My husband, Dave has been my greatest support. He always encourages me with his praises and compliments.
In return, he reaps the benefits too. Being a taste tester is not a bad job until his pants get too tight. Then he blames the washing machine for shrinking his clothes.
His sweet tooth finishes dinner with dessert and then I'll hear him say, "I ate too much!"
He is wonderful helping me clean up my kitchen. So glad when he designed our current home, my kitchen has a double oven. And a cook can never have too many cabinets!
He also helps me with my paintings as I struggle with color. If I don't paint in natural daylight, I tend to miss the hues of color.
Elsie, our adopted Mom has been my biggest motivator too. She was a well known artist and painted every day and taught art to her students up to her 90's. She encouraged me to paint as she saw how creative I am in gardening, cooking and baking.
When we lost her, I was grieving so bad. I decided to listen to her advice and much to my amazement, I love to paint! I did not know I could even draw! I do feel closer to her when I paint. She does anoint me and I can hear her voice telling me, "You don't know unless you try." She has a big influence on me, even when she left this world. I know she is looking down from heaven and watching over me. I do hear her soft voice telling me, "let's paint!"
And thanks to our friends, family and neighbors who love my fresh vegetables, cooking, baking and canned goods. They are excited to be recipients and will gladly return my canning jars as Dave would tell them, "No refills if you don't return the jars!" And they want to return my baskets too.
I do feel that food brings people together. That's why we love to entertain. And when we know of anyone sick, we do Meals on Wheels. It is a labor of love.
And so many of you have emailed or texted beautiful pictures that you have taken to give me inspiration to paint them. With cold weather coming upon us, I will definitely concentrate on painting more as long as you can get me out of the kitchen!