new catch up

It's true. I tend to just drop off the face of the earth at times. The muse leaves for a moment, I get out of the habit and next thing we know a month has gone by. It isn't on purpose, truly. And we haven't been eaten by rhinos or anything. It's just life keeps coming and I lose track.

So, what has been going on? Well, Thanksgiving, relatives, Christmas shopping, per usual. We had a really nice Christmas this year. I've come to the realization that I really like hanging out with my family. So far all my kids have become fun interesting people that I like to talk to, each in their own way, and that is something to be greatly thankful for.

Elisa and Shayleen have a bit of news. They have been scouted for a modeling agency and now are being represented by Muse Models here in Portland. They haven't gotten any paying jobs mind you, but the owner of Muse seems to feel pretty confident that they will. No, he hasn't sold us a $2000 photo package. :) They do the pictures for free and they seek out jobs for the girls and they get a cut when the girl gets a job. So I figure they wouldn't waste time on girls they didn't have a reasonable expectation of being able to make a little money with, anyway. There are probably some who would disagree with my allowing them to make a move in this venture. And I realize there are pitfalls everywhere. But, the owner is a married guy, has 4 kids (which by Portland standards is a rather large amount) and he was very understanding about conservative standards. Basically if a girl doesn't want to do lingerie, swimwear, alcohol, cigarettes and (oddly enough) fur there is a form that goes with her profile and she marks those things and they simply won't call her for those jobs. But this agency does catalogs and such so there should be plenty for them to do if they get picked for the jobs. They said Shayleen may be getting a lot of shoe ads because she has small feet and most of the girls they represent don't fit the standard model shoe size. I'm good with that!

Actually, they had been approached a few times before by another agency. The first time we got a card I laughed and threw it away. The second time I looked up a few things, said "I don't know..." and threw it away. There were some things about that particular agency (not Muse) that I wasn't too sure about. But Shay asked if she could just pray about it and if it ever happened again could she please just check into it? Well, it happened two more times after that in one day, so after looking at Muse and googling the owner's name and everything else, I let her go in for a meeting with him. Well, so I guess the rest is history.

I relented also because my kids have always been interested in media oriented subjects. Forrest used to do a lot of stop action animation with Legos when he was younger, now he's drawing a lot of manga, Elisa loves photography and perseveres with her cheap hand me down pocket camera, Shayleen has always loved clothes, clothes design, sewing, costumes... I thought maybe this is an opportunity for them to get a look into that world, develop some of these interests and skills, meet some people, and yeah, make a little money because Shay would sure love to get her little Volvo fixed up!

When my kids were younger I had a much more defensive posture against the culture. But I want my kids to grow up to be culture shapers, culture makers even. I want to be careful with them, but I also don't want them to get the idea that culture is something we fear or withdraw completely from. I want them to have the feeling that God wants them to be challenged, to try new things, to get "out there". It's a fine line, and I hope we are doing the right thing, but we'll take it one day at time and see how it takes shape.

Other than that it's the typical Oregon story of neverending rain, grey skies, puddles, dripping trees,(though today the sun is out a bit, I should step out for some vitamin D)...

I've been thinking about moving my blog to a web address that is more in keeping with the title. I'll see if asking Shayleen to do some bogging design for me puts her over the edge...

I hope all is well with everyone else and y'all have a happy New Year. :)