A day at home

We have been out playing with friends every day this week and, while it has been GREAT, we're taking it easy today. Our big outing will be to the store in a little bit to stock up on booze and treats for tonight's Family Game Night (a monthly tradition that is in the process of being established with my three younger sibs who live in Portland). It's been overcast and in the 70s today - a perfect day to chill. Yesterday we went to Ikea and I bought the girls each their very own easel. We've been coloring and coloring and coloring! I think I'll break out the chalk here soon and introduce them to the world of chalkboards. Or maybe watercolors! The world is our art oyster today...so long as it all stays on the paper and not the floor or walls or books. I also think I'm going to make some parmesan-squash chips as an afternoon snack. Yum! 


You know, I used to think I was pretty domesticated and crafty until we moved to Portland. I cook dinner at least five nights a week and like to color and stuff with my kids, but I'm nothing compared to some of the moms I know. They can fruits and veggies. They sew clothes for their kids. They use cloth diapers. I'm all, "Uh, I like Pampers best even though they're more expensive and I'll happily take your extra garden vegetables because I have a brown thumb." It makes me feel a little...dumb.

[Aside: I promise I have been very, very, very good about not swearing, but the Bug is walking around right now saying "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Sheeeeeet." Maybe she's saying something else and it just sounds like she's an offshoreman? I'm going with that.]

Anyway - I constantly find myself making mental notes of projects I want to do "when I have time" with no idea when that time will exist. Here's a sampling from my list: 

- Make alphabet magnets using baby food lids (I saved a zillion of them for this project that I saw in a magazine forever ago)

- Plant some herbs in the window box outside the kitchen window

- Get all crafty and finish decorating Belly and the Bug's room

- Bake something delicious and nutritious every week

- Make "color books" for the girls 

There are a zillion other things, too, and none of them seem as ambitious as sewing clothes or canning. Why can't I get it together? Maybe I'm just plain ol' lazy. Hmm....

Friday, August 21, 2009 | Labels: , , |

 

3 comments:

ae said...

Here's something to, I hope, make you feel better. I am trying to learn to sew, and I do a very little canning, in that I make hot pepper jelly every year. I love those things, but canning is an expensive hobby - especially when you can get a can of peaches for what, $1.29 at the store year round? And as much fun as it would be to dress the kids in handmade garb, you can find clothes cute and cheaper at the store.

Do what you enjoy and as my late grandmother would have said, "Let's let that be it."

August 22, 2009 at 7:07 PM  
Team Baribeau said...

Good Words AE!! Considering i just paid WAAY too much for fabric to make a quilt for my sister's soon to arrive baby... both sewing and canning can be expensive and time consuming. My guess those mom's probably do it to relax and since you have one of the coolest husband's on the planet ... who would want to sew;). I love ya but i don't see you really relaxing with that kind of a task. Stick to your forte of super creative games to play, imagination, and the love of the outdoors. The rest won't make a difference. Your girls will love you all the more for it.

August 24, 2009 at 8:27 AM  
Bridget McCarthy said...

Last night I saw a kit to grow your own garden herbs. It was SO CUTE with these little pots and a glorious photo to show you what the herbs would look like, and I just KNEW this was my answer to "How can I be crafty?" And then I realized I had no idea whatsoever what to DO with the herbs after I grew them (especially since I don't really cook) and so I said Screw It and we bought the new Hannah Montana movie instead.

August 24, 2009 at 8:50 AM  

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