B Cubed

I used to have dreams of what being a stay-at-home mom was supposed to look like: running and playing in the yard with fashionable, perfectly groomed children, meeting friends for coffee, waiting at the door for my husband to come home at 5:00 so we could eat a romantic meal while the children quietly played beside us...

Finally my dream came true. Sort of. When my 1st baby was born we were adjusting to a new baby in the house, a new schedule, a reduced income, reduced sleep, increased laundry and dishes and pumping and dishes and pumping and more dishes. When we emerged from the shock and my 2nd baby was born, we didn't have a home (we had just left my parents' home and moved into an apartment). I had a baby and a toddler in a little apartment. My husband travelled every week, leaving me home with no yard to play in, no washer and dryer, and few connections with people. When we finally bought our house I was determined to get out and meet people. I went to the mall play area with the kids just so I could chat with other moms. I signed Big Sissy up for tumbling at the Y. I went to the library story hour like it was against my religion to miss it.

At one of those library story hours, I met Beth. It turns out she has a master's degree in library science. Since I also met her at the library, I just call her Library Beth to differentiate her from other friends named Beth. She really likes it when I call her that (not really). At first I thought she was trying to sell me something. She kind of was, but she was also just friendly. She told me about a group called MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). When I asked her what people did there, she said we take turns bringing a hot breakfast every time (Go on, I'm listening...), we drink coffee and chat (now I'm really interested), we listen to speakers talk about parenting topics (the nerd in me is about to shout hallelujah now), and we do crafts. Screech. Halt. You mean the kids do crafts, right? It's hard for me to hear the word "crafts" without picturing blue and mauve country bunnies and crocheted toilet paper covers so I almost laughed right out loud and ran the other way. But the coffee and chatting and hot breakfast won, so I went.

I will admit the first year I had to bite my tongue about the crafts, but then my friend Emilee took over and the crafts got really fun. Then Pinterest was born and they got even better. I've actually finished a few things AND I've even made a few things to give as gifts. Impressive, at least for me, right? Today we made one of my most favorite things ever. I am apparently a craft rebel because I didn't do what I was supposed to do, but look what I made!

 

I was supposed to do this cute thing where I covered the Scrabble tile with scrapbook paper and a monogram and modge podged it all up. It would have been so cute and if I had more tiles I would still do that. But when I noticed that the "B" had a 3 on it...and I love Scrabble...and I have 3 kids...and I love the simplicity of it just like this...I just left it. It's like a little representation of my life. I sort of love it. Who knew I could like crafts? Or even say the word without cringing?