Great idea, good idea, BAD idea, good idea?

Please tell me that this has happened to you.  Someone asks you to do something.  You say you'll think about it.  You think no, you say yes, you get excited, you start trying it, you wonder why you said yes, you think it will show your kids that you can step outside of your comfort zone, you regret it, you worry about it, it starts to consume you, you get excited about it again, you remember the awesome book you just read that says you should have said no, you blog about it.     I hope this sounds familiar.  I hope I'm not the only one!

A well-intended friend recently asked me to play the keyboard for an event.  In a moment of temporary insanity,  she caught me playing a piano and just like that, my secret was out.  I used to play the piano - THIRTY years ago.  I was good.  I played all of the time.  I had students.  But here is where the guilt comes in - I do not like it.  Yep, God gave me what seems to be a gift and I don't like it.  Its always been a struggle for me - the not liking it part.  Its just not my thing.  I would rather get up and give an hour long talk in front of people than play the piano.



So here I sit, stressing that every free moment should be spent practicing, causing stress in my house because I have to keep little hands away from the borrowed keyboard and I am trying to retrain my fingers to play after THIRTY years.   I have 10 days to accomplish this.  I am dreading it.

I have been reading a fabulous book - a read-with-a-highlighter kind of book.  Deliberate Motherhood, compiled by Power of Moms 

Its everything I know to be true about motherhood.  Clearly before relaunching my piano career, I should have remembered highlighting this:


Or reminded myself how to say no:



Perhaps my favorite quote of all from the book is this one from Matthew Kelly:

"The only way to say no to something is to have a deeper yes.  We have to constantly assert that spending time with our children is a deeper yes.  Otherwise, we will be accosted on a daily basis and carried away from our families by the seemingly urgent things.  There are many urgent things in our lives each day, but the most important things are hardly ever urgent."

Now that is something to think about.  But not now, I have to practice piano!!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from me to you!   I am excited to be working on a few blog ideas for this coming week.  Until then, enjoy your egg coloring, your church worshipping and your family gathering.  See you next week!

Titles no more

I have decided to donate a stack of books - the books that label and define my children.  I have nothing but respect for these authors.  I have no doubt that they are experts in their fields.  I applaud them for their years of study and research and for the perseverance that it took to get their books published.  But these books take an immense amount of time to read and guess what I am not doing while I am reading them?  Mothering!  I don't want my children to see me reading this book and think that I am trying to "fix what is "wrong" with them.  I'm sort of over the labels.  My children were created by God and gifted to me to love and nurture.  I will hug them and bandage their toddler scrapes, listen to their teenage music and cheer for them from the sidelines.  I will chaperone their dances and plan their classroom party crafts.  I will frame their art and feed them good, healthy food (need to work harder on this one!)  I will continually build them up in hopes that they will learn to do that for others.  I will show them that their quirks and imperfections make them perfect to me.  I am often squirmy, scattered, sad, crazy, tired and grouchy.  I'm thankful that the only label they have given me is Mom.  Deliberate mothering.  That is my goal.   Join me?

Binder love

Think back my friends - way back to five years ago.  The dark ages of decorating, cooking, party planning and wardrobe styling.  Of course I am speaking of BP - before Pinterest.  Five years ago, I rebuilt a house WITHOUT Pinterest.  I had "requested an invitation" to join and had about 10 pins.  Long before Pinterest became its own DIY search engine, you had to ask to join and then find something to pin.  What a genius idea!

BP, I used to spend hours on one of my favorite hobbies - clipping pictures out of magazines.  Totally old school.  My binder with its clear page protectors was a treasured posession.   If it were to be lost, it could never be duplicated.   No way to repin or google!    After our fire, when our remaining belongings were boxed and sent away to be cleaned, my home ideas binder was one of my most longed for  items.  Rebuilding a house without all of my ideas that I clipped just in case we built a house. In fact, I didn't even know if the binder had survived.    I remember going to the bookstore to look through magazines and finding an idea or two, but in no way being able to amass the binder of ideas that took years to create.

Today, while cleaning up during our basement remodel, I sat down to look through the coveted ideas binder.  I prepared myself to laugh at all of the outdated renovation dreams.  But to my surprise, I still love all of the ideas.  Some we incorporated into our house because I remembered them or just was attracted to them again.  It made me happy to know that I know my taste - modern yet classic, clean but a bit quirky, heavy on architectural details and kid art.

I can't wait to find a new magazine soon and start clipping.  Even if we never build another house, I love the process

Another prized possession- my library of HGTV magazines.  Truly, if I cut out everything I liked, there would be nothing left but the front and back covers.  Come to think of it, the front cover is usually worth saving.  They will always hold a place of honor in the library, next to Raggedy Ann of course.


Its funny how technology took away the cutting and binding that I loved so much.  Even though I love the easy organization of Pinterest, I am going to vow to not abandon my scissors and my page protectors.    If you don't have a home ideas binder, start one!  Collect your pictures and then I'll be right over for tea!

Old is new again

William portrayed Ulysses S. Grant in a wax museum at school last week.  It is the pinnacle of the 4th grade year.  Lots of research, a book report, an oral presentation - good stuff.  Of course a mother's first thought when the child is assigned the character is where on earth are we going to get a costume for that?!   And then I remembered - that old blue coat in my front hall closet, the coat that's navy color is sort of weathered and a little too worn, the one that has almost made it to the donation pile many times.    Here it was in London in its heyday eight years ago (I however, do look weathered and worn in this picture from an overnight flight.)


So here is what I started with:

After trying it on my little General, I realized the work involved - shortening the entire coat including the sleeves, removing all buttons, adding snaps for closure, adding 10 gold military buttons and removing the button tabs on the sleeves to make epaulets.   Between playing and caring for a 3 year old, it took a week to finish it up.

Finding the perfect gold appliqué stars was much harder than I thought it would be but in the end -All Hail Hobby Lobby!  Amazon saved the day with Grant's hat and we found the beard at Party City.



Ulysses was thrilled with the end result which made the effort and the sewing machine sitting on the kitchen island for a week, totally worth it.   This is my favorite kind of sewing.  Something for my children that will evoke a memory.

Did you know that Ulysses first name was actually Hiram?   Hiram Ulysses Grant.  It seems though that in 1839, Westpoint Academy only had a Ulysses Grant registered as a cadet, so the name of a famous future war hero was born.  Also, he and his wife were the invited guests of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln to Ford's Theater the night Lincoln was killed.  The Grants declined because Mrs. Grant could not stand to be in Mary's presence.   Little did she know that her opinion would not only save her husband's life but also be recorded in history!

We've enjoyed learning all about you Mr. Grant and our apologies for portraying you in a ladies coat.