Category Archives: community

long spring catch-up post.

Leave a reply

I hate to make proclamations but the spring so far has been okay and vastly better than the winter was. I’ve avoided making this observation because – you know, the proverbial ‘other shoe’ – but in my little corner of the Internet no one is really listening anyway so knock wood and let’s goooooo.

Making. My only recently finished object is a – dishcloth. (I subscribe to the Kitchen Sink Shop newsletter and every month she sends a free dishcloth pattern!) I am a slow knitter. I have two pairs of socks (plain vanilla on 9-inch circulars) going (they’ve been my springtime soccer field knitting), as well as the Cozy Comfort throw from Homespun House, and I have the Shift kit ready to cast on as soon as I finish the socks (and as a side note isn’t Andrea Mowry just absolutely gorgeous and so cool? I wish I could have that kind of edgy yet laid-back coolness). I’m also really close to finishing a cross-stitch kit (a little A-frame cottage). As usual I have too much stash, too many projects to start, and not enough time, and I still keep finding new kits, new patterns, and new yarn to fill all the nooks and crannies of my dusty little office / crafting space. I need to lock in and get some finished objects. (As usual you can find me on Ravelry as sixtenpine.)

Reading. On vacation in the Bahamas I blew through all seven of Martha Wells’ ‘Murderbot Diaries’ and would have just kept going if there were more. These were sci-fi about a futuristic security unit android that attains some level of cold human observation and affinity. SecUnit (or ‘Murderbot’ as it refers to itself) spends the seven novels alternately amused, horrified, sympathetic, fascinated, and repelled by the humans it is charged with guarding and its internal monologue is (for me) un-put-downable. After Murderbot I plunged into some dry histories (I went through a massive Mary Queen of Scots phase and then some Romanov which was depressing). Slogging through beheadings, conspiracies, doomed royals and the events of Ipatiev House might not have been the best overall choice and sadly my reading slowed down a bit. I’m trying to jump-start it with the new Tana French ‘The Hunter’ but it isn’t really doing it for me yet. (I wish she’d go back to the Dublin Murder squad format.)

Watching. Brandon and I finally watched ‘The Bear’ and loved it. I hope next season we get more of the Richie comeback and more Fak. The kid and I are watching the first two seasons of Twin Peaks (a multiple rewatchable for me, her first time) and she’s hooked. I’m debating about whether she’s ready for ‘Fire Walk With Me’ and you know, no one is ready for season 3 The Return. Maybe if I rewatched it, I’d understand it more. While Brandon is in Iowa during the week, I watched ‘Marie Antoinette‘ on Prime (LOVED it) and caught up on ‘Nordic Murders’.

Life Stuff. As I said, I think things have evened out from our winter of discontent (it was a tough one). Brandon still spends weekdays in Iowa and weekends here, and that has made for some adjustment, both for us as a couple and our family unit. It’s not ideal but we are working through it and understanding (or trying to) that it’s just a season of life and it too will pass and fade into a new season.

I am still dealing with pre-menopause health issues which all in all are pretty minor compared to some horror stories I’ve heard. HRT has helped with the mood swings, night sweats and recurring monthly pain and nausea. It hasn’t helped much with brain fog or weight gain, but I just have to keep pushing through. I try to eat well without restricting, and get out 3-4 times a week either to the gym or for runs around the neighborhood. I’d love to lose 20 lbs but I’m also not willing to head into the land of diet culture to do that, so for now it’s bigger pants. [shrug]

Soccer, soccer, soccer. Spring sports are a lot but this soccer season for the kid was fun and for the most part, laid-back. They’re not the best team but they’re not the worst, either, and manage to have fun and enjoy themselves even when they lose and when they’re playing in downpours or gale force winds. She just started a part-time summer job at the local family-owned garden center / plant nursery and I am hoping it’s a great vibe for her, working outdoors with little growing things. She has a male friend (ahem) and after several years of being at home with us every evening, now, on occasion, he’ll pick her up and they’ll get food or go to a school sporting event or movie. She is hoping to get her driver’s license this summer on her birthday and so I feel we’re on the verge of a big jump forward in terms of maturity and independence…I am alternately dreading it and looking forward to it. She took an AP exam this week, is mostly indifferent about her grades yet but still gets things done. She’s a good kid and we laugh a lot when we’re together, which is a lot, especially now that it’s just the two of us during the weekdays when Brandon is away. I have to balance the feeling that she is my best friend these days with the reminder that I am the parent, as well, and so that’s been an interesting line to tread.

Despite things being easier than they were a few months ago, overall, I am in a mostly introverted phase. And since I live my life as a baseline introvert, for me to say I am in an introverted phase probably realistically means I’m full-on hermit now. I viciously culled my personal social media feeds this winter and just don’t post much anymore. I’ve pulled back from volunteering for school things and the parent text threads. Work has settled back down into it’s usual place in my life, instead of waking me up at 3AM in a cold sweat, and if that means that some days I only can do what I can, that’s the way it is right now. I no longer have the bandwidth to put energy into things that look “right” but don’t feel “right” or pay back in emotional dividends and that runs the gamut from doing everything and more at work to trying to look like the perfect normal active cheerful mom in the neighborhood and school community. Hustle culture, social media pressure, competitiveness and comparison – it’s all real and I’ve had to seriously duck back into my introvert shell and focus on us – my little family – and how it feels instead of how it looks. We do our own thing and for us right now that’s healthy and positive.

angeline boulley + deepening

Leave a reply

There’s something about October that makes me want to get my shit together. Not at work, or as a parent, necessarily, but as a person. It makes me want to deepen, I guess, to do things that enrich me as a person and take me more deeply into the inner life that we all have to cultivate to sustain us. Not just wake, work, parent, cook, clean, and drive, day in and day out.

On Monday night after work, and cooking dinner, and feeding the cats and getting the kid off to band practice, I put on a nice sweater and a bit of lippy and went out to our big main library to hear Angeline Boulley speak. If you don’t know, she is the author of “Firekeeper’s Daughter”, an excellent and un-put-downable YA novel set on an Ojibwe reservation in northern Michigan. Boulley is OJibwe herself and a native Michigander from Sugar Island, which is located in the St. Marys River between the US and Canada. She wore a gorgeous duster from an indigenous clothing designer and spoke for well over an hour, talking about the long process of writing and rewriting her book. It was so inspiring and made me wish I had something to write about. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend her book and I will be picking up her latest one.

I’m excited (heh) to report that our first beginner Spanish class went so poorly last week that our instructor is being replaced (through no true fault of her own). I could go into detail about this but I try not to discuss work online – long story short, I have this Friday free with no meetings and no Spanish, so I am using up some of my paid time off. This feels like a fair trade-off because I have to spend all day Saturday at a marching band competition. This, admittedly, is not my worst way to spend a weekend (being a bit of a band geek) but it does rather curtail my personal time. I have been needing a lot of it during this deepening October – walking in the world of changing colors and drinking a lot of tea and knitting mittens and rereading old favorite books that feel like comfy sweaters (like “Tam Lin” by Pamela Dean) so undoubtedly there will be more of that.

weekending

Leave a reply

I think everyone who works a regular 9-5 weekday schedule knows that one of their weekend days is almost entirely spent doing things to get ready for the upcoming work week. This is usually my Sunday. Case in point, today I ran 4.5 miles, did the meal plan for the week, got an oil change, grocery shopped, picked up prescriptions, made dinner, cleaned the kitchen and mopped the floor. It kind of pisses me off that I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Otherwise, it was a really nice weekend. The kid had a marching band performance on Saturday and Brandon headed down to Greenfield Village for a classic car show. She and I ambled downtown and had dinner on the patio of the Mexican restaurant, nosed around TJMaxx and on a whim decided to check out a movie at our local 1920’s movie theatre. The only thing playing was “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” and although I haven’t seen the second one, neither of us had anything better to do and I really wanted Reese’s Pieces. The theater was full of old people (no surprise) and elementary school kids (somewhat surprising). Apparently it was a birthday party and it definitely seemed like an odd activity for kids who had to have booster seats. It did, however, undoubtedly improve a mediocre film to have a pack of kids waving plastic Greece flags. It also really improved the joke of the elderly aunt donning an apron displaying the figure of a voluptuous naked woman – the kids shrieked with hilarity and shock, popcorn flew, flags waved, and parents sighed.

The week ahead is busy but at least I’m ready, and we are looking forward to the first real season Friday night home game, tailgate and band halftime show. Fall is underway!

thoughts on betty & homes

Leave a reply

We live in a residential neighborhood full of houses from the 1950’s and 1960’s, with wide sidewalks and tall trees. We have an elementary school two blocks in one direction and a vibrant little downtown full of shops, restaurants, and the library two blocks in the other direction. My house is a modest 1962 Colonial – definitely not the nicest house on the block, but definitely not the worst, either. Brandon’s landscaping talents have helped turn the yard into something special and we continually make investments in our nest. I am fanciful – the benevolent queen of my household queendom. If in my younger days I aspired to be an acolyte of fancy goddesses like Athena or Artemis, now I would be at the altar of Hestia. I believe that the more we show love to our house – in small ways like cleaning and feeding birds and watering our flowers and in big ways like making capital improvements and loving each other well under our roof – the more it loves us back. The more it protects and shelters us and casts a dome of honeyed golden magic over all of us who live here.

Our next-door neighbor was an older, widowed lady who lived by herself. She may have been the original tenant / owner of her 1950s-era house. Betty and I did not always see eye to eye. When my ex-husband and I moved in, we were immediately assailed by her requests that we cut down the gorgeous pine trees in our backyard because they cast too much shade. (These trees are 25 years old if they’re a day.) Obviously we refused, which did not deter her from continually complaining about them.

If leaves or yard trash fell in her yard, she would rake or sweep it over the property line into my yard, regardless of its origin. When Brandon moved in, he made instant friends with all of the neighbors, including many that I hadn’t ever met. He considered Betty harmless and often made small talk with her when they happened upon one another in the yard or street. I warned him that this would not alter her behavior towards our property and sure enough, one autumn Monday after he’d spent many weekend hours raking our yard, he came home from a long day of work to a disheveled pile of leaves and twigs on our side of the property line, all of which had obviously come from her trees. There were Trump signs in her yard and some racially tinged comments during Covid and a small wire fence that she put up on the property line so that the mailperson couldn’t cut across to deliver our mail. In a neighborhood that continues to upgrade, her house was frozen in time, with plastic over the windows and chipped stone angels in the small garden.

As the years went on, though, Betty became more frail and less contentious, and she developed an anxious dependency on her neighbors, especially Brandon. She would bring her cellphone over to have him help her figure it out, and once, when she was feeling poorly, called him to take her to the hospital (he missed the call and she was taken by another neighbor). We began to wonder about Betty’s longevity and sure enough, one morning, I saw strange cars in her driveway and Betty’s house was buttoned up, curtains drawn.

It took a few weeks during which we thought she may have been in the hospital, or residential care, but before Labor Day, a crew of Detroit junk haulers descended on her house. My home office window looks over her driveway and for several days I heard their radio, I heard them moving her furniture out and breaking it up with sledgehammers and throwing it into a large dumpster. They tore out old carpets and demolished the small, run-down greenhouse in the back where Betty had hung her clothesline. They took a sledgehammer to the little porch stoop where she used to sit, because it was uneven and broken.

And I felt horrible.

Betty and I never really got along as good neighbors, but Brandon’s gentle good care of her and his complete willingness to overlook her less charitable qualities made me feel a little ashamed of myself. And when I realized that she was gone, and her family viewed her home and possessions as so much junk, a melancholy settled over me. I understand that there is no right answer, sometimes, when a relative dies and one is confronted with years worth of belongings and detritus. I realize that in this neighborhood, and in this housing market, they need to get it cleaned and on the market. Betty’s house will sell quickly and for likely a nice profit, and we’ll get new neighbors (hopefully nice ones). However, I still feel distressed at how time is relentless. Belongings come and go – even homes. They don’t have feelings, despite my anthropomorphic fancies. But in some way it will always be Betty’s house and she will always have a hatred for my trees and an attachment to my partner and her nightgowns hanging in her greenhouse and her Christmas tree up in July and I hope that wherever she is now, she is home.

spring into summer

Leave a reply

I always have the best intentions to regularly update this space, and then I finally get around to writing and look back and realize I haven’t been here since March.

So what have I been up to since then? All the things I usually am. The kiddo has gone from her school year activities of band, soccer, and theater to her summer activities of Driver’s Ed (how??), band (always band), and art camp. Work has been busy and I have been active with running (sort of), knitting (probably need a whole post about that), and Weight Watchers. I have been pretty consistently on the WW app yet have only lost about 5 lbs in 2 months…menopause is a bitch.

We saw ‘Six’ at the Fisher, the kiddo had a spectacular run in ‘Hello Dolly’, we got a bond at the local pool club, and I got braces.

And I turned 50.

I started a whole solipsistic post about that and didn’t finish it (you’re welcome). I know age is just a number, but I really do feel a sea change about this particular number. I know I can’t just entirely retire in this decade, but I have been able to begin the process of evaluating where I am investing my time and energy and more importantly, why. During this decade, I hope to be more thoughtful about that and begin to swing away from doing things for other people and more for myself. Less because I ‘have’ to and more because I ‘want’ to. And when that’s not possible, to give myself grace in how I approach those things. For example – can I quit my job? No. Do I sometimes dream about retirement? Yes. But when I stop and think about it – I really like my job and even in retirement I don’t plan on giving up work altogether unless I’m forced to. So is it my job itself that I dream of giving up, or the mental stress and pressure I put on myself ABOUT my job that I can reconsider? It’s more about shifting the narrative about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I work because I love being able to financially support myself, my home, and my daughter. I work because I really love the people I work with and am interested in the job I do. I GET to work. However, I also love who I am without work. I have no interest in being promoted, making more money, hustling, changing jobs, or advancing myself in any way other than showing up and doing a solid, ethical job at what I’m responsible for – but putting work on an equal footing with my family, my home, and MYSELF. Not letting it usurp other things I love and need, and take up more space than it should – and this decade, that is enough.

Same with my health. Would I love to lose 20 lbs and be the same weight I was ten years ago? Yep. Am I willing to put the work into doing that? Probably not. Am I tracking and using WW just for the weight loss and how I look? No. I feel better when I consider what I am putting into my body and have goals about the kind of foods I am eating, about drinking less wine, drinking more water. And running. Would I love to set a half-marathon PR that crushes what I could do ten years ago? Yes, but I don’t run because I am trying to do that (or even think that’s really possible). I am not doing these things to flog myself into being something I’m not. I run because I feel better when I move my body and I know that these things give me a greater ability to grow old gracefully in a healthy and happy way.

So those are the big things. In other news, it’s summertime here in SE MI and I’m looking forward to a relaxing evening at home with Brandon and then a busier day tomorrow. The Girl Scout troop (yes my kiddo and her friends are still hanging in there with Girl Scouts) and accompanying mom troop are all headed to Cincinnati on Sunday for a couple of days hanging out in a sprawling, historic AirBNB Victorian, cooking for each other, shopping, eating, and visiting King’s Island. Ten years ago the thought of these 2-3 days would have given me hives. Now – I’ve known these women since our kids were in second grade and they’re my mom tribe. They’re the women I text when I have questions about marching band or something happening at the high school. We are who we turn to when the school is on lockdown because of a threat investigation (which has happened no fewer than 8 times this year). So while this probably isn’t the ideal way I would spend my vacation days, I no longer have any anxiety about it – I’ll load up my books and knitting and they’ll know that I’ll be the first to go to bed and no one cares.

I do have plans for a knitting post and a Favorite Things post – I have lots of little fun conspicuous consumption items that I’ve found and have been enjoying. Whether those posts come in June, July, August or beyond – I make no promises. But be well in the meantime!

winds and clouds and changing skies

Leave a reply


It’s March and 2023 already feels pretty action packed. Our power grid in suburban Elysia is always a matter of heated local commentary and it’s been tested severely over the past couple of weeks. An ice storm knocked out about 500,000 households two weeks ago, and just as the vast majority of those folks were coming back online, we got hit with an unusually intense snowfall on Friday night that delivered another wallop. The snow started showering down at about 3:30 Friday afternoon – it was heavy and wet, and came down so fast that it took more trees, branches, and power lines with it. We made it all the way through our Friday night movie selection (“The ‘Burbs” which Brandon had never seen) and within seconds of the end credits, we heard the familiar sound of blowing transformers and the lights went out. I’ve lived in Michigan almost all my life and I’ve never experienced thunder snow and lightning before. It was amazing and terrifying. Luckily, I had the foresight to blow up our air mattress so we could sleep downstairs near the woodstove, so we were fairly comfortable, but still. It’s a matter of convenience. The rest of the weekend felt like a wash – power going off and on until Sunday mid-afternoon. When it was finally restored, we could start laundry, meal plan for the week ahead, restock the fridge, etc. Pretty much everyone in the neighborhood is just pissed and done with the fact that our power goes out whenever someone sneezes. There will be a long line of generator customers (including us) once tax refund checks are delivered.

Anyway – it’s March and I have some goals!

Firstly – health and self-image – I am getting my teeth fixed. I resisted for a long time but my dentist told me before the holidays that my bite has become so bad that my teeth are actually loose on top and chipping on the bottom. I had braces as a kid, but I didn’t wear my retainers so….cautionary tale. I went in for an ortho consult last week and unfortunately, Invisalign is not an option…I need an extraction to relieve overcrowding and then it’s good old-fashioned brackets and bands for me. Starting soon.

Also in the health and self-image category – I’m back on Weight Watchers. While I’m all about body positivity, and embracing that my peri-menopausal body at 49 and 8 months is never going to look like it did before (and that’s okay) – I would really like to feel a bit better in my clothes than I do currently. I am short, and I gain weight around my belly and as a result I can just look barrel-shaped which makes finding pants that fit almost impossible. So another March goal is tracking and doing better with my food choices and getting back into some of my work pants. It’s also somewhat true that once I do one positive thing for my overall health and well-being (see ortho above) then I feel inspired to do other things. I spontaneously re-upped Weight Watchers a few hours after my ortho consult.

Professional goals – Although Widget Central has been fairly lax about hybrid schedule and working from home, I’m conscious that these things are much about perception, too, so in March I will try to be more faithful to 2-3 days a week in the physical office building. I’ve been averaging about 1 office day a week since January. I like work from home, but I also don’t mind time in the office, so this shouldn’t be a major problem for me – the biggest thing is just planning to pack my lunch and snacks (which should also be good because – see above with weight issues).

Miscellaneous goals include keeping up with my 2023 reading challenge, running at least 20 miles, blogging once a week and finishing at least 1 knitting project. I’ll check in on these things at the beginning of April, hopefully in a bit more organized format.

Not really a goal here, but at the end of the month, for the kiddo’s Spring Break, we’ll be taking a trip to Williamsburg, VA – she’s going to be 15 this summer so she has probably already aged out of the ‘educational trip with parents’ bracket, but I still think it will be cool for her to see Williamsburg and Jamestown, the weather should be mild and pleasant, the hotel has an indoor pool and we’ll eat some nice meals. I’m currently trying to decide whether to drive our Subaru Outback (the inexpensive route) or rent a more comfy minivan for the 20ish hour (round trip) drive.

And of course there are the usual tasks of getting taxes done (tomorrow), running the kiddo around to theater rehearsals (Hello, Dolly! in May! she plays the judge!) and marching band and music lessons and scheduling her summer music camp and driver’s education class in June (!!).

And that’s our March.

The title of my post is from William C. Bryant: “The stormy March has come at last, With winds and clouds and changing skies; I hear the rushing of the blast That through the snowy valley flies.”

a busy october

1 Reply

This is the time of year I love best. We are still getting warm, honey-dripped sunshine days here in Michigan, but also chilly nights, crunching leaves, changing skies and the smell of woodsmoke.

LIfe continues apace. The kiddo got glammed up for her Homecoming dance a few weeks ago and seemed to enjoy herself, although she did comment that it was really just like a much more intensive middle school dance.

Marching band will take up an inordinate amount of time through October and it’s our main social activity, both the kiddo’s and mine. I had no idea what a commitment it would be as a ‘band mom’ but for as tiring as it can be, I love volunteering my time and hanging out with the other band parents. There are full weeks of rehearsals and then on weekends, tailgates and football games, and band competitions. I help out with uniforms before and after every performance and try not to embarrass the kiddo too much by my presence. I’m so happy that she consents to me participating in her activities through volunteering and I love being involved. I’ve met many great people and we’ve developed a small village of supportive, engaged parents that I just don’t know what I’d do without. I fully confess to being a full-on band geek so I can think of many worse ways to spend my time on weekends than watching a great marching band. This past weekend we were at Chippewa Valley for a competition and despite the chill and the wind, it was an exciting and fun event for everyone.

Unfortunately, the cooler weather and busy schedules have also meant random colds and illnesses and a lot of Covid tests (fortunately all negative so far).

On top of it all, I signed up for a weekly crochet class through the month of October and so for two hours every week, I’ll be working away at swatches and then moving on to a granny square. I have to remind myself that I deserve these times away from work and my family because we’ve been so busy that it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking I am existing the best only when I’m doing something productive for someone else, and I feel guilty about having something just for myself.

I have so many knitting projects in the queue that I don’t even know where to start – I think I’ll do a full rundown of wips and planned projects very soon because if I don’t start making lists, I’ll forget what I have squirreled away in various bags and baskets.

So that’s the update from my corner of the world. I hope wherever you are, you are doing well and are safe, healthy, and doing things that make you happy either just for yourself or for / with people you love. xo

thursday night lights

Leave a reply

As anticipated, last week was rough. I went into it without a lot of energy and my sense of stress and overwhelm already at a high level. The kiddo had a lot of activities that made for a couple of late nights for both of us, on top of a work schedule that was pushing me to take on challenges I didn’t particularly want or feel capable of. Everything just looked like a slog of responsibilities and nothing inspired any real joy or excitement in me.

When my kiddo is struggling, I try to impart on her that she’s not alone and doesn’t need to be. And that when it’s possible, the best way to deal with times of stress, overwhelm, and uncertainty is by leaning on people around you and pushing through. Make lists; tackle things one small step at a time. If you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl. Just keep moving forward any way you can and celebrating all of your positive actions, no matter how tiny they may seem to you. This is easy advice to give someone else and hard for me to take myself. When I struggle, I don’t want to lean on anyone and I don’t feel like anything I do is worthy of celebration – it all just feels inadequate. But this week, I DID take the small steps. Pot Roast helped keep me company on those late nights waiting up for the kiddo. I pushed through at work with lists and busy, productive mornings – even if I didn’t accomplish everything, I didn’t stay in bed with the covers over my head.

And I showed up at the first marching band tailgate for the first home football game with a big bowl of pasta salad and another newbie neighborhood mom in tow. She had texted me earlier that day telling me she was having a similar week of challenges at work, she was overwhelmed and tired, had never been to a tailgate and didn’t know what to bring; she didn’t even have camp chairs. “Don’t stress about it. Just bring juice boxes – I heard the kids love them – and I have two chairs, you can sit with me,” I said, without adding that her relying on me was like the blind leading the blind.

As an introvert, and a full time working mom, I frequently feel like I don’t need community or new friends, because they just end up being a drain on my already limited time and anyway, I get enough social stimulation at work. But sitting at that tailgate, hanging out with other marching band parents and petting dogs and swatting away bees while eating really unhealthy yummy food off paper plates balanced on our knees, I felt like it was the best time of the week. Even us newbie moms who felt like it was going to be just another challenge to ‘get through’ found ourselves relaxed and calm. No one needed anything from us except to be there and enjoy ourselves.

So I sat back and took a deep breath; I had another helping of someone’s macaroni and cheese, popped a juice box, and watched my kid fill her own plate and sit in a circle with the other band kids. The hum of laughter and parent conversation rose and fell around me, and later on, we all sat together on the bleachers and watched the halftime show under the Thursday night lights.

pine needle basket-making

1 Reply

Before the pandemic, I read an article about folk schools in Midwest Living and was excited to see that there was one quite close to me. When I did more research, I realized that not only is the Michigan Folk School close, I actually drive right past it when I take the back way to my office. (When I was actually IN the office.) I quickly signed up for a soap-making class and really enjoyed it.

Then Covid hit, and it was just this weekend before I felt comfortable enough to try another class. This one was pine needle and broom straw basket-making. Julia Gold, one of the founders of the Folk School, taught the class, and she is a beautiful, inspiring, capable woman, mother, wife, teacher, and homesteader. The Folk School provided all the materials for the day-long course – the long pine needles from southern trees (not the short needles we have here), the sharp, large-eyed tapestry needle, the waxed cord. We arrived on Saturday morning; within an hour, we had been taught the basic skills. The rest of the day was spent companionably, a woman’s circle of working on our baskets, talking, laughing, and eating.

I came away in the long, sloping light of the winter afternoon with my first small basket. It’s rife with mistakes and my hands were cramped and sore when I got home…but I was so incredibly pleased with myself and I immediately bought materials to make more small baskets to give as gifts. For next to the sink to hold rings when doing dishes, a tiny one; in bedside drawers, to hold hair ties, hand cream and lip balm, a slightly larger version; and for Christmas with one of our handmade candles or bars of soap. I’m hooked.

The next class I am eyeing is leather working – they have offerings to make a leather tote or messenger bag. If you’re in the Michigan area, or could get here for a day or weekend, one of their classes would be an amazing opportunity. Located in the historic Dixboro village, Ann Arbor, with its many restaurants, hotels, university and shopping is a very short drive.

I can’t wait to show you more baskets -I hope you had a wonderful weekend! xx

december

1 Reply

December is here and Michigan is bouncing between snow and spring, in typically indecisive fashion.

We’ve gotten the Advent calendars going – they’re a favorite in our house. And the Christmas tree is up but in typical fashion, it was a battle. I despise putting up the tree (and taking it down) and we had one or two nice days with it before an entire string of lights went out, smack dab in the center. I had to go buy new lights and they didn’t match the other strings so the whole tree had to be redone. I told Brandon I’d be content to just take the whole thing down and put it away. He hugged me, put on some music, and took care of it while I sat on the couch with a glass of wine and kept him company.

I got a good fella.

In other news, between the new variant and the school shooting – which occurred less than an hour away from us, in the same county – I don’t have much to say about the state of the world right now.

This is a difficult time for many and this year seems to be no different. All of my social media feeds are reflecting internal and external struggles. Yesterday I made a list of the things I need to do this month to stay healthy. They seem common sensible – stay active, track my food via WW and stay hydrated. Meditate and use my SAD lamp, limit sugar and alcohol. And one additional item is that I have to turn down some social commitments. Some are for my kid, which are non-negotiable, but the ones that aren’t are coming off the schedule.

Hopefully you are all staying well and safe, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Hope to be back soon, more brightly.