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...


Thursday, March 24, 2011

To Do List

It's one of those days where my "To Do" list is so random it makes me giggle. Here's a sample:

- Vacuum under couch cushions (so that we can flip the tearing cushion before the hole gets bigger!)
- Block baby sweater
- Make coffee filter butterfly
- Make tissue paper flowers
- Clean up cat barf (which, sadly, has been there since I was in Iowa!)
- Register Rowan for summer art camp and VBS
- Buy birthday present for teen-aged niece
- Start panicking about snagging dates to use the school for next year's Brownie meetings
- Return Melissa's cookies (how dare she leave them here after Knit Night!)

I won't take pictures of what's under the couch cushions, or of the cat barf, but here are the other things I can check off my list...

The two "craft stations" planned for the GS birthday party on Tuesday are butterflies and flowers. My Junior Scout helper came up with the butterfly craft and I gave it a try this afternoon.

The tissue paper flowers were my favorite to make - it's amazing how something so simple can be done so quickly and look so sweet!

And my friend had her baby girl! 2 weeks early!  As promised yesterday, blocking the sweater I made for her was top priority today. I got everything out and ready to go...right before lunch. So once again, yarn, pins, etc, was butting up against the makings of my delish salad. (Btw, favorite salad recipe: 1 Tyson breaded chicken tenderloin cooked for 25 minutes in the toaster oven, chopped and put on top of a bed of baby spinach, 1 T. honey roasted almond slices, 1/8 cup of feta cheese, and 6-7 cut strawberries. I use Balsamic Spritzer dressing, and it's YUM! For those in Weight Watchers, it's only 7 points!) But I digress.  Here is the blocked sweater and the matching hat, buttons sewn on and just needing a couple of days to dry before I can wrap it and give it away. The sweater looks darker because it's wet - the hat is the true color. Oh so cutie! Even though the hat looks GIANT for a 6-9 mos old. Seriously people, I just can't get hat sizes right! The sweater will probably fit baby a full year before the hat does. :P
And that's my craft portion of the day!  Now off to deal with nasty couch cushions and cat barf. Yay.
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2 comments:

  1. KathyMarch 24, 2011 at 6:29 PM

    Oh man, what a to-do list. :) The hat and sweater are just adorable, and sorry I was no help with getting the hat the right size! Darn. Love the crafts you settled on for the Daisy Party. I cracked up that your hubby saved the cat barf clean-up for you. :)

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  2. The Knotty KnitterMarch 24, 2011 at 9:03 PM

    Yeah, he left a roll of paper towels near it and that was as far as he got. Clearly, he doesn't realize that you can't clean up cat barf with paper towels!

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