please enjoy this song while you read, if you'd like.Children's garden
I was married to an old fashioned, hard working man for 30 years until June of 2012, when he stepped into heaven. I now live with a 50 pound Boxer named Jada Jarhead (JJ for short) in a wonderful little ranch house in central Illinois. I am surrounded by the woods, on a dead end street, with trails all about and great neighbors. I love God, and He's with me every second - making my life more wonderful than I ever hoped. (and can I add that I'm a proud Nonny of 3 beautiful grandchildren?)
I started blogging in 2010 - not so long ago, really. I can still remember sitting in front of the computer asking myself "Why in the world would anyone be interested in what I have to say?" and "What exactly DO I have to say?!?" My answer boiled down to only one thing at the time - sharing. I knew that my family would like to be able to keep up, and a blog is such a neat place to, well, write letters to Mom. Write one letter, with pictures, and your entire family, extended family, friends, and eventually acquaintances could read it and maybe even write back!
When you consider that, having been an Air Force family during my entire childhood, and as a result my friends and family are spread from coast to coast, I think blogging is a gift and a blessing that I'm SO glad to have. Over the last 2 years my blog has evolved into much more for me - I actually am maintaining (well, some more than others) 3 blogs, reflecting 3 very distinct ingredients in my life. My recently re-discovered
has been kind of overwhelming, but I retain a more gentle, and lifelong
that will always remain a fundamental part of me. Yet how can any of us subtract our personal, more intimate family life and love? It isn't possible, so I've a 3rd blog currently called Mr Wannago, after my husband who always had "itchy feet" and would say, "I wannago somewhere". So rather than insert tons of stuff about family into my creative blogs, I chose to separate them. You can access the separate blogs by clicking the pictures above, or through the navigation bar at http://www.cindybettinger.com/
I'm starting to believe that we all share the same starting point - we're all about finding ways to express the world as we discover it. How we each express ourselves is amazingly diverse - I am personally most fond of expressing myself through photos and mixed media artwork. What is mixed media? Simply, it's using whatever you have to make art. It's like being in kindergarten again! I am quite skilled in quilting, whether it's hand or machine applique, hand or machine quilting, and even hand or machine piecing. I've always been a doodler, and love to paint with markers, and acrylics, though I'm not a bit disinclined to use oils, watercolors, pencils or pastels! I'm happiest when I'm in my studio with bits of paper scattered about, at least 5 paintbrushes, a roll of paper towels, 15 acrylic paint containers, a cool whip container full of dirty "paint water" and a multitude of works in progress surrounding me.
My dream for my blogs has evolved -at one time I was satisfied to limit myself to sharing, and connecting. Today, I dream of getting to know every visitor, and motivating them to find ways to express themselves. I have no idea how I'll accomplish that - but it's my hope. In the meantime, my blog continues to update, so stay tuned, or better yet, Why don't you join me?
