This has been a great week but also an exhausting one. It has been 15 years since I have worked in a corporate position and it has been an interesting transition for all of us. It's so hard for me to give up some of the evening/dinner time routine but my husband and my middle son have really risen to the challenge. If I let them know what we're having for supper, they get it started. Yesterday, it took me over an hour to get home and instead of waiting for me to finish getting dinner ready, they had a hot meal ready for me when I walked in the door. My brain has also been on overload trying to remember all the ins and outs of loading an electronic enrollment file into production. My middle son finds this hilarious because I can barely work my cell phone. He can't imagine that I can handle the technology knowledge that I will need to enroll thousands of members.
I thought maybe I'd stay home and put my feet up tonight but I decided to go to the Coon Rapids High School football game with my friend Wendy. Her daughter's boyfriend plays on the team and many of the other players are friends of both of my boys. It's fun to watch when you know someone. It was a looonnnnggggg and awful game for Coon Rapids. By the time I got home, I was really ready for a glass of wine, my pjs and my recliner.
While relaxing, I kept getting a waft of vanilla scented something. It was actually very soothing and very calming. When I figured out where the smell was coming from, I wasn't surprised. It was coming from my "favorite places" corner.
These "things" are displayed on a cabinet directly behind where I'm sitting. It's my little collection items from vacations past. The one creating the scent encompasses three favorite places into one display.
The candle (where the vanilla scent is coming from) is from a spa in Santa Fe, NM. I got it on a trip there with my mom and sister. It was the most fabulous mother/daughter trip. The rocks and sand are from my favorite family vacation spot - Madeline Island. The vase is from my grandparents' house which reminds me of the closeness of my family and how much I am loved.
These rocks are from a trip to the Black Hills.
I collected them on all of the outings we took with my sister and her family. The leaf dish I display them in came from my parents. They were supposed to come with us on this trip but my mother's health scare prevented them from making the trip. This leaf dish reminds me that they were with us on this trip in spirit if not in person.
This little candle holder is a keeper of agates from a family trip we took to some friends' cabin.
My friend and I combed the beach and found lots of agates while the "men" were the lifeguards for our children. I felt like we were on a treasure hunt. Pretty soon, we had lots of little helpers!
This big glass vessel holds some bigger rocks. They all came from a trip to Blue Fin Bay on the north shore of Lake Superior.
It was our first family vacation during a really difficult family time. My husband's mom was in and out of the nursing home and the stress was really taking a tool on all of us. My husband suggested that we leave town for a few days and go somewhere a little remote for some real family time. These rocks are ones that the boys wanted to keep when we took our walks on the beach.
Lastly are more rocks (and a little piece of driftwood) from Madeline Island. I like to look for rocks with holes in them. I never find them, but like to look. These are ones my daughter found for me along with a little piece of driftwood she wanted to keep.
These rocks from Madeline Island remind me of my mom. As a child, I remember her being able to skip a rock so many times! She always looked for flat, black rocks. In this dish, from my parents, are all flat, black rocks.
I need to add my agates from Paris (Versailles) to little collection but I need to find the right vessel to showcase them in. Sometimes the vessel means just as much or more than the little rocks themselves. There's nothing better on a rainy, quiet night than sitting among my wonderful memories!
"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." -The Wonder Years
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