Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Cleaning Out Closets
The thing about cleaning out one's closet only occasionally is that you find stuff you've forgotten about!
Cool stuff-like jewelry from your mother and mother-in-law that you stuffed in the closet thinking you would get it out your for granddaughter to play dress up with, long before you even had a granddaughter!
But now suddenly, the jewelry seems to be cool again and maybe you should wear it yourself! Big beads are back and costume jewelry is "in"!
And you find your high school ring and put it on. But you never wear rings because you have hands are like your Dad's. Big! And rings don't look good on your hands. But your childhood piano teacher thought your hands were great.....you could stretch over an octave!! Sigh
You discover some silver jewelry designed and made by your youngest sister when she was in high school. A bit rustic, but now she has her own business. Designing and creating her own line of custom silver jewelry. And you have found a few of her original pieces!
In the middle of a tangled mess of fine gold chains, you discover your daughters locket with her initial engraved on the oval and you put it in a box and send it to Atlanta.
Then you come across a basket and realize that in the middle of your child bearing years, you were very crafty. You crocheted afghans, knitted, did needlepoint and cross stitched and sewed quilts and costumes.
You discover that you have at least a MILLION buttons, and you consolidate them in one huge glass jar and keep the white ones in their separate container. Now what kind of craft could you do that would be both creative and useful? Or will they sit on the shelf another 10 years?
And just because you were raised during the depression....(which you were not, but kids believe you when you say that because some people don't know that the depression was over in 1948), you still have towels that your mom saved! "You can always use an old towel to wipe down the car that you wash every Saturday!" A Saturday morning routine that we have never engaged in but, oh well!!! Can I throw old thin towels out and not be wasteful? Maybe I can move them to a different location to be more accessible when we do get to wash our vehicles!
Do I dare confess about the stacks of sheets that live in the hall closet. And 6 different size bedspreads! Rejects from the Inn but just perfectly fine for the family. But wait!!! Why do you have a fitted king sheet? You've never had a king size bed in all the 45 years of marriage. Sigh
So now that everything is out and visualized and accounted for and sitting in a spare room, you have to figure out how to get it all back. Plus the assorted medical supplies and the vacuum!
Strange as it may seem-it's a small closet.
Cool stuff-like jewelry from your mother and mother-in-law that you stuffed in the closet thinking you would get it out your for granddaughter to play dress up with, long before you even had a granddaughter!
But now suddenly, the jewelry seems to be cool again and maybe you should wear it yourself! Big beads are back and costume jewelry is "in"!
And you find your high school ring and put it on. But you never wear rings because you have hands are like your Dad's. Big! And rings don't look good on your hands. But your childhood piano teacher thought your hands were great.....you could stretch over an octave!! Sigh
You discover some silver jewelry designed and made by your youngest sister when she was in high school. A bit rustic, but now she has her own business. Designing and creating her own line of custom silver jewelry. And you have found a few of her original pieces!
In the middle of a tangled mess of fine gold chains, you discover your daughters locket with her initial engraved on the oval and you put it in a box and send it to Atlanta.
Then you come across a basket and realize that in the middle of your child bearing years, you were very crafty. You crocheted afghans, knitted, did needlepoint and cross stitched and sewed quilts and costumes.
You discover that you have at least a MILLION buttons, and you consolidate them in one huge glass jar and keep the white ones in their separate container. Now what kind of craft could you do that would be both creative and useful? Or will they sit on the shelf another 10 years?
And just because you were raised during the depression....(which you were not, but kids believe you when you say that because some people don't know that the depression was over in 1948), you still have towels that your mom saved! "You can always use an old towel to wipe down the car that you wash every Saturday!" A Saturday morning routine that we have never engaged in but, oh well!!! Can I throw old thin towels out and not be wasteful? Maybe I can move them to a different location to be more accessible when we do get to wash our vehicles!
Do I dare confess about the stacks of sheets that live in the hall closet. And 6 different size bedspreads! Rejects from the Inn but just perfectly fine for the family. But wait!!! Why do you have a fitted king sheet? You've never had a king size bed in all the 45 years of marriage. Sigh
So now that everything is out and visualized and accounted for and sitting in a spare room, you have to figure out how to get it all back. Plus the assorted medical supplies and the vacuum!
Strange as it may seem-it's a small closet.
Friday, March 10, 2017
Not Only "Good Night"
The Nordbergs love books! Young and old.
But my favorite memory of a child's book was Good Night Moon.
Every night, sitting in the big rocker with three kids piled on his lap, Rob would read our copy of Goodnight Moon. Ethan would be in his crib, but eventually the trio would be rotated so the oldest would be lying on their bed.
"In the great green room...." We used to have it memorized, and probably could resurrect it with a little prompting!
It's frayed now and loosing it's binding. I notice that our hard cover edition is slightly smaller than the current edition and the page at the end is ripped, but it has remained on the bedroom bookshelf for almost 40 years now.
We noticed in the NYTimes Weekend Arts section that a previous unpublished book by Margaret Wise Brown is soon to be released.
"Good Day, Good Night" is being brought out in October. It's not meant to be a sequel.
I was surprised to find out that "Goodnight Moon" did not sell well during Brown's lifetime. It was written in 1944 and published in 1947. But,currently there have been 32 million copies sold in various different formats.
Margaret died suddenly at the age of 42. But she had published 60 books in her lifetime.
I'm excited to see this next book about embracing the daytime too. But there seemed to be a little cautionary caveat,
"Good Day, Good Night" has a lovely and simple story that is bound to appeal to small children, even if it doesn't match the seamless rhythm and honey-smooth story progression of "Goodnight Moon". Maybe nothing can."
But my favorite memory of a child's book was Good Night Moon.
Every night, sitting in the big rocker with three kids piled on his lap, Rob would read our copy of Goodnight Moon. Ethan would be in his crib, but eventually the trio would be rotated so the oldest would be lying on their bed.
"In the great green room...." We used to have it memorized, and probably could resurrect it with a little prompting!
It's frayed now and loosing it's binding. I notice that our hard cover edition is slightly smaller than the current edition and the page at the end is ripped, but it has remained on the bedroom bookshelf for almost 40 years now.
We noticed in the NYTimes Weekend Arts section that a previous unpublished book by Margaret Wise Brown is soon to be released.
"Good Day, Good Night" is being brought out in October. It's not meant to be a sequel.
I was surprised to find out that "Goodnight Moon" did not sell well during Brown's lifetime. It was written in 1944 and published in 1947. But,currently there have been 32 million copies sold in various different formats.
Margaret died suddenly at the age of 42. But she had published 60 books in her lifetime.
I'm excited to see this next book about embracing the daytime too. But there seemed to be a little cautionary caveat,
"Good Day, Good Night" has a lovely and simple story that is bound to appeal to small children, even if it doesn't match the seamless rhythm and honey-smooth story progression of "Goodnight Moon". Maybe nothing can."
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