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...


Monday, November 21, 2011

Oh Where, Oh Where did November go...

Oh who am I kidding. Every year it's like this! One minute it's Rowan's birthday in early October and the next minute we're baking pies for Thanksgiving. Sadly, my blog time has suffered, but sometimes you just have to be living your life and not recording it!


Today, my house smells deliciously of banana bread. Which. I. Will. Not. Eat. I've been ripening the bananas all week so that we can take yummy bread with us to Wichita for the weekend. Love, love my Williams Sonoma gold mini bread pans, and need to remember to ask for a big gold bread pan for Christmas!
To stay away from the bread, I have been sticking to the craft room since Brynn fell asleep (which I wasn't sure was going to happen today - she was pretty chatty for 10 minutes or so, and I heard some definite crib jumping going on.) I unpinned the 8 snowflake ornaments I blocked over the weekend, and now need to figure out the best way to starch spray them to make them stiffen up. I decided to make these ornaments for my 14 Brownies as a holiday gift, so I need to have them done by the 14th for our final meeting of the year. 8 down, 6 to go! I chose a silver and gold yarn that has a sparkly thread running through, to add a bit of pizazz. Hope the girls like them, and hope they don't fight over who gets silver vs. gold!


I've gone a teeeny bit cowl crazy this fall. Hee hee! A previous post boasts my pale beige honeycomb cowl, but since I bought a second skein of yarn in a brown I decided to knit a second honeycomb. Don't know if I will keep both, give them away, or what. I'm actually wearing the finished one now, since it's COLD in here. (Brad likes it brisk, and since he's home today I can't fiddle with the thermostat!)
Using the same delish yarn, but in a dark mottled green (look at me! straying from my usual colorchoice of neutral or orange/brown!) I started a 3rd cowl after seeing my mom's finished one. Nice, easy lace pattern - and this one is made thinner but twice as long so you can wrap it around more than once.
I finally bought a winter coat (overdue by several years) in a dark grey, so pretty much every fun scarf/cowl I make will go with it. Yay for versatility!


Last night Rowan broke out her "herb kit" and did a little bit of stencil painting on the side. She's very excited to plant the herbs, but I convinced her to wait until after we get back from Wichita so we can care for them properly. The little pots and tray will fit perfectly on the narrow kitchen windowsill I have, so hopefully the little guys will sprout and grow for us!
Tomorrow and Wednesday, I'll be doing laundry and packing, and making 2 pies. I'm making my first pumpkin pie from scratch this year (thank you Jen!) and can't wait to try it! Also, Rowan requested we make a lemon meringue pie. Haven't decided whether to go with a regular pie crust or a graham crust...what to do, what to do. 


Alrighty, time to go pop those breads out of their pans and wrap them up. And it would behoove me to start in on the next batch of snowflake ornaments too. Off to craft I go!
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. KathyNovember 21, 2011 at 11:19 PM

    Ooo, those ARE nifty little Sonoma gold pans. Be sure to put the big one on your list, all right! I think your snowflakes are looking great. Good luck on the new way to stiffen them. Let me know how it turns out. Your knitting, as always, looks great. My latest Honey Cowl turned out pretty thick. The yarn is yummy but I think I used too small a needle. Fun to experiment with stash yarn, though. :) Loved reading all your news and seeing the pics, as usual!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JenNovember 23, 2011 at 10:17 PM

    You know that I would like a sample of your pumpkin pie, right?! I love the pretty green yarn too!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)