Tuesday, April 17, 2012

A Blog is Born

I’ve been noodling around with the idea of blogging for a while now. But who has the time? As a working mother of a 4-year-old, leisure time is something I vaguely remember under-appreciating when I had it.  Ten years ago, I wondered whether I could or should juggle graduate school, work, and pre-child life. A wise friend pointed out that time passes, whether you do anything with it or not – so you may as well use it.
Time passing is one motivation for writing this blog. I’m a pretty hands-on mama. I get on the floor and play with legos and trains and crawl around barking like the dog I refuse to own just yet. I read princess stories until my brain melts into a sugary pink puddle. I make play dough and cookies and pasta with imperceptibly pureed vegetables hidden in the sauce. I spend weekends hosting playdates and coordinating outings to every farm, playground, bounce house, or cultural event that will have us. And I take photos of all of this, dutifully shipped to friends and family far and wide every month since Amelia’s birth. Will these snapshots – randomly selected moments of focus snatched from a passing blur of time – become our reminders of Amelia’s childhood?  A happy, confident, funny, growing person is the real reminder, of course…but writing a blog, I hope, will force me to appreciate and reflect on some of what we do before we move on to the next game of Candyland.
So, what’s the blog about? Everyday, real world parenting. I recently read an essay about how easy it is to be seduced by sites like pinterest, which portray perfect parents in spotless homes doing lovely projects with eager children, and to forget that for our kids, it’s really about the process, and time together – not making the perfect little fairy house in a jar. Which we tried, by the way, and learned that Mom opening a glow stick with her teeth results in glow-in-the-dark lips, which is a lot more fun than a fairy house ever would have been.

Photo from: http://pinterest.com/pin/239746380132936000/. Ours did NOT look like this!
I’d like to document some everyday detours. The projects that are inspired by a beautiful photo or recipe, or maybe just the desire to use up some glitter…sometimes they really do result in a work of art you can’t mail to Grandma fast enough. More often there’s frosting on the ceiling, something burning in the oven and a whole lot of laundry. And typically a good story and a photo you won’t see on pinterest.com but I’m willing to share. Most importantly, there’s a happy kid, spending real time with her mom. And this mama wants to remember and cherish every minute, because time keeps on passing.
And so the blog begins...A Crafty Mess.

5 comments:

  1. I love it. More pictures of what you tried to do and what it looked like in the end!

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    1. Hi Heidi, Thanks for your feedback! The next post will go more in depth into a project, yes complete with all the embarrassing photos - so please stay tuned!

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  2. Oh man! Does this mean I'm going to start blogging next? I look forward to future posts! : ) Katrinka

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. If we can learn anything from history then yes, Katrinka, you should probably make a blogger account. And thanks for reading! Sorry for deletion above...i was just trying to fix a typo. Yikes!

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