November 2006

I am sitting in the cosy den in the home of my husband’s parents. We are all nicely full from the meal we have enjoyed here for the last nineteen years. Can you believe I have never had to prepare even a tiny portion of our Thanksgiving meal? My dear mother-in-law won’t let me and I hope this will be the case for a long time to come….not because I don’t want to cook, but because I am so grateful to have she and my father-in-law and my own sweet mother still with us and happy and well.

As I sit here on the sofa, I am feeling so thankful for the togetherness and the good food and the pleasure of getting to know a new person around the Thanksgiving table. Also, for the warmth I feel as I write here and receive your comments and read other beautiful journals full of the sharing of ordinary, amazing women.

Here is our piano, dressed for Thanksgiving. I couldn’t toss the leaves to the wind for it has been raining for days…..but I like the way they look and will keep them there until my shows are finished and I can turn my heart towards Christmas-time. This will be a busy week, preparing for my last and biggest show. But if I can, I will share some photos of my pretty booth with its new mantle.

This is one of the notecards in my Books and Readers set. It always gets a good laugh when someone reads the notecard in my booth at shows….although we agree it’s really not funny for one’s brain to turn. My brain has been taking a bit of a curve lately, if not actually turning, and I feel that my family is probably watching me as they are the lady in the picture. I wish I could say it is my fondness for books that is the cause, but I know it is really the fact that it is show season…..and what I am too fond of is maintaining a sweet, tidy home and a good rhythm of lessons and tasks and plenty of time for snuggling and easy conversation whilst trying to make dozens and dozens of sets of pretty papers.

We made it fairly well through the last month of my-almost-constant designing and making….tho’ I did have a little melt-down a few days before the show when a few printing problems and the lack of anything sweet in the house combined. A short collapse on the sofa and some sweet sympathy from my sons who were home to witness the spectacle soon had me calm again. But the day of the show found me turning the car around a few miles from home to fetch some forgotten something-twice!-a thing I never do-and the weekend progressed from there until by the end of it I had a long list of things I forgot to bring or make or do.

This show had alot of sweet moments, as they always blessedly do, but I also had alot of slow hours to think. And tho’ I have alot more thinking to do, I realize that my life recently and our lives in a larger, societal way can tip over the edge of balance so subtly and quickly. Too subtly and quickly sometimes for us to adjust. And while we are scrambling to adjust, life can feel rather a mess. My mind is really still too muddled to write about it just now….I have another show in a few days! But I think it will be interesting to think about the many ingredients of my life and whether all these ingredients can bake up into the yummy cake I envision.

When I return from this next show (so looking forward to being with you, dear Glenn!) I will share photos of the amazing and lovely mantle my Douglas made for my booth. Yet another example of my scattered brain is that I forgot to take any photos this past weekend. Dear me!
But please know that I have loved reading your comments for my last post. When I return from this next show, it will be time to toss the papery leaves on the piano out into the wind and tuck away the dear photos for another year. Then I will put up the Thankfulness garland in their places, and so we will keep progressing through the beautiful year…..