Family Treasures

Last Autumn I wrote that we threw out our guest room furniture during a frenzy of cleaning.  I felt a smidgen of guilt about it: even though the furniture was in bad shape, it had belonged to my great-grandparents.  However, I decided to quash that guilt (a rarity for me since I am very susceptible to guilt).

A few weeks later, my mother was planning to come visit after Thanksgiving and I helpfully alerted her to the fact that the guest room now has no furniture, so she would need to bring the inflatable bed.  I expected her to be a tad miffed. After all, we now had no place for her to sleep (brilliant tactic to deter guests or thoughtless, ungrateful child…you decide).  Truthfully, her reaction stunned me because she was really upset that I had thrown away family heirlooms (again, I reiterate that the furniture was falling apart, was an unusual size and would have cost more to repair than replace if we had liked the style).  I pleaded our case, but she sighed and declared:

My father always said it was the work of the next generation to destroy what came before

And that comment really pissed me off.  I don’t value something simply because of its age, ownership or monetary value.  I value something because it has meaning either to me or the previous owner, and I also think that I have the right to decide how I decorate my house and with what.

Since I sometimes think that my family perceives me to be cold and unsentimental, I thought I would show you a few things I do cherish from previous generations.

Glassware that was a gift to my father

Hope chest from my father's side of the family. I used it as a toy box as a child.

Jimmy's grandmother's rose china.

Jimmy's grandmother's rose teapot. I'm a sucker for roses and teapots.

 

Special plate from my mom's side of the family

 

My Mimi's ring. Pretty sure the stone is fake, but I have fond memories of playing in her jewelry.

 

These are just a few things.  I also have books, a turtleneck that belonged to my beloved TT (my father’s father) that I wear under a sweater, my great-grandmother’s box of costume jewelry and other odds and ends.   Sometimes I think I’m a bit like a magpie because I treasure a lot of “shiny” things (yes, I always wanted to be a princess), but they are all objects that are dear to me for various reasons.

Maybe I don’t define my family treasures the way others would, but my definition makes them no less special.  All I ask for is the right to find my own meaning.

What are some of your beloved family treasures and why?

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Out With the Old

It’s interesting to me how what’s on my mind changes throughout the day.  If I had been able to type this post earlier, my post would have been decidedly different.

Today we are in major cleaning mode.  We’ve sort of been in that mode for the last few weeks, but now we’ve rented a dumpster and have committed to cleaning out that garage (again) finally as well as throwing away all the other crap we’ve accumulated.

In addition to the acknowledged junk, we also decided to get rid of our guest room furniture today.  That furniture used to be the furniture in my room growing up and was sort of heirloom furniture from my great-grandparents. I think.  And it was falling apart.  The bed was an extra-long full, making buying sheets and comforters difficult.  The bed squeaked like crazy due to its box spring that was older than our parents.  The dresser had seen better days thanks to a mirror that was decidedly foggy and a drawers that didn’t open without great difficulty anymore.  Our hope is to get new furniture for our guest room.

Though I completely supported our decision to get rid of the furniture, I had a moment in which I felt sad as if I were turning my back on my father’s side of the family (from which the furniture came).  But I think my father would support my decision.  It’s just furniture after all and frankly, sometimes, it’s nice NOT to have everything in your house connecting you to generations that came before just because.  It’s nice to chart your own course and do your own thing, and honestly, the furniture was worn and unattractive.

Hopefully I won’t be haunted by great-grandparents gone before….

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump at All.Things.Fadra

Checking Things Off the List

Nursery furniture

Sometimes I feel like our to-do list to prepare for WB’s arrival is a mile long. And it seems to be a magical to-do list in that it appears to grow longer instead of shorter. For example, I discovered today quite by accident (thanks, E! I’ll email you later) that we would need a deep freezer to store the breast milk that F (and others) have offered to pump for us if we wanted it to last as long as possible. Oh. Good to know. And it suddenly dawned on me today that I have no idea how to prepare breast milk. I have been thinking bottles and formula even though I knew we would be using breast milk for at least a few months. How does one defrost it? Do you need to reheat it? Do I need a bottle warming appliance?

A coworker and I were chatting today about changes he needs made to a section of our website. No problem said I and then I realized that maybe I should tell him that I want to put a moratorium on major web changes after mid-May until late August. And THEN I realized that crap, that’s not far off. This year has been insanely busy for both J and I due not only to WB but also to work in general. In my head, it should be only mid-February but here we are in late March almost April. My God, later next week I might be able to say that we are having a baby NEXT month! While people know what’s going on at work (most of them anyway) and I’ve been talking about making plans for when I’m out, it suddenly occurred to me today that I really need to make and publicize plans soon. Where has the time gone? F told me that the pregnancy would go by quickly but honestly, I didn’t believe her. Yet here we are at 30 weeks (!), and I feel disoriented as I figure out how half a year passed by in the blink of an eye. Wow.

But anyway, J and I have made some progress on our to-do list. Tuesday we went to baby mecca also known as Babies R Us and ordered our nursery furniture. We walked in thinking we wanted certain pieces and within 5 minutes had changed our minds completely. I like what we picked. Unfortunately, the crib was the only thing still in stock. It will arrive in about 2 weeks. The dresser is back-ordered until mid-April, and the nightstand is on hold for about 14 weeks. The set has an armoire as well, but it also is back-ordered and we aren’t set on it. I’d love to have a fully completed nursery by the time WB arrives, but we felt like the crib was the most important thing. If the dresser isn’t in by mid-May, we’ll buy an inexpensive changing table. We had picked out a style of glider we liked but were told it would take 14-16 weeks for the glider if we wanted to change the wood or fabric. It sort of shocked both of us to tell the lady that we didn’t have 14-16 weeks. Serendipitously, BRU had assembled a second floor model of a high-end glider, and the lady told us she could knock off $100 if we bought it because she needed to move it. I sat in it and declared it wonderful, and J examined it from every angle, and we got it. I am so happy to have gotten a really nice chair for the same price we wanted to pay overall. Yay!

We also settled on a daycare. After I posted last week that J and I were thinking of a daycare close to home, he went to visit it and its sister location last Friday and declared them unsuitable. His impression was that they seemed a little lackadaisacal with security and employee relations. He just didn’t get a good vibe from them. He ended up returning to Raleigh and visiting the expensive place we toured last week as well as another daycare next door to it. He called me, excited, because he LOVED the second daycare. He said it was fresh, clean and new like we wanted. I toured it with him on Tuesday, and I loved it too. It is so nice! The rooms are carpeted, the babies look happy and the rooms are big enough that I have no fear a baby will be stepped on like I did in the other two places. The director put us on their waiting list right then and pretty much assured us of a spot in late August. That’s a relief! We both timed it, and the daycare is 10 minutes away from our offices. It’s a 3-star facility, and they are working on their 4th star. Their prices are very reasonable as well. I feel like we stumbled onto a gem of a place, and I’m happy to have friends who send their children there as well. I think that WB will be very content there, and I really like being able to visit him at lunch. Our next big task will be selecting a pediatrician, but that process has been made easier a bit by the fact that we know where daycare will be.

In other news, yeah, we reached 30 weeks on Wednesday. I’m still amazed. F said that WB kicks and moves non-stop. I love hearing that!