*happy mail dance*
A new pair of pants and a card from my mom. Thanks, mom!
A box full of orange-flavored tic-tacs from my brother.* Thanks, John!
A card & a photo of a park in early spring from a friend.
I’m continually flabbergasted and touched by the thoughtfulness and generosity of people, especially and most mindbogglingly, from those I have never met. Last week I posted about the cruddy mood that had rained all over my parade and was threatening to eat me alive, and today in the mail I got a card prompted by that post from Bethany. It said:
| Front of card: Stressed out? Anxious? Tense? Weary? Fed up? Inside of card: You bet I am. And you? And this was the note inside addressed to me: Dear Liz, This card serves no other purpose than to let you know that the sun came out today…and I thought of you. Hopefully by the time you get this, your rilly rilly good mood will be back in full force. If not, just breathe in this photo I snapped from the playground next to our house today. Imagine sunlight spilling into a puddle over the park, tricking the grass and the tiny white daisies into thinking it’s spring. See all the children dressed as princesses and witches and Batmen and multi-colored pirates for Carnevale throwing paper confetti into each other’s hair. Smell the deep-fried-sugar-crusted holiday treats (that are called “frappé” for no earthly reason I can conjure) and hear the delighted dogs chasing down blackbirds while their white-haired owners gossip together on a park bench. Remember that sometimes, with very little provocation, life is…fabulous. Have an absurdly lovely day, |
Now, I KNOW that she has been having a cruddy-mood-eat-you-alive time that has lasted much longer than mine, though she has rather matter-of-factly dealt with it in her journal and I know, too, that it has its ups and downs as anyone with small children will understand. That she thought to reach out and send me a day-brightener like this floors me to the core. People are lovely. Bethany, you’re LOVELY.
***
We’ve been talking on and off for quite some time about renovating the kids’ department and my poor husband, upon whose head the bulk of the work will devolve, has been understandably dragging his feet a bit, but now we’ve finally leaped from the starting post. Karin and I did another good clean-out of stuff in her room, in preparation, and today we started moving out her furniture (she’s first, then Martin, then the playroom) and taking down everything on the walls.
She and Martin have been putting some thought into what kind of décor they would like to have, what colors, what new furniture, with the caveat that what they choose has to pass parental approval and that they need to be thinking long-term and not just about what their current fads or obsessions are (no HSM-themed wallpaper, for example). Since the interior design of their rooms will probably have to last them through their teenage years, we are steering them toward fairly neutral foundations that they can then embellish as they wish.
We went to IKEA yesterday, the kids and I, and just walked around, looking at bedroom set-ups and furniture and getting ideas. Karin will be getting a new bed and a new desk. Martin will be getting a new dresser and possibly a new desk. They’ll both be trading in 2 short bookcases for 1 tall one, and they’ll both get new curtains and rugs. And we’re planning to cover the short wall in each room with cork for a floor-to-ceiling bulletin board for each of them.
Martin wants primarily blue in his room, and he wants one wall to be a wall-size photo of an underwater scene: coral reef with dolphins and fish…and Anders found exactly the right thing online today! Karin has decided on a red/black/white theme with silver trimmings. She wanted one wall to have a giant karate mural but while we were looking at the photowall site, we found this dragon, and she’s decided that is much better (and we agree). She’s really into both Asian characters and style and also loves tribal tattoo-style artwork, so we all agree that this will work very well on one wall of her room. And the nice thing is that both of these are easily changed out, if they decide when they’re 15 that their rooms need a facelift.
Just what we needed! A big in-with-the-new, out-with-the-old family project! 🙂
*They’re really hard to find in Sweden.