Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Two Day

This is Day Two -- Two Day -- Today -- Tuesday.

OK, I've had some coffee. It's my last drug, and I'm leaning on it pretty hard.

I was hoping to start up the blog and the first charity knitting project (see yesterday's entry) with all the bells and whistles of blog-dom -- for instance, you will see fancy photos HERE and then THERE to the right, the list of blogs I read every morning will be so very neat and tidy. Maybe with some funny pix over there, on the other side. I am so very behind in learning all of this stuff. I am somewhere between being 70 and remembering when we called computers 'word processors.' Someday I'll know how to highlight 'first charity knitting project' above so that you instantly get all the info.

But my 10 year old, Maisie, started throwing up at 3 am yesterday morning, so my head was too fuzzy and I was doing laundry most of the day and once she woke up around 10, she and I made lightly toasted bread and water for her to take tiny mouse bites out of until we were sure her evil twin, Stomach Flu, had gone for good. (We're pretty sure -- but she could only venture as far as a small bowl of Cheerios and milk for supper, so she's home again today to try some real food.)

So my day was home nursing instead of fine tuning the blog, sure, some knitting between fetching more apple juice (noro scarf like everyone and her sister have been knitting -- this one in pretty pinks and light blues with already the best swatch of yellow and orange for my sister whose birthday is at the end of January -- wouldn't a picture of it right HERE be sweet? I hope she likes it -- January is a horrid month for a birthday and ever since Freddie Prinze died on her birthday in 1977 and we were stuck in our rural Michiana family home during a blizzard and she had to have homemade doughnuts instead of birthday cake, well, poor Dawn's birthdays are a bit fraught.)

Having a kid with stomach flu does a lot for my Gratitude TherMOMeter:

I am grateful my girls are 10 and 12 YEARS old and not MONTHS -- stomach flu, like so much else, gets easier;

I am grateful I have a washing machine and dryer (you never say 'drying machine' do you -- let's all start -- it could become a thing --- a thing machine!) inside of my house and I don't have to go down to the building basement, or down to the corner, or over to the pole barn in front of a dead corn field and use drying machines that take all your quarters;

I am grateful that I am an unemployed mom so that a kink in my plans like a sick kid means only that I can't walk the dog or show up at the clothing closet to organize things for the men's homeless shelter in my town, but it's all still accessible, it all still works, no pressure to get to work or find someone to watch her, all that.

(Sure, there's a different kind of stress to being a stay-at-home mom, but knitting helps with that. And coffee. See above -- and perhaps an entry a week from now when I LOATHE being a stay-at-home mom.)

One note about the Knitting Blankets for the Mens Homeless Shelter Project:

Stuff can be crocheted -- of course -- I am NOT an anticrochetite!

Stuff can be sewn -- of course -- I am NOT an antisewite!

(Although my 12 year old, Ella, has said that the way the word sew is spelled has always bothered her. We were at the library at the time, reading the spines in the sewing section (because Santa finally brought me my first sewing machine and you know I would SO have a photo of it here if I knew how to do it!) and I knew exactly what she was talking about. I shuddered a bit with what she has inherited from me: this odd looking at the written word. Don't get me started on how the word 'melancholy' has gotten under my skin since circa. 1967. Why couldn't my children have inherited my awesome athletic ability instead of my cerebral hiccups? Because I don't have an awesome athletic ability. Possibly that's one reason why.)

Stuff can be purchased -- of course -- I am NOT, oh, forget it. You get the idea.

One way to think of helping is allow yourself to think of helping in SMALL ways -- if you've got just the yarn, or polar fleece, for one blanket for one homeless person, that's a lot!

If you are hitting the sales at Kohl's or Target or Macy's and you can afford just one pack of XXXL long underwear, buy just that and mail it to me -- that's a lot!

If you are ordering clothes online, and can afford to have one xxxl hoodie sent to me, that's a lot!

(Andraya Dolbee, Lazarus Caucus, 6 Melvin Avenue, Catonsville, MD 21228)

I will deliver it directly to the homless person requesting it.

It's not just about keeping folks warm -- it's about getting them thermals so they can get that job working outside all day, or about getting them steel-toed boots so they can go to the interview at the construction site.

It's about people asking in their own words for what they need -- and it's about people listening and honoring what they say.

It's sometimes as simple as a blanket, a pair of boots.

It's sometimes just that simple.

And you and I? We can do simple. So many of us can, at least right now, still do simple.




1 comment:

  1. hi~

    Great cause. I will help when I can, as I grew up in Catonsville and still have loads of family there. I know the work you are doing is very important to that community.Although its carzy that I found your blog via the Mason Dixon blog- right?!?

    Have you considered posting your cause on the Raverly charity forums, such as Peace Work, Charity Knitting, ect?

    Best of luck!

    ReplyDelete