Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
—Leo Buscaglia
I have a confession to make. It’s something of an embarrassing confession, since I am generally an advocate of simple living and not so much an advocate of buying a lot of stuff.
But here it is: I love getting packages in the mail.
Love.
I remember as a child, during late November and all the way through December, how exciting it was when the UPS truck came down our street and stopped in front of our house. We kids would wonder what was inside the package, which of us it was for.
I still feel a little bit of that same thrill, although the UPS truck stops at our house far more often now than it did when I was young. My favorite packages might be those from our Waldorf supply co-op; because I order things as the need (or the mood) strikes, but orders are shipped only once a month, I’ve often forgotten exactly what I ordered by the time the package gets to me. It’s a little like Christmas, wondering what the package holds…
This package, which arrived yesterday, is from Alewives Fabrics. I love the presentation—it really does look like a little gift, doesn’t it? It was so much fun to receive and to open, even though I knew what was inside before I unwrapped it: a quilt pattern I’ve been meaning to pick up for a while now, and an Itty Bitty Bundle of Flea Market Fancy, which is just perfect for a little project I’ve had in mind for the last little while.
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My mother and I stopped in at Alewives last month, and I can’t stress enough how much I recommend visiting, if you ever find yourself in Midcoast Maine. The shop is inside a big red barn, stuffed to the rafters with all kinds of beautiful fabrics. We stopped by on our way to my cousin’s house for dinner, so I didn’t have all the time in the world, but I literally could have spent hours looking at everything the shop has to offer and I still would have felt like I hadn’t gotten a good look at it all. Rhea is just as charming in person as she is on her blog, and I thought it was neat to meet her in person after reading her blog for such a long time.
I could have spent…oh, I don’t even want to think about how much I could have spent when I was in the shop. Hundreds, if I’d had hundreds sitting around. I went in looking for something to use in a gift for my sister; in the end I decided to use some fabric I already had on hand for her gift, and I bought myself some fabric to make a velveteen throw and a bundle of Anna Maria Horner voile fat quarters. I’ll have to leave myself quite a bit more time to browse—and quite a bit more money to buy—in the future; I think Alewives just might become a regular stop whenever I am back in Maine…
I really was worried that I wouldn’t finish Julia’s spring dress while it was still spring. For a while, it seemed as though even if I did finish before spring ended, surely the warm weather we had earlier this month meant she wouldn’t be able to wear it until autumn. Temperatures have been a bit more seasonable here in recent days, although it looks like things will be warming up in the days to come, so it’s possible that yesterday might have been the last time she wears it for a little while.
I started knitting this in January, thinking it would go very quickly & I would certainly have it finished by Easter, at the latest. Easter came and went & I was still knitting; the long rounds of stockinette for the skirt took forever. I miss—just a little bit—the days of knitting for a smaller girl whose things knit up quickly!
Julia enjoyed taking these pictures. She kept moving around and looking off to the side & striking poses for the camera. I’m not sure where she learned that, but it was so much fun photographing her in her sweet new dress that she simply adores.
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It’s been nearly a month since I’ve shared pictures here on a Sunday. Would you believe that with all the travel, and house hunting, and anxiety about whether we’d be moving soon, and disappointment when we discovered we would not—entire days have passed when I haven’t picked my camera up at all?
These days have been filled with visiting and catching up, with lots of time in one car or another (and more than one meltdown…); we have been excited to see friends and family who live far away, filled with anticipation of the possibilities of a new space and wistful about what might have been in old spaces and comforted by the familiar space that is ours right now. It’s been hectic and stressful and relaxing and joyful and messy and beautiful, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
A few weeks’ worth of my favorite things…
- The case for a seasonal education, from Jamie at Simple Homeschool • because tuning into the rhythms of life is always a good thing…
- Modern Sort of Family and No In Between, from Danielle at Another Version of Mother • because there is so much truth here…
- Screen Free, from Slow Family Living • because Screen-Free Week is coming up this week, and if you don’t already have screen-free time it might be fun to try…
- 7 pinnacle moments, from Amanda at The Declassified Adoptee • because for an entire week, the first thing I did after getting my coffee in the morning was go to Amanda’s blog to see if she’d published the next vignette in her series, and you should read them too…
- Predators on the Yahoo Home Screen, from Lenore at Free-Range Kids • because it’s interesting how much we do to shape our own perceptions, without even realizing it…
- Top 10 Reasons to Live in an Electricity-Free Home, from Ziggy at Sustainablog • because secretly, I’ve always wanted to live in a home with no electricity & I’m fascinated by people who actually do…
Happy Saturday!
I was going to write, today, about how fashionable it seems to have been lately, in certain circles, to buy a house. And that I’m such a follower…I just had to go out & buy one, too.
In reality, of course, all of this has been in the works for some time, beginning with the little bit of house-hunting we did on our last trip to Buffalo.
The house was the one I told you about, the one that gave us that feeling, the one we hoped would finally be our home.
I’ve been sitting on my hands all week, wanting to write about it but also wanting to wait until everything was done. The inspection turned up a few issues, most of which we were happy to take care of ourselves—it is a bit of a fixer-upper, after all—but two that were bigger. Not expensive big, but the sorts of things that might make our credit union anxious about the mortgage, so we asked the seller to take care of them. We thought we had an agreement—nothing set in stone, perhaps a little more negotiating would need to be done, but we thought we were beyond the point where the deal could fall apart. The stars were aligning exactly right.
But it seems it wasn’t to be.
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A funny thing happened the weekend we negotiated a price for the house: I took the kids to Maine to visit my family.
Maine has this effect on me. Almost as soon as I get there I find myself wondering exactly why the hell it is I am not there all the time. I’ve described it to friends as the only place in the world for which I would forsake Buffalo. I often said, during the 12 years we lived in Buffalo, that if I could move the entire city about 500 miles east, it would be the most perfect place on earth.
I was in Maine when our offer was presented, when the seller countered with more or less exactly what we were hoping, and when we agreed to her counter-offer. I excitedly showed off photos of “our new house” from the online listing on my phone to anyone who would stand still long enough to look at them.
And then I realized how far away I would be, once again. And all of a sudden I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to go back to Buffalo at all.
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A few months ago I read this post by Tsh from Simple Mom that resonated somewhere deep within me (although her overtly religious explanation doesn’t mesh with my own beliefs and left me wishing for a conclusion that made more sense for me).
I shared it with some of the other mamas in the children’s playgarden and found that I am not remotely alone: Many hearts, it seems, struggle with desires that are mutually incompatible. So we choose, and in choosing the one we have to let go of the other(s), and we grieve, just a little, for what might have been if our choices had been different.
This has been the frame of my mind for the last week and a half or so: Letting go of the choice we didn’t make and preparing for the life ahead of us. Knowing I would once again come to fully embrace our choice once I was there again, even though my heart is so unsure right now. Looking at pictures of our hopeful-house-to-be and thinking about how much easier the transition would be, with such an amazing house to make into our home.
And my little bit of ambivalence—aside from making George a little crazy, trying to figure out what goes on inside my head—served a good purpose after all: It kept me from moving in to this house in my mind, from pinning all my hopes and dreams about our family’s future on that house (which is absolutely what I would have done, normally).
Today I am upset that this house won’t be ours—really, really upset—but not as devastated as I might have been.
And today, saying good-bye to this house, we are just where we were a month ago: So we wait, still, to see what the future holds, and the search continues…
Joining Ginny at small things once again this week—
On the needles…
Finally—I finished the skirt of Julia’s spring dress. Finally—I am at the part that should be really quick & easy after all those long rounds of stockinette: the sleeve edges & the pockets.
Of course, I haven’t actually started the sleeve edges or the pockets…
I’ve been thinking of my Peaks Island Hood a bit over the last few days—I want to finish it before autumn comes ’round again—but not feeling motivated enough to dig it out from the basket next to my bed. And I really should finish Julia’s dress before I even think about anything else…
On the nightstand…
I’m in this odd place where the days go by very quickly and at the end of each one I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished much of anything. Reading is something that has fallen by the wayside a bit during these days, but I have been reading a bit of Gardening with Young Children. I like that it begins in autumn, with preparation for next year’s garden, because that is how we will be spending this autumn…
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What are you knitting and reading this week?
Outside my window…lots & lots of much-needed rain.
I am thinking…about everything that needs to be done, and trying not to be paralyzed by the enormity of it all.
I am thankful…for a husband who makes huge gestures to make his family happy.
In the kitchen…I must figure out how to use all the contents of our freezers in the next two months; should be quite the challenge!
I am wearing…my pajamas, still.
I am creating…a warm blanket.
I am going…to Northwest Park to visit with friends and put some finishing touches on our Mayfair planning.
I am wondering…whether there are enough hours in the next week to finish everything that needs finishing.
I am reading…The Soapmaker’s Companion.
I am hoping…it stops raining and dries up in time for next week’s Mayfair.
I am listening to...Where We Live
I am looking forward to…as much family time as we can squeeze in before we hit the road.
I am learning…that sometimes I don’t even understand myself.
Around the house…so much to do, and so little time in which to do it all…
I am pondering…some unexpectedly intense emotions; sometimes even the most straightforward things are so hard…
A favorite quote for today…”[Y]ou can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”—Steve Jobs (You’re not imagining things—it’s the same quote from last time. It still fits, perhaps even better than before, so I’m leaving it.)
One of my favorite things…the pile of fabric next to my sewing table, waiting to be turned into all kinds of lovely things
A few plans for the rest of the week: lots of organizing and decluttering, a little sewing, and figuring out how to finish the top of the Maypole.
A peek into my day…
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Playing along today with the simple woman’s daybook.
On the dining room sewing table…
Oh, Maine, how I’ve missed you—your rocky coastline, your plentiful pine trees, your abundance of punnily-named commercial establishments…I couldn’t resist a little pun myself!
Julia, Asher, and I joined my parents in a long-weekend trip down Route 1 to visit family and meet the newest little member of our family. So of course, in preparation for the trip, a bit of sewing was in order…
For my cousin Aedan’s new baby, I wanted to do something a little different than one of my usual knitted baby sweaters, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do. When I ran across this tutorial, I knew I’d found just the perfect thing. I had never machine-quilted anything larger than a mug rug, so this was a pretty big undertaking, and it wasn’t always pretty. (There was a lot of cursing and threatening to throw my machine out the window involved…) It was, however, fairly easy and a lot of fun to put together, and I think it turned out pretty well, in spite of its (many) imperfections.
For my cousin Erin’s beautiful no-longer-babies—well, I always have a harder time finding things to make for school-aged children. It’s just not as easy as whipping up a sweater or a blanket or a pair of longies, the way I would for a baby, and making something mama likes takes a backseat to making something the child will adore. I finally decided to make a pair of library bags—like the one I made for myself last summer, but in the smaller size the original design calls for. I’ve made one other like this, in the child’s size for my friend Nora’s son’s birthday last year, and it is so easy to put together that I can see it becoming a go-to gift for school-aged children (especially when I need a gift in quick order & have little time to spend actually making it).
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My mother & I stopped in at Alewives Fabrics along the way, and I’ll have a little show-and-tell soon about what I bought there, and what I made (or what I’m planning to make) with it…
(PS—Maine, I miss you again already!)
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What’s on your sewing table this week?
Joining Ginny at small things once again this week—
On the needles…
I’d planned to knit all the way to Bar Harbor and back, but instead I discovered that knitting makes me car sick when I’m way in the back of my parents’ van.
So. I am about an inch away from starting the last garter-stitch rounds of Julia’s spring dress. I really would like to finish while it is still spring, but I suppose the colors are nice and autumn-like, too, aren’t they?
On the nightstand…
I’ve been spending a lot of time over the last week or so looking through The Backyard Homestead and Gardening with Young Children, and thinking about my grand plans for next year’s garden.
(Incidentally, I also managed to finally finish my first issue of Taproot. I must say that a subscription is a bit expensive, but I think it’s worth every penny…)
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What are you knitting and reading this week?
This space has been quiet for a little while, as we’ve been busy traveling and sorting out some unexpected developments—nothing bad, mind, so don’t worry—but I am hoping to get back into this space a little more regularly in the next few weeks. So much is happening that I cannot wait to share!
But for today I’ll leave you with this: In the wake of last week’s controversy over the now-suspended Circle of Moms adoption blog competition, Sharla at Adoption Magazine decided to put together a real adoption blog hop, open to everyone impacted by adoption and not only a select few who write about it in the mainstream-approved “appropriate” way. I’m proud to add my name to the list there, pleased to see some of my old favorites listed—and very excited to “meet” some folks I’m not familiar with. If you’d like to check it out for yourself, you can find the list here.
