needle & thREAD
/
.
.
.
Most of my "sewing" this week has been of the lace/sequin/tulle type. And it's not really sewing; it's more "rigging." When you measure and order costumes months in advance, there's a good chance lots of them won't fit at showtime. Time doesn't stand still and little girls grow (big girls do, too). I've seen lots of sizes and shapes in the same costumes in the past couple weeks and it has me thinking about those all too familiar themes. One of the reasons we made a dramatic change in studios last year was I was super concerned about emotional balance. We've found it here, I think. But, oh my! What a lot of work the whole wardrobe thing is:-) Well worth the tradeoff to be surrounded by healthy bodies of all shapes and sizes.
Karoline has organized our sewing box to take on the road. The girls have a dance competition in Baltimore this weekend. We're ready to go and I'm here to tell you that packing for dance is very different from packing for soccer:-). Quite an education I've gained this spring. Soccer was a good warmup; packing for dance is not for the faint of heart.
I've been promising Karoline I'd sew with her "for real"--promising for about three weeks. Sigh. Life is rocking and rolling here, folks. Sewing keeps getting shoved. As Karoline gets older, I notice more and more how "spirited" she is. She flits; she floats. For the most part, we've just smiled at her along the way. But as she gets older and, say, she is called to pay attention to a dance for a whole three minutes, we're noticing how easily distracted she is. We've been down this road before--I'm determined to apply what I've learned. Reading? I'm dusting off my favorite parenting book: Raising Your Spirited Child. I'm also doing a great deal of research on essential oils. We've always dabbled with these-- little lavender on the sheets, eucalyptus with Espom salts in the tub, tea tree oil for almost everything else. Now I'm seeing how essential oils might be helpful in lots of other ways, including focus and anxiety and hyperactivity.
Back to the sewing promise. Karoline was flitting all over the house this morning. There is a pre-competition pep rally in 7 hours and 13 minutes (who's counting, right?). She's so excited she cannot contain herself. Mike is working from home. He required complete quiet for a conference call. Um. "Karoline, how 'bout we go in the sewing room and close the door?" The only way to quiet her is to have her focused and on my lap. We made a cover for her new journal (inspired by the Junie B. Jones books). Just a few straight seams and she sighed happily, "Oh, I love that feel! Don't you love the way you feel when the sewing machine is humming and fabric is in your hands?"
Yes, my sweetheart, I do. And I'm grateful it calms us both.
What are you sewing and reading this week? I really do want to hear all about it!
