Quiet Post

Quiet post ~

Pale is interesting

Pinterest is a marvelous thing! So many luscious, beautiful pictures right at your fingertips. I was wandering through my feed this morning and stumbled upon the website Pale and Interesting and fell in love. I have a fascination with white decor, white walls, white sofas and planters. Mostly due to the fact that I'm about a decade or two away from having anything white in my home, god bless those little dirty hands and faces. But also because white seems to be the perfect backdrop for splashes of color, hints of texture. To me, nothing is more charming than a blanket with ribbons of pink set upon a white sofa. It says "come, relax and enjoy the beauty of simple pleasures!" It also says "you're old enough to sip your Earl Grey tea in that pretty little mug without spilling... right?"

Sunshine

Good morning! I needed some sunshine today. My nose is stuffed up and both William and I are nursing sore throats. Not good, not good. We're reading a ton of books, watching Tangled off Netflix, and trying to be good about taking long naps. And I'm drinking endless cups of decaf tea. *sighs* It's gotta get better, people. I can only handle being cooped up for so long.

XOXO,
Jewels

Image from Country Living

Language of Flowers

The Victorian age was filled with delicate details. Lace, gloves, manners, societal expectations. When pursuing a love interest you were very careful not to overstep the invisible lines of "proper behavior." A variety of secret messages, love notes, were used to express the interest's true feelings. Through the language of flowers a young man could present his love with a bouquet and have her marvel at his feelings for her. In the movie Age of Innocence, Newland Archer sends his fiance a bouquet of Lily of the Valley. They expressed his love of her sweetness and humility. When he sent her cousin yellow roses they were a for friendship. You could probably get yourself in a load of a trouble if you sent your mother a bouquet of Sweet Peas.

Over the past year I've been slowly illustrating flowers that hold special significance to me and those that I love. These illustrations are the start of my collection. It's one of my creative outlets--so needed in my life right now. If you're curious, here is a great link to explore more of the language of flowers!

Madeleine Bree

When we were little my dad used to read to us before we went to bed. Snuggled under the covers my two younger sisters and I would listen to the adventures of Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund. We would solve Cooper Kids mysteries. And marvel, almost fearfully, at L'Engle's magical worlds. As I got older I kept coming back to Madeleine L'Engle's books. For some reason her mixture of science and mystery struck a cord in me. I gobbled up her young adult fiction, feeling particularly attached to the book A Ring of Endless Light. In college I read her book Walking on Water and pondered her questions of Christianity, of God, and nature--they were my questions, too. She created her fictional families full of children, music, water, woods and books! When Andrew and I first started thinking of names for our little ones I knew that I wanted my first little girl to be named Madeleine. Well, I am so tickled to tell you that we will meet our Madeleine Bree at the end of May!

Things I'm learning

Things I'm learning about parenting:

1. There will always be tantrums. Even if you have the most chill child on the block he'll still have moments of near hysteria that make you scratch your head in bewilderment. Before William reached 16 months I quite literally thought that those upsetting children crying ridiculously in the supermarkets were simply a lack of parenting skills at work. Nope. It comes with immature emotional behavior and an inability to communicate. *ahem*

2. They take a half-step backwards to take a full step forward. One of my neighbors tipped me off to this one just last week. It was very timely wisdom as William has turned into a tyrant this week. I keep praying that there's some hidden developmental push coming after this mania.

3. They will skip naps, get up way too early, and protest the routine. As I approach the 20 week mark with baby #2, I count on William's naps. That's when I rest, put my feet up and actually eat something slowly (because, let's face it, with a toddler, I'm usually stuffing the snacks in before he pulls all the books off the shelf or before he grabs the snack and stuffs it into his mouth). You learn amazing coping techniques when the routine is bucked--and I don't have grandparents nearby to come save me, either! They usually involve lots of book-reading, impromptu playdates, trips to the coffee shop and visits to Bert, our beloved doorman.

4. Never underestimate the joy a baby's giggle can make you. My patience will be depleted and frustration creeping into my bones, and William will find something fascinating and give a huge "Ohhh!" followed by a giggle or two and everything seems to right itself again in my world. He'll share his toys, give hugs to his stuffed owl, dance to Elvis or gobble up blueberries in two-fisted style, and suddenly my world seems brighter. Better. Like nothing I could have expected.

XOXO,
Jewels