I am and always have been a huge fan of the apron. An apron says, “I am a maker of things.” An apron says, “I am working.” Put on an apron and you are automatically up to something good: welding, baking, pottery, painting, cooking, cobbling, carving, caning, canning, you name it. An apron speaks of industry and creativity…it says, “I am going to make a mess because I am creative, and yet I am thinking ahead and trying not to get this mess on my clothes.” I have always liked the idea of the person who walks around carrying an umbrella on the if-come of rain. I am not that person. I schlep usually under-dressed children around with me in the rain…not if-come umbrellas. But I like the idea that in wearing my apron I consummate that umbrella idea…because I have planned ahead. My clothes would-have been ruined…would-have been splattered…but they are not.
Ok- as parents (or as people…or as friends…) how many things can we say that we do right? RIGHT. Really right. Absolutely, empirically, incontrovertibly right? And what is right anyway? How about done well, very well? I am here today to place my first check in the box of well done with these pencils, these sharpened, but not too sharp (lest he put an eye out) pencils sitting in a baby food jar on our dining table- where we eat our meals. The big boy has had a box of markers on the table for about a year. The paper is on a nearby shelf. And the pencils are a recent addition- started maybe two or three months ago. You know what they are? They are a bouquet. They are possibility. They are an invitation to creativity- and kids already do that so well without any help. Whenever he wants to draw they are there. And he either draws alone or we draw together. And it is good. And I feel happy and relieved that as his mother I have done, without a doubt, one thing right. Hear that? That is the sound of me smiling.
Upcycled water bottle sling by Betz White made from old cargo pants. Find pattern here.
Today was one of those days…those dreamy early-spring days. I aired out the house- opened all the windows and folded my laundry outside. I didn’t realize it until I was putting the kids to sleep, but the air temperature and the light were the same on the inside and outside of our house. The house was breathing…deep pranayama breaths. There was no hum of heater or air conditioning- just quiet and light.
