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...


Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A Pile of Peppers...and Other Random Crafts

Busy much? These last couple weeks have been loaded with so much activity I haven't had time to blog. Whew! But this afternoon I find myself ready for our Brownie meeting, Brynn napping, and a few minutes to myself. (I'm successfully ignoring laundry and finances I need to be working on.)


My mom was here over the weekend, and after a trip to the American Girl store and a few early birthday presents for Rowan from Grandma, it turned into doll central at our house! Sadly, the dolls all managed to 'break' their legs and arms over the weekend - thank heavens for the new doll wheelchair, crutches, and casts Rowan now owns! Whilst the sleeping dolls were resting their battered limbs, we decided to pull out the stack of darling American Girl craft books that I recently discovered buried and untouched in Rowan's room (Did I mention that I spent 4 hours last week deep-cleaning Rowan's room? LORD.) from last year's birthday and Christmas. Oh, the crafting fun began! The "Doll Party" book inspired Rowan to host a small Halloween birthday party for her doll, Lanie, later this month. She decided that each doll/friend that got invited to the party would receive a doll necklace (which we crafted from the "Doll Jewelry" book,) which we then put inside a tiny orange party favor bag (crafted from the "Doll Purses" book.) Away we went, making the jewelry and bags. Fun, fun!
Rowan opted to use a set of Halloween stamps to decorate the little party favor bags, and after mom and I traced and cut out the bag template, we helped Rowan stamp. Mom also used the party hat template and created 4 hat shapes we could decorate.
Rowan is SO jazzed to throw this party - she wanted to work on it again as soon as she got home from school on Monday. I told her we need to make it past her birthday weekend and then we can worry about planning the doll party specifics. Very cute. :)
In the meantime, I am busily knitting on my orange flutter scarf and my linen stitch cowl. The flutter scarf is just a few pattern repeats away from the final flutter, and the cowl is only a 1/2 inch away from it's final edge and bindoff. Woo hoo!
And now with October just around the corner, fall parties are starting to want attention. I've got plenty of help for Rowan's class party this year, and will hardly need to plan anything! I've decided to bring a fun treat bag for each kiddo, and need to think about what to fill the bags with. I found a great treat bag idea in Family Fun a couple days ago, but think I will use it for my Brownie troop! I already have the raffia and paper bags, and I picked up sticks in our back yard today...
I have also started looking ahead to our October Brownie meetings, and one of the crafts we're doing needs plenty of prep time. The girls will be making a Mexican "Ristra," which is a small mobile made of colorful peppers. We'll be doing a diversity lesson that day, which will include me bringing in a bowl full of different peppers of all shapes and colors. The girls will talk about how every pepper is unique, yet still part of the larger pepper family. We'll make the Ristra craft as a reminder to not only be your own unique person, but to surround yourself with lots of diverse people. My prep involves tracing and cutting out a TON of peppers so that 14 girls will have plenty to work with! I'm about halfway done...
Purty, aren't they? 
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1 comment:

  1. KathySeptember 28, 2011 at 11:39 PM

    Purty indeed, as is the cowl and your flutter scarf. I forgot to get the pattern from you! Love the pictures of the dolly crafting - thanks for making sure my whole self wasn't in any of them - ha! What a great weekend of fun. LOVE reading your blog.

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