Wabi-Sabi...

What?

I was surfing around on some blogs today and I ran across the term wabi-sabi on the Remodeling This Life blog.

Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature….It’s simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all.

This is how I have always felt about my home and my garden. I like the imperfections of my furniture and my home decor. It's one of the main reasons I like antiques so much. Antiques and old-things in general are imperfect and thus they are more interesting to me. In the garden, I like the cottage-style of gardening which is very informal and NOT perfect.

Now I can say that I am wabi-sabi. Now you can go impress all your friends with your new word! (-:

Found a new project...

I love primitive decorating and years ago I would tackle projects with a lot of enthusiasm and energy. Then with kids and a full-time job I have felt that I barely have enough time to do the daily tasks around the house. However, I'm going to be making time to do some projects because I need to get back to doing things I enjoy!

So, I went to Artichoke Annie's Antique Mall yesterday to look for some inspiration and to look for a clock for my new clock collection. I'll post a picture of that soon...got the idea from Country Living or Country Home. Anyway, there are something like 200 booths there and many of the items are real antiques and they are pricey!! Most of the items were from the 60's and 70's and go along with the new interest in art deco, retro and vintage decorating. I did find myself really attracted to all the displays of bright red and yellow pyrex bowls and glassware. Not my style at all really so I kept moving.

I finally happened upon a booth with primitive items that seemed reasonably priced. I'm always attracted to stitchery and I looked up and there is a cross-stitch sampler in a distressed black frame. I loved it! It did look really old but I thought it was just distressed manually. I picked it up and turned it over and promptly put it back. It was $295.00 and was an original from the mid-1800's. It was beautiful!! So, I think I'm going to work on one of these. The picture above is similar to what I saw and I may order this pattern. I particularly like the one on the left even though it may be a little ambitious for me right now!

Protecting His Cousin...

This week Angie told me that Mya has a boy in her class who is a bully. He is mean to the girls and this week Mya was in the line of fire for his mean-ness. Amazing that this happens in kindergarten. He told her some things like she is ugly and that he hates her, etc. Understandably everyone is upset by this. So, on the way home from school I told Kobe what had happened that day. His immediate response was, "If I ever see him I'm going to punch him in the face". Now, I'm not encouraging that and in fact I told Kobe that punching him wouldn't be the best solution (like he would ever do that anyway...Kyler on the other hand, I'm not so sure) and we talked about some other ways that Kobe could help if he ever witnessed anyone being mean to Mya or anyone for that matter. However, I thought it was really sweet that he immediately wanted to protect his cousin who he loves so much!

Stability...

Today I'm appreciating my routines, my quiet life, my job, my home and the sameness that we have year after year. Why would I be appreciating all this on a January day? Normally I wouldn't be very appreciative of it at this time of year because we're stuck inside and there isn't much going on. Today I appreciate it because I heard from friend of mine who does not have a stable life. She has a lot of changes going on in her life, like a new baby coming any day, a recent move across the country, another upcoming move across the country again and new husband who has a new job in another state, etc. Since I first met her, I have found her to be the type of person who thrives on change. In a way I envy that of her and sometimes wish we could just pack up and move to another part of the country and not have any qualms about it all like she does. Most of all though, I appreciate my stability and realize that is what I've always wanted. Yeah, I'd like my life to be a little more exciting and travel more. That will come. Right now, I appreciate going to my job every day, picking up the boys at school, hanging out at home, going to basketball games, doing some writing and most of all enjoying the life that I have.

Awesome January Day...

It was, I think, close to 60 degrees today.

So this morning, our building coordinator comes downstairs to tell us that our power is going to be off for 3 hours today because they are working on the parking garage across the street. Can you guess what my first thought is? You got it....Vacation Day!! It was supposed to be 65 degrees today and I had a serious case of pre-spring fever!

I Had lunch with Catherine and then I took the rest of the afternoon off. I went to a resale shop and found a great clock and a needlepoint pillow all for the bargain price of $11.00. Got groceries. Picked up the boys. Had dinner at our house with some friends. All in all, a really good day.

Back to work tomorrow!

Winter Time...how I get through it...

Some of the winters in Missouri are hard. We've been lucky this year...no serious ice or snow storms. I really enjoy the cold weather during the holidays and I love the snow when I can watch it out my family room atrium door while I'm sitting by the fire. However, by the end of January I'm usually ready for Spring. The last couple of years I've been intentionally thinking good thoughts about winter. I've been doing things like enjoying my fireplace almost everyday, taking pictures of our yard in the winter-time and feeding the birds. Time flies by so fast I'm trying to enjoy every day - even the bitter cold ones!

This year I bought two bird feeders and have placed one on our deck and we watch the birds from our dining room. Kyler LOVES watching them and every time he walks into the dining room he runs over to the door and says, "tweet, tweet, tweet". It is so cute.

Right after the holidays and after the the Christmas decorations are put away I start buying myself small bouquets of flowers. I buy them once a week or so and usually they end up on my dining room table or the bar in the kitchen. It's my little bit of springtime inside my house and it's my little splurge...I just get one less latte each week!

These are my flowers this week. I love the yellow tulips!! They make me happy.

Another enjoyable thing about winter-time is that I get a good view of the sunrises and sunsets because the leaves are gone from the trees. I took these pictures this morning.

My 2nd scripture for January...

I'm following along on the LPM Blog and memorizing two scriptures each month. My 2nd one for January 2009 is:

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul."

Zephaniah 3:17

Wondering how I can turn my 1970's bathroom into this...

Upward Basketball...

Last Friday night Kobe started Upward Basketball practices. This program is so great because it emphasizes teamwork, equal play-time, and encouragement. The other cool thing about it is that the kids learn bible verses each week and they have a devotional time at each practice and at each game. Kobe is very "anti-church" right now but when he is in Upward he gets really excited about learning the verses and wants to understand what they mean. I like it because it's so positive - unlike some of the other leagues in town.

One of the aspects that Kobe likes the most about the program are the "stars" he gets every week. He will get a green star each week for learning his verse or talking about the meaning of it. He will also get another colored star at the "team meeting" every week after the game. These stars are for best defense, best offense, best sportsman, most christ-like, etc. Each kid on the team will get a star every week. No one loses!! We iron these stars on his uniform each week and Kobe is so proud of it that he wants to wear it to school all the time!!

Games start at the end of the month so there will lots of B-ball postings this winter, I'm sure!

Have you done the "If I had a million dollars" exercise?

The reason I started thinking about this is because I bought a lottery ticket (I really bought 2) the other day. I rarely buy them because I think they are a big waste of my money. I'd rather spend money on something that I can actually use or enjoy. Anyway, I bought them and my fantasy started. Do you do this? I get the ticket and then I start thinking about what I would do with all that money. Catherine, in my office, says that it's worth spending the money just for the fantasy. I think she has a point! When I have bought a ticket in the past, I have always just had my little fantasy in my head. Well, I read or heard somewhere about doing an exercise where you imagine that you have a million (or millions) of dollars and you list what you would do with that money. The point is to figure out what you would really like to do with your life if you didn't have to consider earning a paycheck.

Okay, so I did this in my journal (I LOVE my journal if you didn't already know that).

Soooo...I start listing things like pay off the house and build a new one, pay off the student loan, buy two new vehicles, travel around the U.S., travel to Europe, setup college funds/life funds for the boys, buy new furniture. You know, the usual stuff, right? Then it's time to dig a little deeper. Okay, so if I built a new house that would probably take a year or so. All the debts would be paid off quickly. Even if I went shopping every week for 6 months there is a limit to how many new things we need or even want. Then What???

So I start the bubble brainstorming. You know, you write everything that comes to mind. I was writing things like gardening all the time, reading all the time, volunteering at the boys school, learning new hobbies. Well all that is okay too....but Then What? I've got to have a little more purpose for my life then gardening and shopping.

When I really thought about what I want to do - it is to help people in some way - Women in particular. When I think about how much I've changed and grown since my 20's I'm amazed. Some of the main reasons are because of my faith journey, therapy, reading, learning and becoming a mom.

I guess if I could do anything, I would build a retreat center where women can who need a boost in their life, who are hurting, lost or spiritually bankrupt could come and re-make themselves. I envision it to be a week-long or weekend type retreat center where women would get encouragement from other fantastic women, learn to trust themselves, learn the power of journaling, spend quiet time with God, spend time in nature. How cool would that be? Oh, and the kicker is that if could do it...it would be free or very inexpensive!! I would definitely go to a place like this if I could afford it!

So, the fantasy is over but if I could just do a little of something like this in my real life I know I would be more than fulfilled in so many ways!

I Love This Picture...

Better Late Than Never....The Gingerbread House...

We never got around to making the Gingerbread House before Christmas so we did it today, New Years Day. It was really fun - but how they get the house to look like what is on the box I will NEVER know. We are messy!! When we finished, the boys wanted to dig right in and eat it. I thought they would want to save it for Pat to see...but no way...."eating it is the best part", according to Kobe. Oh well...it's New Years Day...go for it! They Did!!

New Years Eve 2008

This year we stayed home (as usual) but had Mike, Angie and Mya over for the night. The kids had a really good time and we did too. The adults were finished by midnight but the kids (including Kyler) were still going strong and it took awhile for them to calm down. We all had fun but we're tired today. Kyler hasn't taken a nap for almost a week and New Years Eve was no exception. I couldn't believe he was still running around at midnight. We tried a couple of times to put him in bed, but there was no way he was going to sleep with all the rowdiness in the house.