It begins...

A friend recently forwarded an email to me titled "The Invisible Mother," a short essay comparing the tireless and often thankless job of a mother to the builders of Europe's great cathedrals. Both give their whole lives for a work they will never see finished, both make sacrifices and expect no credit, and both are fueled in their passion by the faith that the eyes of God see every detail. The writer of the essay was inspired by the thought that our endless efforts in motherhood, invisible as they may seem, are worth it and can make an enriching life.


For many of us, the way we choose to hold our invisibility at bay is by creating something tangible. For me, my days often end with knitting - my love of fiber and the need to do something relaxing end up producing something I can hold and look at. Nobody will know how many times I swept under the high chair that day, or how many toys I picked up, or how many times I tried to coax a "please" or "more" or "sorry" out of my 5 year old. But a darling, handmade infant hat? That you can see.


I start new projects every day, and my 10 year old does the same. In this process of creating (and yes, often not finishing our projects!) we connect with each other and a bigger picture of ourselves in the process. My plan for this blog is to share the projects that excite me and bring some accessible proof of my existence in this invisible world of mothering!


So, this blog is dedicated to the mothers out there whose days are filled with the minutia of tasks that build our children and our families. I often tell people that I haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. But for now, I am the builder of a great cathedral. With every shoelace tied, lunch packed, and forehead kissed, I build.


And I can hardly wait to create something new...


Sunday, June 5, 2011

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

If happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow...why, oh why can't I?

Because lately, this side of the rainbow has sucked royally. The day after my last post, we discovered that Rowan had brought home head lice from school. We found the buggers on Brynn and me as well, and our entire house was turned upside down to rid ourselves of the nasty pests! Anything that could be washed in hot water got thrown in a giant pile which took 2 days to deal with. All our pillows had to go in the freezer for 2 days, and anything else that couldn't be machine washed got packed tightly in plastic bags and quarantined for 2 weeks.  (My house looks way different not covered in stuffed animals, but I have two very animal/baby deprived kiddos on my hands that are aching for something to snuggle with besides old towels.) All 4 of us did the shampoo treatment, and then spent 4-5 hours per day for the first 3 days picking eggs and bugs out of our hair. I lost my cool more than once. If you really want to test your patience, try spending an hour and a half carefully picking through the hair of a kid who can't sit still, has sensory issues and doesn't like her head touched in general, and has a knack of jerking away the minute you see something you need to get out. We had to wash every piece of bedding, every towel, every couch cover, and every article of clothing daily. And still, I felt like I couldn't get my house (or us) clean enough. My sanity ran very, very thin last week. On top of this, my 14 year old cat's senior blood work came back spotty - issues with kidney and liver, and we are now officially headed down the road of elderly pet. *sigh*

But we have now done the second shampoo treatment, and not a bug nor egg was found this time around. We're doing a third next week, just to make SURE they are GONE. LORD!!

I kept the girls home and away from people all week, with the exception of a trip to Michaels to stockpile on crafty items to get us through the week. Girl Scout camps are right around the corner, and its SWAP season! (SWAPs are little Shared With A Pal crafts that you pin on your camp hat and trade with other scouts.)

We chose 4 different SWAPs to make: Sleeping bag girls, Fly swatters, Bees, and Bears. Rowan helped with almost all of them, but after she dropped and broke my new cool-glue gun we had to go back to the hot-glue which means I do all the gluing. I have blisters on at least 3 fingers to prove how hot that dang glue is!



SWAPs are now all done, and can be checked of YOCL. Rowan has filled her camp hat with sleeping bag girls for next weekend's Mother/Daughter overnight, and the rest will be saved for Day Camp.

For Day Camp, I am leading a unit of 9 girls this summer and am really looking forward to it! I am providing camp t-shirts for the girls this year, which they will get to decorate on June 15th at our pre-camp meeting. I got busy with fabric paint this afternoon and starting putting the little camp emblem I designed on the shirts. Still waiting to hear back from several parents about the size their kiddo needs, but I bought a ton of shirts in different sizes when Michaels had them on sale, 2 for $5!


And because I am so crafty, I also made each camper a "Camp Journal" to carry with her each day - it has blank paper inside where she can write or sketch things we see and learn about. I have attached a pencil to each one, as well as a small magnifying glass for close-up critter or vegetation inspection!
And despite Kansas being in the 90's this week, we are playing outdoors a lot more. And my gardens are exploding! Here's a little sample of the color that greets me when we head outside...




And here's a picture Rowan took after I pulled out two GIANT thistles from under the deck...
And here are my two cuties in the backyard this afternoon...
Looking back at these pictures from the last few days, it's amazing how much color is in my life, speaking of rainbows. I spent all week wishing things could 'get back to normal,' but I guess the lesson that life keeps trying to hit me over the head with, is that this crazy, unpredictable, never-ending stream of chaotic events really is the "normal" in my life. This is my rainbow, spots and all. I will take a deep breath now. :)
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. KathyJune 5, 2011 at 7:19 PM

    Indeed! Normal is the ever-changing world of motherhood! :) You're doing fine, while learning and growing and realizing how much you really CAN do! You amaze me!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)