i miss...

I miss having a bathtub.

mail

I keep all of the mail that I get. Envelopes too. Ok, so not every piece of mail: those annoying and persistent credit card and insurance offers get shredded (then made into Easter basket grass) but all of my actual correspondence I keep. I even have files of some emails between me and family or friends abroad or old friends I've reconnected with via the internet.

Maybe it's my LDS upbringing and emphasis on family and personal history, journal writing, etc, but I feel like these letters are important some how: they tell a part of my life that doesn't necessarily make it in my journal but is still a part of me. I told a friend that once that I had a binder of our emails and it freaked him out a little. We had been friends in preschool when I lived in Park Slope and I had found him on Facebook my freshman year of college. He was still in Brooklyn and we started emailing. I just loved these little letters we wrote to each other, little friendship love notes of times past and theoretical futures and I just felt like they were so beautiful and temporal. So I printed them out and put them in a binder to save them, to remember those feelings of new affections and that experience of transitioning from child to adult and wanting to hang on to those droplets of youth as long as possible.

I have several friends who when they break up with a girl they burn or throw away any material traces of their relationship from their lives, deleting them from their online profiles as if they never existed. Photos, love letters, gifts, they are all discarded in the passion and hurt of separation. I don't know how they can do that. It seems so hurtful not just to the other person but to themselves, as if they are lying about who they are and what their lives have been. I have boxes of love letters and homemade stuffed animals and jewelry and t-shirts that are so much a part of me that thinking of discarding them gives me a small literal pang.

So I keep them. I can't bear to discard them. Because everyone that we know and meet and especially love shapes who we are and who we become in so many ways: if we try to hide it or lie about it or pretend like it never happened we lose a part of ourselves, a part that is perhaps the most important part of ourselves, the part of ourselves that knows how to love.

And who knows? Maybe one day all these letters and creations and journals will be displayed in a museum for others to see and marvel at and connect with. Maybe.

ctr 7

Last year I taught one of the two Sunbeams classes in my ward. In the new year they moved me from the youngest class in Junior Primary to CTR 7, the youngest class in Senior Primary. When I first heard about the switch I have to say I was a little relieved. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED my 3 year olds. But, as anyone who has had to keep seven 3 year olds quiet, in their seats, and paying attention for 2 straight hours will know, it can be an exhausting job.

The 7 year olds, however, present their own unique challenges. You'd think that since I work at an after school program at an elementary school I would have a better idea of children's attention spans and maturity levels, but apparently not so. The girls in the class are quiet, respectful, sit in their chairs, raise their hands, and follow directions. The boys, while old enough to know that they are expected to sit in their chairs and pay attention sometimes seem to just forget. I'm working on it. Bribing with fruit snacks seems to help.

With the Sunbeams I made them little drawing books to draw in after the lessons every week (their attention spans were so short that we often had between 15 and 20 minutes of free time at the end of every class so I would let them draw in their books or on the chalkboard to pass the time). With my 7 year olds I figured that we could try something a little more sophisticated, so I'm having them write in what I've dubbed "Testimony Journals." The idea is that there is a designated page for them to write what they've learned in class at the end of each lesson. It's been a little slow going (bringing in stickers for them to use for their names on the cover took a lot longer than expected) but I feel like it'll take off soon enough.

Their favorite part? When I took pictures of them with my Polaroid camera to put on the cover and they got to see the pictures develop. It was a first-time experience for them all and it was pretty fun to see how excited they got about it. I had one of the kids take my picture so I can make a journal too. Kinda fun. Here are some photos (some edited to protect the identity of the chillins):

All our journals together (not all the kids have made one yet).

My example title page opposite the Table of Contents.

So we'll see how this experiment goes. It might end up taking up too much time in class so I might give up and just let them take them home and do with them what they will. But I hope they work out. I think it'll be cool for them to take home at the end of the year, full of primary goodness. But we'll see.

pocket journals

My Aunt Taunya commissioned me to make these little notebooks for the girls in her YW class that graduated from high school (and one former-student from college) this year. Since she does all these awesome things for me all the time, I was pretty excited to do make these for her.

I used my sweet new rubber stamp alphabet to stamp their names on the covers.

After lots of brainstorming and much thought she decided on the title, "My discoveries, learnings, and hopes."
...and somehow I typed "My Memories, Learnings, & Experiences." On the cover pages of all 6 journals. Go me.
(Luckily Taunya let it slide. Did I mention that she is amazing?)

The pages were alternately graph paper or blank, which I really like.

The little pocket on the back is an actual library card pocket that I typed "momentos"on to.
I'm a little in love with it...

When ever I make multiples of the same type book I always like to take a picture of all the spines lined up together. The pictures never look as cool as it does in person, though. Classic. ALSO fun fact: Dikko trimmed these bad boys for me on the Purgatory Pie Press guillotine and it was magical. You have no idea how much work it is to cut stacks of paper with nothing but a metal ruler and an exact-o knife as your implements of war: it is not pretty.

wedding journal

Carter asked me to make him a journal to give as a gift to his friend Ashley who was getting married up in Massachusetts. Shockingly, only 3 days later, this little baby was born.

Carter did a great job picking out this beautiful orange-red book fabric.

Coptic bound. Isn't it pretty?

As a last minute detail we decided to stamp her new married name on the title page because that is always fun to see for the first time. The end papers were also maps of the states she and her husband are from (he's from Washington state and she's from Massachusetts. Coast to coast!)

I also added a little folder pocket action in the end. One of my favorite details.

Map of Massachusetts!

Fun fact: Carter's present was the only one she opened at the dinner and she LOVED it. No big deal.