Found!

I rotate Liza's books through her room and playroom. There are only about six on the shelf at a time. It's a concept I read about in "Simplicity Parenting". I thought it would drive her (and me!) crazy reading the same few books over and over and over again, but I was pleasantly surprised. The small number helps us focus and really fall in love with each week's selections, and there's the added bonus of less clutter in her room. I get a huge kick out of her excitement when a new group of six magically appears in her room. She treats them like long lost friends she hasn't seen in forever. 

The rest of her collection is stashed in the guest room closet, which she hadn't discovered until today. I went out to the kitchen for a minute and noticed her usually constant chatter had ceased. I found her in the guest room reconnecting with her old friends.

Heart Swell

Have you ever had one of those moments that fills your heart so full with emotion that you almost feel it might burst? And sometimes, it actually does burst, and the tears spill over. It seems to be happening to me a lot lately as I watch this little one interact with her world.

I try really hard to save my computer time for after Liza is in bed. If you know me well, you know I have this thing for blogs..the photographs, the life stories, music chosen with intention, the documenting of ordinary JOYs, and the sense-making of our worlds. Yesterday, we'd just finished skyping with Gramommy, so the computer was in the playroom. We had a few minutes before dinner. Liza was off playing by herself across the room. I just intended to peak at a favorite, but got lost in somebody else's story. When I looked up, there she was, standing next to me, looking intently at the pictures on the screen and swaying to the music.

Sometimes...

only a teacup and saucer will do!

I'm sipping Winter Chocolate Rooibos today and enJOYing Martha's Christmas Cookie issue. I don't subscribe to her magazine, but it often calls to me from the rack at the grocery store checkout. Her recipes and crafts tend to be a bit more than I'm willing to tackle, but I'm drawn to the gorgeous photos...perfect for illustrating my journal.

Art & Motherhood

I clipped that little phrase from a favorite magazine and pasted it to my journal. It's what I've been thinking about lately. The day is coming when I won't be able to spend the morning knitting, or the afternoon baking, or the evening painting, cutting, and pasting. And, will I ever read a book again?

Recently, while reading Jane Brocket's "The Gentle Art of Domesticity", I came across two quotes that spoke to me.

"Short stories that have been written in between dusting, bed-making, answering the door and homemaking are also wonderful for reading in one sitting while you wait for the cookies to brown, while children play, while the bread rises..."

How about while rocking our baby? I've never been a short story kinda girl, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Brocket goes on to quote Elizabeth Gaskell, an English novelist who wrote amidst the bustle of raising a large family. Gaskell said in a letter to a friend that all women should "have the hidden refuge of Art to shelter themselves in".

After our girl and I have gotten used to each other and found some sort of rhythm in our days, I hope to find time -even just a little snippet here and there- to journal, knit, bake and read. Both of us will be the happier for it.

Autumn Leaves

We've had a string of dark rainy days. While the sun hides above a blanket of clouds, this little tree shines brilliantly in the back corner of our yard.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~Albert Camus

Reading about Writing

Over in the corner I have a small bookshelf filled with books by Dillard, L'Engle, Lamott, Yolen, Ueland and numerous other authors writing about writing. I ran across this quote today by one of my favorites.

"Learn to write about the ordinary. Give homage to old coffee cups, sparrows, city buses, thin ham sandwiches. Make a list of everything ordinary you can think of. Keep adding to it. Promise yourself before you leave this earth, to mention everything on your list at least once in a poem, short story, newspaper article." ~Natalie Goldberg

October!

Here's how I'm celebrating the first day...

an early morning cup of pumpkin spice tea in my new mug,
the flicker & scent of an apple cider candle,
a late morning breakfast date with Martha,
and an orange top with plenty of room for Baby H.

Aha!

I'm nearing the end of one of my unfinished projects. This is usually the most tedious part of the knitting process for me because my skein of yarn becomes a tangled mess. I spent a lot of time last night undoing knots and winding the yarn around three of my fingers, hoping that it would stay neat enough for me to finish. This afternoon I was looking through my new book, "Knitting for Baby", and stumbled upon something so simple, yet so profound. I learned how to properly wind a ball of yarn so as to avoid the tangles. Now I can finish my project with JOY rather than frustration. Yay!

A Beautiful Book

A fan of yarnstorm for many months, I was drawn in by Jane Brocket's gorgeous photographs, especially the vibrant colors she captures. It didn't take me long to admire her writing as well. When I first began visiting her blog, she was in the final stages of writing her first book. She lives in England, so I had to wait a bit longer for the U.S. edition to be released. The Gentle Art of Domesticity: Stitching, Baking, Nature, Art & the Comforts of Home arrived yesterday, and I've been enJOYing its deliciousness ever since.

Portulaca on the Deck

"Earth laughs in flowers." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Art of Finishing

I'm an arts & crafts dabbler. In the past 6 years, I've tried quilting, scrapbooking, and knitting. Although I have quite a few completed scarves, a couple of hats, and a stack of scrapbooks, I also have these 6 projects that are begging to be finished.

*The lavender shawl is first on my list because it doesn't even belong to me. It is a project I began for a group at our old church.

*In the round basket are the sleeves to my sweater begun in February 2007. I don't have many more rows to knit, and even though it won't fit me this winter, it will feel so good to have accomplished such a large project.

*The hot pink and orange yarn is destined to become felted slippers. The soles are finished. I just have to knit the tops, and I'll be happily scuffing around the house in them when the weather turns chilly.

*I'm piecing the purple quilt squares together by hand for a small lap quilt.

*The red album is our wedding scrapbook. All that's left is the journaling for the reception pictures.

*Lee and I left the "Merchant of Venice" at the final scene. Somehow life just got ahead of us. So, we have to read the final pages and then watch the movie.

It's my goal in the next few months to perfect the art of finishing, and secretly I'm itching to cast a baby hat or some booties onto my needles.

Going on a JOY Hunt

"Finding joy means opening yourself up to it."

"The value of taking time to appreciate positive experiences seems obvious -- trite, even. Yet it's a skill that few people have mastered. The reason is simple: We're busy, and we have a lot on our minds. There'll always be other sunrises, we say to ourselves...Under the weight of our daily responsibilities and worries, we reflexively tune out the fleeting, spontaneous events that can happen at any time and that, if we let them, could bring us deeper joy and greater health."

"As many a poet has written, joy is fleeting, and elusive. But if you know how, you can go hunting for it, and you can make it last."

~from "Joy: How to Make It Last" by Siri Carpenter with help from Fred B. Bryant, PhD

New Books

I cashed in some of our rewards program points for an Amazon.com gift card.

The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper by L. Kasper & S. Swift - I've read a couple reviews for this cookbook online. After perusing it at Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago, I knew that it had to have a place in my kitchen. The recipes are creative, but not too difficult, and there are quotes and food stories sprinkled throughout. Can't wait to try it!

The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey - This was reviewed in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. "Everyone," claims Abigail, "has a book or a writer who's the key to their life." I haven't looked forward to reading a book this much in a long, long time.

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs - It's just a little bit of fluffy chick lit, but it looks entertaining.

On Loving Books

My dinner companion tonight was a fascinating article about one man's book collection. Here are a few snippets...

"I have a large library by most normal standards. Seemingly I've arranged my life in order to acquire as many books as possible."

"Primarily, though, books function as a kind of external hard drive for my mind--my brain isn't big enough to do all the things it wants or needs to do without help."

"But I would very much miss books as material objects were they to disappear. The tactility of books assists my memory, for one thing. I can't remember the quote I'm searching for, or maybe even the title of the work that contains it, but I can remember that the book is green, that the margins are unusually wide, and that the quote lies two-thirds of the way down a right-hand page."

This morning...

as the sun streamed in our bedroom window and the dogs lay sleepily beside me, I reached over and took my book off the nightstand. Although there were quite a few things that I needed to get accomplished, I let myself savor a chapter before even sitting up. What a glorious way to begin my day!

Why I Write

"--What is it you do in those books? Inman said.
--I make a record, the woman said. Draw pictures and write.
--About what?
--Everything. The goats. Plants. Weather. I keep track of what everything's up to. It can take up all your time just marking down what happens. Miss a day and you get behind and might never catch back up."

~from Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

I often wonder why I feel compelled to write. Why do I fill stacks of blank books with streams of words, newspaper & magazine clippings, pictures, letters, quotes from my reading?

...it's a place to dump all the jumbly things inside my head, it's how I make sense of the world, and where I find peace...
...it's a record of my journey, a reminder of where I've come from, and who I am becoming...

...it's a place to collect life's meaningful stuff, the words and pictures that have been significant to me along the way...

Like the goat woman quoted above, it's my record of everything and the story of my life.

Cut & Paste

I've collected a few interesting tidbits over the past few days...stuff I want to save. I spent a little while this evening adding the following to my journal:

*two posts from a blog I love about family & homemaking

*a postcard from Arinn

*an article about growing blueberry bushes

*some additions to my "to read" list

*a love note from Lee

Poetry Month - Part 5

The final Tuesday in April...can you believe it?! Since I've shared all of my most favorite poems, here's something a little bit different.

"Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry."~Virginia Woolf

I wholeheartedly agree with the quote above. There are numerous books on my shelves that I would classify as poetry, though they are written entirely in prose. Currently I'm reading "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier. Here's a bit of poetic prose from his book:

"She rose and walked beyond the orchard to the margin of the woods where the tall autumn flowers---goldenrod and ironweed and joe-pye weed---were beginning to bloom yellow and indigo and iron grey. Monarchs and swallowtails worked among the flower heads. Three finches balanced on blackberry canes, the leaves already turned maroon, and then flew away, flaring out low to the ground, their yellow backs flashing between their black wings until they disappeared into a clump of dog hobble and sumac at the transition between field and woods."

Poetry Month - Part 4

Jane Kenyon is another one of my favorites. I've been slowly making my way through "Jane Kenyon: A Literary Life" while reading her book of poetry entitled "Otherwise". It's been interesting to read them together, the first giving lots of background on the poems in the second. Kenyon dealt with depression for much of her life and spent her last years fighting an aggressive form of leukemia. There is a melancholy that pervades many of her poems, so I had a hard time choosing one to post. I do love her work, though, and I admire her way with words. She takes daily life occurrences and imbues them with brilliant meaning. Perhaps you remember this post about one of my favorites. Here's another...this one makes me stop and take the time to be thankful for each day, even the seemingly ordinary ones.

Otherwise
Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.

At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

This Month's Issues

Stacked next to my place at the table are my favorite magazines. They'll be my dining companions while Lee works late this week.