A vested interest

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chapter one: the early bird gets the peace of mind

One of the best pieces of advice I received regarding weddings was to do as much ahead of time as possible. If only I had paid more attention.

Certainly I would not have been outside trying to spray branches gold with bronchitis in icy, teen degree weather.

I would not have been rushing around searching for lists and notes and other scattered things.

I would not regret that some things we really wanted to do went undone because we waited so late in the game to set about doing them.

So I am passing that particular piece of advice on with the strong hope that others will do a better job than I in heeding it.

Every single little thing that you can do before the week of the wedding, do it! Pick out fonts and fabrics and favors (if you intend to have them.)

Attendant gifts, play lists, and especially anything you plan to make yourself, do it as early as you can.

My best illustration of this involves the ring bearer's pillow. I bought the lace for the pillow many moons ago when my sisters and I took the trip of a lifetime to Italy. In a little shop in Venice, just off the Grand Canal, I found the most beautiful lace trim. I have saved it in the time since in a baby shoe box, waiting for the day I would use it for my baby child's wedding. 

I did the monogramming for the little pillow my great nephew would carry down the aisle months before the big day. Why then, I was the very day of the wedding finishing the pillow makes no sense. Though there was a sewing machine malfunction and many interruptions I could blame, there simply is no excuse for me frantically finishing that pillow when there were one thousand and one other things I needed (and wanted to attend)

If you take nothing else from reading this, the time will be well spent. 

why weddings are like childbirth and other information for the mother of the bride: the introduction

I cannot claim to be an expert on child birth. Nor am I am expert on weddings. But have recently learned more than a few things on the former and having some experience personally and by observation on the latter, I find there are interesting similarities between the two.
Hence the name of this book. It is all my own.
I am writing it through this blog because it makes it easy for me and for the people who have asked my opinion recently regarding weddings. My answer, invariably, is that weddings are much like childbirth. They are painful and messy and often complicated but the end result makes all of that worthwhile,
Here's proof:

This photo was taken by a sweet friend of my daughter's as she and her groom made their exit through a maze of lighted sparklers.
Were I to name this photo, I would call it "Joy Personified." That's what a mama (or grandmama or aunt or other person acting or helping in that role) wants to see. This photo is by far my favorite of all I've seen taken of my baby daughter's wedding either this month,
Some of the folk I am writing this for don't know it yet, but I am planning to ask them to guest writ a chapter or two for me
Not even a month has passed yet I find a lot of the angst and frustration I experienced in the process has largely subsided. That's why I want to record the unvarnished truth before it all fades into memory and is replaced by the picture perfect images I expect to be appearing very soon.
My goal is to write a chapter a day until I have exhausted all the information that might have some value to my friends who will be playing the role of MOTB (mother-of-the-bride) very soon.
We'll see how it goes. Between now and tomorrow I have to figure out where to start, now that I have explained the name and purpose of this book/blog series.
Until then...

Granddad's chair

The  little ginger there at the left looking something like Goldilocks sitting in the Papa Bear's chair was taking a little rest from lots of tumbling. She is preparing for dance competition, as she has every winter for several years now. That means extra tumbling and gymnastics lessons and practices. Most years lately, we more often see her feet and legs in our lines of sight than that sweet little face of hers. She has to be pretty winded to sit a spell, as she is here. But when she does, she sits in her Granddad's chair.  There are other places for her to sit at our house. She has her own chair and the chair has a matching foot stool. She could sit on either of two sofas that match that big ole chair or in my damask wing chair, which I would say is more comfortable and more suitable to her size. There are two large ottomans that she uses like gymnasium gear but seldom sits upon.  The game table in the corner has four chairs preferred by her only when we are playing marbles or some board game.
If she is just sitting, to rest or watch tv,  she's in the big chair.
I think I'll ask her why, next time she is here and plops down there.
I'll let you know her answer...










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On Mullin Drive

Watching some of those old television programs about families and family times
always makes me nostalgic. Mostly, I miss the times my sisters and I spent at our grandparent's house or that of on of our great aunt and uncle's who lived nearby.  As I've written before, when I close my eyes, I can still hear the sound of cards being shuffled for a lively game of canasta or the clicking together of dominoes. I can still hear the voices, now long since transitioned from this world to the next (and better) one,
My grandbaby and her granddad/my Hub, have been watching "Mayberry, RFD" among other oldies of late, hence my waxing nostalgic enough to call up my sisters and mama and set something of a family play date,
It was pot roast and the guessing game, Taboo, Not everyone played, some napped, others watched football and the youngest among us generally entertained the rest of us between matches.  There was much reminiscing and laughter. It was the stuff I hope the children who were there will remember when they think of old folks and old times. Now, who is planning the next play date?


Note: Mullin Drive was chosen for the title of this blog post because it is the address of my baby sister, who hosted play date I described above.

rem·i·nisce

ˌreməˈnis/

verb

gerund or present participle: reminiscing

1. indulge in enjoyable recollection of past events.

   "they reminisced about their summers abroad"

   synonyms:

   remember, remember with pleasure, cast one's mind back to, look back on, be nostalgic about, recall, recollect, reflect on, call to mind "we reminisced about Freddy's first Christmas with us"

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Hobo dinners by the fire

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Rush

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January Saturday

How do you spell cozy? In my family, it is often called comfy. That's what you find above and below these words. The Hub and his favorite inside dog cozied up by the fire on a January Saturday just scream cozy to me.
That's the baby daughter there below, with what is now her only dog (thankfully.) Just a few weeks ago she had three canines. Her new husband wasn't any happier about that than the little dog she is holding in the Facetime pose I captured. They look cozy and they are. They look happy. Certainly, they must be. She still has honey in her moon and the little dog she in holding is the only game in town (read: the only dog in the honeymoon cottage.)
My new son-in-law, though I have no picture to prove it, is happily watching a nature program off camera while a homemade pot pie cooks  in the over for supper (she told me that part/ you'll have to picture it in your mind.)
How cozy does that sound for a January Saturday?



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Legacy

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Its a wrap

Here is what remains of the epic wedding we had last weekend. To look at the tidy piles and stacks of tables and chairs waiting to be returned to their owner one would have no idea of the scene that existed in the same spots just shortly before.











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Epiphany days

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Just now

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