gretchen & gilley

This much is sure: Some tea towels are just too cute to use to dry dishes.

If fortune brings you a tea towel as cute as this one that I received from my good friend Maren, might I suggest that you find a way to affix it to your body?

An apron is always a good idea.

Oh and orange gingham? That's always a good idea too.

Gretchen Luikenhuis is my paper doll for the month of May. Gretchen likes to read American stories about cowgirls and heros of the Wild West. Her favorite color is periwinkle. Please keep this in mind when you color her clothing. She likes to walk her little dog Gilley down to the corner bakery on Saturday morning for a banana cupcake. Please feel free to print her out any size you like.

hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work i go

dottie angel

I've never been one who's afraid of hard work. I'm not big on sweating unless I'm working out, but if it's a job I deem worth doing, I'm all over it.

So I hate to admit that I'm a little scared to face this week.

We are back home. The boy goes back to school tomorrow. Sugar Daddy is headed off to the office. I'm going to start my life as a mother of two babies who are ten months apart in age. I've got to get a handle on this. I need a schedule.

Yesterday I organized the stacks of diapers. Little tiny ones and big ones. Side by side.

I took stock of all the bottles. Again, big ones and little ones. I thought about all the milk that our little family is going to consume over the next few years and I think it may be cheaper to just buy a jersey cow. However, I'm pretty sure livestock are against our homeowners association rules. Tempting though.



I'm going to wear my uniform everyday this week. I'm so much more productive when I wear my aprons. And my mother always told me, if you are going to a new job, look the part.

Even if you don't know what the hell you are doing.

on becoming happy

The thing about being a housewife is that you must embrace it fully or you'll never survive.

For years I bucked against the system. I was sure that the good Lord intended for me to be the next top editor at Harper and Collins.

I wore my hair in a pixie. I bought designer make-up and expensive black clothes. I was chic and unhappy. Whatever.

Malphi

One of life's great truths is that babies soften you. I didn't know who I really was until I saw myself reflected in my children eyes. I didn't know that I loved to crochet until I made the boy's baby blanket. I didn't know I loved to bake until I baked a birthday cake.

There is an old story about an African farmer who, upon hearing that other men were becoming rich by finding diamond mines, sold off his land and went in search of his fortune. He searched for many years and died a poor man. Meanwhile, the young family who bought his land discovered crusty old rocks in the soil which turned out to be diamonds.

Sometimes you are sitting on a fortune. Sometimes you have to do a little work to uncover your diamonds. What looks like ugly rocks, could be just the thing you are looking for to make you happy.

Constança

I find housework is made much more enjoyable by the wearing of aprons. I consider them my uniform. I wear them to cook. I wear them to silversmith. I wear them to rock my baby to sleep. They help me take the tarnish off my life.

They make me feel official. They make me feel like a resourceful woman.

They make me feel like a diamond in the rough.