Thursday, February 5, 2009

Dear Future #1

Soon I will slurp this blog into book form again. I do it yearly so that this blog becomes a hardbound written journal of our lives. "Our" being my family. When my girls are older I want them to be able to look back and see what life was like when they were children. I want them to know what their mother did, thought and saw.

But, this blog is only a small window into what our life is like. Just a pinhole view actually. It cannot capture everything. It cannot capture the routine chores. Or the occasional pandemonium. Or the imperfectness of life.

I'd like to think that this blog is beautiful. A beautiful family. A beautiful life. A beautiful reminder of what really matters.

But life isn't perfect. When my girls are older and perhaps mothers of their own, I don't want them to have a skewed view of motherhood. Of childhood. Of what and how their mother did things.

So, I'm going to spend some time pointing out the imperfections in my mothering.

::Deep breath::

Are you ready?









Closets are sometimes messy.




They usually start clean and organized and stay that way for several months. However, as time passes and we get busy taking care of this or taking care of that I tend to get sloppy with putting things back in the closet.

This particular closet holds much of my soap making supplies and most of the kid crafting supplies. And sometimes after I've taken soap out of the mold at 7:25 in the morning just before I drive the girls to school, I haphazardly fling the empty molds back into the closet. And the oils. And the essential oils. And maybe even a various and assorted box or two.


Then a few months after the calamity takes over I clean it out and reorganize.

Yesterday was one of those days. We took out every stinkin' craft supply we own. And every last bit was then strewn across the living room floor.





Boo and Licious crafted and created and used their imagination for hours. And the mess was totally worth it. Because in between helping them figure out how to attach a Styrofoam ball to a chenille stick or fashion a bathtub out of a shoe box, I got to do some crafting too.










And it was messy. And it was kind of chaotic in my living room. And after about three hours I was kind of tired of the mess and started to lose my patience.

But I think that we all had fun. And I'd like to think that even in my imperfectness we managed to have a pretty okay day.

-dana

28 comments:

Sabra said...

It is great that you are willing to document some of the clutter life contains, but I think it is great that your blog will remind your girls of the beautiful things. Sadly, my kids tend to remember the dramatic things and not the sweet times. I am the opposite. Our conversations about their growing up years get kinda confusing sometimes because I rememeber it differently than they do.

Amy said...

I love the idea of turning your blog into a book! And I love that you share the disorganized mess, it's a reminder that everyone is not perfect. I struggle with the daily mess, I want my house to be clean and tidy, but in reality especially with 3 kids, and me with my sewing projects strewn all over the living room most of the time, my house is not always going to be perfectly tidy, one can dream though :)

Lene said...

I have just started putting together the first year of my blog for pretty much the same reason. I want my kids to remember their childhood for what it really was...the good and the not so good.

Lene said...

I left out one important word: Book
I am putting the first year of my blog in a book.
Ugh...

Nicole said...

What have you been using to "slurp" your blog into a book? Please don't say you're doing it yourself. I wouldn't be a bit surprised by that, but I need someone else to do most of the work for me, see. Thanks for posting a photo of a messy closet - I was beginning to think you didn't have any problems. :)

aSprinkling said...

I have been trying to find a good way to preserve my blog as a book. Please tell us what you use! I hope it's easy! I've had no luck finding something that really works without tons of time put in my me.

Bloggy Mama said...

I can't print my blog as a book because it's through wordpress. How do you print yours?

crafty diane said...

I am wondering how you print your blog. I saw on someones blog where they did theirs through a certain website and they said it was only $14.95. But when I checked on doing mine they said it would be $80.95! I nearly fell over! I definitely need a cheaper price.
Have a Blessed Day,
Diane

Elissa said...

can i ask where/how you have your blog printed?

thanks too for sharing that bit of clutter. i think it is good to affirm once in awhile that blogging does tend to leave out some of the "normal" parts of life and can make us feel we are messing up somehow when we peek into each other's lives. but clutter or no clutter, i just LOVE that you and your girls were able to do this. i have dreams of that sort of thing once we are out of the diaper phase here..... ;-) we'll see.....

Unknown said...

Your funny! Of course the closets are a bit messy :) Life is good in spite of the little messes along the way, or big messes,depending on the day :) Glad you had fun working through it with the girls!

tara said...

Because I have seen so many perfect lovely homes in blogland I have decided to show how my house really is alot of the time. I call it my weekly keeping it real, or KIR. We need to cut ourselves some slack.
I've been wanting to make my blog into a book for the same reasons. Let us know how you did it please.

Jodi June said...

Dear Sweet Dana!
OH! i don't think that i could have said it any better!!!! BEAUTIFUL! post Perfect in every way!

My sisters & I also hardbind our blogs. It is so fun to be able to look back on them. Heaven knows that i have had the EXACT same thoughts as you have shared in this post.

YOU are amazing! xoxoxo

It's A Wonderful said...

Just beautiful! To give your children the sensibility that life is imperfect and that, in itself, is a beautiful and natural thing. Thank you.

How does one put one's blog into a book form? I'm intrigued.

Renna said...

Thank you so much for sharing your messy closet. I now feel so much better about myself, and my dirty little secret that is my closet.

I used to have a sign hanging in my kitchen which read "a messy kitchen is a sign of charcter, and you should see the character that works here". I blame my messiness on my creative character. That's my story, and I'm sickin' to it! ;-)

Unknown said...

Please keep us readers posted on making your blog into a book. I am very interested to see the final product.

amylouwhosews said...

I just read several other posts yesterday by people showing messes - I like that idea! My computer desk is a disaster. And my kitchen - oh boy. I'd like to blame it on the lack of storage space we have here. Or maybe it's just that we have TOO. MUCH. STUFF.

Cassie said...

I'm pleased to see another "real" mother out there....and I know there are many of us! Once my house looked like the pages of a magazine for about 45 seconds before a holiday meal, but that's only because I made my family stay out of it until company arrived! I love closets that look like yours...makes me feel better about myself! Thanks for sharing.

Jaimee McClellan said...

That is such a wonderful idea to have for your girls!

And I have a closet that looked JUST like that a couple of weeks ago and THEN I decided to clean it which, like you said, pretty much messesd up the two rooms closest to the closet. It was so liberating though to perge out the old and make room for the new & rediscover lost goods. Life is messy sometimes soooo...we clean it up.

Elizabeth Cranmer said...

It sounds incredible! I am trying to do somethign similar. I lose sight of that now and again. But really I want to be able to look back with some view of accuracy and know what really happened.

Sounds like you guys live a perfectly messy, charming life!

Artfulife said...

It's always fun to see other people's creative messes. Can't wait to hear more about this book.

Jennifer Kendall said...

how do you turn your blog into a book?

Michelle said...

Please PLEASE tell us all how to turn a blog into a book. I'm keep a blog of my daughter's mission and want to make it into a book for her when she returns this summer. Help... please.

Adele said...

I loved this post in your blog. I love the imperfections of life and I love that you have been so honest and shown us. I also adore that fact that you make your blog into a book and you want your girls to have an unskewed view of motherhood and life. Beautiful. x

Kjirsten said...

I'm not the first to wonder, I see, how you transfer your blog into a book. What a great I'd love to follow suit. Could you please share your process?

Thanks!
Kjirsten

Kjirsten said...

I'm not the first to wonder, I see, how you transfer your blog into a book. What a great I'd love to follow suit. Could you please share your process?

Thanks!
Kjirsten

Julie said...

Messy is what makes memories....

Angie said...

Hi, I saw that you had left a comment on the bloggled site about blurb.com not working with blogger anymore.... I just wanted to let you know that blurb does support blogger again!!! I've never done a blog-to-book yet but I'm wanting to see what bloggled books/cost is going to be before using blurb but I just thought I would let you know.

Anna said...

Thanks for stopping by, new e-friend!

So...do you have a favorite company you use in making your blog into a book?

This is by far my preferred method of "scrapbooking" and I'd love to bind my blog one of these days.