Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time
Amid the weekend’s general craziness, I nearly forgot all about Earth Day. Luckily, Lily drew this lovely picture to remind me. So we made some Earth Day cupcakes using the flower pot molds that I’d meant to use for Easter. Better late than never, right?
Have you ever tried your hand at homemade paper? It’s a little messy, but simpler than you’d think. While scoping out ideas for Earth Day, I came across this version of plantable paper that features pressed flowers. Aren’t they pretty?
I don’t pretend to know why bad things happen to good people. My brain understands that there are cause-and-effect relationships behind everything, but when something terrible happens I don’t care about logic or scientific explanations—I just want someone to fix it.
But we all know it doesn’t work that way. How and why it does work is a conversation much bigger than my simple blog could handle. And although we have to accept the fact that much of what happens in life is beyond our control, we still control a lot. Because as I tell my kids (and constantly remind myself), you can make every situation you’re in better or worse.
Today I’m taking the liberty of sharing a gift that was given to our family shortly after Tim’s mountain biking accident on Labor Day weekend 2010. I say “taking the liberty” because I don’t like to embarrass my friends by talking about how wonderful they are. And I don’t want to encroach on someone else’s grief. But this gift is a reminder that you can take the pain from your own life and make it into something meaningful for others.
A book-loving reader told me about Jane Mount, an artist who “paints portraits of people through the spines of their favorite books: the ones that changed your life, that defined who you are, that you read again and again.” Jane will paint your personal bookshelf, but she also sells prints of ready-made bookshelves that feature everything from Jane Austen to Tolkien to contemporary literature to children’s books. As I clicked through shelf after shelf of wonderful books, it was hard to pick just one to show you! Jane also sells notecard versions of the bookshelves. Wouldn’t a set of cookbook or gardening notecards be a fantastic gift?
What books would you include on your ideal bookshelf? I’d love to hear.
While I’m pondering which books to include on mine, here are some fun links for you:
Do you have fun plans for the weekend? I’m hoping to get caught up on things around the house in between baseball (Andrew has a 50-inning game on Sunday!) and the usual round of activities. I’m itching to buy the baskets of ferns for the front porch and plant the window box, but I don’t know if I dare. We have such tricky weather around here.
I also wanted to say thank you for your thoughtful comments about love notes. You reminded us that what lies at the heart of simple traditions like this is mindfulness. I thought of all of you with gratitude this morning as I tucked notes into lunchboxes.
I hope you have a great weekend!
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So this morning while I was hurriedly making the girls’ lunches for school, I thought about the moms who tuck notes into their kids’ lunches. I’ve even heard of some who do it every single day.
Whoosh came a wave of guilt. I am not one of Those Moms. In fact, it’s a small miracle if I remember to buy food for their lunches, let alone tuck in a fun note.
I found today’s image on Pinterest, and one of the re-pinners wrote that she wanted to be “the kind of mom who puts notes in lunch boxes.” And, this is terrible to admit, I wanted to type in my own comment: “Don’t we all?”