Archive for the ‘kids do’ Category

This lovely bouquet of peonies came from a friend.  Peonies usually are blooming for Memorial Day here and lots of the older homes in our area have them in their gardens.  They were often the flower of choice to cut and take to the graves.

When I was a kid, Memorial Day was for visiting our family graves.  My mom always brought garden tools and a broom so we all could clean each headstone and leave a bouquet of flowers cut from our garden.  My mom would often tell stories of that loved ones as we worked at their grave.  Later we would have a BBQ and often a game of wiffle baseball with our cousins.

Since my husband and I have been married, both our parents have taken to going to the graves on the Friday before Memorial Day, when we all at work and school and the cemetery is quiet.

Since they’ve already gone, we don’t.  For our kids, Memorial weekend is just a fun long weekend, when we go to the Patagonia sale, to a movie, swimming and a BBQ.

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The other day as I was walking down the hall at my kids’ school, a construction worker was putting visqueen on the walls in preparation for the major construction work being done at our school this summer.  (Yeah!  They are making our school much safer in the event of an earthquake.  Right now it’s a deathtrap.  Ikes.)  Anyway, as I walked down the hall, I saw a face out of the corner of my eye, under the visqueen.  It stopped me in my tracks.

It was the face of my grandmother, Maxine Morgan.

The photo was on a poster made by one of my girls for her ancestor report.  The thick plastic covering the wall had laid just right to make her picture visible.  And for some reason, when I saw her face, it made me feel a little emotional.   I felt gratitude for her example of resourcefulness, hardwork, and her beautiful, cheerful smile.  Even though I never knew her,  I do know her- through the memories and many stories told to me by my mom.

It’s time to get back to essentials I thought.  It’s time for my children to think of Memorial Day as more than just a time we pick up closeout ski coats and see big blockbuster movies.

It’s time to de-commercialize our holiday just a little, and spend some time remembering.

My girls went on a sleepover to their Nan’s house over the Spring Break last week.  While they were there they had a little quilting lesson… and took full advantage of her wonderful 30’s fabric collection.

One Dresden Plate quilt and one hexagon for their 1930’s dolls- very time period appropriate I’d say.

The hexagon quilt isn’t exactly all 30’s replica fabrics, there’s lots of Lecein Old New in there too.  But it feels like a 30’s creation. Lily is now working on the hexagons for a quilt for Kit.  That means this little quilt has been worked on by her Nan, her mom, her sister and now Lily, of course.

Emma has been enamored with and asking to make a Dresden plate for at least a year now, so she was thrilled to be able to make one at her sleepover.  My mom tells me that she picked and laid out all the fabrics and did all the machine piecing by herself, with only a little guidance and only one seam that needed to be ripped and resewn.

Emma called me once she had finishing piecing her Dresden plate to ask, “Should I machine applique my quilt… or do it by hand?

“What do you want to do?” I asked.

“On the machine.”

“What does Nan think you should do?”  I asked.  Already knowing the answer.

“She said it will be much nicer if I hand stitched it.  I told her it will take forever.   But she said I need to enjoy the journey.”

Yes I know.  She’s given me that same advice a time or two.

“It’s your quilt Emma.  And your choice.  But Nan is right, it will look much nicer hand appliqued.”

So Emma is stitching by hand and doing a lovely job.  She does look wistfully over at the sewing machine occasionally. But I really hope she does learn to enjoy the journey.  What perfect advice, especially in our instant gratification world.  Because how much of our lives are taken up with slow progress or mundane everyday tasks?   There’s so much more joy to be had, even in an ordinary day, when we learn to enjoy the journey.