"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from
the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to
pause, savor and remember."
We've been in full-blown garden season for awhile now. Our seeds are coming up and our watering is still underway as our seedlings build up those strong root systems that will enable them to be more independent. There are many similarities between the little ones I nurture in my arms with those we nurture in the soil. Both are daily reminders of humility and how much I have to learn, with a good deal of joy and pride tossed in. Working in the soil is also a way to embrace my soil-loving heritage (more, here) and something worth passing on. To spark Isia's love of gardening we read lots of nature books, and, of course, create art about our garden.
Sometimes simple is best. Especially on those days when it's hard to get onto Pinterest to get more ideas, or even- let's be honest- be able to wash my face and keep everyone nourished. On those days it's a joy to be able to have something like a crayon resist in my back pocket. Because it never fails to brighten my day to have little ones look at me in befuddlement as I ask them to draw with a white crayon on white paper. "Mama, nothing there," Isia protested. Ah, but it will, I encouraged.
And I adore their amazement when it does! Then their anxious brushstrokes to uncover the rest of the picture, just waiting to be revealed.
To get the best results, encourage your little ones to make their marks heavy and keep their watercolor application light. Good paper always makes a difference too. An earlier post about watercolors and paper can be found, here.
Then enjoy their revealed artworks! Ah, simplicity.
I begun this year committed to buying less, and utilizing more of our
everyday recyclables- plastic lids, toilet paper rolls, newspaper- into
art. It's been a nice creative stretching for me. I find myself
daydreaming new ideas and more uses. Which are fun by themselves,
but even better when I get to share them with you here! Such as this:
"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from
the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to
pause, savor and remember."
Do you remember those knitted bowls from my last post, here? Those knitted bowls that had holes, missed stitches, and all sorts of other beginner knitter loveliness? Well, thank goodness for felting!
I love how nonchalantly knitters talking about knitting. As in, "I just knit this scarf over the weekend." They make it sound so simple, and I know why now. Because if they trick you into thinking it's simple then you're probably going to try it. And if you try it, you're going to get hooked. And if you get hooked you're going to spend an entire weekend of nap-times and car trips to create this:
which may just look like a bowl, but which isn't. It is a Knit bowl, which means, as I think any knitter would agree, that it's not "just" anything (wink). And it felt nice to knit it. So nice, in fact, that I broke out the needles again.
And knit this second bowl, which took even less of a weekend to make. I know a lot of Mama's that knit, and I think I have a better understanding of why now. When I wasn't fretting over a lost stitch, or holes that kept appearing as I went along (ahem)- it really was quite relaxing. When I have time to pick it up for a few minutes, it allows me to stop, breath, and focus for a second. A shift of focus can be a good thing these days, just a slight shift that allows me to return to my kids with a refreshed appreciation for how they're all knit together too. Because, as I think any parent would agree, my kiddos are not "just" kids. They're marvelous creations. And maybe, someday, my bowls will be too.
