Do you have a variety of collections?
Do you need to organize them?
Are you easily distracted?
If you answered yes to any or all of these, then we have something in common! 🙂
Our house has been a continual work in progress. I don’t like to buy new pieces of furniture very often because we don’t tend to stay in a house for a long time. And the next house typically has a very different layout with different furniture needs.
This is why I make sure that I can’t repurpose a piece of furniture before committing to get rid of it. I have multiple folding bookshelves that I bought at Lowe’s 4 houses ago (that sound so much more dramatic than 6 years ago). They have served many purposes besides just holding books. One was being used by a child as a “dresser” in their closet. Said child finally got a bedroom set that included a real dresser. The bookshelf moved to the storage room to await its new found life as an actual bookshelf.
We have pared down our library throughout the numerous moves and the beginning implementation of decluttering and minimizing our belongings. The teens still have some books in their room and I keep some in my nightstand, but we have an alcove in the basement where most of the books, along with photo albums are stored. Since I had no free bookshelves, I was using a shelving unit that had a prior life in our garage.
I’m not a fan of household chores. But, I decided to finally tackle this small project. Another will be changing the mocha color that was on the walls when we moved in. It’s a nice color, but a little dark for our basement.
Due to the openness of my house, I will be continuing with the color throughout the main part of the house. Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams.
You can see how much brighter of a color that is. This is another project in the works. My entry. I’m planning to create a gallery wall.
But back to the basement. I’m easily distracted.
My husband says I tend to go down rabbit holes.
In our collection of books are a few that are collections of poetry. Since one had a ribbon marking a page, I was curious if I had placed it on a specific poem.
And I had.
This poem transported me back to when I was pregnant with my first child. The child who will turn 17 in less than a week. It seems you have so much time to plan with that first child. I would be raising a toddler with the second pregnancy, and have two under the age of 4 with the third pregnancy. I did not have time to sit and relax as I did with the first pregnancy.
With my first pregnancy, I would take time to soak my aching body in a tub and listen to classical music. I would play Mozart and Beethoven. When this child was a toddler and we would begin our evening drive home from our weekly trip to my parents, he would ask for “night-night” music. This was a request for the classical station to be put on so he could go to sleep.
I found this poem and read it each day to the little baby growing inside. I memorized this poem so that I could recite it to him on the day that he was born. So he would recognize the cadence of my voice. I recited it to him late at night as I rocked him and fed him.
The Sugar-Plum Tree
Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?
‘Tis a marvel of great renown!
It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop sea
In the garden of Shut_eye Town;
The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet
(As those who have tasted it say)
That good little children have only to eat
Of that fruit to be happy next day.
When you’ve got to the tree, you would have a hard time
To capture the fruit which I sing
The tree is so tall that no person could climb
To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!
But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,
And a gingerbread dog prowls below_
And this is the way you contrive to get at
Those sugar-plums tempting you so:
You say but the word to that gingerbread dog
And he barks with such a terrible zest
That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,
As her swelling proportions attest.
And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around
From this leafy limb unto that,
And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground-
Hurrah for that chocolate cat!
There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes,
With stripings of scarlet or gold,
And you carry away of the treasure that rains
As much as your apron can hold!
So come, little child, cuddle closer to me,
In your dainty white nightcap and gown,
And I’ll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town. -Eugene Field
Sometimes, it’s in those distractions that you find peace.
You remember that even though parenting is hard and exhausting, you have an immeasurable amount of love for your children. That you always have and always will want what is best for them. That you hope that each one of them knows that you are just a person who has failings as well, but you keep trying. Because that’s what we do.
We grow and we learn and we evolve.
Against the odds, I did get the project finished!
But I’m happy that I took the time to be distracted.
How about you?
Any projects in the works?
Any distractions that you are grateful for?
Let your light shine!
Amy
