A Fall Toggle Switch- Do You Have One?

Do you have one? A toggle-switch that indicates the arrival of Fall? An internal radio button pushed gently by the sigh of a falling leaf?

For me the first sign is a shift in my coffee order. Goodbye to the sweetned iced-coffee and good morning to the warm cafe au lait. Or the morning breakfast- out with the cold cereal and in with the (gluten-free) oatmeal. This colorful season, like Spring, is for me one of the most significant hallmarks of the passing of time and always seems to bring with it the opportunity to recreate one's self, one's look, one's menu! Cover that grill and bring on the soup.

At the workshop we have a similar set of changes. Sewing projects for our classes move from breezy drawstring skirts to cozy lounge pants. Crochet and knitting classes, workshops and camps make their reappearance. The very fiber (content) of the space changes as we intuitively step in time with the swirling changes taking place outside of our workshop windows. And now with our second floor that peers into the treetops, it is almost as if the the artwork of the space, via the windows to the out-of-doors, has been changed.

We all have our rituals. After you've located the sweaters and boots in your home, here are a few quick projects to do with your kids that feel like Fall:

-Make a 'Words Take Flight" mobile by tying birds and other flying things (like tumbling leaves) cut from the pages of an old book to hang from a substantial twig. This can also be installed directly to a wall rather than hung as a mobile.

-Make a menagerie of favorite animals using only fallen and found natural materials (leaves, twigs, bark) and a little school-glue (allow them to dry flat.) Make the scavenging walk as much a part of the fun as the crafting.

-Make a sculpture with a few small twigs twisted into a small piece of recycled styrofoam to represent small trees. Paint the styrofoam and even the twigs an autumnal color or a contrasting color that would never be found in nature. Or coat the styrofoam with a thin coat of school-glue and press pieces of crushed/dried leaves into the glue to create a seasonal coating. Adorn the twigs with small animals made from pom-poms (like a cardinal) or animals and leaves cut from an old paper grocery bag or thin cardboard. Use colored markers to add detail.

For me: closet-changing today, apple-picking next week, and pie is in our future. What are your plans?

Bobbleheads of Negativity

Have you ever made another driver so dissatisfied with your skill, or kindness, that they shake their head in disgust? Wait- first comes the "what the?" hand, then comes the head bobble. I've admittedly been dumb-founded by a fellow driver before. In fact, it happened just last week on one of those narrow streets that allows parking on both sides and is marked by cars-of-the-wise that have their side-view mirrors tucked back like a little bird protecting its wing feathers. There is an etiquette to navigating such a street, a kindness that one shows the driver coming in the other direction. Kind of a first-come, first-served manner in which the second vehicle pulls a tad to the side to allow the first vehicle to make the first pass. This particular woman rolled through her stop signs and barreled down the street, forcing me into, ugh, someone's side-view mirror.

So how did I respond? Ooops. There are those drivers however that use a hand gesture and then follow it up with a head-bobble that doesn't stop. Sometimes the person will still be behind me so I can see the entropic wobble. I wonder though, for those drivers that I can't see, how long does this head thing go on? Does it perpetuate another incident, rippling through all of city traffic? It's like reviews of businesses. All of the wonderful things that people write, the kind of things that bring a tear to the eye and a catch to the breath, the kinds of things that remind you why you do what you do, seem to be erased, at least momentarily, when someone takes the time to write something mean. Maybe they think they are being helpful to an unsuspecting customer (which I suppose doesn't give that customer much credit, assuming that they need to be warned of some non-obvious peril.) Maybe they are just seeking revenge for a wrong-doing that was likely never intended. But once that ripple of negativity is started....how does it end? It takes only one person, be it in cyberspace or in a group of real people.

What would happen if each of us turned that negative thought into a constructive one? One motivated by kindness. Could it create a ripple of heads bobbing up and down, saying "yes!" to good things? Well, I'll start here.

Dear ___________ (any person at whom I have ever directed negative anything), I am sorry, and I promise to do better. I appreciate that at the moment of _________ (whatever it was that happened), I could not have possibly known all of the circumstances at play. If I have an opportunity to see/work/play with you again, I promise to do better. Love, Candice.

Clean Teeth or a Clean Sink?

You would think with all of the new miracle toothpastes, there would be one that could deliver clean teeth and a clean sink (and taste good, and have no HFCS, like Tom's or Burt's- thanks guys.) The thought came to me as I scrubbed away a little chunk of paste left by my son, as I was tempted to call him back to the sink to see the evidence and learn a little something. But I thought twice- pick your battles. Dare I layer on one more responsibility when getting the teeth brushed was already a big win? Not today.

It's funny how something as little as an encounter with toothpaste can skew your entire day. We have been working fast and lovingly to prepare our new space for our after-school program, and even with the best of project plans, the scope of planned work that can be squeezed into a tiny little timeframe shrinks as little surprises pop up (and if only the little surprises could have been as easy to erase as a little toothpaste.) But we pick our battles. All of the large work is done, and the first pieces of art are on the walls, but the closets.....oh. We are blessed with a ton of storage room in the new space- something we couldn't say for the first floor of the workshop- but they threaten to become little black-holes of craft and hardware. The closets, and all of the other now seemingly insignificant line-items on the project plan, will wait for another day as we throw all of our energy into creating the most incredible after-school experience we can for an amazing group of kids. Nothing is more important.