Goodness, I’ve had so many posts swirling around in my little head this past week, but no time to type them all out in an orderly fashion.

Well, okay, I’ve had time, it’s just that I chose to use it elsewhere.

(It is one of my pet peeves to hear someone say, “I just don’t have the time,” or, “I just don’t have the money,” as though the reason you do what you do or have what you have is because you have all the time and money in the world. That’s just not true. We all have the same amount of time, and every friend I’ve had has lived in the affluent US, and so it’s not there’s “no time” or “no money”; it’s just that there are different priorities. For the most part. Phew. Don’t know where that all came from.)

Anyway, I’ve been in a sewing frenzy as of late. Ryan spoiled me buy buying me two books, books I’d been reading all about and sort of dreamed of owning. Well, he made them my very own, and I’ve been looking at every picture a zillion times, memorizing every step of every project, and enjoying actually having instructions. I’m in a terrible habit of creating things from my own head, which takes so very much time and brain effort. Much easier to just blankly follow step 1, then step 2…

But anyway. I’ve been having so much fun cutting into brand-new-bought-at-a-garage-sale fabric and making cool stuff. And so far, I have no pictures of that cool stuff, because something always goes wrong every single time I try to photograph something I’ve made. I’m not sure why that is. I’ll be all Reformed on this one and say it’s Providence.

I’m afraid, though, that I don’t know how to sew and do Everything Else. (Because, you see, we all only have 24 hours in each day. So someone who says to me, *sigh* “I just don’t have time to sew,” doesn’t realize that when I am sewing, I’m not cleaning the bathroom, replying to emails, keeping up with menu I had planned, etc.)

I realized this week, as I was furiously cutting and pressing and pinning every minute Jameson slept, that I am like my mother: full of project ideas, loving order and routine but not enough to forsake our project ideas, and with a serious case of tunnel vision. I could literally go without food, water, or human contact when I’m in the middle of something. (Poor Ryan.)

Today I was done with my projects for this week, however. Today Jameson and I did some errands, and then I spent the afternoon making dinner and pulling the house together.

And I thought about how much I appreciate my mother teaching me the hidden art of homemaking from such a young age.

I put in a new CD of Beethoven string quartets, a recent garage sale find, and enjoyed the fact that my little kitchen was transformed into a concert hall.

I skipped over my usual mixing bowls and used pretty dishes that complemented the foods I was preparing.

And as I was putting a new table cloth on the table, just because, I remembered being very young and carefully folding the paper napkins into perfect triangles, taking great pride in my perfectly-aligned silverware and properly placed glass — all at a typical mid-week meal, made special because Daddy would be there, and well, because somehow Mom helped us see the value in making every day beautiful. It’s those little things that make our souls perk up. For me, it’s a fresh flower, a lit candle, cloth napkins in place of paper… Even if no one else notices, I do. And don’t you just feel better when your pajamas are folded neatly inside your drawer?, I can just hear Mom say.

(Confession: my pajama drawer is a bit out of whack.)

Jameson is a little boy! Not a baby, a boy! He loves to be silly and get into giggling fits, and he’s getting into everything but also showing signs of understanding what he may or may not touch, he “sings” whenever I play piano (so cute!), and he takes GREAT delight in being outside. This afternoon we stepped out for a minute so I could get some basil. I set him down next to me on the brick patio — and no sooner had I let him go than he was crawling straight into the garden, digging his little fists into the dirt, and eating it as fast as he could. Goodness! I had to laugh, because there was no way I was going to win in this situation. Three minutes later, we went inside — me with a bowlful of basil, him with a face covered in dirt. Oh dear!

Oh — and he’s already collecting little “treasures” for himself. His favorites are when he can find little chunks of cement that have come loose between the bricks of the patio. He’ll crawl around for the longest time, dragging his treasures with him. Once I took a rock away from him while he nursed — and as soon as he was done, he popped right up and grabbed that rock! It’s too much fun to see him becoming a little boy!

His favorite part of the day is when Ryan comes home from work. He just beams when Ryan comes down the driveway. So sweet.

And there’s my bit of a catch-up post. Someday maybe I’ll get all of those swirling thoughts sorted out and posted on this blog!