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That is a weird title for this post seeing as how the sun has not come out for us for more than 10 minutes all week, making this week of packing even sadder than it already is.

Last week, I woke up with a little song in my head.  Just one line and I had not heard it in many years.  Probably about 30 years to be exact.  I woke up to a little song that goes like this…. Good morning Sunshine, Mommy says helloooo.  I stopped to savor that moment because somewhere in my brain, my heart needed to hear my momma singing to me just as she did every morning when I was little.  Have you ever heard that song?  Well, I never knew it was someone elses song until I was an adult.  To me,  that was a song that my momma made for me and I have greeted my little Matthew with it every morning since.

Last night after a long day of packing, moving issues and everything that must be done before we can move into the new house, I sat on the couch and decided to make my mommas song into something tangible.  I found the box with my embroidery stuff in it, carefully untaped it and I made this little saying to hang in Matthew’s nursery.  And oh is it silly of me that I intend to hang it in his nursery here in this house, even if for only one night?  No, I don’t think so and it brings comfort to my heart.  Win!

I came downstairs to find Erica had posted a packing plan for me on the dry erase board.  She loves to make plans that girl of mine, indeed we are so much alike.  As you can see from this list we are so very busy and it feels like there is little time left.  That thought has put a permanent knot in my stomach and I don’t think I have done anything nearly as hard in my life as what we are about to do and leave behind.  I keep thinking to myself that I cannot do this and then something will happen that will give me hope and a smile and we keep packing.  Oh those moments which I am hanging on to right now, every laugh we share here, every pretty flower outside and every meal brought over by a friend accompanied by quick little visits that are healing beyond anything you can imagine.  We are so very blessed to have friends that have showered us with for the past few days with home cooked meals and love.  I have only had to step into the kitchen to cook a few times and that is a life saver right now.

We are starting to really see the progress with the packing.  There are entire rooms that have nothing in them but boxes now.  I did pack up all the sewing machines, but that gave me too much anxiety so I unpacked my favorite one and it sits on the table in the loft..just in case I want to use it for some last little project.  There is time 🙂

Just a quick little tutorial and then back to packing.  I got this idea from a very dear friend Andy.  I was at his house for a super fun farming, permaculture, hippie sleep over last winter and at dinner time I found a basket of these in his dining room.

His napkins caught my eye because he had used the same exact bed sheet design that I had on my bed growing up.  Yep,  my momma kept one set of bed sheets per bed.  On laundry day, she stripped the bed, washed, hung them on the line and your sheets were back on your bed by bedtime.  I do the same exact thing which has helped out since we have no linen closet to speak of.

Anyhoo, back to Andy’s sleepover,  I picked up a napkin and smiled.  So simple and smart, just like my friend Andy.  They were just simple squares of fabric ripped from this one vintage bed sheet.  I filed it in my mental “must make” file and it stayed there until this weekend when I felt we needed a pick me up in the napkin section of our life.  I remembered that flowery bedsheet I had folded away for something like this.  It is super old and oh so very soft and absolutely perfect for napkins.

You can make a few dozen from one top sheet and in 15 minutes that are folded in your napkin basket because all you do is snip a little cut in the edge and rip a whole strip from the sheet.  Then just snip and rip the strip into smaller napkin sized squares.  What takes the longest time in this project is pulling the hanging threads from the side which is quite fun and not very time consuming.  When you wash them the first time, you will probably get a few more strings but no biggie.  Simple and inexpensive, so now you have another use for that bed sheet you have been saving in your stash.

Thanks Andy!