I often sit around thinking about how much housework sucks! You never catch up. You never finish. Everything you do is continually undone and then needs to be done again. Dishes, laundry, sweeping, dusting, bathrooms, feeding, it's enough to make me want to rip my eyes out. . . only sometimes.
I get it. That's life, I know. But when you stay at home with your kids, and that becomes your life, it can be maddening.
I never actually made a conscious decision to be a stay-at-home mom; life, lay offs, moves, deaths, anxiety, births, convenience, depression, a change of heart and a deep love for a little house in the woods led me here. I didn't exactly opt out of the workforce, I more faded out, and I don't really want to opt in again.
But I love staying at home. I can read, write, cook, fix things, make things, think deep thoughts and hang with the little ones and the animals. As am a bit of a hermit, this life in the woods suits me.
This project - a granny a day, everyday, for a year - was conceived as a way to represent this very dichotomy. I wanted to celebrate the inspiring beauty and mimic the mind numbing drudgery of my domestic life. Ultimately each square is symbolic of the work that goes into keeping up a home, raising little ones, and just living.
While I am worried about my ability to do this everyday for the entire year, today I'm celebrating the fact that I made it a whole month.
When I look at this stack I see a manifestion of every meal made, every diaper changed, every tear dried, every load of laundry done and so on. I can't wait to have twelve stacks to look at.
My plan is to tag each one and eventually pin them, in order, onto a large sheet of burlap so that I can display them on my workshop wall for a bit. Maybe I'll stack them up and stand beside them. I hope they are taller than me. After that I'll be making blankets for the three little ones.
And my favorite granny of the month?
Now on to February. . . .
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