1. Why do kids find such delight in creating forts that are like little dens? As I sat at the table drinking my coffee this morning, Jayden and Roman made a fort underneath, by my feet. The opposite side of the table was enclosed by a chair, and the open side had unused moving boxes leaning up against it, so it did create an obvious fort, and if you're a little child you will notice these things. My own kids made forts under tables and behind furniture all the time. They'd drag out just the right things to turn these forts into little homes, and then they'd play happily there for hours.It's the same kind of delight they got from books like Brambly Hedge or Beatrix Potter or The Rescuers or so many other books featuring anthropomorphized animals. I don't know that there's a connection between the forts and the stories except that the words "den" and "cosiness" tend to come to mind for both, and the imagination is delightfully engaged in both cases, too. My children still love Brambly Hedge-- the illustrations in particular, I think. My 23 year old son still enjoys occasionally perusing his volume of the entire collection of Brambly Hedge stories, and he's not embarrassed to say so!
2. In the midst of the moving and serious talk of changes and decluttering and simplicity, I've not dropped off shopping for thrift or vintage items altogether. It's just that now, the things I buy need to be needed. And I needed dish towels. I used to like Martha Stewart's K-Mart dish towels (the only thing I ever entered K-Mart for), but when I stopped by recently, they didn't have any. So, I looked at the antique store, and somehow, these really kitschy old linen souvenir and calendar dish towels caught my eye. They were all in great/perfect condition, well made, sort of fun and tacky, and cheap, so why not?!
So, I now have in my possession one really cute bright orange (and other early 70's colors) rooster calendar dish towel from 1971. I have a 1979 light blue and green and brown towel with an adorable picture of owls on it (the little boys particularly like this one). There are two linen souvenir towels from Australia-- one with koala bears and one with eucalyptus plans. There's a cool one from the Grand Canyon. And there is one that's clearly from the 1950's-- it's bright pink and lime green-yellowish and black, with a typical 50's design style, set in Paris. There are unifying-color-theme issues with this little set of towels, but that's okay. I like them.
3. And I am reading. The books I'm reading are mostly of the spiritually-oriented variety right now, but I'll pick up others again when I am settled. Currently, there are several in my stack, but two that I'm just starting to read are Esther de Waal's To Pause at the Threshold and Joan Chittister's The Gift of Years: Growing Old Gracefully. I know I'll really like the Threshold book (it's perfectly suited to my situation), and I'm loving what I'm reading in The Gift of Years. I haven't read it thoroughly yet, but I've browsed through it, and I'm pretty sure that when I'm finished I'll be highly recommending this. I might as well do that now, since I won't be blogging when I finish. There is a lot of wisdom and joy in this book. If you are middle aged or older, or you're just interested in thinking about what really matters, there is a lot of insight and inspiration to be gained from this book. It's light, but thoughtful and deep.
And now I'll carry on with my work. My last, short, post will be tomorrow. Nothing wordy or thoughtful on my part, but one little thing I want to say before I leave. Also, I'll try to get back to respond to recent comments later.
