I'm pretty new to blogging. I started a blog several years ago. At that time, My Love For Art pertained primarily to my art on Blog Spot. I found that there were way too many art bloggers out there who were much more experienced than me. Although I have been interested in art since I was a young girl, it wasn't until five years ago that I started painting with acrylics. I've given away many pieces and surprisingly have sold and commissioned several (www.facebook.com/cindyscolorfulcanvas). I'm starting to think it is more of a hobby than a sideline career. The title of my blog is appropriate to my art as well as to my life. My life has been a great big colorful canvas, thus I decided to leave it as such.
Anyways, my name is Cindy. I am a 54 year old woman and will turn 55 in May, 2015. Currently, I am a mother to four amazing children (a daugther and three sons) and stepmother to an amazing stepdaughter. In a previous marriage, I was a stepmother to several. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't refer to my children as amazing? I am presently married (almost 18 years) and have been married three times before for a total of four times. In my mind I say I've been married on and off since I was 19 years old. I sometimes try to deny the first marriage and hardly mention it in my life, because it only lasted 8 months. I like to count only the last three marriages as they are the ones that I choose to remember because they provided me the opportunities of motherhood. I always say, I'd do the same thing over in my marriages just to be guaranteed the children in my life. It was never my intent to divorce and remarry. In fact, when I look back on my life, I probably should have never gotten married and just had my children out of wedlock. However, that then would go against the things morally that I believe in my life philosophies. There were times when that philosophy was very questionable. Whatever that means.
Because of my daughter, I am also a grandmother to one granddaughter and soon to be a grandmother again to a grandson. I have three grandpuppies (a male and two females) as well, because of my oldest son. My two youngest twin boys are still in high school. What was I thinking when I became a mother at 38 years old? I've been a mother since the age of 23 years old. I always have said that God has a sense of humor when he blessed me with twin boys late in life.
I recently retired from a school district in southern California, where I worked as an administrative assistant to a superintendent for 11 years and a human resources manager for a little over 11 additional years. In those 22 years, I can tell you that my life was anything but boring. Initially when I was hired by the district, I was a single mother of two. Because of my prayers to a Mighty God, it is my belief that I was provided the opportunity to work for this district to be able to provide for my family with minimal financial struggling. I also believe that it is because of this district that I was able to early retire at the age of 54 and give my old stressed out body a rest and do things I choose to do, instead of being stuck in the pressures of working for someone else and escalating health issues. Although my income is now less than half of what it was, it still is more than what most people make starting out in their careers. I feel so blessed. Upon retiring, I felt that I could subsidize my income by doing art. I'm still working toward getting an art business up and running. I made this life changing decision when my husband and I visited Seattle, Washington in August 2013. With retirement, came a life changing move to Washington.
I thank God for each day I wake up. We are only promised a moment, so I try to live each one I have to the fullest. I have health issues which have impacted my life. Up until the age of 35 years old, I considered myself a fairly attractive person. Now looking back at old photographs, I think I was more on the pretty side. However, due to health issues that later in life were diagnosed, what I considered to be once attractive, has suffered some changes. I'm now extremely overweight, which was always my fear as a young girl. My once beautiful big brown eyes have been affected as well by Graves Disease gone Hashimotos and I now have a protruding right eye. I have arthritis and the early onset of diabetes. Although there are days where I think I have the worst in health, I know there are many more people out there that suffer much worse than I do with health and would give anything to bear my cross instead of theirs.
Getting back to my origin, my ethnicity is Canadian French and Mexican. I call myself a Frenchican when people ask me what is my nationality. My biological father is Canadian French and my mother is Mexican. My Mom divorced and remarried when I was very young. I consider my Caucasian stepfather my Dad. My biological father, who I hardly knew, passed right after the twins were born. Both my Mom and Dad are still living. Although my childhood was pretty rocky, I have some awesome childhood memories. I grew up in the Los Angeles area, primarily in the town of Lomita. In my senior year, my family moved to Riverside County where I lived until recently.
I've been told by many people I have met throughout my years that I have interesting stories to tell that have happened in my life. In retirement, I need to keep my mind sharp. So, I thought it might be an opportunity to share my stories in a blog format. My stories will include childhood, motherhood, career, retirement and art. I hope the stories I share will bring you entertainment, if even for a short time in your day.
Since it is Christmas time, I'm going to share the story of the disposal of our family Christmas Tree in 1978. As with most live Christmas trees, at the end of the season, they are dried out. Of course, like most people, you can always set them on the curb for the garbage truck to pick up or you can have a Dad who prefers to dispose of it himself. On one particular evening, he decided it was time to dispose of the Christmas tree. We asked him how he was planning on doing that and he replied, "By burning it in the fireplace." We all assumed he was going to cut it into little pieces, etc. But, no. He proceeded to shove the entire Christmas tree into our fireplace and partially up our chimney. He prepped the base strategically for ignition. Upon lighting, we were horrified to what we heard and saw. First was the loud boom, then the loud roar of flames shooting up the chimney. I remember him uttering a few profanities as he jumped back. He sent us out the front door to witness what was happening above the house. It was like the Fourth of July. Sparks and embers were flying everywhere. Surprisingly, even with the fall leaves on the ground, nothing caught on fire and he didn't burn any neighbors' homes down. The only casualty was the front of our fireplace which had a hue of black on the bricks. I don't remember if my Mom was ever able to get that black color off. My Dad's lesson was that he wasn't going to ever do that again.
I don't have a plan yet as to how often I'll blog, but I know that I'll be back. If there are particular areas that I have mentioned that you may have an interest in learning or have me write about, please feel free to drop me a comment. Have a great day!!
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