Ode to the Written Word

"An Ode to the Written Word,"

that is our theme for our upcoming Spring Sales and Events. What does that mean, you ask? and how does that theme lend itself to Spring merchandise and creations for sale in a barn? I will let you in on that in a minute but right now I would like to share a little secret. Before I do that, I would love to thank you for reading me! It feels so good to air these missives that I share with you! Okay, here is the secret... I have an absolute love of books, one that causes my business partner and friend to groan every time I come back from a hunting and gathering trip with my arms full of them.

Not just any books, but OLD books, torn pages, filled with language that speaks of a long ago era, dog eared, browned and brittle pages, some with covers falling off and some missing all together. What is it at the root of this obsession?

 I think it goes back to when I was in Second Grade living in Bartlett, Illinois and it took hold from there. We lived in a small town where a train ran through the middle of town. There I walked to school with my sister who was a year younger, and then back home for lunch and then back to school again and then back home at the end of the day. Each way was almost a mile and yes, I did wear shoes. It was pretty much a Mayberry kind of town and when it was deemed that we were responsible enough, we were allowed to ride our bikes across the train tracks to get to the town Library... solo.  In the summers, we enrolled in the Library reading contest and I can still feel the excitement that I felt loading up my bike basket with the days selections. I furiously pedaled home to both beat my sister and to dive into my newest acquisitions. The occasional trip to Humbrachts, the penny candy store (yes, I said penny and I am under fifty) where we would save up, sit at the counter and order an honest to goodness ice cream soda, might have helped to boost my memories of the library trip. Sounds very much like how we raise our kids right now, right??? 

My dad was transferred a lot when we were growing up, so Mayberry only lasted for three years but I think that experience coupled with the bookplates that my grandmother and great grandmother gave us to proclaim a book that was our very own, started an obsession with books that has grown along with the wrinkles on my face.

We moved to Pennsylvania after that, when I was in Sixth Grade and after living in another neighborhood house, my parents soon found an old run down farmhouse with some land to put their roots down in and fulfill a dream. With a ton of elbow grease they proceeded to turn it into what we all  called Home... MacLeod's Pond and it is where they still reside. (I have referred to that place in a couple of my earlier blogs) There was some adjusting to do since we had always lived in neighborhoods and here there wasn't anything that resembled that for a couple of miles. No Humbrachts, no train tracks, no library, no grocery store within twenty minutes. What is a girl to do? Why of course, make a library of her own, again with her sister, in a little shed on the property.

We collected all of the books we owned and added some from our little brother and mom and dad. We proudly adhered our little book plates to any that weren't already adorned, glued in a library pocket, filled out an index card and viola! We were open. Open to whom? Well, we were lucky enough to meet a family down the road a way, upon chasing the horses who had gotten loose, one summer's day. Low and behold, they had two girls our age who were as lame and bored as we were (think pre internet days) and all of a sudden we had elevated the status of our "library" to a Clubhouse. I think we all had read too many Trixie Beldon books!  The clubhouse prospered for going on two years until High School hit and then it slowly fell into disuse. I would occasionally retreat to it to get away from some  of the self induced "stress" of the High School experience. With the cracking open of a book, all the memories of simpler and problem free days would flood back in like the light that filtered through the dirty windows, to light up the pages.

The story then becomes very much like that of many other women my age. I went to college, got married, started my own family and left the club house behind. I did not leave my love of books behind, nor the love for the old that my years growing up in an old farmhouse fostered. What do you think I did with that family of my own that was quickly growing? Why sign up for the Summer reading programs at the Library of course! We were frequents at the Exton Library and then the Hankin, from the time they could toddle until a few years ago when their busy Middle School and High School schedules made it impossible. Barnes and Noble became our mainstay and you can still catch us there at least once a week. (Just like the penny candy experience helped boost our library trips, I think Starbucks might have the same effect.)

I hope to no end that book stores are still around when my kids have kids! I know that they are slowly becoming obsolete as the world of the Nooks, E-readers, Kindles etc take over.  Surely, there has to be enough "bookies" out there who love the feel of a book in ones hand, the smell of a book and the calming effect that walking into a book store induces? These REAL, hard bound books not only tell their own story but they can give you a peek into the life of their present or past owner.  Have you ever looked through your grandmother's cookbook with notes in her handwriting in the margins?  The perfectly formed letters (another art form that seems to be waning) reminding her of changes she made and wanted to record to make the recipe better. Better yet is a cookbook in her own handwriting. Can't you feel her presence as you page through the book? I don't think one would get the same feeling reading the same recipe on a Nook.

I know, I know, I know...progress and technology. Most of it is great, but there are some things that I feel we are loosing for the sake of ease and convenience. What if the architects and builders of the past totally eradicated the building styles of yesterday for progress? Certainly some did and new styles were born but, did you ever notice though that most buildings of today and years before are firmly entrenched in the styles of the past?

My house is full of books and we will continue to add to the collections, both old and new.

I even have a room, an honest to goodness room we call the "Library" where you can go and read a book, or do homework or play music. Kind of like a Family Room but with no TV.

I bought this bookshelf years ago when the kids were little to house all of their books and I changed it seasonally. This year I pulled out their favorite Christmas books and put them in their room so they could read them and a flood of their own memories would come back...just by reading a book. This shelf does not get the usage it once did so sometimes we have to "create" opportunities to help them feel that it is okay to have those connections of emotion to when they were younger.

 It will be a long time before you see me use a technological book. There are some things that I still need to feel, connect to and hold onto. Old fuddy duudy you may call me. I like to think of me as a woman who relishes in the personalization and kinesthetic power of an object when our lives are becoming so impersonal.

In closing...whew!!! I would like to thank you for hanging in there and learning all about why I entitled this upcoming Spring Sale, An Ode to the Written Word. When I am passionate about something you will hear it from me...as I am sure you have figured out by now if you follow this blog. We are over the moon to have Kelly Corrigan here to kick off this theme with her appearance in April where she will read from her BOOK Glitter and Glue. I was hoping to get her her to the barn this Spring and as fate would have it...she will be. We have lots of cool literary inspired items that are coming in, even as I am writing this which I cannot wait to show you. 

Scottish Author Thomas Carlyle proclaimed in the nineteenth century the abiding value of the written word: "In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time, the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream."

In written word~

Meg

What I Learned This Winter

I am sure that for most of you who live in areas that had an unusually cold and snowy winter, that the passing of March 20th meant a little more than it usually does. Being the first day of Spring, all of our minds breathed a sigh of relief for surely warm weather and a brighter color palette would be ours in the not too distant future?

Since I do not think that anyone wants to truly remember the Winter of 2014, I thought I would look at things a in a different light and recap some of the things that I learned to do this Winter. These things would never have come to fruition should this winter not have been what it was. ( I provided pictures for some of these grand accomplishments. For others, I thought you would be better served by creating your own visuals)

1) Learned to walk on large swatches of ice without falling on my keister but without maintaining any sense of grace.

2) Learned how to effectively use a combination of kitty litter, straw and brute strength to dig a wide variety of cars out of our driveway.

3) Learned how to dodge both fallen tree branches and pot holes, sometimes simultaneously.

4) Learned how to drive on snow packed roads which frankly were a lot easier to maneuver on than ice covered surfaces.

5) Learned how to start a generator. (Sorry no visual...quite difficult to do whilst taking a photo)

6) Learned how to warm oneself up in our very old and cold drafty house by utilizing the heated floor in our bathroom as a way of warming one's body thoroughly clothed, usually with a coat on. (Again no visual for I do have some pride!)

7) Learned to be very thankful to the ones who paved the way to institute a Spring Break into the school calendar. After this winter, one truly realizes that to take a break after the long drawn out cold winter is truly nirvana...IF one goes to a warmer place than one already lives in.

 

SPRING Break in Canada is quite an oxymoron. I don't think that they have gotten the memo that the first day of the Spring Equinox has passed. Does this look like Spring skiing???

Low of -8 tomorrow.

Lesson learned...might want to examine heading any further North next year for Spring Break!

If you are traveling for your Spring Break~ may your travels be safe and may a WARM wind be at your back.

Meg

The Glue That Holds the Glitter and Musings on Kelly Corrigan

Here I am, almost exactly a year to the exact date that I wrote my post Just Breathe while away for the first time ever with my then almost twenty year old college daughter. Hitting the "Publish" button on that one was tough, for sharing my not so perfect life and my emotional state to both friends and strangers alike was a difficult thing to do. I have been thinking about how to follow up on Just Breathe, since arriving in Mexico yet again with my now almost twenty one year old daughter. I was thrilled beyond belief that she has no other friends to go away with (Ha!), my husband agreed to hold down the fort again and her brothers did not respond with a jealous rant when I announced that we were going. I think my comment of, "When you are in college and you ask me to go away with you on your Spring Break..." nipped that one in the bud.

I slept for an hour the night before we departed early in the am while the house was still asleep. We boarded the plane and I took out my copy by Kelly Corrigan of Glitter and Glue that I had purchased at Barnes and Noble before we left. I was so psyched to read it for it had just been released a month prior. I love Kelly's work and through a circuitous route, she was coming in April to do a reading in our barn from the aforementioned book!!! The timing was perfect, no one could reach me while flying, there would be no interruptions and there was little else that I could find to do on the plane but read...and sleep. Darn, even before take off, my head bobbed and before I knew it, I woke up with it resting on the passenger's shoulder next to me (good thing it was my daughter and I wasn't drooling) and the book had fallen to the floor. No worries, I still had twenty or so minutes before landing and a couple of days in front of me to devour it. I began and fifteen minutes later I was, yet again, trying to discreetly mask the tears I was shedding. Didn't I learn my lesson the last time I read her prior book The Middle Place on a plane sandwiched in between unknown passengers? "Idiot," I muttered to myself as I frantically searched for a tissue or anything that resembled one. The only replacement that I came across was my pair of sunglasses. I hesitated a moment and then shoved them back in my purse along with the book for I was about to totally embarrass my daughter and myself if I read any further. Her books hit so damn close to home! 

A couple of hours later we settle onto the beach. Unlike last year, the weather is delightful and we are tickled pink to be lying on a white sand beach, under a papalusa, Margarita in hand (my favorite drink). I dive into the book again, with sunglasses on, and shortly thereafter I am muttering "idiot" to myself one again...never did stash a tissue in my beach bag. I continue to read anyway and covertly use the edge of my beach towel to wipe at the tears that escape the rim of my sunglasses. For those of you who have not read the book or are not familiar with the subject matter, Kelly, in her writing, explores her relationship with her mother, her own daughters, families and our tenuous hold on this life. She achieves this by revealing a life changing experience as a post college graduate who takes employment as a nanny for a young family who recently lost their mother. In their house, she is suddenly transformed from a young woman on a mission to live life so very differently from that of her mother to reliving the words of her mother again and again as she progresses through each day "mothering" the family that she has found herself bound to. (I don't want to be a book spoiler so I am trying to give as little detail as possible while getting the concept across.) The book is moving and if you have a mother or are a mother...even more so.

My deep thoughts are interrupted as my cell phone goes off with that little whistle that tells me I have an e-mail. We had been figuring out and trying to get service since we had landed but up until now, we were not achieving much success. Bingo, my email is working and I quickly scour the ones that have flooded in. 

There is one from my youngest son's Science teacher, concerning his Science Fair topic of choice. Something about not enough quantitative information can be ascertained. He will have to change his topic.

There is a cc'd one from my husband to one of our middle son's school stating why he will be absent today then one from his friend's mom apologizing for her son, who had slept over this weekend for he had the flu.

Then there was a text from my husband who had been complaining about a nagging sore throat and headache for a few days that he thinks HE has an all out case of the flu.

Another text comes through from my oldest son asking if the chickens could be fed the veggie scraps on the counter or were they for the goats?

Guilt fills me up, overflows and dampens the feel of the hot sun on my back. How could I be away on a beach and shirk all of my responsibilities? What was Cameron going to do tonight as he tried to explore another Science Fair topic when it had taken him two weeks to get to one that he was really into and excited about? Who was going to check in on and make the sick son feel better? Those of you who have husbands...we know what they are like when they are sick. No offense...but I bet you he is in bed. 

I waffle back and forth like that, through out the rest of the afternoon...I wish we were all here together...No, then I would never be able to sit still like this and read a book. But really, they would love it. But no, their energy level is that of ten boys their age, Kelsey and I would never be able to carry on a conversation. It goes on and on and on. I then think about a line that I wrote in my blog post a year back when I did this for the first time and went away with only one of my children and I said something like how was it going to all work out with me being the glue that holds everything together??? The glue that holds everything together...Glitter and the Glue...the title of Kelly's book came from an expression that her mom coined, "Your father's the glitter but I'm the glue."How very true and obviously an opinion shared by I am sure, more than two women out there! I then remember a quote from the book that Kelly had highlighted on her Face book page and I searched through the book to find it. There it is, page 213. "I fret over things long after Edward (her husband) clicks off his reading light and goes to sleep - croup, melanoma, insecurity, precocious puberty. Raising people is not some lark. It's serious work with serious repercussions. It's air traffic control. You can't step out for a minute, you can barely pause to scratch your ankle." I had stepped out and what was I going to do now? What were they going to do?

Well, honestly there was not much I could do from afar. So I sent texts and directives and pictures of the sites and sounds that I knew they would have enjoyed or ones that made me think of them. 

The life size chess board to Shane who has been known to play a mean game and has on more than one occasion watched the World Cup of chess matches...I won't go into that right now.

The cool modern fountain at the hotel to Aidan who likes to take very artsy photos. I just got to check out his Instagram compliments of his sister and was very impressed.

The coconut tree full of coconuts to Christopher for he impressed an entire poolside crowd once by climbing up a tree to pick a coconut by using only his arms and legs. He totally looked like Tarzan.

To Cameron, the only picture that turned out half way decent of the fish that kept swimming by us in the crystal clear water out of the fifty that we tried to take, for he is an animal lover.

I even videotaped footage of the beat boxer that we caught performing as we walked by the entertainment area for I knew that the boys would love it. Totally not air - able.

Sometimes, we as mothers, have to just sit back and let some one else take the reins. Not for a very long time but just to get some air to breathe in. I think that our greatest fear as a mother ( aside from feeling that sometimes our self induced inadequacies will mess up our kids) is that we might stop breathing some day and who would take those reins indefinitely? Who could possibly know what we know about our children and who could ever take our place...and would our children really in truly feel our loss? I shivered as I read from the book the following, "What is it about a living mother that makes her so hard to see, to feel, to want, to love, to like? What a colossal waste that we can only fully appreciate certain riches - clean clothes, hot showers, good health, mothers ---- in their absence." Thank you Kelly for putting those feelings to words and for being my accompaniment on my vacation with my daughter.

My daughter and I go back home in a little more than twenty four hours from now. What am I going to do about the remainder of my brief absence? I am going to continue to have long, long talks with my daughter about everything under the sun. After all, we only get to play this role once in our lives and I am pretty darn sure that how I play it will affect how she does as well. As for my boys, I will have long long talks with them when they go away with me on their Spring Break...in my dreams...so for right now, I will let someone else hold the reins, even if from a bed, and I will pick them back up when I get home soon enough to a house full of overjoyed enthusiasm to see me...again in my dreams.

Happy reading~

Meg

If you want to see Kelly Corrigan read from the book  that I hope I gave justice too, in the barn at Life's Patina, look for more information and registration links coming soon on our website and other social media pages. The event is April 16th from 12-2 pm with shopping in the barn before and afterwards. A portion of all proceeds will go to the Family Lives On Foundation which I will fill you in on in a later Blog post.

Click here to register for Kelly Corrigan Book Reading - April 16th, 12 - 2