For the last few weeks life has been hitting harder than usual, and with each passing day I can feel, in my body, little signs here and there that the stress is taking more of a toll than I realize.

Tight shoulders. Tension in my jaw. Difficulty sleeping.

A few nights ago I also caught myself scrolling YouTube, mindlessly clicking past one video after another. Looking for who knows what. 

I don’t like it when I do this as it is such a waste of time, but again, for me, it is a tell-tale sign that I’m stressed and not functioning at my best. 

However, this particular scrolling session uncovered a wonderful find. A cute little artist named Sarah Cray and her channel Let’s Make Art. 

In the video I stumbled upon, Sarah was showing her viewers what she calls her watercolor journal. 

Watercolor + Journal? Ummm…hello! 

In her journal (which looks like a book…bonus swoon…) she paints one picture (masterpiece) a day to warm up her creativity before moving on to her “real” art projects. 

Sigh. 

If I could make my watercolor attempts look even a fraction as beautiful as her “warm-up” efforts, I would die a happy girl. 

Regardless, my skill level vs. hers is not at all the point. The point is her video and her journal completely inspired me to start a watercolor journal of my own.

A little backstory…

My girls watercolor all the time. Someone, almost every day, is working on some sort of watercolor project. And always, I watch them, longingly from the sidelines (aka the kitchen) thinking of how much I’d like to sit down and paint something…anything…even if just for a few lovely minutes. But I almost never do. There is always something else calling for my time and attention and there is almost never the perfect, ideal, (Red-less), moment to sit down and create. 

But maybe if I had a pretty book to paint in and I just painted whatever I felt like painting, and if it took a few days to finish just one picture, maybe that would be just fine.

In her book, Tranquility by Tuesday, time management guru, Laura Vanderkam, dismantles the pressure of doing something everyday by stating that three times a week IS a habit. 

So while professional artists like Sarah Cray are able to paint gorgeous warm-up masterpieces daily, maybe, just maybe, it is perfectly acceptable for little old non-professional- barely hobbyist level- me to make a goal of painting something in my journal three times a week or perhaps even once. 

Because, by golly, one is better than the none I’ve been doing for oh so long. 

So. I got me a pretty green journal and a fresh set of paints and I got to work (got to joy is more like it) last Sunday. I painted a moon and two dark trees with spooky looking branches. 

Since then I’ve painted in our van while waiting for take-out, on our deck while Red used a cup of water and a few old brushes to paint his own masterpiece on our deck’s wooden planks, and so far I’ve added a dandelion, golden curls, and something that sort of looks like me in a nest of feathers.

And if there is ever a time I need to channel a little more of my creative side for its escape, nurturing, healing, stress- relieving, and therapeutic properties, it’s now.

God created all of us, yes, even those who don’t think they’re creative, to create. It is integral to who He is and we are made in His image. Thus we were made to create too.

I am at my best when I am loving God, myself, and my people well and creating something (anything). Usually in that order. 

And personally I find that when I start to create in one way (this blog) it always leads to another (my watercolors.) And it all blends together to make me a better version of myself.

Each post and each picture so much more than words and paint.