old country house blog

THE MEASURING WALL


     Happy Mother’s day!!! 
(a day late)
How did you spend yours? 
With your Mom?
In Bed?
With your kids?
On the soccer field?

I spent mine quietly painting in my kitchen 
while the buzzing family life happened around me, 
I stayed in my in PJs until 5pm.
Sweet gifts and cards picked out by the kids and 
…my favorite sandwiches from my 
favorite sandwich shop and cherry pie and a cup of coffee for dinner.
My perfect day. 
and….I only vacuumed once.

I hope that everyone did something special
as a MOther
with their Mother’s 
for Mom’s everywhere.
Happy Day!


I became a mother 15 and a half years ago, 
with Tate Coltrane….

…then came Phoebe Holiday…



…and then, baby #3,  Cooper Ellington…


These are the three main reasons why 
Mother’s Day 
means Everything to me
and then of course, there is my own Mom, 
Bonnie Jean
“Nonnie” Bonnie
who I miss every day
 and who I wish was still here 
for a million and one reasons…
she would have 
DEFINITELY been able to help me with the sofa!!


Looking at these photos make me reel at how fast the time flies…
and how much they have grown
How do you measure time?
It feels like an insurmountable task at times.
But there are all the little things we do…like…

         We have a “measuring wall”, which we began when our firstborn son, Tate, was one year old. I think that this little wall is one of those combined facets of home ownership and child rearing, that, while it takes minimal time to accomplish, is invaluable and will have priceless meaning over time.

Tate, our first born,
was born in 1996,
this is the first mark,
“Tate at one year”


      In 2004, 
we moved from our “First house” 
to OUR Old Country House
and we brought this strip of moulding with us!
I put a coat of varnish over it recently
to protect the writing.
I never want to lose the marking of time….


…over time it has gotten quite full
cousins and sometimes even friends
visit and put their measurements
but mostly it is just our little family 
our special thing

recently…in one year,
 Tate grew about 7 inches
…and passed his Dad!…
…some things cannot be measured, like, how deep your love is for your family or how big your heart grows when they come into your lives. There is no way to measure how much they mean to you.

So, we do these little things, like taking little snapshots, in an effort to freeze time. The kids still grow up, and eventually move up and out, but every time I look at our measuring wall, I am reminded of where we began, how teeny they were, how fast it goes and how precious each mark is.

My Motto right now (some of it borrowed) is:
Seize the day.
 Don’t look too far ahead, 
unless airplane reservations are needed.  Be in the here and now. 
It is really truly all you have. 
Right now. 
And when you really live in THIS moment,
 there are NO worries, 
because the things that NEED to get done, 
 DO get done. 

Good things happen and so do bad things.
Sometimes really good things happen
and sometimes really really bad things.
Balance.
It is all life and when I am in the moment I am in and give it my
attention, the next moment just works better!

xoxoxo





3 thoughts on “THE MEASURING WALL

  1. We have a measuring “wall”, too! (actually it’s also a strip of moulding) And it was carefully moved when we remodeled our kitchen this past summer. And it has aunts and uncles and cousins and friends, too. So sorry about your sofa! I had a momentary thought that maybe we could barter – I’ll sew you a new slipcover and you can paint me a painting 🙂 And then I glanced over at my many rolls of fabric, my ugly furniture and remembered that I wouldn’t be able to get to it until probably July. I bet you’ll be able to do something about the sofa before then.

  2. Happy Mother’s Day… even a day late!
    Such a beautiful tribute to your children and family!
    When we moved into our new “old” house the family before had a measuring wall. (if you have never visited my blog, it was a family of 9… so the wall was quite full!) While we saved many items including the original blue prints, a letter about the building of the home, a photo of the family we found behind the old mantel, even a stud documenting each and every bathroom remodel… we did not save the measuring wall.
    Have a wonderful day!
    dee dee

  3. Love the molding with the measurements. When at my Dad’s I found pencil marks underneath the wall paper where they used to measure me. Such great memories.

    Glad you had a good day in your pjs. Those are the best.

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