There's Lent and there's the Quasi-Liturgical Season of Preparing for St. Patrick's Day in the religion of Irish Step Dancing. This is a penitential season involving lots of bobby-pins and driving.
So I'm not thinking too clearly…
However, I'll make good on my promise to show you what we call our family museum.
Do you have lots of little things in your dresser drawers, on windowsills, and in jewelry boxes…things with a story?
Little things that are broken off of bigger things…
(like this piece of the Sphinx I violated Egyptian law to flake off the foot of when I was 11. It broke so many times that I finally decided to glue this remaining piece onto a card with an explanation of what it is. I guess its fragility is why they have that law, oops!)
…or were given to you…
…or were found in the flower beds…
or were picked up as souvenirs……?
(That object that looks like it could be an old driver's license is actually an identity card given to the Chief when he was an official observer in 1984 in the El Salvador elections during the civil war.)
I have many things like this, and I also had a printer's drawer given to me by my mother.
I don't like the idea of buying stuff to put in other stuff. But I did like this drawer….
…and I had the treasures…or the detritus…of family life!
Time can be marked by entries in a diary; it can also be remembered by little objects that are too small to display properly but too significant to throw away.
(And I'm a person who throws away.)
But I'm also the curator of our lives, for better or for worse, because I'm the mother, so this is what I came up with.
Thanks for visiting our museum!
Erika says
That is so neat! My mom has one of these drawers, used in a very similar fashion. We all still love looking at it and remembering where things came from. I've always wanted one and never managed to pick one up. How do you clean it? Or maybe you don't have much dust 🙂
Anne R Triolo says
bridget looks so cute! look at that hair! I don't know how you did it!
HappyHermit says
blogger ate and lost a comment ..I use to also have a few set of these type drawers , i thought they were quite an Inspiration to me. They reminded me of change and growth.Thank you so very much for taking the time to share with us all.
Leila says
Erika — hahahahahaha. While I was taking the pictures I was thinking that, yes, it needs dusting. A feather duster works, and then once a decade I think you need to take things out and clean everything. Someone should do that.Annie — shhh… it's a wig :)HH — Thanks!
Lara says
Hi – I'm so enjoying peeking into your world! I'm a lurker, but wanted to say thanks so much for sharing. My 12yo son and I make your granola this morning…awesome! He declares it "massively" better than store-bought cereal, which I haven't bought for more than 6 months now and he was pining away for. I think he's turned a corner now :-)Peace,Lara
Erika says
Well, I thought it looked pristinely clean in the pictures. Must be invisible dust 😉 Is it really a wig? Last night at dinner Irish music was playing on the radio and brought that picture to mind. I tried to describe the sheer adorableness: the outfit, the hair–"oh her hair–it is so…so perfect!" I motioned with my hands over my own limp locks to try to convey…. Being both Irish and a daddy-of-daughters my husband appreciated what I was trying to say, but my son just kind of looked at me and blinked.
Pippajo says
First, is it really a wig, or are you just being silly?Second, I am very familiar with bobby pins and driving, having grown up as the oldest of four daughters and now having a very girlie daughter of my own! I can't imagine just how familiar with them you must be having raised 4 daughters!I thoroughly enjoyed your family museum. I think we could really use a display like that, though I can't imagine all the little things would stay put. Someone would constantly be jostling them or taking them out to play with them or launch them out of Nerf guns or something…
Leila says
Dudes, it's a wig. Look at the girl next to her. Rosie's hair would do that without benefit of even curling. Sukie's was difficult. Deirdre's was sort of okay. But this child's hair will not take a curl, period. The wig is a godsend. The museum is over the TV cabinet which makes it both fairly impervious to sword fighting and a pain to dust.:)
Jen says
Loving the museum idea. Giggling over the wig. Thankful that I don't have to do the bobby pins and driving stuff, yet. I'm hopeless with hair.
G.L.H. says
Thanks for sharing your museum. I always think of my little treasures (which are all over the house in nooks and crannies) as Anthropology: if someone ever "excavates" us, they would speak of Who We Are. Or; they would say, "what the heck is this stuff?"As the others have said, your little one is beautiful!–Barbara
Sue says
I'm a frist time visitor, and enjoying reading your blog so much. I love this idea! My kids came up with their own similar to this for outdoor finds using our Math-U-See manipulatives box (I knew it had to be good for something!). It's the same idea, but on a smaller scale. Now that I see your museum I want to come up with one of my own!