Skies of Parchment

February 26, 2011March 20, 2013

Happy Spring Things

Happy Things…

… The first glimpse of spring on the maples!
The weather here has been divine – and coming from me, that’s saying a lot. :)

… Being involved a bit in a Widow’s Banquet our church did for ladies in the community.
These roses made me nostalgic for my former days at a florist shop…

… making some lace scarves. I just love the feminine lace & ruffles this spring!

… Finding strawberries on sale – fresh from Florida! – for seventy-five cents a quart.
I made 75 chocolate covered strawberries for the Widow’s Banquet, a few for ourselves, and made our year’s supply of strawberry jam!

… Friday night bike rides through the neighborhood. Chasing down an ice-cream truck we heard somewhere off in the distance, blaring “Yankee Doodle” until the poor driver must go batty, and finding the “truck” was actually a hippie van with ice cream pictures on the outside and a huge horn in the front. To say I found this amusing it putting it very lightly. :)

… The anticipation of tomorrow.
I’m going to be gone for a little while, because…

BECAUSE!!

I get to spend an entire week with some of my favorite people in the world…

My three beautiful sisters and mother and grandmother [and my two daughters]!

I live almost a thousand miles away from all of them, and rarely am able to spend more than just a lunch or breakfast with all of us together. So to be able to together for a week, in the sun, with all of them, is just beyond exciting.

My heart beats wildly just thinking about this!

Florida, here we come!

My sisters, my best friends.

And after that high excitement, I’ll be back. :)

~clarita

February 15, 2011March 20, 2013

Of Princesses and Pink Cupcakes

The past few weeks since the girls have returned to good health [after the two-week illness bout over Christmas] have been so wonderful. These are the kinds of days I imagined when I thought about what being a mom would be like one day in the far future. :)

… happy, giggling children
… happy chattering
… occassional fights, but nothing to disturb the day too greatly

[The Dining Room mantel]

However, I live in the real world like everyone else, so not every day is like that! [see previous post]

But the past few weeks Zoe has been over-the-top happy. As in, giggles after almost every sentence she says. At stuff that isn’t even remotely funny. Fits the perfect description of “chatterbox.” So sweet to her sister [well, except for when I’m on the phone catching up with friends I haven’t talked to in months; then, well…]. Just generally happy almost all the time. It really is quite amazing. Not that she wasn’t usually happy, but now she’s just gushy happy.

Olivia, on the other hand, is in rough waters with teething. Part of her sickness over Christmas, along with the flu, was getting all four eye teeth at once. Since finally cutting those, she’s still been sooo grumpy, and it dawned on me through a talking-with-a-seasoned-mom-moment that she is also cutting her 2-year molars early. Sooo, still working on better days with that poor child. At least now I have more sympathy. :(

[Anyway, that part was for my mom. :) It’s not like everyone else is interested in hearing about someone else’s teething child. But Nana? Yep. She’ll listen for hours. ♥]

Zoe has also been living in the imaginary world of being a Princess. This just thrills my heart, seeing the innocence, the core desires of a girl’s heart being voiced so unassumingly. “Mommy! Look at me! I’m a blue-ti-ful Princess!”

[She has a lisp, or a “listhp” :), but most of her words are pronounced correctly. But she always says, “blue-ti-ful.” And I think it’s so precious I’m not about to try to change it.]

There is no shame in voicing the question, “Do you like me, Mommy?” just to hear a reassuring YES along with a tight squeeze. Or in asking, “Am I blue-ti-ful?” to hear the pride in a parent’s voice in the YES, because parents generally think their child far exceeds normal standards of beauty, blinded-by-love though they may be. There is no shame in enjoying beauty, in being beauty. “Mommy, watch me dance!”

My children teach me so much about God. And about relationship with God. About going to God honestly with the questions I’m feeling. It’s not silly or ridiculous. That’s what relationship is about – honesty and being vulnerable with our hearts before God. Not pretending that everything is okay if it isn’t. Being honest if we need a hug today. Being real with God, like Zoe was yesterday morning, “I’m sorry I wasn’t being nice to you, Mommy…” I’m intertwining the various relationships here, but I hope you follow. No wonder Jesus told us to be like a little child…

So the combination of Princess-love and hearts and pink and Valentines’s Day called for some pictures. I don’t claim to be a good photographer, and sometimes I’m rather embaressed to put up my shots, but you know, this is our life; we’re normal, we’re not perfect, but we invite you as friends. Although I would love to take a real photography course sometime, just to learn more about it. Any good suggestions? [on one that wouldn’t break the bank account?] Some of you “real” photographers have given me tips here and there and I love when you guys do that.

These pictures were taken in evening light, and I just loved the softness about them.

These following pictures were taken on a cloudy day, and I thought the lighting would be perfect. But just as we started taking pictures, the sun broke through the clouds VERY brightly and thus the harsh lighting. :( Re-doing wasn’t really an option, because, well, my girls aren’t really photogenic. :) It’s more like I run after them trying to snap a few pictures that hopefully will turn out. Olivia especially. She’ll probably wonder why I hardly have any pictures of her. And I’ll say, “Because you were always a blur, a whirlwind of running.”

But if she is fascinated by Zoe, then we can get a few still shots. But definitely not posy-posy. Oh no.

Valentine Princesses 124

On my chalkboard in the dining room, which adjoins to the living room, I have written:

TODAY:
– enjoy little things
– smile at my children
– choose to Trust

So because I want to make it a point to do fun little things with my children, and to meaningfully look into their precious little faces and smile into their eyes…

…and since Zoe is SO into pink [that was the first color she recognized, and it’s still her favorite today], and because this book is one of her favorites ever ever ever…

…we made pink cupcakes for Valentine’s Day. We had SO much fun! I felt like a little girl myself, and I don’t normally enjoy baking all that well.

I am not a baking genius, lest this picture fools you. My secret lies in the next picture.

Pillsbury Cake Mix, you are my new friend. You make baking so easy, and look so amazing. Baking right after breakfast was actually easy, due to these easy ingredients:

Other than Zoe cracking an egg and it sliding down off the counter and running down the cabinets and making a puddle on the floor [“I can do it! I can do it!!” she had emphatically told me], and other than batter flying around the kitchen when she was mixing up the batter with the electric mixer, it was a grand success. She chattered like a magpie during the whole 2 hours, or however long we were baking. I hope she remembers times like this, because this day will go down in my memory as pure loveliness.

[Pajama-clad and morning-hair glory all three of us. I look like I was either 1) crying my eyes out the night before, or, 2) just woke up 3 minutes prior. Neither was the case.]

BUT – the point of this picture is the matching aprons! They were a gift from my sister Ervina, and I’m sure she has no idea how much we love wearing them together. And if I forget, Zoe will remind me. She loves it that much. And besides the fun we have wearing them, we can think about Auntie Ervina and how much we miss her… ♥

Zoe’s role as Assistant Gourmet Artist was taken seriously.

This part of putting on the sprinkles delighted her little soul to no end. “Enjoy little things…”

And of course, whenever there is baking, there are always eager tasters.

We wrapped a couple of them up in little paper wrappers, inspired completely by Rachel. Never in a hundred years would’ve I thought of such a cute idea.

I love white cake stands, but have none of my own. So, putting a plate on top of a white milk glass bowl creates the effect I’m looking for. At least, until it has to be moved. :)

Zoe was making all kinds of faces that morning for the camera. These are for my mom too. :)

And thus ends my rant on how FUN it is to have two little girls. :)
I would like to have 2 more, just like them, please. :) And then boys may start after that. But I LOVE having two little girls!

[And now I’ve used up all my picture allowance on xanga for the month. And it’s only the 15th. Premium suddenly looks appealing. So if you see me uploading strange amounts of pictures to facebook, it’s because I can copy and paste, thus the odd size picture assortment…]

And that’s the post Of Pink, Of Princesses, and Of Cupcakes.

-clarita

February 11, 2011March 20, 2013

My Kids Will NeVeR…

It seems that a lot of my posts lately have been about children… And well, that’s just where I’m at right now – in the thick of it with mothering. And loving it. Well, most days. :) But truly, being a mother is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever been given.

I was laughing to myself the past few weeks, thinking of what real-life mothering actually is as opposed to merely thinking about it one day in the far future. And how having children erases any bit of pride in my conceps about child-rearing!!

Now, I think there is a LOT of good in thinking about having children and what you want your home to be like prior to being there. There’s got to be a vision, a goal to work toward, or else you’ll flounder. You have to know where you’re going so you can aim toward that direction. I’m a firm believer in having a purpose and vision for one’s family.

But what I was laughing about was my unrealistic expectations of my children. And how wrong I was to expect that of them, as well as other children [not just my own].

These are some of the ideals I was upholding, not even so long ago. I didn’t realize the adventure that children bring along with their little selves!

My Kids Will NEVER. . .
[taken from a journal entry on 8 October, 2008, wherein I only had one crawling child, and wherein I had several unwanted experieces with various children. These are all actual accounts. My own comments now are in parenthesis.]

1) Don’t EVER let children jump on someone else’s bed. We had [event] at our house a few weeks ago, and at the end when everyone had left I went through the house cleaning it up. When I got to our bedroom [OUR master bedroom], I was furious: just that afternoon I had washed the sheets on our bed, fluffed the featherbed and down comforter, and made the bed. [There are few simple pleasures in life better than a freshly laundered bed]. Those little kids had jumped all over our bed; flattening my hard-fluffed bed as flat as if I hadn’t washed them it in several weeks. Needless to say, that did not leave a good impression on me…

2) Definitely potty-train your children before 3.5-4 years old, so they don’t go around peeing on the kitchen floor of the [place away from home], and babies crawl around IN IT. This makes for very disgruntled mommies of those babies. And if your child would ever dare do such a thing, then by all means, clean up the puddle.

[Speaking of adventures with children, Olivia was born in the car under this Hampton Inn sign!]

3) If, at a ladies luncheon, there is a shortage of food, do not let your 3, 5, & 7 year olds repeatedly fill their plates and eat to the fullest, especially when the pregnant lady for whom the luncheon is in honor of [this wasn’t me; it was my friend] does not get enough of food, and when many of the ladies present have not even yet had firsts, much less seconds or thirds. [Most of the ladies went to Burger King after this because we were sooo hungry! Due not entirely to the unmannerly children, but also to the shortage of food by the caterers.]

4) Do not, I repeat, DO NOT allow your children to play in the church nursery at any time [especially not along during a church service]. Not to make 5 [F.I.V.E] trips back and forth for books which lie mere feet away from mothers trying to put babies to sleep [which was me] because the trips back and forth wake them up everytime they’re almost sleeping. Not after church, for even though the service is over, I guarantee you not many mothers want their child rudely awakened by “monkeys” [I was kind enough back them to write it in quotation marks that day] in the cribs all around them, lights on full blast.

[end of journal entry]

Along with these, I had visions of a perfectly clean house all the time. Really.

Really, what was I thinking??? If that is really my goal, that’s really shallow.

Because what does that offer God in eternity? “Well, God, yes I got frustrated at my children a lot because all they wanted to do was play and make a mess, but let me tell you, I KEPT A PERFECTLY CLEAN HOUSE.” When I think of it in those terms, really, an immaculate house isn’t the end goal. Yes, there are things that even children can learn about keeping things tidy, and I would like to blog about that one day in the future [about how to manage messies with small children – not that I’ve attained, but just talking out loud about tips that I’ve learned from other women in my short time of being a mother and what has really helped me]. But this time I’m blogging about letting go of unrealistic expectations.

What really gets me about my above journal entry, is that within TWO AND a HALF YEARS of writing that, my child[ren] has done points 1, 2, and 4 of the “My Kids Will NeVeR…” as well keep my house at a continual state of crumbs-on-the-floor.

I remember when Zoe was a baby, just beginning to feed herself easy finger-foods. I had placed her in her high chair and given her graham crackers while I was making dinner or busy with something. After a few minutes I checked up on her and was aghast to see cracker crumbs all over my hardwood floor!! Up until this point, crumbs rarely reached my floor. No kidding. But at that moment, I was struck between the eyes with the disturbing thought, “My house will never again be the same, until decades from now when there are no more children…” And that was a very true thought. Because since that day, crumbs of all kinds have perpetually been on my floor, regardless of whether I sweep or mop every day.

I remember when I was potty-training Zoe’, and she peed on the floor – not of our own house, which would at least have been better, but at the home of someone who had graciously invited us to supper. Not only that, but her little friend, a little younger and crawling, got all wet with her pee!!!! It was a deja’ vu of that instance not too long before [and the same poor little boy who crawled into both “accidents”!] and I saw my journal entry in my mind’s eye in bright red letters. Not that I had written it in bright red, but what I had written was haunting me. No, my child wasn’t 3 or 4, she wasn’t yet 2, but still, I had no control over the urine on the floor other than profusely apologizing to my friend and cleaning up the mess. I couldn’t control my child’s bladder!

And I’ve found my child playing in the nursery after church, much to my chagrin… Not just once, but several times [although I’m not aware that there were any sleeping babies at any point].

And just last week, on the way home from a friend’s house where quite a few ladies were working on a project for a widow’s banquet coming up, Zoe informed me that not only did she jump on the guest bed in the house [!!], but she did so after she was told not to by some of the other children [!!!!!]. Again, I saw red-letters somewhat mocking me, and the “perfect” children I was going to have…

I will say, there is definitely a difference between kids that are out-of-control, and kids that are just being kids. But I think that I’ve too quickly acted like, or thought that, children need to act like adults instead of simply being a child of 4 years old, or whatever the age is.

I’m not saying the children in the above examples are without excuse, and the model child that I would like for my children to emulate. These really are not what I want my children to be known for. So, while I TRY to train my children not to jump on beds, not to pee on the floor, not to be little pigs at other people’s dinners, and to play in areas other than the church nursery on Sunday mornings, there are also other things,
important things, to remember…

… that children don’t judge other people like we do. If they see a house with toys all over the floor, they don’t think, “What a lazy woman.” They think, “Oooooh, this looks like fun! Can I play too?”

… that some of the best memories of a young child’s life as in  little, sometimes “messy” moments –
   – like “houses” built with couch cushions and blankets [one my my FAVorite memories as a little girl, thanks, Mom!! I know I made an awful mess with only about 20 blankets =D], or houses out of large boxes
     – or making dirt puddings outside, and climbing dirt hills in the yard before the flower beds are formed [even if they go ‘necked’ without asking, because if they ask the answer will surely be “no”
     – or making chocolate chip cookies with flour everywhere…

I guess I’m seeing in me that the the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with messies for me can be a control issue. This is one little area of my life that I want to go exactly as I want, even if not many other areas of my life are turning out that way. So I’ve tried to control my children’s messes. I’ve tried to control my life, wanting my house to look as clean and messy-free as it did before children. Somewhere there’s fear involved in control issues too, I think… Fear of what so-and-so will say if they’d see my house looking like a hurricane blew through? Fear of being talked about [like I’ve heard some other moms talked about] who didn’t have every single toy picked up when Mrs. ______ stopped in unexpectedly? Not sure what all is involved in all these OCD tendencies…

But my heart has been experiencing new freedom as a mother the past few weeks. I’ve always enjoyed being a mother; my first baby was honestly not even an adjustment [although my second one was more so]. But now instead of just enjoying my role, I’m feeling empowered in my role. Not that I do everything perfectly – far from it. I apologize to my little daughters many times in the course of a week!

I guess I’m recognizing some of the lies that satan tries to tell women – that he’s tried to tell ME.

One of those lies being that a MOM [working mother, stay-at-home-mother, a housewife, a homemaker, a giver of life [physicially, spiritually, emotionally], a place of safety and refuge for her family, source of empowerment for her husband, a wear-of-many-hats [chef, laundress, housekeeper, landscaper, fashion designer (hey, all of us dress ourselves and our kids every day!), interior designer (and all of us do some form of taking care of our homes, though it varies in personal preference and style)]is worth less than a career woman, or a single missionary woman in China, or…. On and on satan’s lies accuse, until we are powerless to live the flourishing life that Jesus offers us…

Jesus says… “Do not live by a spirit of fear, but of POWER, and of LOVE, and of a SOUND MIND…” He calls us to be empowered, to live passionately in all areas of our lives whether it be woman, wife, and/or mother. Listless, fearful, enslaved living is not part of His design for us!

This is not to discredit the very difficult times that God allows us to go through. I recognize, in my own life and in the lives of people around me, that there are incredibly difficult dark nights of the soul to walk through. I’m not saying that in those times we just have to grin and bear it.To flourish is not always to feel vivacious and alive. But true LIFE means JESUS… To hold onto Jesus even when it feels like everything around us is going wrong.

I did a study on the word “Hope” several weeks ago. I had been feeling so low emotionally, and honestly, was going into 2011 feeling like there was so little to look forward to. What was I going to hope for in this year, I wondered to myself? I’m a Type A personality that thrives on goals and lists and future events. This kind of personality has its strengths… and also its grave weaknesses.

So I pulled out the Strong’s concordance and researched every word used for hope. I didn’t realize that “Hope” was used to many times in the Bible. Over a hundred times.

And in every one of those hundred-plus times [except two, and those two were used to describe someone who is not a believer in God and how empty their hope is] the word “Hope” was talking about God Himself. I don’t feel like I can accurately describe all that went on in my heart after that study. But I realized that Life is God. And Hope is God. And God is Hope. And God is Life. If all we have left is God, we can still have Hope. In fact, that is really what Hope is. It’s so simple. It’s so hard to grasp.

Hope says, “God, I feel crushed by [life’s situation], and I want [particular thing/event/situation to happen/change], but even if it doesn’t, You still give meaning to my life. YOU ARE the meaning of my life.”

This has really hit home in my heart since that study. That God is my purpose, God is my Life, God is my Hope; even if I don’t know what the future holds for us, even if I’m at home with my children day after day. There is meaning! There is purpose to my days!

My heart rests in that knowledge. And I am a better wife and mother for it. More restful. More at peace with myself and God. More trustful of His sovereignty… And like all of life, I’m sure I will need to be reminded of this many times over in the course of a lifetime! So easy it is to forget what once felt like a thunderous truth…

Okay, so I started with “My Kids Will NeVeR…” and I end with… a thinking out-loud of what God has been doing. Not sure how that fits together, but there it is.

I wish for you today HOPE – that heart knowledge that God is enough… and more than enough… for today. For tomorrow. For ever.

~clarita

February 7, 2011March 20, 2013

Music Room Before & After

It’s a super cozy, wonderfully lazy Monday afternoon… It’s been raining steadily all day, actually for most of the past week. Combine that with a crackling fire in the hearth and I’m ever so happy. No snow this far south, but if it’s raining and I can have a fire, I’ll be happy. :)

I’m been wanting to do some more before & afters of the Cottage, but somehow it has taken me a while to get those pictures taken and uploaded. And with two active little girls, I find my computer time to be a bit lessened. Combine that with a New Year’s resolution [but wanting it to continue past just this year] – the goal to not be on the computer after dinner in the evening.

That’s been a stretch for me, I’ll admit. I didn’t realize how often I go online after supper. It was a good, easy thing of relaxation at the end of a busy day, but the down-side of that is that I could easily check out with Ben and the girls during our only family time of the day. And honestly, if Ben and I needed to talk through something, I could easily hide behind the screen instead of talking… :( So, I very much realize this is just my own choice and not something that’s for everyone. This is just for me. And if Ben is gone for the evening, don’t be surprised if I’m online at 7:30P.M. :)

I have found that I have SO much more time for reading than I normally did. It’s only the first week of February, but I’ve already read several books this year. I don’t have to wonder long where my free time was going… But we’ve been having so much good family time. Hide & Seek with the kids that is way more fun that being on the computer. Reading them lots of books. Feeling like I have a lot of time in the evenings…

And besides all that, I don’t want this blog to be all about my projects and my house and my… What I DO want it to be is an outlet for me to remember details about life and God and family and living and creating that I wouldn’t otherwise remember. To celebrate and treasure the little things. The not-often big things. To share a part of my journey with other people. To try to respect the privacy of my family at the same time…

And a great blessing that comes along with that is keeping current friendships in far-away places as well as meeting many new wonderful friends! Truly, I feel so RICH in friendships!!

So, today is a post to document the Befores and Afters of the Music Room/Family Room/Office.

Before:

[bright yellow/orange walls, but really in good condition otherwise]

[for better room flow, we moved the door to the left of the fireplace…

… to the right of the fireplace]

And After:

We began by painting the walls a neutral color, the same as most of the rest of the house. I wanted to go with a paint called “Biscotti” because how fun would that be to tell people the wall color?? But it didn’t quite fit the pallette I was wanting, so instead we went with “Tuscan Beige” by Ace Hardware.

This room is a walk-through room to the girls’ bathroom, the laundry room, and the master bedroom. We thought about closing part of it off to make a third bedroom [at present we have only two] and putting a hallway through it, but because of the option to add two bedrooms upstairs eventually, we decided to keep this room opened up. Besides, closing off the rooms would’ve meant getting rid of my baby grand, and that would’ve been a very sad parting…

When I was getting ready to work on this room last summer I asked on facebook if anyone has some old sheet music they weren’t using/would give/sell. My friend, Marylou, offered to send me an old book. It was a gem – I was so thrilled upon received it! Not only were the pages a very lovely aged color, but the titles of the songs are so delightful! Thank you so much, Marylou!!

I combined this old music with new books that I got off ebay for a song [yeah, didn’t even think of the pun, sorry]. And I kind of went a little happy with all of the music projects. I told someone I feel a little sheepish even showing this post because it’s a music overload!!

I began by putting these various sheets over the wall by the desk.
[This idea came from French Larkspur [blogspot], not original with me.]

Can’t forget to include this in the pictures. :)

The desk we picked up at a yard sale for $10, and then I painted it several years ago. That was when I was painting everything black. Now I realize there ARE other colors to paint things. :)

The chair was free at a yard sale last summer because the caning in the seat is coming apart, and we still haven’t fixed it. Hence the pillow to sit on while working at the desk. :)

The window panels I made from fabric that I bought for $1 a yard several years ago. I really wanted to go with a bright grass green for my accent color in here, but couldn’t find what I was looking for for the price I was willing to pay. So I ended up using some fabric from my stash….

This old [bald & hairless] rocking horse came from an antique auction. I used to think he was dreadfully ugly, but he’s growing on me. :) The girls love him, so why shouldn’t I? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say. :)

The jute rug I picked up on craigslist, the same time I got the rug for the living room.

Turn right at the desk and this is what you’ll see…

The old piece of furniture was bought as-is at my grandmother’s auction 5 years old. It badly needs a new paint job, and I’m not sure whether to leave it black all over, or paint the exterior white and the inside black? This room tends to be rather dark, even with the two windows.

White vase: Pottery Barn outlet for $1.99. Wish they’re still have cheap clearance like that.
Old Frames: auction for $1-2 dollars each
White bust: T.J. Maxx, I think
Quote plaque: gift from a friend ♥

I love bringing the outdoors inside. This mossy stuff is so beautiful to me!

Keep going clockwise, and watch out for the baby grand…

This was my birthday gift from Ben when I turned 24… I am a very humbly proud owner. :)

I got this wild idea to make a music tree [as if there wasn’t even of a music theme in the room]. So one afternoon when the girls were napping I traced an outline on the wall, then cut various music sheets to fit that outline. I thought it would take me days, but an afternoon was enough to complete it.

The bird cages were found at several different junk shops.

I bought quite a few books at my grandmother’s auction several years ago, along with these binoculars, which belonged to my late grandfather.

The round votive holder is from Pottery Barn – something I had watched in the catelogue for a very long time, starting out at over a hundred dollars, and finally finding it at the outlet for $30. I was happy. :) That was several years ago. Now, I think it’s a little “heavy” in style, but after waiting that long to buy it and then getting it for such a good price, AND storing it for several years until I had a house to put it in, well, I’m not selling it quite yet. :)

The 4th mantel/fireplace in the house. Not sure black is what it’ll always stay, but because I have so many fireplaces I didn’t want them all to be the same. So this is black.

I call this my “Wall of Words” – inspired largely by The Lettered Cottage’s reading room. Theirs is only words, if I remember correctly. I combined words, music, pictures – just a lot of things black and white. [whoops about the one picture falling from its frame]

The black frames were mostly bought at Goodwill for around a dollar each, average, and I spray-painted them black. When my sisters spent some time with me last summer, I conned them into doing some of the writing for the quotes I wanted on the wall. :) I used a combination of Scripture and some favorite quotes. The wall words were given to my by my mother-in-law, who found them at a yard sale! She is a yard sale queen! :)

This old globe also belonged to my late grandfather. Can you tell I’m sentimental? :)

And just for fun, before and after again:

And that concludes the Office/Music/Family room before & after!

[disclaimer: these pictures were taken during the naptime of two children. Should you happen upon us today, or any day for that matter, there is very little chance of the above room looking remotely similar and tidy. At the moment, there is a dishwasher-sized cardboard box in the middle of the room which is the “house” of the above-mentioned children and they would be disastrously devestated if the house would need to relocate anytime in the near future.
(p.s. the mother of the above-mentioned two children is learned and growing in the areas of letting children be children without demanding that messes be non-existant and playtimes be solely imaginary and with no fun props. Hence the cardboard house, which is stretching the imaginative developement of the children, and the perfectionistic tendencies of the mother, who is learning that happy children are worth far more than perfect houses, and that imaginative play is what will create wondeful memories rather than immaculately-tidy rooms].

~clarita

January 31, 2011March 20, 2013

a weekend is for….

… getting into big sister’s slippers

… eating lots of popcorn

… enjoying little girl profiles

[this is called “The Big Cheese”]

… breaking out the darling little popcorn boxes
[found at Michaels? A.C. Moore?]

… vacuuming several times in the course of the weekend,
just to clear away the said popcorn that keeps reappearing

… Ben tearing around with the chainsaw,
removing “junk trees” from the property border

… little girls playing hide-n-seek in the destroyed shubbery

… playing outside in the 70* weather.
Springtime, have you arrived several months early?

… enjoying a fire, not because we need it,
but just because Ben cut firewood again and we can!
[it’s been a cold month with no wood. now, on the day he cuts wood, it’s 70*]

… wondering what to do about my magnolia wreath, created only 2 weeks ago. Do people just use silk leaves for this kind of thing? These real one are curling and I fear soon to fall off. Hot glue isn’t always the magic ticket, sad to say.

… enjoying little bits of nature brought indoors –
mossy twigs and silver spray-painted pinecones.
Christmasy? No, it’s wintery.

… little girls that play “Mary and Joseph.” Oh, and Baby Jesus. Can’t forget him. And please DO call all children by their new names, they are no longer Olivia and Zoe’.

[“Jooo-THEPH!!” Mary says very sternly, when she, I mean he, isn’t cooperating with the donkey caravan “to Bethlehem” [quote] here. But all contention must have been resolved because later Mary was lying on the couch, gently crooning, “Oh, Jotheph, Jothepth,” in rather alarming endearing tones. I think The Nativity Story was watched a bit too many times.]

… little girls that love to play princess
[there are wild imaginations around here, just a warning. there are role changes many times a day].
And mommys that love to take Princess’s pictures spur-of-the-moment.
And make heart-chains spur of the moment.

… re-reading A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken. One of the best books on love and marriage I’ve ever read. The oneness of spirit between the two of them is incredibly inspiring…

A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken (1992, Paperback,...

And that concludes a lovely, stay-at-home-all-but-Sunday-morning weekend.

Here’s to wishing for many more just that that one! :)

~clarita

January 21, 2011March 20, 2013

My New Toy

Perhaps this is a justification post.

Trying to justify a new purchase.

I have this fetish for several things:

1. Things that hang from the ceiling [i.e. tissue paper balls, bird cages, oversized keys, etc. etc. ]
2. Old things. Vintagey old things.
3. Other things I shall not mention at the moment.

But this New Toy I’m talking about falls under the Number 2 category. Old, vintage.

I walked into an junk store this morning, looking for some old dishes, some treasure to pick up.

I walked around the corner and almost gasped out loud. Because this is what I saw:

An ancient typewriter.

Now, to some people, this is ridiculous looking.
To me, this is beauty in ancient form.

They also had this ancient movie reel there, which I looked up online after I got home… Ebay sells it for $300.

[photo courtesy of the world wide web]

I couldn’t find a price, so I lugged this 40-pounder typewriter [no joke] up to the counter, much to the chagrin of the clerk, who thought such heavy [valuable] things should be left where they were unless a purchase was in the very near future. “It’s an antique!” she told me repeatedly, in a very meaningful tone of voice, as if she expected me to think I could buy a similar model at Walmart anyday. [Thank you, my good woman] She told me it had been there a long time, originally marked at $100, now reduced to under half price.

To buy or not to buy? That was the question.

Because, see, I had this old one sitting at home that someone had given me. Less than a month ago.

Rusty as could be. It had been sitting outside for years, thus the leaves all stuck in the keys.

My husband drastically raised his eyesbrows when I brought that thing home.
“Going to try to save its life?” He asked me. Or something to that effect.
I wanted to try. Especially since it was free. But I had [and still have] no idea how.

So when I sighted this one in perfect, I mean, perfect condition, just a little dusty, I was enamored.
No cleaning up, just buy a new tape and I could actually TYPE on it.
Visions of me sitting at this old jewel plunking away came to mind.
Also visions of there being no back-space key, and I wasn’t sure what I’d do with that. Learn to type more accurately, ahhh yes!

To buy or not to buy?

She bought.

[Never mind that it takes up all the space on the desk.
Never mind that it’s so huge.
Never mind that I now have two…]

Okay, okay, so I AM trying to justify this purchase!!!

I was wondering how I was going to break it to Husband that I spent $$ on an ancient typewriter…
I didn’t have to worry. Zoe did it for me. No tact involved.

Within a minute of him walking in the door –
Zoe: Hey! Do you want to see what Mommy got?
Ben: [looks at me puzzled] Hmm? Did Mommy buy something?
Zoe: [excitedly, at least she pumped it up] Yeah! Wanna see it?
Ben: Okay, sure, where is it?
Zoe: On the desk! It’s to write with!
Ben: very extremely puzzled now, especially with the very sheepish expression on my face
Zoe: [again] Wanna go see it?

In we all traipse. Me following behind like a little puppy, to see Husband’s reaction on The New Toy.

Ben: [surprised expression, jokes] Wow! That old typewriter sure cleaned up good!
Zoe: No, no, it’s a DIFFERENT one!
[whispers in his ear for added effect]
We bought it at a STORE!
Ben: Oooooh! [looks at me] Was it expensive?
Zoe: [answering for me, but really not having a clue] YES!! Yes it was!
Ben: Oooooooh!
Me: [jumping in to try to redeem the situation and chattering non-stop] I did pay $40 for it, but I looked it up online after I got home and because it’s in such good condition typewriters like this sell for $100-$500 [even though selling really is NOT what I have in mind for my Toy], and the old guy working there said it actually works – all I have to do is buy new tape for it – and I can actually TYPE on it [demonstrates the working non-sticking keys] and it’s in such GOOD condition [please see all the good points about this, please], just a little dusty, that’s all, and that old junk shop got it because an antique collector died and his son donated a lot of stuff to that shop, and OH, they had an OOOOLLLD movie reel there – IT ACTUALLY WORKS [!!] – that they were selling for $30, only I didn’t buy that because I wanted to ask you first [yes, $40 is somewhat justifiable to spend impulsively, but $70 for the two of them, no, so please know I was indeed thinking of you, dear husband], but I looked those up online and they sell for THREE hundred, exactly like the one I saw there!!……

He was watching me ramble, very amused I could tell.

BUT, my husband also loves old and antique and vintage…

And at this very moment, HE is back at the junk shop.

Just what New Toy do you think HE is buying?? :)

~clarita

January 13, 2011March 20, 2013

Dreaming of White

The term “drafty old house” has taken on quite new meaning in the past few months. Houses in the south weren’t designed for cold. When we bought this house there was not one speck of insulation in the whole 1,500 square feet of it. Not one speck. We insulated all the outside walls and a few of the inside if we were working on/tearing out anyway, but the floor, which is wooden with a crawl-space under the house, has nothing. Nada.

Which makes for very cold floors. VERY cold floors. Icy cold floors, when the weather outside is in the 30’s and lower, especially. Which is why I wear socks AND slippers at all moments of every day, except in the shower. That’s understated, but just had to clarify. And try to convince all other occupants of the house that it’s in their best interest to wear slippers and socks as well. But despite her frigid little slipperless toes, Zoe somehow loves to go barefooted… until a violent shiver convinces her to do what I could not.

But that is why, at the moment, I’m drinking a steaming cup of London Fog Tea. I was just introduced to it by my sister Ervina, and I was smitten immediately. You’d have to like black tea to enjoy it, which I do. I like my hot coffee in the morning, then tea in the afternoon, and sometimes tea in the evening as well. We do what we can to stay warm around here, even if the thermometer doesn’t go about 67 degrees. We Husband likes to be economical like that.

But ah, London Fog Tea. Here’s the recipe, given by Ervina:
1 Earl Grey tea bag, brewed in hot boiling water.
1 teaspoon raw sugar
a bit of milk
a few drops of vanilla extract

Let steep for several minutes, and enjoy!

Despite the cold weather, and as chilly as our fingertips stay
(I really am not exaggerating with the interior weather of the cottage!),
we are dreaming of snow.
Dreaming is all we’ll ever do here, I’m afraid.
Snow is as uncommon as the ocean is to a land-locked state.
There are occassional flurries, which one almost needs a microscope to be able to see,
but which the town will delightedly chatter about for weeks afterward.

But almost every day, I kid you not,
almost every day for the past, oh, at least month,
Zoe’ will come to me and say,
“Mom, we should look at SNOW pictures!”

And so we do.

I adore snow.
Zoe’, with all the 3 times she’s ever seen snow, also adores snow.

And since we don’t have snow of our own,
we look at pictures of when we experienced snow.
Together.
The two of us, a year ago…

… A dear friend, Linda, and I were traveling up north before Christmas, gaining an extra week with our families before our husbands could get there. We were caught right in the middle of the Snowstorm of ’09 in the northeast. A trip that should have taken us 12 hours ended up taking us 22 hours. And we had 3 children, 2 and under. It was a long trip. It was a fun trip. :)

This was Interstate 95, right around Washington D.C. The roads were terrible. Looking back, I can’t believe we made it okay. We drove at about 30mph or less for most of the trip, which made it seem to take forever to get anywhere! But the snow was absolutely gorgeous, especially to our snow-deprived eyes! Our husbands kidded us that the snowstorm was all our fault, because we had been hoping so desperately for snow when we went up north! We sure got it!

All 18 inches of glorious white.

We arrived safely at our destination,
with many prayers of our husbands, families, as well as our own,
after 22 hours.
What memories were made!!

We woke up the next morning,
safe in a warm, cozy house
to this:

It was a winter wonderland. And we were snowed in.
SNOWED IN!
I had only dreamt about things like that after moving away from the north several years ago,
and here was the north at its finest. Zoe’ was enraptured, as was I.

It was MAGICAL!

Seriously, get me in some snow and I feel like a little kid.
It takes 10 years off my face, if not more, and I start acting much younger than that! :)
I think I need a little more of that kind of therapy to rid me of these
much unwanted grey hairs I’m beginning to find upon my head!!

As soon as we could get ready, Zoe and I
[and a sweet photographer sister of mine,
willing to brave the cold to capture us southern folk in snow]
bundled up and stepped out into the wonderland.
My heart races just remembering how fun this was, and it was over a year ago! :)

She didn’t know what to think at first, not even being able to walk!
Poor child had no snow suit or boots – we were so not prepared.

By my parents’ barn, where I spent many an hour grooming my horse
[that I had literally saved every penny for]
when I was a teen…

Out into the open field!
Thankfully I have a sister the same size as me, and I could borrow her snow clothes and look all in style. :)

I walked around the neighborhood, taking pictures, breathing in the dry cold air, and couldn’t stop smiling. :)

I stopped to visit my grandmother, who lives two doors down, and found her house almost covered in snow drifts!

And a few more pictures of the Zoe-Girl and her mother… The snow was so bright, it almost blinded Zoe.

This week I was going out to run errands in town with the girls, getting everyone strapped in the car, and was just buckling in myself, when I heard a little voice in the backseat:

“Mom? We should pray that we can live in a house where we’ll have lots of snow.”

She had talked with her Papa and Nana that morning and heard that they had snow there through the night.
AND
we had looked at Snow Pictures that morning.

What’s a parent to do with a request like that?
We can’t just move a thousand miles north that easily,
just to have a little snow.

But I want my children to learn to talk with God about the things that matter to them,
even if they’re somewhat impossible things

So we stopped, and I held little hands [Olivia wanted to be included in the prayer too]
and we prayed that maybe someday we could live in a house where we’ll have lots of snow…

A daylater when Ben came home I told him that there had been 5 inches of snow where my parents lived! I was being very melodramatic, him knowing I was fully in jest and fully in earnest :) and ended with
“I wish we could have snow too!”

Zoe was watching and piped in very seriously and emphatically:
“Mom, don’t cry! [that was part of my melodrama in jest]
Remember we’re going to live in a house
by Papa and Nana [that part was added by her, we didn’t pray that]
and we’ll have LOTS OF SNOW!
Remember? So don’t cry!”

I burst out laughing.
And also felt a bit, okay, a LOT unsure of how to respond to her!
In her little mind, this is real!
We prayed, it’s going to happen!
So she thinks.
And believes.

Maybe she knows something we don’t.
Maybe not.
Maybe we’ll just have snow when we head up north this weekend
and that’ll satisfy her snow-hunger.
Maybe she’ll have to learn to trust God
even when it’s not what she prayed for.

But that’s been our precious little interchange this week!

Ahh, such lovely memories a little snow can make! We both love to go back and look at these pictures. And we smile. And smile. And smile…

One of my favorite snow memories of all time is a HUGE snowstorm we had when I was a kid growing up. I can’t remember my exact age, I’m thinking around 10-12 maybe? But we had 3 feet of snow at one time. It was incredble! We were snowed in for 2-3 days before any plows came by our road [we were usually one of the last roads in the county to get plowed]. I was always sooooo excited when we got snowed in, because we’d drink hot chocolate by the gallons, play games, read lots of books, and just have so much fun together as a family!

On this particular time, after a day or so, my sister Jana and I decided we had had enough of being inside. We were going to go walking. We were such little squirts, I don’t know what we were thinking, but we bundled up in all our fluffy glory, looking twice our size in width, and out into the snow we went. It was a glorious wonderful wonderland! Glorious!

We headed down the unplowed road, since we at least knew we wouldn’t stumble over corn stalks like we would in the fields. But 3 feet of snow for an 8 and 10 year old to walk through was hard. We walked a half mile down to some huge drifts which were much higher than 3 feet, where we made tunnels in the snow and huge caves.

And then suddenly we were tired. REALLY tired. And cold. We had bundled well, but we had walked farther than we expected to and there was a cold wind blowing. We sank into one of our caverns for a while, and finally decided we needed to get back home and have some hot chocolate before we froze to death. You know the cold where you can hardly talk because your lips are almost frozen? It feels really wierd. And looks even wierder. But that’s coooooooooold.

We headed back the 1/2 mile to our house, and I remember wondering how in the world we were going to make it. Every step took so much energy, and we didn’t have energy anymore. The snow came almost to our waists (the wind had blown some of it in drifts so it wasn’t all 3 feet everywhere) and it took such effort to walk even a few feet.

I, being the big sister, knew my little sis was extrememly tired, and so didn’t let on how tired I actually was too. I tried to encourage her, and we kept on trudging.
Tramping.
Breathing hard.
Stopping to rest and flop down on the drifts.

We had been gone several hours, and f.i.n.a.l.l.y made it back home. We were wiped out. So completely tired and exhausted.

But we did it! We kept on walking and we made it home. Safely. No emergency rescue needed.

And looking back, that is one of my all-time favorite snow memories!