The summer is just flying by. I can’t believe the start of school is just around the corner. I always look forward to the return of routine, but I also miss the slower mornings and more relaxed schedule. This year will be different, though, because Marshall is officially in college and Calvin will be taking all of his classes at the local community college for his senior year, except for one. Marshall is already driving, and Calvin will be within a few weeks. There will be no more pick-up lines and making lunches for me, and their schedules are not typical 8-3 school days. It’s a whole new season of life.
Despite the fact that we won’t have the return of the school year routine, I intend to bring back some of my routines, like getting out of bed early, going on walks, and having a bit more structure to my workday.
Here are my four things for this week: Painting light and color, a bit of entertainment, the benefits of reading and writing, and project snowballs.
what I’m reading
I’ll often add books to my Amazon wish list and then forget about them! I was recently reminded of one such book, so I purchased it and have been reading it this week – Painting Light and Colour in Oils. This is an excellent instructional painting book, and I have loved studying the paintings, which are all loose and painterly. It’s another good one to add to my art book library. (You can find the list of titles in my art book library HERE.)
what I’m watching
Marshall had his wisdom teeth removed at the beginning of this week and, if I’m completely honest, I was dreading it. I know it’s very routine in this day and age, but I hate anything to do with teeth. When the boys would come to me with wiggly teeth, I would tell them to go to Jeff. It was one of the mom things that I just couldn’t handle. I mean, we do the dentist and brushing and all of that, but when it comes to teeth coming out of the head, that’s where I am out.
Anyway, so he’s doing great. It went about as easily as wisdom teeth removal can go, so he’s in that place where he feels good, but still has to take it easy to allow for healing. He was bored yesterday, so we watched a movie together – The Gorge on Apple TV+. For me, it’s just a good, entertaining movie. It’s pretty clean, it hasn’t been made and remade a million times, and you care about the characters.
what I’m loving
“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves in life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with or at least clapping along with the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.“
– Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
what I’m working on
This week so far, my primary focus has been working on the photography for my next book (on creative living, coming out in Summer 2026). When I first started working on this book, before I even pitched it to a publisher, I thought it might be a trade book. If you’re not familiar with that term, it refers to a book without pictures or illustrations. I thought the words were the most important thing, and, for the first time in my writing career, I wouldn’t pair those words with images. As I further developed the book with my new publisher, Harvest House, we discussed the potential absence of photos and decided that the book would be even better with a visual component.
Working on the photos was slow at first since I wasn’t working backwards from my usual approach, but I’m now enjoying the process so much. One photo leads to the next, and I’m not even keeping count anymore to make sure we have enough. I’m just going to keep taking new pictures until the deadline, and we’ll pick the best of the bunch.
I love it when projects snowball like this. They just need a little push, and then they grow, gain speed, and pick up new material along the way.
What have you been reading, watching, loving, and working on this week?
13 Responses
I am curious, do the college courses count toward a future degree and how do students going in their senior year qualify to enroll in college courses? Best of luck to both Marshall and Calvin this year. Yes, it will be different school schedule routine but it sounds exciting. I was talking to my sister last night and her grandson will be going into middle school this year. He is excited but they are apprehensive as middle school can bring new challenges.
Yes, the college classes count towards a future degree, so Marshall just has one more year to finish his engineering degree at the community college before deciding if he wants to move onto a four=year program or something else. It’s great that they are able to knock out a year of college before even graduating high school!
We recently watched a mini series called Washington Black. I believe it’s on Disney. We really enjoyed it. It’s based on the book. Would recommend it.
Thank you! I’ll check it out.
I’m with you with the teeth thing – made their Dad take them and for all their braces – I nope right out of that! Your story regarding your son’s wisdom teeth made me laugh though – sadly, I couldn’t get out of that one and while he had sedation – it was funny getting a really sleepy young adult (6 feet tall) and me trying to support him (5 ft 5”) on his way to the car…
Thanks for the new painting tutorial! Be well.
My oldest was one of the first in our community to go to an Early College High School. All classes were at the college and most were college classes. She finished College in 3 years (I took 7–but I was working full time for 5 of those) even though I encouraged her to take 4 years, we had planned for this. But she was in a hurry to be an “adult” and now she shakes her head and wonders why she rushed through college. Oh well, she still has great memories and doesn’t work in journalism at all but in what makes her heart smile. Hope your guys enjoy their college years, it goes by at an incredible clip.
All the best to your family in this new season with college kids. I really enjoyed this time with our boys. Also, thank you for the new website. It’s so much better!!!!! I’ve been a long time follower and had almost given up because I couldn’t read/see your old one. This is great!
I have always read your blog on my iPad but the new design makes that impossible so I tried it on my phone today. The print was so small though so I hope I’ll be able to read it on my laptop. I’ll try that next week
Sorry about that! I have asked if we can increase the font size. 🙂
Hi, I tried commenting on another one of your blogs but will add here. Hoping to have a painting of my daughter’s little Yorkie done as a Christmas gift. Would you be able to do this in Sept. Or Oct. or November? Her sweet little dog is getting up there in years so would like this as a special memory for her. Thanks!
Yes, I think I could get it done for Christmas based on my current queue. Send an e-mail to marian@missmustardseed.com
Looking forward to that next book! 😁 Glad you’re enjoying the process ❤️ I am working on a creative space for all my art/craft/furniture refinishing and teaching activities. We took an outdoor patio attached to the house that had a grape arbor over it, and put a roof on it and windows all around. I can’t wait to get cabinets installed and all my supplies gathered from other places and have them in one dedicated space for myself and visiting friends! Thanks for your constant stream of inspiration over the years Marian 😁
Marian,
Congratulations on Calvin’s launch to college, and Marshall’s senior year of high school. I was thinking about my sons and how the time has flown by. They are both married to lovely wives and have kids of their own. Where does the time go?!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Karen B.