s a true confession and I feel totally distracted.  I need to learn to compartmentalize events as they occur and I’m afraid that I have been unable to do that recently.  I feel everything acutely and often the need to react is just as strong as the original stimulus.

Sigh….  This is not a “oh woe is me post” either.  It just is and so am I.

~Cynthia