3,588

In my previous post about the Charles M. Schultz museum, I mentioned the incredible tile comic strip mural but left out some of the nitty-gritty details. I told you to look them up yourself on the internet. Well, when it comes to finding things on the internet, I am a little in awe of Kludge. He found the following link if you were just wishing for a photo blow-by-blow of the construction process.
http://www.schulzmuseum.org/otani/ (If you want a tidier title -- check out the comments below the previous post).

And, in the course of looking through the photos, I discovered exactly how many tiles...3,588 . Thanks Kludge.

BTW, the above picture has nothing to do with the mural except that it is yet another picture of us visiting the museum. I have been influenced by my dear niece, Sarah, and just feel like a post without a picture is sadly lacking.

Sparky's Place

Good grief, I am exhausted! Today was a special day for our family...my baby turned 13! I now officially have three teens. Today was also the day our homeschool group scheduled a visit to the Charles M. Schultz museum. I do not make it to many field trips anymore -- staying on top of our school work while juggling all of our activities leaves little time for learning enrichment act ivies known as field trips. But this sounded like a perfect opportunity to do something we had never done before, with the added draw of getting to see all the Snoopy statues together on the field adjoining the museum. They are there awaiting a big auction this coming Saturday.

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the museum. In most of the exhibit rooms you are not allowed to take pictures, but this incredible mural on the bottom floor was one of the exceptions. It was designed by a Japanese artist and is constructed from thousands of four panel Peanuts comic strips printed onto small tiles. The artist spent two years selecting the strips for the mural having to search especially diligently for ones which would have just the right amount of black in them to create Lucy and Charlie Brown.
Once he selected the strips, he laid them out on a gym floor in Japan and numbered each one, then sent them to America to be assembled according to his instructions. I was going to look up the technical details for you but I'm too tired -- I'm sure you can get them online. I bet Kludge can even find some video documenting the whole thing! So go for it. I just want to tell you it is very impressive in person and a lot of fun to look at close up as well!

We had two very sweet docents--a couple who have been married "forever", raised 8 children, and are obviously very taken with the life and artwork of Sparky. (No one calls him Charles Schultz there). The girls and I gave the museum 2 thumbs up!


After the museum tour, we wandered outside and took pictures of the kite eating tree. Very cute--unless you're a kite! Next it was onto the snoopys--I had downloaded my memory stick that very morning so I was equipped to take all the pictures my heart desired. Seeing the many statues together in one place was pretty cool. The girls posed with a couple of them. The final picture shows one of Michelle's favorites. When you're a collector and lover of cows, what could be better than bovine Joe Cool?

If you are a Sonoma County resident that has not visited the museum yet, go ahead and treat yourself to something others are traveling out-of-state as well as out-of-country, to visit. We found it very worthwhile.

I wish I could think of something clever to add to this and make it worth reading, but good grief, it's hard to be clever when you're exhausted!

Some Late Night Reflections on 9-11

Well, it is 9-11 again. I thought this morning about writing a post weighing the events of six years ago, after all, it is important to remember. I was not sure what I would say though. I wrote a contemplative post last year for the 5th anniversary, and although it was not exceptionally profound, I did not know what else I could say. So I gave up on the idea.

Tonight however, Scott began watching a MSNBC broadcast of the same exact footage that had been shown as events unfolded that fateful day. We began watching shortly after the second plane had crashed into the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center. It was surreal to view it again and listen to the commentators wondering whether or not it was a terrorist strike. The towers had yet to collapse, the Pentagon had not been attacked yet, and Tom Brokaw spoke of the six confirmed dead and over 1,000 injured. It was hideous knowing that this was just the beginning. As tragic as those six deaths were, what was to come would be exponentially worse. Even though we knew exactly what would happen next, it was horrifying to see it again, especially watching those towers collapse, smoke, dust and rubble billowing everywhere. It is difficult to put into the words the feelings that were evoked by that rebroadcast.

It is too late in the evening for me to construct an elegant segue to Isaiah 40:28, but as I was sorting through feelings about 9-11, this verse was what came to mind. My very favorite part of it is at the end:

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and His understanding no one can fathom.

Recently I made a desktop picture that coupled this verse with one of my father's photographs like the one below. I included one definition of fathom which says, "to plumb the depths of". God does reveal Himself to us in so many wonderful ways through His word and His creation -- He gives us understanding about Himself. But we, like a diver in the deepest part of the ocean, will never reach the bottom and completely fathom, or plumb the depths of, God's understanding.

All that to say, that though I cannot make sense of an event like 9-11, I find great comfort in trusting the wisdom and unfathomable understanding of the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

Time Flies When You're Raising Children

The other morning, I was praying for my children and thumbing through the prayer tags I had made this summer. When I saw this picture of my first born I got a little sentimental. After all, sitting on the kitchen table were his senior proofs for the yearbook. Where does the time go?

***

When my children were very young and the job of raising them was very physically wearing, at times it felt like my life would be like that forever. There is only 4 1/2 years between my oldest and youngest, so when Michelle was a baby, everytime I went in public with the three of them I was sure to get a "Boy you have your hands full" comment -- and it was true, I did! But all of the sudden, without even realizing it, we entered a new phase. We could now sit in a restaurant and it was okay if the food did not come immediately. We were able to get in the car without hauling double our bodies' weight worth of gear. Our children started taking responsibility for their own actions and cleaning up after themselves. Oh, whoops, haven't arrived at that one yet--but we can sit in restaurants for longer.

***

I know that the majority of my eight readers either have small children at home, or are expecting their arrival within the next year. I know you've heard it often, but treasure this time. It disappears so quickly, so savor each moment. Even the trying times can prove very entertaining on a blog! You may feel as if you will be picking up legos for the rest of your life (come to think of it -- we're still doing that too) but your time with your children will go so quickly. Enjoy!

***

Sons are a heritage from the LORD,

children a reward from him.
Psalm 127:3