Lauren says, E is for Extravaganza:
Tracey says, E is for Electric Slide;
Extra Buttons December 5, 2008
When I was visiting my parents last summer my dad gave me a beautiful old tin full of buttons saved by my Granny who died before we could pour over them together. I first wrote it as her “collection” but that was not right. I have collections of things, wonderfully frivolous things like wooden men with moustaches and Swiss chalet barometers but this was something else. My granny saved these to use. The kind of repurposing that wasn’t bloggable but rather a necessity. How fast I have traveled from her mindset.
When I was younger I marveled at how far I had traveled from her circumstances. She gave birth to her 4 children in a house with a dirt floor surrounded by farmland in a place literally named, The Great Dismal. I was born in Thailand and grew up traveling back and forth between Bangkok and the United States. I did not save my buttons for a very long time. I cringe to think how many of those “extra buttons” packets I have tossed in the trash with the tags of my new clothes. I remember refusing to eat an apple from the tree that grew in my other grandmother’s yard because I was wary of fruit that didn’t come from a super market and have a waxy sheen to it.
My granny who prepared many a dinner for her family from meat trapped and/or hunted by my granddaddy must have seen me as so strange when I announced in college that I was a vegetarian. How privileged and foreign to her I must have seemed. And now we are moving in a direction that would have looked more familiar to my granny, partially fueled by the economy but coupled with a general move toward simplicity and a desire to make a change. A change in the lives of our families and in the greater world. I am not growing my own food or buying locally exclusively. I am not biking to work or driving an electric car but I no longer throw away my buttons and it’s a start. A start I think my granny would be proud of.
I finally dug into the stash to make a ring for the sister of a boy becoming Bar Mitzvahed this weekend. The beautiful Jodie over at RicRac has a great tutorial that inspired me to give a whirl. The ring to the right of the “extra buttons” ephemera is the one I made for Sarah. I think the bottom button is made from shell? Any help identifying? She is 10 and I hope she likes it. While I was making them I made one for myself to wear this weekend as well. That brown and red one is all for me! This is a really easy and fun thing to do with buttons if you haven’t tried it yourself.
It a great feeling to wear something on my finger that my granny saved, sewed, touched and possibly wore herself. So thank you for the buttons granny and for the lessons it took me a long time to learn.
Viva la Revolution December 4, 2008
I am one of those women who lost herself in motherhood. And I am pretty sure I did it knowingly and willingly. I am blessed enough to have given birth to both boys after being told I had a 1% chance of conceiving and delivery a healthy baby using my own eggs. I was thrilled to get the chance to breast feed when I thought it might not happen that way. I was lazy enough to allow the boys to fall asleep in my lap and happy to get to watch them while they slept, their warm little bodies conforming to mine. We have sacrificed so I could be home to participate in every milestone, accomplishment, lesson learned and belly laugh. I have had more hugs than I ever imaged coming my way and my arms are wide open in anticipation of more. I have reveled in the growth and change in my boys and I am starting to feel like it is the right time for a little growth and change in me.
Sounds like I’m going somewhere with this, but really I sat down to write a little something to accompany the photos I took of my lunch today.
It is the first time I can remember that I sat down at the table for lunch. I actually thought about and made myself a meal, set out my softest thrifted linen napkin and used the special dishware from my husband’s Grandmother. The lunch was nothing gourmet. But it was one of the best meals I have had in a while. As I sat by the window with my food and my book and I ate and breathed and read, I started to feel a revolution coming on. Or maybe the right word is evolution. It’s time to morph into a woman who is a mom and loves her boys dearly but who also cultivates her self. I don’t have a map or a plan but the seed feels more powerful than a diagram. I think and hope it involves a lot more craft nights, some evening walks with friends, more mindful meals, regular nights out with my husband again, and books. Books that don’t rhyme, have jelly on them, or involve animals doing non-animal things like brush their teeth and use the crapper (this is another way I am reclaiming my brain, I shall no longer refer to the bathroom as the potty – join with me in this my friends!).
Yes, I will start with quiet lunches, books and the crapper. Viva la revolution!
And on a somehow related noted I wanted to tell you about an incident another mom in my son’s class shared with me this morning. She explained how she walked in the school but realized she had lost her keys somewhere between the parking lot and the building. She went back with all 3 girls only to discover her car in the parking lot, keys in the ignition and the engine running. (Luckily the doors were unlocked.) I appreciated her sharing this story because while I have not accomplished that feat myself I can certainly relate and we as moms, all moms – moms who work outside the home & moms who are home, benefit from sharing these stories, seeing ourselves in each other and laughing together!
Lower Your Expectations December 2, 2008
Bleh. I am sick, will try not to wallow in my self pity for the majority of this post.
As I set this plate in front of my little guy yesterday I thought I should start an experiment, the “Eat What He Eats” project. Of course I would tinker with the rules so they weren’t retroactive. I AM NOT eating a cigar.
Do as I say boys, not as I do!
And because I feel compelled, the table top is the wonderful faux bois tin table top I got at Brimmfield. Are you like that? Do you feel compelled to tell the story of every item in your house or that your kids wear? Especially if it was procured in a thrifty fashion?! I actually have a voice in my head (doesn’t suffer from lack of company, btw) that tries to remind me not to add, “Oh I got it at the thrift shop!” to the end of every sentence. Not because I am embarrassed. Nay, I thrift proudly. But because nobody cares like I do. I can’t help it though. That’s just what a compulsion is I suppose.
And if you are wondering why there is photo of my computer screen on my blog it is because I crave to show you (hello Cindy) how clean my desktop is, well my virtual desktop anyhow. We had friends over a few weeks ago and I did the “oh crap, they are coming in 15 minutes” clean up thing and was rather pleased with the illusion results. But then sometime during conversation my friend says, “You take the prize for messiest computer ever.” or something like that. Yikes. So I didn’t tuck away my dysfunction quite as well as I thought.
So last night I organized my virtual house. The house I spend the most time in these days (I’m talking to you Etsy, Flickr, Facebook, Picnik, this blog, and the 5 real estate sites I follow).
It’s a start.
edit: I am so used to those bagels, a favorite among the guys in this family, that I didn’t think about it. But now that you mention it the bagel does fall somewhere on the turd spectrum. But don’t fear, it’s just good old pumpernickel or pumperpickle as my 6 year old used to say. He would always ask for “pumperpickle olie”, translation pumpernickel bagel with olive pimento cream cheese. My guys are not afraid of flavor.
Winter Walk December 1, 2008
We had a really nice 5 day vacation from work & school. Saw lots of friends and family, ate and played, laughed and created. A good 5 days. We now turn our faces with glee and anticipation toward the bigger school break to come!
We wrapped up the Thanksgiving break with a cold walk with friends in the Minute Man National Park (about 15 minutes from the house). Much ice was hacked by excited little boys and a couple of littler boys ended the walk atop the shoulders of their dads.
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Let’s buckle up, put our helmets on, and get ready for the big crafty slide to Hannukah and Christmas!
