pressing matters

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Kim Halloran-Fry

This vintage ironing board was a long-ago find which has lingered some time in the "has potential" bin due to a split in one of the legs. Abbie caught sight of it a couple weeks ago and begged and begged to have it. We took a few minutes yesterday to bind up the board's wounds. Today was her test run. Happy to report the dollies' dresses are all pressed and they can hold their heads high once more.

Ish.

It was a play iron after all.

Ironing isn't a cool thing to discuss these days. It was a staple of my childhood and I assumed everyone did it. Turns out just mentioning ironing stirs up some intense feelings among modern moms. In fact it's likely to be met with snickering or outright aintnobodygottimeforthat scorn. I'm making the case for it anyway and here is why. If you buy clothes from consignment and press them nicely they automatically look 100 times newer and nicer. Ditto for lower end fabrics. So much so that the posh consignment stores will starch and press the life outta their stock and it looks oh so much more appealing just for that.

A little starch goes a long way. If you or your husband or a child in your home works in an office or is applying for a job, personal presentation still goes a long way towards projecting professionalism. If you are regularly out with a gaggle of children, you are far more likely to make a good impression and dash people's assumptions that one cannot adequately care for more than a single child or two. We've got to represent, ladies.

It doesn't take a fortune. Just a little elbow grease and a few minutes to run an iron over a skirt hem or church sleeves. By the time they are in middle school children can do it themselves. Our sons iron more or less capably. We do not press every item by a long stretch but for church and other outings and with woven cotton items, yes.

My husband was active duty military for 20 yrs. Another military wife asked me recently if I ever brought uniforms from the cleaners that you had to peel apart they were so stuck together stiff? Oh yes, and his dress shirts for work are not much less starched these days. Mind you when we have had super busy seasons of life he has taken them out for laundering – not going to mislead here. Professional pressing really does take special care, equipment and time though doing it yourself – like simple home haircuts and other similar tasks wise folks learn to do – can be a great way to save a chunk of money annually. Actually, adding up all the miscellaneous services typically farmed out in a family is a great way to discover the value of the mom who "doesn't work." Another post for another day.

So anyway, yes – we press. In fact it's a job that hasn't been done enough this fall and I am actually missing it.

Ok I'm done. Let the tomatoes fly. : )

how to iron a shirt here

But I far prefer the lovely binder-worthy tute sent free from here

just for fun

All aboard

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Kim Halloran-Fry

It has been a productive couple days thanks to my family. My husband took off yesterday so I could do some shopping. Alannah rode along and we made a day of it. We found some lovely clothes for Tess which have inspired me finally. (Ready made wardrobe items for the school aged girl are generally UNinspiring, if not downright discouraging.) While shopping locally we found some lovely pieces in shell pinks and champagne colors. Soft and elegant and sweet.

After clothes shopping we managed to find many of the gifts on my list. As we drove home Alannah said I hear the bell ringing. I said what are you talking about? She said, "The bells, on that thing you bought." Still nothing for me. "What? Am I the only one who believes?" she laughed. Which of course meant Polar Express for the next bedtime book. Yes, that was a change of topic. Husband usually asks me to preface these with "break, break" To which I usually say, " Keep UP people!"

Today she and I helped the little girls put ornaments on the trees the guys set up this weekend. We didn't use all the decorations this year because that move date keeps creeping closer – literally, it's creeping closer. Still we are doing a little bit every day. I told you, Austin Family Christmas. (Have you read it? You must read it. Take my word ok? : ))

And that's it. Am blogging like I am decorating, a little bit each day. And am going to reload that winter reading list back onto the sidebar on that note.

not a place, but a moment

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Kim Halloran-Fry

It might seem silly to some, this decking of halls when the moving trucks will be here in several weeks now. It was however exactly the right thing to do this weekend. In the midst of so much uncertainty and upheaval there came strings of lights, the familiar faces of jolly gnomes, and bright wooden shoes bearing coins. There are clementines and candy calendars, and the tattered books which have journeyed far with us. As I type by the light of the tree tonight life feels familiar again.

I don't know where we will be celebrating our feast days next year. What I remembered while unwrapping sleighbells and storybooks is that wherever it may be, it will be home.

“Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.”

Sarah Dessen

Everything is a grace

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Kim Halloran-Fry

This glimpse of my girls peaceful play made me pause and think about my devotions the other day:

"God's will is also marked out for me by the circumstances of my life, whether important or not, down the smallest detail, health or sickness, poverty or wealth, aridity or interior consolation, success or failure, misfortunes, losses, and struggles…. everything is permitted by Him, all is ordered by Him for my sanctification.

Everything is a grace."

(Teresa of the Child Jesus)

My goal in these challenging weeks ahead is to manage my little world with the peace and calm with which they manage their little world, to try hard to remember these lines, and to know it is all working together as it should. I don't need to understand it all nor be able to see where it's all going. I just need to remember that "sanctity does not consist in doing extraordinary things, but it is essentially reduced to the fulfillment of duty, therefore it is possible for me." (Benedict XV) I need do nothing more than the next thing, cheerfully.

24 Days Before Christmas

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Thanksgiving weekend was full of family and I haven't found my way back here to recording til now. Our son flew in from Germany. It's a huge novelty to us that any of them can be here in a couple hour's time.

Please tell me other families use their smart phones to fortify their debate positions. At one point three of us were furiously googling. Speed referencing. ; D

Saturday was the class feis for our dance school. This is the fifth year some of them have danced but the first time one of their brothers has been able to come along. After an hour he was very impressed. After 5 or 6hrs their brother was pretty sure this would hold him over for a while.

This brother manned the music.

and this one was just…done

We sent Asher back home Sunday after lots of food and hours of tv series catch up with his sister and more hours of the inane debates only my family can get wrapped around the axle over.

Trust me. We.are.crazy.

The days that followed have been steady. We brought the Christmas decorations upstairs. Sunday we set up the advent wreath. Every day we have done a little bit more after school time. Abbie and Aidan changed the wreaths on Monday. Tuesday we pulled down the autumn banner. Then we put away the Indian corn and leaf garlands and pumpkins. We replaced our centerpiece. Today we set the nativity up. It feels like a sane pacem which is good. Sane is good right now. I like sane. By Christmas Eve it will all be in place. It is an Austin family advent – minus the baby part.

Starry Sky Journal

Reflections from Starry Sky Ranch

Monthly Archives: December 2014