Ordinary

May 19, 2015

There was nothing special about the afternoon. It was ordinary.

A list of things to do.

I was sitting in what we call "the school room", though you might call it a playroom or TV room. It's where we've kept the school supplies and our library. All of which I am currently packing.

I was scanning school papers (artwork, writing projects, etc.) from the fall of 2013 and winter 2014. Something I didn't have time to do before we left for our hike early last spring.

To accompany the rather mindless activity of scanning I was listening to CBC radio online, picking and choosing recent recordings of my favorite shows. Interviews with writers and musicians, radio hosts and their guests discussing ideas profound and moving, yet simple and universal.

I was present right there. Nothing spectacular, just life. A to-do list made enjoyable by thought-provoking, encouraging conversation.

It washed over me then, right there. Contentment. Not in chasing a new thing. Not in finishing, or starting, and certainly not in perfection of any kind. Just listening, doing, noticing. Appreciating.

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Family Life & Kids

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Misti on May 19, 2015, 1:38 p.m.

Sometimes those mundane moments are really the best moments.

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Rana on May 19, 2015, 3:13 p.m.

I have those moments every once in a while when I sit quietly and nurse the baby. My thoughts travel, she is happily eating, and the twins are quietly doing their own thing. Sweet contentment!

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Bonnie on May 20, 2015, 5:30 p.m.

Aren't those the moments just the BEST??

My kids are at school, and I just finished a little more planting in the sunshine. The house is quiet and I can hear the birds chirping away. Right now, I feel at ease, even in the midst of a list of household chores.

Bliss.

xo

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Maria Cordner on May 20, 2015, 8:26 p.m.

Great! Seize the feeling!

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Kimberlee on May 21, 2015, 1:11 a.m.

This may seem like a silly question. But I am curious of your method because you too have artistic children producing mass quantities of artwork.

Is scanning alone your method of preserving countless pieces of art? Maybe a digital photograph? I have a very small home and a very artistic little girl, her sister is not far behind. I have been tossing the "so-so" drawings and keeping the "greats" in a binder... but this method won't last long. It works for drawings for now but other mediums wouldn't be so easy. How do you approach this issue?

Thanks in advance!

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- renee on May 21, 2015, 11:28 a.m.
  
  Hi Kimberlee,
  
  I wrote a post about what I do with the kids artwork a few years ago. That was 4 years ago and the kids were producing quite a bit of artwork those days.
  
  As you'll see in that post, I used binders. (I also talk in that post about non-paper artwork). Only in the last 2 years have I started digitizing our general chool records (no more binders), but I'm not digitizing art. I'm not sure if I will. Currently, I'm using an accordian type file folder to save art (but I'm still in transition with that strategy). There is a significantly lower volume of art produced at this stage since the kids spent a much longer time working on a piece. Lots of the pieces they produce now I want to frame and hang on the walls. But I haven't done any of that this year living in someone else's home.
  
  What I've found, looking back at what we kept and didn't keep is that my kids very rarely look at their old stuff. Sometimes but not very often, of course having things in boxes for months at a time doesn't help either.
  
  I personally don't plan to keep our school portfolio binders after they've graduated. At that point, I'll want to go through and pull things that are meaningful to me to digitize for posterity but I'm not keeping the whole works. Probably more than you were wanting but I'm at stage where I'm looking ahead to post-graduation life more than our preschool years.
  
  I hope that helps some.
  
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