11/1/12

Three things

A shameless plug, a new project, and a bit of clarification.

Shameless plug...My friend Erin is going to work on some quilts for those affected by Sandy.  And, I'm going to help and I'm going to plug her blog because I'm betting that I have some followers that don't know Erin and would like to help, too.  Erin is the first person I've seen plan a quilting response to Sandy, though I am sure there are others, so if you haven't already committed yourself to the relief effort, I want to encourage you to participate in Erin's effort.  Even if it's just a few blocks.  Here's a link to Erin's post about the blocks she wants to collect and assemble and quilt.  Who knows, if you guys overwhelm her, I may be called on to help assemble and quilt.  And, if you don't know Erin, take a few minutes to read her blog.  She's a fantastic person and my goal is to be as generous a person and parent as she is.  And, to learn to speak Spanish.

A new project...Bonnie Hunter's mystery is gearing up.  It's called Easy Street.  And, Bonnie is promising easy.  I did Bonnie's RRCB mystery two years ago (pattern is in String Fling now).  I skipped Orca Bay last year.  I just didn't have the fabrics for that one.  But, this one is apple green, purple, aqua, and gray, with black on white as the background.  I love apple green, purple and aqua and can't wait to see what Bonnie does with them.  My goal is to use fabric, not to buy fabric, so I will likely expand the shades across the color spectrum to end up with enough "scrappy happiness" from my stash, but I'm going to do my best to stick with her suggestions.  And, because we don't need more full sized quilts, I will likely make all the pieces she suggests and assemble them into multiple quilts, like I did RRCB.  If it works for me like RRCB did, I'll have one to share, one to keep and one to donate.  If you're worried about keeping up with her during the holidays, I can offer this one suggestion; the holidays are such a stressful time that it is nice to have a project that you can just lock yourself into the sewing room and follow the instructions on, without having to think about it too much.  You can't make mistakes because you don't know what it's going to look like until the end.  And, you don't HAVE to keep up with her, but if you don't, you have to remember to print the instructions because they're only available for a limited time, and then they are pulled and published in a book.  Clever quilter.  The fabric I'm most worried about not having enough of is the black on white, sooooooo, there might be a bit of fabric acquisition in it for me.... 

Clarification...Yesterdays post drew lots of response.  But, I think I got bogged down in the grades in my post and that really wasn't what I wanted the post to be about...see how easy that slippery slope is to slide down?  What I wanted to say was that practically EVERYBODY YELLS.  Okay?  I know lots of people that are like me and don't want to, but as far as I can tell, we all do it, at least occasionally.  And, it would be really easy to feel so bad about it that I just cover my head and hide.  But, the really important thing about everything in life is that what you do is not nearly as important as what you do after that.  After that, I apologized and after that, I got on with life. 

I think that we sometimes lose track of what we "do after that" because what we do after a remarkable event is generally unremarkable.  I want people to know that I am a "yeller in recovery" who is doing his dead level best not to yell because I think there is a better way to parent.  And, I want other parents to know that life goes on and everything is okay.  And, IF YOU NEED HELP, GO GET IT.  Because life gets a lot better if you can get past the remarkable event and learn to dwell in the unremarkable "after that". 

Okay, that's it for this yelling event because it is behind me.  Because of what I did after that, Sydney is taking school more seriously and working to bring up her grades and our relationship was not damaged by anything I said. 

So, those are my three things for today.  Yeah, Erin.  Yeah, Bonnie.  Yeah, Me.  Yeah, Sydney.  Yeah, Rob who held my hand while I was feeling bad...before I moved to "after that". 

Be well and have a great Thursday.  We were going to help my friend move this weekend (she has not even started packing yet and is not planning to start until the move day...why can't everyone be as organized as I am???) but the move date has been moved back, so I have the weekend to play.  Quilting and painting and enjoying the autumn weather. 

Lane

6 comments:

Becky said...

1) You are a great parent. Perfection isn't even IN the parenting dictionary. Learning from our mistakes is the concept most used. :)

2) I am going to make Erin some blocks..hopefully tomorrow

3) If I start another quilt, as much as I like Bonnie's adventures, I will probably walk in front of a truck. I just have too many things in the hopper.

Have a great day and love you bunches!
Becky

Samantha said...

I am a recovered yeller (after the kids were all grown up it just seemed that I stopped yelling....) but I am an occasional snarky snapper. I think a snarky snap once in a while is much better than a full on ranting yell. :D

I'm gonna hop over to Erin's blog after I comment here.

This will be the first year that I do Bonnie's Mystery. I wanted to last year but I just had to many other things going on and didn't have the gumption, this year I planned for it though and even though I have other things going on I will be keeping up with her and actually finishing it since I need a really big quilt for our bed. I don't have the yardage of colors she is using so I'll be doing my own thing with the scraps that I have and hopefully it will all turn out. LOL!

Elizabeth said...

I'm a yeller in recovery too. I grew up in a house where there was yelling every. single. day. Out of control, irrational yelling. I was thinking about an incident when I was a teen. I got pulled over for having a headlamp out on the car I shared with my dad. I was angry and embarrassed and so I came in the house and demanded "did you know there's a headlight out on the car?" He said he didn't. I threw the ticket at him and yelled, "well you do now!"

I would have responded to that situation completely differently now. I might have cried a little and I would have been embarrassed. But I certainly wouldn't have yelled at anyone about it.

Mr. Bug is so patient and kind. He almost never yells and he is a balance to my quick temper. I have learned from him that there is a better way. Anger and yelling are misdirected emotions and unlearning that behavior is a long, long processes. Good for you and good for me for trying.

The hard part for me is knowing what I am doing doesn't measure up to where I want to be. Change is slow process, but if I measure where I am now to where I was when I yelled at my dad, the difference is huge.

I was also thinking about you this morning as I checked my son into school an hour late. I completely missed my alarm and we all overslept. I felt like a huge failure on so many levels -- that I haven't taught my children to be responsible enough to get themselves up in the morning, mostly. And I thought about how brave you are about publishing your failures. I almost never mention the things I do wrong, especially when it comes to parenting. I admire you for recognizing your mistakes and then publicly declaring the steps you will take to make it better. I know that no matter how strong my resolve, I'm going to keep making the same mistakes and I just don't want anyone to know that about me.

The funny thing is, I don't see you for your weaknesses. Perhaps I should look at myself differently.

One foot in front of the other, right?

xo -E

Carla said...

Wish my hubby had done more of the after part when my daughter was younger and sometimes even now.

and sometimes even with me.

Vesuviusmama said...

Thanks for the plug, Lane. Your comments about me nearly made me cry. And we're quite ironic because, after reading your posts, I often think I want to be more like YOU as a parent.

Carla said...

Forgot to say thanks for passing on Erin's link. I too hope to send some blocks and see if I can get some of my other quilty friends to do the same.
;o)