needle & thREAD

Yay! needle & thREAD! I'm so happy to be back here taking about reading and sewing. Even more, I so glad to have had the chance to do a lot of reading and even a bit of sewing.

First the books. Gosh, Where to begin? Let me scroll through my Audible account. 

Better than Before: I've listened to this one multiple times and I have it in hardcover, too, because I'm talking with friends about it.. Gretchen Rubin, who is a huge favorite of mine, does it again with this one. It took me about a chapter to fall into rhythm with her again, but after that--pure inspiration. She's so smart and so sensible and this one is a well-researched book about habit forming. She doesn't dictate which habits are the ones you need. She doesn't even offer a one-size-fits all habit-forming formula. Instead, she helps the reader identify what they want or need to change in order to be better than before, and then she offers an array of tools for getting there.

In the fiction department, I love The Rosie Project. Just such a clever and funny story about a professor with Aspberger's syndrome and his quest to find a wife. It's tender and funny and very light. Perfect for summer.

I also listened to Max Lucado's adult fiction, Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe is the story of Chelsea Chambers, mom of 2 who has just separated very publicly from her NFL superstar husband. Despite some heavy topics, the story is light reading, if that makes sense. It reminded me a bit of Frank Peretti's novels,  (which are riveting and memorable), though not nearly so dark. I cared about the characters and enjoyed the read. Easy, breezy. 

Let's see, lots of spiritual reading lately, too. I was on a bit of a Peter Kreeft re-reading binge and read again Making Sense Out of Suffering and You Can Understand the Bible. I used the latter one extensively with my highschoolers this spring. No home should be without that book. Peter Kreeft is a favorite. Much like C. S. Lewis, I think everyone should read everything he's written. I'm not kidding.

That's enough reporting for this week. 

Glass water bottle is here. Yes, I love it! I've dropped it on tile floors three times--no breaks. And it is most definitely encouraging my water habit.

I did a very little bit of sewing (aside from never-ending costume fixes). Kristin stitched most of an adorable bucket hat for Lucy. She got to the very end--the part with hand stitching--and I had this feeling that if I didn't sit and strike the pose of a grandma with needle and thread we might not see that hat on her sweet head any time soon. This is sure to make my best sewing buddy Nicole raise her eyebrow. I'm quick to jam almost everything under a machine needle just to avoid hand sewing. It's not that I don't like it. It's that I don't trust it to hold. In this case, there was no way around it, except to blindstich--all the way 'round.  And I did. And it's absolutely darling on her sweet head. Sarah has requested one for herself with a matching sundress. We're cutting this morning.

There's a free pattern here for the bucket hat. It comes from Little Things to Sew, which is fabulous. Remember those red capes? Sarah was wearing hers (used to be Kari's) yesterday. Still super cute. 

What have you been reading and sewing? I've got technical issues with the button and code, but I'd sure love for you to leave me a link and a comment. I promise to come see what you've been up to.

Throwback: 40 Ways to Keep Summer from Slipping Away

In an effort to do some tidying up around here, I'm going to take advantage of Thursdays to pluck some old posts from under the hard-to-find pile and spruce them up for new readers (and people who might want to re-visit with me). I'm editing as necessary, and cleaning up those dead links. 

I paused a moment or two this morning to put to paper my intentions for the of the summer. I find that if I'm intentional, I'm better able to fully engage in the moment. I don't want to let a second of summer's goodness slip away unappreciated. So, I resolve to

1. Make sure it is Mama in prayer that my children see first thing every morning. Much preferred to Mama pounding away furiously at a keyboard. More on that here. I pretty much love Bible journalling. Like for real, love.
2. Exercise both morning and evening. Evenings, with Mike.
3. Eat three small meals a day, nothing more.
4. Keep my kitchen Whole30 compliant.
5. Sit down and eat together every evening.
6. Completely refurbish the Homemaking Notebook, update routines, discard the unnecessary. [Actually, I just did that for the Restore Workshop. It's beautiful and functional again.]
7. Paint the house. [Um, well not the whole house, but there are some spots that could use touch up and some other spots that are calling for Magic Eraser.)
8. Limit social media to pre-determined times of day, for very small, pre-determined periods of time. For me and for my children. 
9. Actually shut down the computer when finished instead of merely closing the lid or clicking "sleep."
10. Sew something for an hour (or more) every day.
11. Polish up the Alphabet Path and make two week lesson plans for every letter, transferring them to PDF so that I don't have to consult the computer for my lessons. And update that tutorial. [This project really has to happen this summer. The whole things need moving and organizing. I think I have a plan for it, though.]
12. Make peach jam.
13. Whittle my Safari reading list down to the top ten most inspiring blogs. Check in with them once a week. Read books the rest of the time. [This summer, I think I'm going to expand my blog list. I've been away from blogs for quite a wile now. I think there are many news ones I should get to know. Suggestions?]
14. Keep my Instagram circle small. I treasure those snapshots of the lives of intentional women.
15. Stick to the "more prayer, less coffee" routine and add more hours to my day. [My routine looks different than that one, but the principle still holds.]
16. Take myself off every junk mail list and unsubscribe from all email blog feeds. [Oh, my gosh! I am the world's worst mail manager and I'm missing some big deal, important things. I've got to get my digital issues under control this summer.]
17. Keep a Mason jar of fresh flowers on the center island in the kitchen every day.
18. Visit every playground in my neighborhood at least twice before September 1st.
19. Make in-real-life play dates once a week--for me (pedicures might be involved). [Pedicures are a total waste, I found. My feet get too banged up. Better to have a couple hours of walking with a buddy...]
20. Keep the first and last hours of every day free from digital interference.

21. Go to Adoration at least an hour a week.
22. Indulge in unlimited pillow talk. Sleep in if necessary.
23. Make a fresh pitcher of fruit infused water every morning. Drain it by the end of the day.
24. Keep my cell phone completely off in the car.
25. Plan a date night once a week.
26. Help Mike plan a getaway for just the two of us.
27. Watch the sunrise with Nicholas.
28. Kiss them goodbye when they leave the house. Every one of them. Every time.
29. Take Karoline fishing. Let her sing. Sing with her.
30. When someone--anyone, everyone--speaks to me, look him/her in the eye for the entire conversation. (Unless we're sitting and doing handwork together;-)
31. Stand in the pool and let her jump to me. Over and over and over.
32. Confession: I deleted this one from the old post. Couldn't make it work. So here's a brand new one: Just enjoy Lucy Shawn.
33. Finish knitting "Katie's" sweater so Karoline can wear it this fall. [Oh, good grief! Maybe if I finish, Sarah can wear it. I'm scheduling a visit to Ginny right away.]
34. Read five picture books a day to a child on my lap.
35. Pray Divine Office together every night.
36. Tell my kids how much I love to watch them play.
37. Lots of bubble baths, followed by kid massages. 
38. Say "yes" to as many crazy, creative kid ideas as humanly possible.
39.Let Sarah paint my toenails.
40. Help Kristin plan a Christmas wedding. [We did that. No doubt, though, Kristin and I will find other things to plan.]

Bonus round:

1. Take pictures, lots of them. In manual mode.

2. Make good on my promise to the girls to have "Summer Swim and Sew" days at my friend Nicole's house.

3. Get the boys to the gym three times a week.

4. Teach Stephen to drive.

5. Work on Nutcracker costumes this summer instead of waiting until November.

6. Visit Charlottesville. Often.

7. Listen through all of Anne's minimalist sumer reading guide on Audible. There's nothing that makes my summer hum like a good book and a long walk. 

Tell me your summer plans?

Wordless Wednesday: That Time They Shot a Movie

All photos courtesy of Christian's godfather, Jim Karabin, who was all kinds of supportive. 

Picking up the Pieces of their Passions

Last week, my second son arrived at my house with a movie crew. He did this the morning after a three day dance competition in Baltimore, which was a couple days after Patrick had surgery, which was a couple days after another dance competition. And there was soccer thrown in. And funerals. And crazy ridiculous professional challenges. But back to that movie crew. They arrived just as I was leaving to take Katie to the ER. And in the six hours I was gone, they transformed my house.

I think there were about 18 kids. They arrived early in the morning of our first 90 degree Virginia day. Christian wrote a screenplay that begins and ends with a little girl going to bed–he wrote it with his 8-year-old sister in mind.  So, the movie crew needed her bedroom. Except that her bedroom didn’t work for lighting. So they needed to turn Stephen’s bedroom into her bedroom. And then they needed another room up there for a Green Room. And another for costuming. The dining room was for feeding hungry college kids all night long. (Oh, did I mention that this shoot required darkness outside? Yep, it did.)  And the living room was for spreading equipment all over the place. One scene was shot in the family room. The kitchen was a command center for laptops and video playback and whatever else.

And by the way, we discovered the air conditioning upstairs wasn’t working. In the heat, under the lights, all night long, they went after the right shot, the right tone, the right nuance to make the vision come to life.

It was a kind of a crazy night.  Crazy wonderful.

Karoline worked with the crew beautifully. Stephen and Nick helped with whatever they could. Kristin scooped up Katie (she’s fine) and Sarah for a sleepover. Mary Beth made a quick exit for a friend’s house. And Christian--my boy who spent his childhood creating sets out of cardboard and duct tape and watching each movie more critically than the next—was the director he’s always known he was born to be.

I waved off the last of the crew around 4:30 AM.  I rose at 6:30 to claim my bit of quiet time.

All things considered, they’d done a wonderful job cleaning up. Still, there were little remnants of creativity everywhere I turned. Intermingled with Christian’s movie things were the creative pursuits of the littlest girls. And in every corner, reminders that we never really finished unpacking and putting away after the dance shows.

My sewing machine still sat on a center island, paying homage to frantic, last minute sewing before leaving for dance and a little midnight adjustment of a flannel nightgown on a summer-hot night under movie lights.

As I picked up pieces and restored order, I thought about an article someone had recently shared, where my words in this post were quoted as the author celebrated my eldest son’s 30 Under 30 award.

I have educated all these children at home, all these years. Four of them are high school graduates. One is a college graduate. Two more are on the brink of graduating university. And one is 3 credits shy of finishing her first year of college (before her peers finish their senior year of high school). We wedged senior prom in with semester finals. That alone took considerable creativity.

It occurs to me that this home education thing doesn’t really look much like the ones so carefully outlined in the classical education books I devoured when these big kids were little and I was super idealistic. It doesn’t look much like those well-organized plans I loved to make. It’s always looked more or less like a bit of a mess. The education is real and it's purposeful and it's always been more about their passions than my plans.

This is who we are. We are a sunroom store to sell “Quotes and Cliches,” embellished in glitter glue. We are cardboard sets and YouTube videos.  We are painting a favorite saint. We are writing a screenplay. We are creating websites. We are Bibles and paper everywhere. We are dancing, choreographing dance, teaching dance, and costuming dances.

Some of us write.

Another calls some pretty cool TV shows his work.  There is an Emmy on the shelf in the living room.

We are creative.

As an aside, we are also very serious about soccer –which actually requires a hefty dose of creativity if one is to succeed on the field. There is an NCAA Championship trophy beneath the Emmy. But that’s likely an essay for another day.

After they left us, the movie crew went to shoot in an old church. My father and stepmother showed up on set to deliver boxes of donuts to sleepy, hungry, still enthusiastic moviemakers. The creative support system runs deep in this family. From there, they went to film in a cave. They ran into some trouble logistically and Friday found me more than a little worried about the success of the project.

Kristin was over with Lucy. She had a pattern in her hands and some thoughts about baby dresses and hats and as I fell apart a little worrying about the Director, I took out fabric and made suggestions and envisioned sweet baby outfits. Kristin set to work at the dining room table and I –in the midst of so many more pressing things to do—pulled out every bit of fabric I owned and refolded and stacked. And prayed.

By the time those shelves were back in order and I’d promised myself to attend to some of my own creative impulses very soon, Christian texted to tell me he’d solved his problem.

I know my house won’t always be full of the ideas of my children. But I have a hunch that this will be a haven for artists for years to come—whether to bounce a script idea, or find a willing editor, or raid the fabric stash and then let little aunties teach the toddler to pirouette while someone sews on my machine, the heart of my home nourishes the heart of the artist. It’s likely I will spend many more years picking up the pieces left behind by children who know they were created in the image of the Creator.

And I’m glad.

Pulling Weeds and Rooting out Sin

It’s planting time. And growing time. And watering time. But, wait. First, it’s weeding time. Every year, I say I’m going to get after the weeds before it’s a big job, and every year, I don’t. The weeds around the trees are particularly overgrown this spring. They’re woody and tenacious and in need of some serious tending. Come with me into the garden. Let's chat.