Lucy and the Pandemic

 

Lucy made this self-portrait earlier this month, which depicts her in her bedroom. I love that she included details like window, her heart stained-glass decoration, her three dolls (Blondie Bloom, Felicity and Molly), as well as three of her Lego sets (camping, Poppy from Trolls and the hair salon with a pair of scissors on top). The closet is marked with a snowflake, because Lucy thinks the air in her closet is cold instead. And best, of all, the window overlooks our yard, and Violet is dutifully barking at a neighbor who is walking past with their dog.

When I saw this self-portrait, on one hand I loved to see a happy girl who was smiling in her room. And I think she is genuinely happy. But I also couldn't help but think about how that bedroom - and our house - has been so much of what she has known the past two years because of the pandemic. Sometimes I lament about how her childhood is so strange right now - the other day I got a little emotional realizing that she was not going to get the "recorder unit" in her music class because the kids can't blow on recorders and expel their breath into the classroom air.

I've also been reminded of how Lucy's childhood is so different because Lucy and I have been reading the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. We are just about to finish the fourth book in our Betsy-Tacy treasury, which is the last one! And while the girls in those stories lived about a century ago, some of the things they experience are timeless parts of childhood: playing with friends, using your imagination, and exploring the outdoors. I wish Lucy had a friend who lived across the street, so they could spend going to each other's houses, and spending their free time imagining and pretending together. She does have some friends that she likes, but the pandemic has prevented us from doing too many playdates.

And I realize some things can't be helped or changed. Hopefully the virus will get under control, of course, but we may never have a little girl move into our neighborhood. I am glad, though, that she has her brother to play with. It's not quite the same as a little friend that is your same age, but she really loves Sam and is really happy to spend time with him. And I'm glad that she does have one friend that she is getting to "grow old" with: Abby H. I like thinking about how Lucy and Abby have known each other just about their whole lives, and I like that they have a history similar to how Betsy, Tacy and Tib go through different adventures in each book as they grow older. Abby doesn't live across the street or even in walking distance, but I'm glad we can drive to her house in just 10-15 minutes.

Sam's Current Star Wars Projects

Sam lives and breathes Star Wars right now. Each day Sam listens to the podcast Star Wars Theory for at least an hour. He is reading The High Republic series and looks forward to watching The Book of Boba Fett on Wednesday nights. Today Sam came home from school and showed me this .gif of Darth Vader's Castle that he designed in his tech class:

For the final project in this class, he wants to make a short film that is supposed to be the ending a Star Wars fan fiction book (a possible series) that he has started to write. He has written about ninety pages thus far! I wonder where this love of Star Wars will continue to take him!

2021 Cross-Stitching Projects

In February, I asked for a William Morris Strawberry Thief cross-stitching kit for Valentine's Day. It took me several months to make it, on and off, but it was a fun project to complete during the pandemic. This is the project that I was working on when I visited Grandma J in May, and she gave me some of her unused embroidery floss (the light blue color) to help complete the project. 

It was fun to work on this project throughout the year. Not only did I work on it while I was in Utah, but I also remember taking it to Beacon Rock State Park when we went camping over Labor Day weekend. I just finished this bookmark about a week ago, but mostly because I stopped and started other cross-stitch projects in the fall. 

The next project I undertook was a bookmark of Munch's "The Scream." This project started as an idea after I went to Grandma J's funeral in the summer. When there, Auntie T brought my Grandma L's embroidery thread for me to have (since she knew that I had been working on the William Morris cross-stitch). I decided to use some of Grandma L's thread to make "The Scream" bookmark as a birthday present for my cousin A. I don't think that Grandma L would have ever envisioned that her embroidery thread would be used to make "The Scream" (!) but I think she would have been pleased to know that her granddaughter was using the thread to make something for another granddaughter. Grandma made cross-stitches for her grandchildren when we were little (she made one of my name and also a cross-stitch of our family as bears - I was represented by a little secretary bear at a typewriter). So I thought that this gift - from one granddaughter to another - seemed in line with something that Grandma would have enjoyed.

The next project also involved Grandma L's thread. For the several years leading up to her death, she would sent her great-grandchildren gingerbread house kits at Christmastime. In fact during one visit she wanted to remind Sam of these kits and introduced herself by saying, "I'm The Gingerbread Grandma!" I thought it would be fun to her use own thread to make some cross-stitch gingerbread houses for her great-grandchildren that she never got to meet. So I specifically chose this pattern so I could use her dark brown thread (for the heart, roof, and door). I hoped to make one for both of my sisters who have kids, but I only got one finished this year. I'll have to do the one for Baby O this coming Christmas instead.

It has been fun to work on these projects and feel connected to my grandmas. I've started one more project this year (and I have two more lined up), so these ones will be for 2022. Here is what I have been working on this week, while we have been snowed-in at RB:

Narnia Halloween!

Well, we did it. After our brainstorming and a lot of costume prep, we had a Narnia-themed Halloween! It especially felt like I triumph because I wrestled with my sewing machine a lot on the day before Halloween, as I tried to get my dress ready. I had never sewn on a machine with the such different kinds of fabrics, ranging from a stretchy white dress, to a gauzy netting, to faux fur. And my sewing machine skills are pretty basic to begin with. I even enlisted Lucy as a helper to help lift up the foot of the machine so that fabric would not get caught in the needle or the bobbin thread. Later that night, I found a little piece of paper next to the sewing machine, where Lucy had been documenting our slow progress:

   1. So far, so good

2. Keeps getting stuk :(

3. Haveing trouble

4. :( The dress is cout (caught)

5. Takeing a while :(

6. Good again!

My friend Katie had sent me some tips on what she did when she was the White Witch, and I followed some of those. I also found a webpage that explained how to make an icicle crown out of crystal clear hot glue gun sticks.

J made most excellent runes on the Stone Table

Here is the final product! I was the White Witch, S was the Stone Table, Violet was Aslan, L was Queen Lucy of Cair Paravel, and J was the Wardrobe.

We had a chili cook-off with our Dinner Group and went trick-or-treating around the Roses' neighborhood. It was the most delightful trick-or-treating experience that my kids have had, I think, because the whole neighborhood was filled with kids, and it was still light enough to see and appreciate the costumes of the kids. Normally we are some of the only costumed people out in the dark neighborhoods.

October is always a really difficult month for me, because I tend to teach more classes in the fall quarter and there always seems to be more going on. THis year was no different. I'm teaching four classes this quarter, helping out with two different art programs at Lucy's school, and serving on the national board of the WMS. So adding Halloween costume prep into the mix always seems untenable, especially because midterms happen the same week as Halloween. But somehow it all came together, after a lot of hard work and late nights, and it is always nice to finally say goodbye to October with a fun evening.

When we were driving home, Sam said, "What family costume theme should we be next year?" And J immediately replied, "Store-bought costumes. Our family theme is that we will all be wearing store-bought costumes next year." Ha!

My Grandmas’ Embroidery Floss

This summer I inherited two different sets of embroidery floss, one from each of my grandmas. My Grandma J gave me her embroidery floss earlier this spring. She had just moved into an assisted living center and I was staying at her vacant house in the evenings, while visiting her new apartment during the day. The floss was in the drawer of the bedroom I was staying in, and Grandma just happened to have the color floss that I needed to complete a cross-stitch project I had brought with me. She was very pleased to give me the floss and see me use it: I worked on my William Morris bookmark every day that we watched Hallmark shows and old movies together.

On this same trip, I showed my Auntie T my cross-stitch project and she mentioned that she had taken lots of embroidery floss from Grandma L's house, after Grandma L passed away a few years ago. When Grandma J died earlier this summer, Auntie T came out for the funeral and she brought Grandma L's embroidery floss to give to me.

So now I have two sets of embroidery floss, one from each grandma. I've been using colors from both of the sets for the current project I'm working on. Tonight I was thinking about how the ways that my grandmas chose to store their thread both remind me of them. They both are organized by color and number, although Grandma L kept hers even more contained by using small ziplock bags that are bound together by a silver ring. These threads are neatly wrapped in circles so they don't tangle. By contrast, Grandma J cut her floss into equidistant strands and tied them onto numbered boards. She left the strands loose, so they have a little bit of a quirky character as they enmesh and interact. 

I like to think about how these two collections - and two grandmas - form different parts of me: an organized, independent and slightly quirky person, who also feels the need to engage and intertwine into her community.

Art History Accessories

When I think about the upcoming school year and the prospect of going back to the classroom, I get excited at the thought of getting to wear some of my jewelry again. I like to pair my outfits and accessories with the topic that I am going to discuss with students, although the references are small and probably go unnoticed. Here are some of my art history accessories:

Pendant of a rosette from the Ishtar Gate. I got this at the Pergamon Museum gift shop.

For early Egyptian lectures, I wear a scarab with a pendant that came nestled within the Giza Pyramids Conqueror Challenge medal.

The back of the pendant has hieroglyphs which translate to say "Well done."

For later Egyptian lectures, I wear this necklace when I teach about King Tut's funerary mask and/or lapis lazuli.

This one I often wear when I teach about Minoan art (it has a nod to nature and Minoan metalwork/filagree), but it also works well to teach about other groups that are inspired by nature (the PRB and the Arts & Crafts, for example).

I inherited this necklace from Grandma Judy this past summer. She lived in Athens for a short time on a mission, and I think that I'll wear this drachma when I teach about early Greek art.

I usually wear this Athena (owl) pendant when I teach about the Parthenon and Athens. I got this necklace in Athens when I was on a study abroad as an undergrad.

For Byzantine lectures, I wear this pendant of Salus Populi Romani (Health of the Roman People). It is a copy of a Byzantine icon located at the Borghese chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. I got this as a souvenir when I was in Rome as an undergrad.

I wear this pink rose when I teach about Rococo art. I bought this at a gift shop at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam (outside Berlin).

My sister E gave me this ring when she went to Turkey on a trip. I like to wear a nod to Iznik tiles when I teach about pottery or ceramics.

This pendant looks like a feather to me, so I wear it when I teach about featherwork and/or the tapirage technique in indigenous art from the Americas.

The oval shape of this pendant reminds a little bit of Victorian brooches, so I wear this when I teach about the 19th century.

Flexibility

I was following along with a yoga video this morning, and the instructor said something that stood out to me. She said that the body and mind and interrelated, and that mental health corresponds with physical health. I had heard this before, but she put it in terms of flexibility by saying something like this:

“A flexible body creates a flexible mind. A strong physical body creates strong mental health.”

This month has been full of stressors: positive stress with fun visits from family and events with friends, but a lot of negative stress with Grandma Judy’s poor health and death last week. The day she passed away was a ill-gotten confluence of both stressors, since her health declined rapidly at the Enchanted Forest, while the kids and I were there with my sister L and my local aunt, uncle, and cousins. We were in the best of places experiencing the worst of times. Lucy and I said goodbye to Grandma via FaceTime, while we were standing in line for the bobsled ride and cheery synthesizer music blared out of speakers nearby.

I’ve been anticipating a lot of upcoming stressors, too, especially as we travel for the funeral during the Covid pandemic. I got a massage yesterday (as part of Carrie’s birthday celebration) and I could feel a lot of physical tension in my body that needed to release. A lot of it did release, which really helped me to feel better. But I want to have a flexible and calm mind too, especially on this trip. I think I’ll do stretches and some yoga each day, especially while traveling, to try and work on my mental flexibility and health.