moms – Peaceful Reader

Handmade Clothes

I miss my mom really all the time but it goes in waves. Recently I bought a second hand pair of Loft jeans because I liked the fit and style. The only problem is they are too long for me. My mom used to help me out with this issue by cutting a chunk out and attaching the hem/bottom of the pants back on. I don’t know how she did it exactly but I was happy with the end result. I have asked a friend with a sewing machine to help me but I miss having my mom to do this simple task for me. She’d ask me to stand up on a chair with a back so I could hold on and not fall. I treasure the memory of her sewing my clothes or fixing them.

Of course she was sick for a long time and didn’t sew even before that but in my childhood/teens and into my 30’s she sewed. I have a few school photos that feature me in handmade Judy dresses and peasant tops. In high school she cut triangles in the sides of a pair of jeans and added in flowery panels to make them flare with flair. She made me a gorgeous velvet dress for Christmas.

I once saw her bring a dress home from Dillard’s and lay that dress down on a bolt of similar fabric and then draw the outline with small ticks of chalk. In this way she made her own pattern and then returned the dress to Dillard’s! Later in life she took on needlepoint and knitting. Her mother/my grandmother was a major knitter throughout her life. That craftiness skill skipped right over me. I’ve tried to sew and knit and neither comes easy to me. Think big holes and uneven seams.

I wish my mom was here today to help me with my jeans but also to talk about every day topics. She would be fired up about politics right now. I know my son Tristan misses talking Vikings football with her and she would be just as happy as he is on their fabulous season so far. Somedays I think of something and totally forget she’s not on the other end of the phone. In fact my nephew has her phone which always makes me smile. All the above photos show me in handmade clothes. I had to go on a photo hunt to locate these gems.

I hope I can get my jeans hemmed and that I’m asked to stand on a chair to get them at the right angle!

Photo 1: orange polka dot midi-dress that I wore for my school photo and a play at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre

Photo 2: Floral velvet dress but I know you are just focused on that out-of-control pixie cut!

Photo 3: high school maybe junior year peasant top that I loved and often paired with bell bottom jeans of course!

Photo 4: Red Christmas jumper with same pixie cut and my brother Mike smiling behind me. This is in Fairmont, MN with the family room fireplace. Above the fireplace is an oil painting of the three of us done by Jack Bender, a local Cedar Falls painter at the time.

My heart; it's February

It’s bitter cold out these days with lots of snow and ice. Normal for Iowa, not so for the Southern states getting crushed with winter storms. I’m sure there was mad rush for winter coats and snow shovels. Cold weather is the perfect time to read and I just finished The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James by Ashley Herring Blake. This book has been gathering dust on my school library shelf for about a year. I ordered it after reading very good reviews and I had a personal and professional goal to continue to round out our library shelves with diverse titles. It’s maddening to think this sweet story could make someone else angry and ask for it to be removed from the library. What a terrible place we are in as we build out shelves specifically for all students only to hear that we could be punished for those choices.

Sunny St. James is a 12-year-old young girl who has heart problems both physically and emotionally. She receives a new heart to replace her old damaged one all while she is trying to figure out who she wants to kiss. What she really wants is to be a “normal” tween who can run and play on the beach and kissing another person is part of that. She focuses her attention on boys because that’s what is “normal” but in her heart she is curious about kissing girls. She and Kate live in a small beach community where everyone knows her and she’s lead a physically restrictive life while waiting for this new heart.

Her best friend Margot used to help her through all this but she branched out and made new friends from her swim team (an activity Sunny couldn’t participate in) and Sunny feels abandoned. One of her goals after surgery is to meet a new best friend and one day on the beach she meets Quinn someone brand new to the island who doesn’t know Sunny’s history. Her real mother Lena abandoned her as well when Sunny was four and Lena’s best friend Kate has been raising Sunny. After surgery Lena decides to reappear in Sunny’s life creating more confusion for both Kate and Sunny.

There is so much emotion, both sad and joyful in the story and I wish I’d had this book while I was in elementary school because many of Sunny’s questions and feelings about her surgery and recovery are emotions I’ve been through myself. I was 11 years old when it was discovered that my mitral valve was damaged due to an undetected case of rheumatic fever as a child. I underwent valve replacement surgery at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. I received a porcine valve and four years later after experiencing symptoms of heart failure, the valve was replaced again with a St. Jude’s plastic valve. I was lucky to be in the same hospital and to have the same surgeon (Dr. Kaiser).

Through the process I often felt angry that I didn’t feel good, that I couldn’t participate in activities, that I had this scar running down my chest, that I had medicine to take which made me feel old. I adjusted over time and feel blessed that my parents saw my symptoms and knew I needed medical help. Sunny St. James spoke to me in a way that made me feel understood even at my age. She might also speak to a young girl who is experiencing the same confused feeling about who she wants to kiss. Imagine that young person hugging this book in their arms and understanding that they have allies. Making a connection through literature can easily help a young (or old) person feel in balance about their unique thoughts and feelings. The “I’m not alone…” idea.

If you can imagine this book on a banned book list you can see how banning books sucks out all of our humanity. To counteract that feeling you should request this book from your public library or order it, read it, pass it on…it’s a story worth sharing!

Happy Mother's Day and post-prom bliss

Last night was prom for our local high school and Groovy Girl looked amazing with her crew of friends. Ballet pink is her color! It was pretty chilly but they weathered it well. My husband and I with a group of other happy parents helped with valet parking. It was a cold night and I had a hat and coat on while all the prom goers were without coats, socks, or sleeves in fact. It was fun to be there helping but not in the mix inside of hot sweaty not-really-dancing-young people. It looked like a lot of swaying to me. Times have changed and I loved watching tons of young women arrive on their own in beautiful dresses without a date in sight and I loved seeing several women arrive in very gender neutral attire. There were high heels, Birkenstocks, high tops, Doc Martens, and even someone with sneakers that were an exact match to her floral princess dress.

I’ve had a lovely Mother’s Day as well as I was given the opportunity to sleep in after a busy weekend. Love extra sleep!! We had an easy and delicious breakfast at a local coffee shop. This afternoon Groovy Girl and I headed to my mom’s house and played one of our favorite family card games, Spite and Malice, with her. We had chocolates and a glass of wine as we played. My mom won which is good because she’s competitive and so a sore loser. My son called yesterday and today. My stepdaughter sent me a card and texted. I’ve chatted with mom friends as we pat each other on the back for our journey into and through motherhood. It does take a village and you have to have a calm and positive crew around you. We walked the dogs and I have two peony bushes to plant. What more could you ask for? Well, if you are asking, WARMER WEATHER would be at the TOP of my list.

I hope your day was just as pleasant!

Playing Dress-up

My friends V and A and I have been on a quest to hone down our wardrobes and clear away the clutter. They already live in pretty clutter free houses so that one may be mostly for me. Part of the quest has us looking at posts about the 10 item wardrobe and one that A sent us about the art of dressing up.

I work at a school where our teachers dress nicely and our principal wears a dress or a skirt every day! But after watching this video it made me take it to a new level. Of course it is summer so it’s easy when I can stay in my pj’s for the first part of the morning and then linger over what exactly to wear.

Shoes have been a big discussion in this quest as it can be easy to throw on a skirt and a blouse or a flowered sundress but having the RIGHT shoes to match and make it still look dressy is harder. Flip Flops do not count as dressy attire.

The first day I did this I was going to a musical gathering and I tossed on a pair of skinny jeans, a black & white striped 3-quarter length T, and a black cropped blazer. It was chilly out and I quickly added my gray suede boots but it was the perfect fit. In this debate with A and V, I’ve thrown out shoe ideas of sandals cute clogs, Chuck Taylor’s, and even little white sneakers like my mom wore in the 50’s.

Of course there are a plethora of fancy sandal choices as well. And Birks have hit it big as the new “it” shoe wear. It’s time the world paid more attention to just what the hippies were (are) saying, wearing, and doing…

Dress it up a bit more just for yourself. The compliments are just the icing on the cake.

Here’s the video that started us on this journey: