The name of the blog is Not Enough Words . (Get it?? So Many Words, Not Enough Words…Oh, the cleverness!)

My mother was quite an accomplished seamstress. She was also quite an accomplished pack rat. So, as the natural result of these two proclivities, she always had a cookie tin full of assorted buttons left over from her many sewing projects.

Oh, the delight of running one’s fingers through the dozens upon dozens of discarded buttons! At one point, when I was attending college not too far from home, my mother would babysit often for the toddler daughter of one of our neighbors. She would bring out the tin of buttons for her to play with. (Choking hazards and other basic safety concerns never crossed my mother’s mind, but that is a story for another day.) The little girl loved to look at the buttons one by one, then take them out and line them up. Invariably, she would end up losing all control and start flinging handfuls of buttons around the living room, and my mother–who had the patience of a saint–would laughingly and good-naturedly pick them all up and put them back in the tin for another day.

Although I’ve never been what anyone would call a seamstress, I have done enough sewing in my day to have accumulated a little button collection of my own. Many of them were added as those “extra” buttons you sometimes get when you buy a new shirt or sweater. I never keep those in the little envelopes; I immediately dump them out into my own little button box. Over the years, I have amassed quite a few. It’s just a drop in the bucket compared to my mom’s collection, but it’s a start.

buttons!

It’s a bit of a trip down Memory Lane, looking at the buttons and remembering the clothes they once belonged to–a dress I used to wear to work in my New York City days, a sun dress I made for my infant daughter (who is now in college). And every once in a while, ever so quietly, I open my closet, take out my little box, and run my fingers through my buttons with reckless abandon! I haven’t started flinging them around the room yet, but you never know.

My Limerick

A man who was terribly vain

Refused to go out in the rain.

His hair would go “pouf!”

He could not stay aloof.

So he phoned work and illness did feign!

Why don’t you give it a try?

I don’t have too many photos of my mother and me together, but I chose this one because in this photo, she looks so genuinely happy. She had her share of hardships before I was born, but I think she was truly happy to be a mom, and I hope that most of her memories of me, at least until her final years, were happy ones.

I often wondered near the end of her life, when exactly was the last time I saw my mother. Sure, I saw her on the day she passed away, somewhat unexpectedly. But the real last time–the last time that she was truly herself? I’m not sure I’ll ever figure that out.

1. Sleeping in. That is, if I’m able to get back to sleep after determining that school has indeed been canceled. (Why must we always wait till dawn when it is readily apparent the night before? But I digress.)

2. Not having to go in to the office. Hee! No Merritt Parkway traffic for me!

3. Indulging in comfort food: French toast, soups, lots of tea.

4. Catching up on all those missed seasons of Mad Men.  I’m saving those for when hubby is home. But when we have a snow day on the weekend, that’s a home run!

5. Spending  time working on a jigsaw puzzle, straightening out my piles of paperwork, or reading that book that has been lying around untouched way too long. Things have to get pretty boring before this happens, but we passed “pretty boring” a few weeks ago.

6. Soaking up some time with my two teens. This is the best part of all! Even if we’re all staring at our separate laptops, just being in the same room together for extended periods of time is a rare and precious treat.

OK, so sometimes they’re a little camera-shy, but you can feel the love in this room, right??

1. Going in to the office. Working at home is great in some ways, but things are slow at the moment, and those fine folks at the office provide a pleasant diversion.

2. Going shopping with my college girl. We are almost at the end of her very snowy winter break, and there are necessities that must be procured for the next semester. Plus, we need some “girl time.”

3. Getting some French onion soup at Panera. Just saying.

4. Going to the dentist for my teeth cleaning. Yes, I am THAT bored.

5. Taking a walk outdoors. I took a nasty spill in my driveway yesterday, so I’m not doing this anytime soon.

6. Getting my mail from my (currently buried) mailbox instead of driving to the post office.

7. Going out for a mani/pedi with my college girl, even if she’s the only one mani/pedi-ing.

8. Meeting a girlfriend for lunch. It has been waaay too long.

9. Getting some roasted garlic hummus from Trader Joe’s.

10. Taking a trip to Costco and just looking at all the STUFF.

Four school cancellations, three leaky windows, two major snow storms, and a partridge in a pear tree an ice storm later, some of the “fun” has gone out of it. Icicles nearly the size of redwoods adorn our house and every other building in town. The skies are gray. The snow banks are so high–after nearly four FEET of snow in three weeks–that turning onto a street is a death-defying act. My high school boy nearly crashed his car into one such snow bank in our driveway today because of black ice. We haven’t had mail delivery in over a week because, well, our mailbox was (and still is) temporarily “unavailable” (i.e., buried repeatedly by the helpful town snowplow).

Does this look like anybody’s idea of fun? I know that winter has its own unique charms: drinking hot tea, wearing Uggs, snuggling under a blanket to watch a Mad Men marathon, for example. I get it. But I’m more than ready to trade this in for some warm sunshine and capris!

And yet, I see that four-letter word again in tomorrow night’s forecast…!

Help. Me.

In April, the whole family traveled to Dayton, Ohio to see daughter perform in the Winter Guard International world color guard championships. It was thrilling! Her team placed well within the top 10 scholastic teams in the country. Woo-hoo! Did I mention we drove there from Connecticut? And drove back? And drove, and drove, and drove….

In May, we enjoyed my son’s turn in the spotlight in a local production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” He was amazing! He sang! He danced! He brushed his teeth on stage!

June was a big month. Daughter went to prom, looking gorgeous of course. Daughter graduated from high school in an outdoor ceremony in the pouring rain. We were all so proud!

Son was back on stage in July, as Kenickie in “Grease.” We were completely blown away by his energetic performance of “Greased Lightning.” He sang! He danced! He did backflips on stage–and kept on singing! He WAS Kenickie! So proud!

August brought with it another round of marching band camp, with son beginning his stint as a drum major. We shopped, and shopped, and shopped some more for college supplies for daughter. We dropped her off at her dorm at the end of the month, said our somewhat tearful goodbyes, and came home to adjust to a changed routine and a much quieter house.

October and November were taken up, as usual, with marching band. I must admit to shedding a tear or two seeing son leading out the band as one of the drum majors. So dashing! Every weekend, we traveled to competitions–some far, most near. They won. Every week. They won their conference championships. We had no rain. The local newspaper dubbed it “a perfect season.” I won’t argue with that.

And now the year is coming to a close after a quiet, but wonderful Christmas at home with our college girl and our boy. OK, so a giant blizzard came and changed our plan of spending this cold, cold week in sunny Florida. But that means we have a few more days to enjoy our lovely Christmas tree and catch up on things that we have let slide, like this blog.

Here’s to better blogging in 2011!

Beer. I am not a beer-drinker. I never have been and at this point, I doubt that I ever will be. I find the taste of beer revolting. Unless it has the word “root” in front of it, you can count me out. I never got involved in the drinking scene in college (and certainly not in high school) so I probably missed the boat on this one. Bon voyage!

Shopping. My 18-year-old daughter thinks there is something genetically wrong with me because I have a strong aversion to shopping. I consider it an utter waste of time, only to be undertaken in times of dire need (as in the day before Christmas or when all of my pants have mysteriously, ahem, shrunk and I have nothing to wear in respectable company).  The only thing more unbearable than shopping by myself is shopping with someone else. I cannot stomach the unrelenting boredom of watching someone else ooh and aah over a pair of shoes, tear frantically through a “sale” rack for an unbelievable bargain, or just walk seemingly dumb-struck staring at displays of unnecessary clothes and accessories. The only possible exception to my rule is shopping with my son. He knows what he needs, he knows where to find it, and he wastes no time getting in and out of the mall. Awesome.

Traveling I have done my fair share of traveling in my day. I’d say I’ve done MORE than my fair share of traveling. I’ve been to Europe nine times. I’ve been all over the U.S., both for business and pleasure. I have traveled by plane, train, and yes, by automobile. But the older I get, the more I loathe being away from the comforts of home. Few and far between are the hotels that make me feel comfortable. While I won’t win any awards for cleanliness at home, I am easily “skeeved out” by any trace of dirt or previous travelers in a hotel room. I dread the thought of going through airport check-in and security lines (and let’s not even get into flying here). I need my cozy bathrobe, my warm comforter, my hot cup of tea. I need what I want when I want it, and that’s not possible on the road. Sure, I love seeing places like Paris or Malibu. It’s just the “infrastructure” that does me in.

Sushi Raw fish. Gross. What else is there to say about that?

Sunbathing Put this in the same category as shopping: a mindless, boring, pointless pursuit. When I was a teen, my mother used to shoo me outside, telling me to spend some time in the sun to try to lose my lily white complexion. Torture! Imagine my delight as it has become known that avoiding exposure to the sun is actually GOOD for you! Sweet vindication!

 I’m sure there are a lot more things I don’t get that other people love, but this is a good start! And besides, Karen already covered Matthew McConaughey, but that’s just an obvious one, right?

Crocuses!

And…

More crocuses!

And despite the fact that we are in the midst of our second round of torrential rains in two weeks, we have even had a taste–just a taste!–of some lovely weather too. So lovely, in fact, that we took a chilly stroll on the beach a few weeks ago. There’s nothing I love more than being by the water.

Hammonasset Beach, Connecticut

Whether it’s climbing on a rocky shore on the coast of Maine or sitting on a bench looking out at the sailboats in Long Island Sound, it is the most relaxing way to spend a day (especially if it involves stopping for ice cream, as it usually does). 

It’s kind of strange because I’m not a particularly outdoorsy person. I don’t relish going in the water or boating or anything. But I think it must be in my blood. My father adored the water & always had one or two little boats of his own. He would fix them up, take them out on the ocean to go fishing, even spend the night out there.

Dad

In a couple of weeks, it will be the sixth anniversary of his passing. I can’t think of a better way to honor his memory than a trip to the seashore.