Habit is one of my daily reads. Molly and Emily started this project 18 months ago and I was lucky enough to be their guest in March 2009.  This month, they have invited everyone to play along.  There is a flickr pool for uploading your own habit photo with 30 words or less each day.  There is something special about this collaboration and to see it multiplied and magnified each day on flickr is amazing to me.  I'm joining in again because, really, how could I not?  It's magic.

I hope you'll join me.

I pick up the paring knife, its shape fits my hand.  Blue cardboard quarts sit on the counter to my right and the colander is in the empty sink waiting to be filled.  I pick up the first berry.  With a quick twist of the blade, it's little green top is detached and dropped.  It sits on the bottom of the big white sink looking brighter somehow.  The plump, red strawberry is placed in the strainer, waiting to be joined by all the others.  I reach for the next berry without thinking.  Quick twist, dropped top, berry plopped. I find my rhythm immediately.  It's a familiar task - one I don't think much about until now.

I make fast work of the first quart and half of the second one.  After a quick rinse, I lay the berries on some paper towels to dry.  I sample one.  It's perfect - sweet, juicy, not too ripe.  Although dinner is in a short while, I help myself to a few more.  With each bite, I taste summer.  I'm immediately in central Wisconsin, some June day around the age of seven or eight.  I walk outside my grandparents' house and pick strawberries for breakfast, eating one for every couple berries that make their way in to the wooden box.  The sun is shining on my shoulders, warm but not yet too hot.  There isdirt under my toes, turning my white sandals brown.  I bend over again and examine the plants.  I lift the leaves, find the gems and pick them.  Two in the box, one in the mouth.

"Mom!"  Her voice brings me back to the task at hand.  "Would you like a strawberry?" I ask.  She grabs one readily.  I take another one for myself.  I look down at her face and she's smiling.  "These are soooo good," she says.  "They are, aren't they?" I reply.  She nods and grabs two more before she skips out the kitchen door, yelling for her sister to wait up.  I plop another berry in my mouth - it's just as sweet as the first one.  I could keep eating, but I make myself stop so I can fix dinner.  The truth is I could skip the meal all together.  The days are growing longer and I am anxious for the stretch of carefree days ahead of us.  Only four days of school remain and the calendar says May, but itmight as well be June.  For me, summer always starts with the strawberries.

 

You may have already heard, but in case you haven't, I'm going to let you in to the know.  This month at habit, Molly and Emily invited all of their guests from the past year to come back and post.  It's a big month-long party, 35 women posting snippets of their days.  I feel so so lucky to be back in that space.  And honored, too.  Please stop by and check it out.

It's the second to last day of October and it's hot outside.  Like in the mid-70's hot.  Too hot for the second to last day of October.  I can feel the rain coming - I have the headache to prove it.  Or the headache could be from all the candy and lack of water that I have consumed (or not) today.  Probably a combination of the two, truth be told.

Yesterday I had a little luncheon for six friends.  I served butternut squash soup with a spinach salad (pears, pecans, blue cheese, red onion, balsamic vinaigrette).  I set the table with my grandmother's silver and the napkins I pressed last week.  It was delicious and went off with a hitch.  The house was mostly picked up so an hour with the vacuum and duster was all it took to get ready.  It amazed me.  I feel like I have turned a corner, that I can see my life moving forward in a much more mindful and happy way if I can just keep this cleaning thing up.  I'm praying that once the hard work is done, it'll be a matter of maintenance.  Please let it be so.

I've been knitting - two small projects are already completed and one is on the needles.  I want to share those with you, but it's too hot to put wool on my body and then take photos.  When the temperatures dip, I will show and tell.  Cross my heart.

I haven't sewn much - a few single girl squares.  That leaves 17 to sew.  There are some camera straps almost finished, but I want another colorway or two or three before I update the shop for the last time this year.  Mid-November is the goal.  I can't take special requests or email anyone individually when I stock the shop.  I will keep you posted via the blog.  That I can do.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow and I just hope it can hold off or be a sprinkle so the girls can enjoy the holiday.  I have a vampire and a gypsy this year.  The vampire's teeth are already broken and the gypsy has lost her earrings, but they are both dealing with less-than-perfect just fine.  I am so thankful for that.  I tried replacing the vampire fangs, but it's the day before Halloween and, of course, no one has any left.  The fact that my child is being a trooper is a blessing.  Did I mention that I am thankful?

We're going to a concert tonight.  Front row seats, too.  I'm looking forward to a date night and especially seeing this band.  I'm also anticipating an empty morning tomorrow.  I plan on filling it with coffee and my dvr-ed shows from this week.  I might even break out the glitter.  Or some felt.  Or maybe both.  Endless possibilities - I like that.

I have some new shoes.  They make me smile, too.

So there.  That's what has been going on with me.

Here's to a great weekend for all of us.

I thought I'd be back here on Tuesday, but, you know, life.  I really appreciate all your comments about chores/cleaning from earlier this week.  If you find yourself in the same situation as me, there are some good ideas in the comments.  I'm trying FlyLady for now.  I'll let you know how that works out.

In other, much more exciting news - well, exciting for me - one of my projects is in the Fall/Winter issue of Stitch.

I made this cozy wool muff back in July and am anxious to give it a whirl as the temperature starts to drop.  Did you have one of these as a young girl?  It's a fun project that shouldn't take too long to make - an afternoon or maybe a bit more.  It does require a little patience to sew through all the layers, but the construction is simple.  I made mine out of wool and velveteen, but I think it would be equally as cute out of corduroy and flannel with a folksy ribbon.  Let me know if you make one - I'd love to see photos!

I really like this issue of Stitch.  It's full of great projects and many of them are well-suited for holiday gift giving.  I just started to make a list of the items I am anxious to make and it's long.  Too long to share.  You'll recognize many of the contributing designers if you read blogs, which I assume you do because you are reading this.  Really, it's all so good.  And I'd still say that if my project hadn't been included.  But it was, so yay!

Good afternoon.  I'm feeling pretty great today - hope you are too.

This weekend I came to the realization that I don't function well when there is chaos around me.  OK - I really knew this about myself before this weekend.  I just didn't know what to do about it.  And as I said last week, I'd like my house to be clean for more than 15 minutes at a time.  Here's the realization:  I am the biggest obstacle to keeping this house picked up.  All this time I have been looking for a solution, but not getting to the heart of the problem.  It's not the myriad coats and shoes thrown on the mudroom floor or the fact that my children leave papers scattered on any available flat surface that is driving me crazy.  It's that when it gets messy, I don't deal with it right away.  In fact, I don't deal with it because it is messy and then it even gets messier.  Follow?  I decided to focus on the problem and to do that, I am going to have to change my behavior.  Instead of waiting until it's overwhelming and then tackling it all in one full swoop, I am dealing with bits of the cleaning each day.  So on Saturday, I cleaned the front part of our house - living room, sun room, dining room, front hall and stairs, powder room.  And then I stopped.  Yesterday, I finished the laundry and made the girls and myself put it all away as soon as it was folded.  This morning, I got up and picked up the family room and the laundry room.  I'll probably tackle the kitchen and the mud room this afternoon.  Breaking it up into these little tasks is more manageable for me.  It's amazing how much I can get done in 20 minutes!  And once something is clean, it's that much easier to keep it that way.  I'm sure this is not revolutionary for some of you, but for me, it is.

So yes, I am feeling pretty good today.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  And once I get this house sorted out, I am going to have to enlist the girls' help to keeping it that way.  I'm pretty good about making them help out, but other than clearing the table after dinner, they don't have any specific chores.  I'd like to change that.  I know some of you have kids the same ages (almost 8 and 10) and I am curious what chores your children have.  If you feel like sharing, I'd love to get some feedback on that.

All right, back here soon (probably tomorrow).  The sun is finally out and I can take photos of some things I have finished up over the last week or so.  See you then.

I'm loving a little yellow with my green these days.

The bag is from Anthropologie and the sunflowers are courtesy of the great outdoors.

I really love fall.  It's my favorite time of the year.  There are apples to eat and pumpkins to buy, bread to bake and costumes to make.  Plus, I can finally wear my scarf that Martha made.  Just another great reason to enjoy cooler days.  And as of last night, my crazy travel month has come to an end and I couldn't be more thrilled to find myself at home for a decent length of time.  I have all sorts of projects I want to get going and others that need finishing up.  I'm going to step away from the blog for a few days to get back in the swing of things.  See you here sometime soon - maybe even later this week.

Also, Typepad seems to have the hiccups as I am not receiving email notification of any comments that are posted.  I will read the comments here, but can't reply via email.  So, if you have a question or need some more info, email me.  OK?

Ta ta for now.