beauty in the mundane

Bringing Order From Chaos: Laundry Day

There are some days when pretty much all I do is laundry.  After reading Home Comforts, I've been inspired to do the laundry well in order to help our clothes last longer - this includes more sorting and hand washing than I'd been doing previously.  The result is that we have wonderfully clean, well folded and ironed clothes but the total process seems to take me all day and somewhere in the middle of it, I look around my house and just see laundry everywhere (yesterday I even had a tie hanging above the kitchen sink).

This is the moment I challenged myself to find something beautiful in it, so I picked up my camera.  Of course, to me, the most wonderful part of laundry day is slipping between freshly cleaned sheets at the end of it but the satisfaction in seeing a of a row of well-pressed, ready-for-business shirts is a close second.

Everyday may not be brimming with excitement, but everyday can be beautiful.

weekending

:: A little work.
:: A little rest.
:: A little play.

Although the kitchen isn't quite done yet (and I will give you pictures once it is), we've started working on our bathroom ... our very narrow bathroom.  Anyone with suggestions for a color?

This lovely man of mine spent part of his afternoon writing me a love song.  It was beautiful and I cried.  What a man.

We watched The Game.  Almost as importantly, we ate burgers that we grilled ... we've had a grill since we've been married but weren't able to use it at our old apartment - finally fired it up last night!  Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about the Patriots.  Oh, you thought I was from New York?  Well, I am.  Just not a Giants (or Jets for that matter) fan.

The story is like this: I grew up in the suburbs in Massachusetts, a Yankee-loving traitor (we're talking baseball here, folks).  It was the only sport we watched in my house, so that was the only team loyalty that I had.  For those of you who may not know, the Yankees' arch enemy is the Red Sox ... from Boston ... you can imagine how our loyalties went over with our friends and neighbors, causing us to hold them more firmly so as to withstand the inevitable attacks (good thing this was the 1996 Yankees who did quite a lot of winning - I may or may not have had batting orders, ERA's, batting averages and the current AL East standings memorized).  All of this to say, I was very busy defending my one sport, one team loyalty.

This changed in middle school when my best friend and her family were also a one sport, one team-loyalty family.  Their team - you guessed it - the New England Patriots.  And so, having no reason not to root for the home team, I became a Patriots fan - never in the way that I was a Yankees fan, but a fan none-the-less.  From this family I learned the rules of the sport and how to cheer your football team on.  With them I watched, amazed as our team soared to Superbowl victory on that near-impossible field goal by Adam Vinatieri.  Ever since, I have had a special love for American football and that great team, the New England Patriots.



{Full disclosure: I don't follow sports anymore and only watch games if they happen to be on, or happen to be the Superbowl.  But when I do watch the games, I know who I want to win.  I realize this doesn't make me a very good fan, but I don't think my body can handle the adrenaline rushes of that many games anymore.  By the 3rd quarter last night I was jumping off the couch yelling at the screen and pacing the living room.  This is the kind of sports spectator I am - I can't really help it.  So to save myself from the inevitable emotional highs and lows, I simply don't watch very often.}

around the house

The Christmas decorations have come down and been stowed in their box until next year.  I kept some of the strings of lights up because I love the way that they glow.  At least until the end of winter, they make me feel a little warmer on dark nights.

Around the house we (well, mostly Grady) have been attempting to refinish the walls in our kitchen.  For whatever reason, perhaps because these walls are likely 100 years old, the plaster has some crazy ridges and grooves in it, which make for a rather unappealing surface to look at.  Inspired by Apartment Therapy, we're doing what we can to fix the 'bones' of our home.  Soon we'll be on to painting ... if I can ever pick out a color!

I've also been doing some cooking.  And last night was a first for both of us: duck.

We've eaten duck before but neither of us had cooked one.  I must say I was a little proud of myself for successfully cutting it up into pieces and cooking it rather well, although we could have used more guidance on seasoning.

Duck is on the menu because we're working on diversifying the types of meat that we eat - up next, organ meat.  The great thing about duck is that you can use every last scrap of it in the kitchen and I was guided in my work by this book I just picked up at the library - Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen.  Why have I never heard of this woman?!  This book is amazing and has lots of pretty pictures and practical descriptions.  It tells you how to cook but also how to forage, how to keep chickens, how to culture dairy products and much more, all the while telling stories of life on a homestead in Ireland.  It's a beautiful thing.

So today, hopefully, I will be taking what we didn't eat last night and rendering the fat, making 'cracklings' out of the skin, and cooking up a broth using the carcass on which there is enough extra meat to make lunch out of, oh and maybe I will figure out something special for the liver ... we'll see.

I think it's important to use the whole animal as often as possible, not just because it's economical but because that animal died so we could eat and I'd like to honor that by making as much use out of its life as possible instead of just taking what I want and leaving the rest.  Thankfully, there is something delicious to be made out of every part!

a moment to savor

 

Last night we enjoyed a 'date night' that consisted of take-out Thai/sushi, a glass of wine, and some piano and guitar playing.  We stayed up later than we should have listening, playing and singing together {Red Hot Chili Peppers on this occasion with a little Regina Spektor ... don't ask our selections to make sense}.  These are nights that I love.  And while I didn't marry this man for his musical talent, it has brought joy and peace to my life throughout our relationship.

Music has been a constant in my life since - well, probably since I was in the womb.  As a child I would often sit next to our living room speakers {especially during the Children's Classic Music hour on Saturdays!} and imagine stories and images from what I was hearing - traveling deep into a world of sound and color. 

My dad loves "classical" music and when we were older would attempt to make us name composers of pieces we were listening to - I was only ever right if it was Aaron Copeland or I simply guessed well.  While listening at home together, he would sometimes act as a passionate conductor for the parts of the music he loved.  I'm sure we thought it was funny but now it's all I can do to stop myself from doing the same to a piece I love.

I want to participate in the music.  I took piano lessons through my childhood; I sang in choir at school (we all did, it was a small school where everyone participated in everything); I acted in musicals (see previous note).  But in the greater scheme of things, I'm not exactly talented in these areas - competent though.

Then I met this man.

He loves music too.

While it seems that every girl would love a guy who can play guitar and sing, my Grady didn't wear his talent on his sleeve.  In quiet, peaceful times he would simply play.  Over our long-distance engagement, music was the best means of comfort and on more than one occasion I fell asleep in front of my computer listening to him sing - maybe hymns or a beautiful love song.

Now when we have a quiet evening together I may rest {and imagine} while he plays Debussy on our piano or I will sing to a song we both love.  My singing isn't always beautiful but, for me, the moment always is.

new {to me}

Our Thanksgiving break was exciting for more than just the friends, family and food this year.  As I shared earlier, we're working making our apartment feel more like a home by working through the Apartment Therapy eight-week cure.  So far, we've done quite a bit of cleaning  - including deep cleaning the kitchen the day after Thanksgiving!  So worth it.  And much better when you do it with someone you love.

We've also been working on developing our style.  The trouble here is that Grady and I would choose to have very different interiors if left on our own with plenty of cash.  Now, neither of the above are true, so we have some work to do.  We visited quite a few 'home' stores this weekend as well so that we could see and sit in sample rooms and discuss what we did and didn't like about them (and Pottery Barn gave us their book of color swatches, which is so useful!).

While we were busy deep-cleaning the kitchen on Friday, apparently other people in Chicago were busy shopping for furniture.  And one of those people had this old couch that they needed gone quickly ... so they gave it away for free!  (I have a new-found love of craigslist).  So we gladly welcomed to our house this new {to us} piece that we actually both like!

Yes, it's white.  It's also totally slip-covered.  And it's also super comfy.

The couch caused a total reorganization of the living room and some great inspiration as to a suitable floor plan.  Now we will just troll craigslist until we find the other pieces we're hoping for.  A desk also came for free with the couch and we picked up another bookshelf the next day ... but those are still in progress {no pictures yet}.

One last thing!!  My wonderful husband has been on the look-out for a good bike for me.  He is a biker {think long ride on country roads in spandex not loud rides on the highway in leather} and wants to share his love of biking with me.  I accept it because I love him and because I need to get in shape.  This weekend he surprised me with this lovely bike that someone was getting rid of! 

Now I have no excuse for not exercising.  It doesn't get much easier than just setting up in your living room.  And so begin the dreams of summer and where we will ride together and what we will see and do as we pedal along.  But until the warmth returns, I'll work on riding for more than 5 minutes at a time - funny?  yes.  true?  yes.

Before I leave off with, "oh the cleverness of me!" I want to acknowledge that we did almost nothing to get all of these wonderful things to come together.  Thank you, Father, for your rich blessings.  Oh what joy!

{this moment}

 

A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember ~ SouleMama.

{new york living}

 Some of our first days (oh my do we look young!) ...

On the steps of St. Thomas ...

 Enjoying a street fair (how I love street fairs)...

 

Grady and I in Central Park ...  

I will miss Christmas in New York - the lights, the music, the window shopping ...

What does it mean to be "from" a place?  I find myself still wanting to explain that I'm actually 'from' New York, even though I didn't grow up there and now I will not meet with the rest of my family there either.  But this is a place that has shaped a part of who I am.  I know that city - in my own way, of course.  In myself I hold a set of knowledge that is devoted simply to living in that city ...

... how to properly hail a cab
... the specific way you need to swipe your card at the 79th St. station for the downtown 1
... the order of Madison, Lexington and Park going across town
... making sure to press 'Door Close' after you select your number in an elevator
... how many blocks is too far to walk
... where to stand on a subway platform so the doors will stop right in front of you ... and so that you'll be directly in front of the turnstiles when you stop at your home station
...
...

I will miss you, New York.

Good-bye to our beautiful home in our great city.

We're heading for a new adventure now -

remembering home

Before I lived in the great Midwest, I called New York home.  People asked me when I got to school, "the city or the state?" and I always found the question bothersome because to me 'New York' means New York - the city.  It is the only city I have truly loved.  No, I was not born and raised there and I never had to "make it" there as an adult either, but it was the last place I called home before I created my own home. 

This is also the place that my parents and family will say good-bye to this week as a new phase of life begins.  Sadly, only my mother will oversee the transition out of our space, our home and into a new one {in Pennsylvania}.  Had this been a "normal" departure, perhaps we would have know when we left in August that it would be the last time but life does not always happen easily.

This view may be the thing I will miss most.  From the kitchen, living room and my bedroom - downtown Manhattan.  I look out and I see peace in the constancy of the buildings that rise stoically above all of the human noise, human bustle, human worry.  They are the same, regardless of weather or temperament.  The air up high {floor 12} is quieter - the vertical space diminishing the crowd below.

I look out and I also see life.  I walk outside and feel that I breathe life.  There is just so much life here - every building, every set of lit windows in the night, every car clogging the street represents at least one life.  The lives of people who are moving, creating, connecting, loving, participating {also despairing, yearning, badgering and everything else that comes with brokenness}.

There is stuff happening here.

There are distracting noises, ugly smells, unhappy people who knock into you, dirty streets, squeaky subways cars, loud taxis and sometimes gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe - but not always. 

There is also rest and calm, a place for just being and a place for a family.

working on the "cure"

Fresh flowers and clean floors.  That was the remedy that I was to work on this week of apartment therapy.  The flowers are to heal the heart of the home and the clean floors are for the breath.  My husband fixed a hole in the bathroom ceiling, which is helping to heal the bones.  The only part we have yet to work on is the head of our home - how we use it and how well it allows us to do what we would like to, which is not very well right now.

But having clean floors goes quite a long way in motivating furniture shifts - no fear of monster dust bunnies.  And having fresh flowers, well, I highly recommend it.  Maxwell (of apartment therapy) says to think that you are buying the flowers as a gift for your home.  And they are.  They sit here at the table with me and greet us when we come in the door.  They are a breath of fresh air and a reminder to slow down and be thankful for the simple beauty of a few flowers.  I'm taking time today to 'stop and smell the roses.'


"For the beauty of the earth ..."

to make a home

Today, a break from the usual, I will not be joining SouleMama for {this moment}.

Just over one month ago we moved into this lovey new apartment in Chicago.  At our very first (and only) showing, I fell in love with it after about a minute.  It speaks to me of my childhood with its very high ceilings, heavy pocket doors, tall windows, crown molding and quirky modernizations.  The home(s) that I spent my early days in were both Victorian and that's what this apartment is also.  I was just a baby at the time, but I'm told that my parents and grandfather did a huge amount of work on our first house to make it a home.  This apartment that we're in now is beautiful, but it has clearly been lived in for many, many years and has not been updated or cleaned and decorated (and redecorated) with its best interest in mind.  A few examples would be - the electrical wiring is all on the outside of the walls, there are layers of paint over all of the light switches and cover plates (though thankfully the switches still work), the tiles in the bathroom are loosing their cheap exterior, some of the walls are very cracked and totally uneven, there is a "closet" in the middle of the kitchen that holds the hot water heater.

Essentially, our place still feels like a rental unit, not quite our home.  Of course, we have all our furniture in here but it's all things that we bought to fit our previous apartment, which may or may not fit properly in this apartment.  We know we want to paint a few of the rooms but we're having trouble settling on a color and my mind keeps moving from one style or picture that I like to another.

I have a number of interior design books that I picked up second-hand a few years ago in the hopes that they could feed my creative side.  Creating a space, especially in a house {to make it a home}, is important to me and it is not always easy to do.  Then, through a rather odd connection I ended up doing a creative advertisement job for Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan [long story short, I was in New York on my semester off and a college friend was his child's nanny; he needed advertisement for his website's color contest and our "theater company" needed money so I painted all of my visible body blue and went with friends to pass out fliers on the streets of new york].  I had no idea who this man was at the time, but I ended up with his book, Apartment Therapy.  Turns out he runs a very popular business and website of the same name.

I've owned the book for a few years now and finally picked it up last night.  It has struck a cord with me.  Maxwell has worked as an interior designer and a Waldorf teacher before launching this apartment therapy business and subsequent website/blog.  His training culminates in an understanding of home that is both spacial/aesthetic and spiritual/emotional.  He talks in this book about the "energy" of a home and warns that when we alter our homes and seek to make changes, changes should be expected to appear in our lives.  Our homes are part of who we are and they are deeply emotional places as well as physical space.  This is the only book I've read so far that talks about home from this perspective [although Home Comforts comes close and will be a good companion in this effort]. 

The subtitle of the book is "the eight-step home cure."  The majority of the book is devoted to helping you restore health to the organic space that is your home.  He leads you through self-examination (of yourself and your home) and then helps you diagnose yourself.  Based on the result, you either follow the deep-treatment steps or the one-room steps.  The first is meant to bring big restoration and change to your way of living in your home and making long-put-off changes to it; the latter is for when your home is relatively healthy, but a certain room needs an update.

After taking the quiz, it looks like we'll be in for the deep-treatment.  On the surface, I really like our home but I think we need to focus on the big things before we get to paint colors.  And Maxwell was right ... it brought up some serious emotions thinking about the state of my home and what I wish for it - insecurities, childhood dreams, even a bit of confusion over what my "style" is.  Grady will take the quiz too and then we'll find out where to go from there.  My hope is that we will start the eight steps (which take 1 week each to complete) towards a cure soon!  We don't have much by way of funds and we rent this place but I'm willing to stretch my imagination as far as possible to make this space feel more like our home.  We'll see what's in store!

plans for today ...

... out of doors today seems not so pleasant.

... this spot on the couch might be just right for accomplishing the day - add slippers and tea.

... finally got my hands on Ashley English's book!  I haven't even opened it yet, but I'm thrilled with anticipation.   Reading these preserving books at the end of fall might have been a bad idea, though, because it tempts me to just go to the grocery store and buy out of season just so I can try the recipes!  We'll see ...

... Christmas presents!!  Half-way done with present number one (out of ... sigh, 10?)  After this, I'm turning to Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.  If you'd like to know what it is that I'm knitting, you can check my projects page on Ravelry.

... there may need to be some baking today to warm up the house.

... packing for a good friend's wedding this weekend!!!

... dinner plans?  hmmn.  I'll think while I'm knitting.

on the book stack

As you can see, the books are not in stacks today, but boxes.  We're moving tomorrow which also means that there are no library books here either.  Yes, it is a rather sad day.  However, I have reserved just one book to keep with me through all the packing.  I have been sneaking reads from it as often as I can and it now sits on my bedside table.

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House.  I had a suspicion when I read page one last week that I would be hooked and it turned out to be true.  In this book, Cheryl Mendelson not only talks you through how to do everything you could ever need to do in order to keep your house well, she also examines the social and relational contexts that are so integral to the home, which are therefore integral to the concepts of keeping a home.  Being a philosophy professor, she will sometimes delve into the meaning of 'home' as well.  I thought that, once I got past the first chapter, the 837 (excluding notes) page book would be mostly charts and bullet points.  Nope.  Prose.  This book is totally packed from cover to cover and I love it.  Please allow me to share just a few quotes that will hopefully give you a flavor of the book.

There were also reasons outside my own home that gave impetus to the idea of a housekeeping book.  Over and over I found myself visiting homes where the predominant feeling was sepulchral, dusty, and deserted, or even hotel-like, as my own had once become.  Perhaps a book that tried to explain not only the hows but the whys and the meanings of housekeeping was something the world could use.

The sense of being at home is important to everyone's well-being ... When you are at home, you can let down your guard and take off your mask.  Home is the one place in the world where you are safe from feeling put down or out, unentitled, or unwanted. ... Coming home is your major restorative in life.

Her real secret was that she identified herself with her home. ... She lived her life not only through her own body but through the house as an extension of her body; part of her relation to those she loved was embodied in the physical medium of the home she made.

Above all, housekeeping must be intelligent so that it can be empathetic, for empathy is the form of intelligence that creates the feeling of home.

Good meals at home satisfy emotional hungers as real as hunger in the belly, and nothing else does so in the same way.  They promote affection and intimacy among those who share them.  Characteristic, familial styles of cooking and dining, foods that "taste like home," are central to each home's feelings of security and comfort and to its sense of itself as a unique and valuable place.  Cooking at home links your past and future and solidifies your sense of identity and place.  When a home gives up its hearth, which in the modern world is its kitchen, it gives up its focus.  (The word "focus" is Latin for "hearth.") And the people who live there lose theirs too.

I chose to share only some of her reflections on 'home' but there is much more that is practical in this book.  What order to wash dishes in, how to set a table, how to make coffee and so on.  Still, I haven't found it to be intimidating since she writes in such a way that is gracious to the many who never really learned how to keep house and she gives you plenty of space to learn by suggesting all of the things you could do and then highlighting the most important.

Her observations of society's affect on housekeeping - generation(s) of women feeling trapped at home, generation(s) of women often too preoccupied with work to learn to keep home, the idea that men don't keep home, advertising of modern conveniences - highlight the emotions and beliefs that are caught up in this seemingly simple task.  It is a breath of fresh air to acknowledge the depth to which we feel about our homes and how important they still are to our lives.  I believe that she truly writes to everyone who wishes to make a home for themselves and those they love, regardless of gender or age.  So far in my reading (just past 100 pages), I have been enlightened, challenged, and above all, inspired.

This is perhaps the best time to be thinking on these ideas for me, since I will be setting up a new home in just a few days.  Many things will stay the same as they have been, but hopefully some things will be improved and a few better habits formed.  But at the end of the day, my house will always feel like a home so long as it is filled with love.

good-bye home

Last night we picked up the keys to our new apartment.  Even as I think of it, I feel excited but also nervous.  On Friday, I'm leaving a place that I have called home and I will need to put in time and energy before our new place can truly feel like home again.  That in between world of readjusting to a new way of life will hold many adventures I'm sure ... but I hope 'home' happens quickly.  Grady (and more importantly, God) will be with me through all this transition, so I am not afraid.

Good-bye house.  Good-bye mouse.  Good-bye creaky floors.  Good-bye sticky doors.  Good-bye angry drivers and good-bye cops.  Good-bye to the old radiators clanging non-stop. (except when we actually need the heat to be on, then they are strangely silent)

Aside from the quirks of this apartment that I don't like, I will miss these west-facing windows, which are great for afternoon sun naps and growing plants ... and I will miss being next door to the library.  Our new apartment is a number of blocks from the closest library so either I'm going to get significantly more exercise or be reading significantly less - hopefully the former! 

Our building is on the left, the library is on the right.  Perfect.

Oh Brown Cow.  How we will miss you.  Your ice cream sundaes are delicious and your decor just right for a little date night.  Thank you for making mini and kiddie sizes that are just perfect in every way.  Although we may not see you as often, we may have to make a special trip or two to relish in your goodness once again.

.............................................................................

We've already spotted a number of cafes and restaurants near our new place (and one just across the street!) that we are excited to try.  There is a park just up the street with a community garden underway.  We will have a back deck, high ceilings, a pantry, and control of our own heat plus laundry is 1 quarter less per load.  To these things and many more, we are looking forward!