Susiej

The soap boy is now into WRENCHES. He really likes wrenches. So, of course, he wanted a “wrench valentine” box. After puzzling for weeks, I finally convinced him today (the day before the Valentine party) to create a toolbox valentine box, complete with a bolt and wire secret clasp. We can now add this latest creation to our ongoing list of valentine boxes.

Must add the caption, “We Work Great Together!”

This was a “learn as you go” project, but oh so easy. You can reap the benefit of learning from my mistakes.

We found that it was best to cut the box, without the aluminum foil, first, and then wrap it in foil. Once the cardboard was cut, it was easy to just feel around for the slits and use an exact-o knife to cut the foil.

• Glue or tape closed the top of an empty cereal box.
• Cut the top off the box, only on three sides, so that you have a “flap” lid.

• Cut a slit below your lid so that kids can insert their valentines. (Resist the urge to follow your 6-year-old’s please to cut this slit into the shape of a wrench. The effect will be lost, and you’ll end up with a crooked, off-center slit. See box above.)
• Wrap box like a present with aluminum foil, using duct tape as tape.
• Find your cuts, and slit the aluminum foil with an exact-o knife.
• The cut edges will stick up, so finish them off with a nice layer of duct tape to hold them down.
• For the bolt closure, reinforce, with duct tape, a spot on the inside and outside of the box where you want to insert your bolt. Directly above the slit, centered.
• Somehow make a hole, smaller than your bolt, and work your bolt through by twisting. You want your hole to be smaller than the bolt so that it will stay in place.
• Follow the same procedure for the wire on the top of the lid, only a much smaller hole.
• Cut 4 inches of picture wire and insert through the hole, securing with a knot and duct tape on the inside of the lid.
• Now, you simply pull down the wire to wrap around the bolt. You now have a secure “seal” on your valentine box, so no girls can get to your stash.
• My teenager used sandpaper to cut out letters to write his name. Wire would have been best… but, it’s the NIGHT BEFORE THE PARTY!
• For embellishment, we added a real wrench. (Try saying that 6 times real fast.)

He is thrilled to have this toolbox valentine. He thinks the picture wire is real “electric wire” and wonders if his kindergarten teacher “will even allow it!”

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Life, Make Something, boy, holidays, try this by SusieJ - 3 Comments →

In college, a UPS man’s appearance at the front desk simultaneously aroused curiosity and surprise. The UPS man was nothing other than a harbinger of joy, as he dropped off his cardboard package of, what else? Cookies.  We could find cookies on campus, especially on Thursday nights in the dining hall — but they weren’t Mom’s cookies. And they weren’t pre-meditated cookies. Cookies that were baked days earlier with kindness, thoughtfulness, and set aside (i.e. not eaten by everyone else in the house) to be packaged in a box, and driven to the UPS store to be mailed to a specific person.

Cookies that came from some other place — far from here, where there were ovens, hotpads, and a kitchen sink loaded with hot soapy water, and a person who thought of you.

Today, another brown box arrived — just when I needed a good pick-me-up.

Inside were cookies. All decorated and pretty from my Mother-In-Law. We had just eaten our last crumb of Christmas cookies, and I was thinking it was time to bake more for the boys. It is Christmas vacation, after all. But I was thankfully spared from that drama. Nothing like getting another dose of Christmas just when you thought it was all over. Brown paper, by the way, does a surprisingly amazing job of keeping cookies fresh.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: holidays by SusieJ - 3 Comments →

Couldn’t put a smile on his face again.

He was the one who woke up first – two hours before everyone else, as he “ohhed and ahhed” over the packages left by the man he really doesn’t believe in if you ask him; but couldn’t help but wonder as the lights twinkled across the packages, and his face, as he examined all the loot left behind, if he was real after all.

At 7, he somehow has enough empathy not to wake us up, waiting for a decent hour. We gave him the honor of going first. With wide-eyes and excitement, he tore off the wrapper and no longer held in his hands hopes for what he wished for, but rather held Jenga. Tears immediately flowed. Yes, he had asked for this – maybe, many weeks back – but that was before he fell in love with Toa Mata Nui.

No tears on Christmas. I grabbed another package and gave it to him, except that in my haste, I inadvertently grabbed the package of socks. Despite their wool content, they only made the tears fall faster. (Just wait till that first snow falls baby; and you’ll have dry toes. Let’s see who’ll be crying then!)

I wasn’t sure what to do. I want him to be gracious and thankful for the gifts; but yet, I don’t want to turn him into Scrooge, dreading Christmases in his Future. This Christmas was nothing but a big, fat heartbreak. Where are the altruistic meanings of Christmas that I am responsible for teaching?

His little brother had quite the opposite reaction. Opening presents, giddy with glee. You could have given him bags of coal, and he would have been doing flips. His castle, with horses and men entertained him for hours. The big boys in the house, much tougher to please, were fine and dandy. Gracious, curious and appreciative.

The tears finally did die down, and the pile of “Stuff I’m returning tomorrow” dwindled down as he eventually pulled them out of the pile because, “I’ll play with them if it makes you happy.”

In retrospect, the only time he didn’t cry in the morning was when a present he had picked for someone else was opened. Those sore feet and seemingly endless trips to the store to buy presents for each other was really, the best gift I could have bought this Christmas.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: boy, holidays by SusieJ - 3 Comments →

“Mom, I wasn’t snooping or anything…”

“Yeah, but… what?”

“Well, those Under Armour shirts that are under my bed are too small for me.”

Not only was he looking — but he tried things on?!

“Why in the world were you looking under your bed last night? After ski club? Weren’t you so tired that you just dropped into bed?”

“Well, I was bouncing a ball, and it rolled under my bed, and I reached under to …”

“The reason the presents are in your room is because your little brothers found them in my room, so I had to come up with a new spot real fast – and your room is the one place no one ever goes… and I certainly didn’t expect you to crawl under your bed at midnight. So keep quiet, OK?”

“Oh. OK. Well, Mom, also…you know that OSU hat under there? Is that for me?”

“No, it’s for your brother.”

“Well, I need one of those too

I’m really glad Christmas is tomorrow, because I can barely keep up with myself anymore, and I am clearly running out of spots to hide presents.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Laugh, Life, boy, holidays by SusieJ - 3 Comments →

Today my mailbox was filled with two complete polar opposites of emotion. The first was a white envelope that contained the words, “I’m sorry, but…” End of story. I had suspected that if such a letter was coming, they would have held off until after the holidays – now I realize that is simply not the case. “Four days before Christmas, and we’re sending off a letter that will make you feel as if you just got kicked in the stomach.” “And,” I can hear them in my head, “We have no problem doing that, because this is just business.”

Now I’m grinding my teeth during the day too.

There was a second pole of emotion that came in a brown box wrapped in red, white and blue postal priority mail service tape. Inside was a vintage box of angel hair. The $.89 Shopper’s Fair sticker is still attached.

The return address on the package is not one I recognize – although the last name sounds familiar, but I cannot place it. But, the location I clearly do not know. This is a time that it’s difficult not for me to remember those cookies.

There is a passage in the book Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously where Julie writes on her blog that she can’t afford to buy enough butter to cook Julia Child’s butter-laden recipes. To her surprise, she finds more butter than she needs in her mailbox – from people all over the world.

As I read this, I was struck by the power of words to incite people to care and to reach out. To send cards when there is nothing else that can be done. To motivate someone to send a rare box of vintage angel hair to someone else.

While Julie became known by the mailman as the butter girl, I get angel hair. (I prefer the hair.)

So, whoever you are, I am grateful for this puddle of angel hair to spin magic around the house for the holidays, and for the vintage box to keep it safe year after year. An extra 3.5 ounces of magic where nothing existed before.

Part of me knows that the bad news that arrived in my mailbox today is just another link in the chain to something better. Before X can happen, this Y must happen too. But, it’s still quite a blow; one the angel hair softens. And, thank you my friend, for putting a bit of joy in what otherwise would have been a very, bleak day for my mailbox. Your timing couldn’t have been better.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: holidays, memories by SusieJ - 2 Comments →

Almost as if I’m going through a mid-life crisis, I’m turning my back on those traditional  patterned big rugs I’ve had scattered under my furniture and tables

and I’m going for something more serene. The bold, colorful patterns are a great way to hide juice, wine, and graham cracker spills, which was why I was originally attracted to them.Yet, the rugs are almost threadbare, and I was at  a crossroads. Now, I’m suddenly ready for a clean, simpler look. In fact, I’m ready to trade in my traditional colonial for a Brady-Bunch style house. (Almost like a mid-life crisis). So, instead of the house, I’m starting with the rugs.

Shags, it turns out, also hide the spills. And shags are everywhere.

The one I found is extremely soft, and can  even take a hit of bleach without hurting the fibers. I was lucky enough to find a very large remnant at a carpet warehouse. I had everything cut and bound to these dimensions (in feet).

• 6.6 x 6.6
• 5 x 8
• 4×6
• 10.6 by 10

The cost, because I bought a remnant, was cheap, way below $500 for all of these rugs. And they are plush and soft!

The best part is, now we find Elf happily making snow angels inside. Here’s my best shot.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Laugh, holidays, household by SusieJ - 3 Comments →