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...


Friday, February 14, 2014

I'm Back

Happy Valentine's Day!  It's been almost 2 years since my last post - life does have its phases, doesn't it?  I took time off blogging in order to "write" and got very little writing actually accomplished. :P  Oh well, it was a crazy 2 years!

Since I can't catch you up on all the missed crafting, I will just launch in with current projects and let you see for yourself what we've been up to...



My Girl Scouts (now 4th grade Juniors) would have received these crocheted hearts from me at our meeting before Valentine's Day, but alas, a snow day was called and our meeting cancelled.  And then I was going to bring them to school and hand them out the day of the Valentine party, but stomach flu hit my 5 year old, and home I stayed.  You can still give out heart-shaped gifts after Valentine's Day, right?



We had a little family exchange after heart-shaped pancakes this morning, and I gave each of my girls a knitted bag filled with chocolate treats and a new movie. (We'll be watching Despicable Me 2 tonight!) I only had one cabling goof-up on the purple bag, but Rowan doesn't care. She tends to always want the misfits anyway, so it works out. :)

Speaking of Despicable Me, our valentines this year to all of Brynn and Rowan's school friends were awesome, thanks to a Pinterest genius.  Valentine, you are one in a Minion! (Rowan hand drew a Minion on every single tag.)

Rowan also finished her first knitting project this month - a snake! Here she is attaching her crocheted tongue and sewing on the button eyes

I will leave you with that for today.  We are so thankful this Valentines' Day to be healthy, cozy, and warm and spending our day together as a family.  The world is white with snow, but the sun is finally peeking out and promising temps into the 60s later this week.  Spring is most welcome!

3 comments:

  1. So good to have you posting again. It's always fun for me to read what you've been up to and see pictures of you and the family. Yipeeeee.

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  2. Yeah, I hope you will be posting more -- I missed your blog.

    Also, those knitted bags are ADORABLE. I love, love cabling! do you have a link for the pattern?

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  3. Kelli - I got the cabled bag pattern from a book called "101 Designer One-Skein Wonders" by Judith Durant. It's full of great stuff - you can check it out at the Olathe Library!

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