It begins with... laundry and mommy milk

When I get a free moment, maybe when the girls are napping or when J. is securing Bailey Baby in C.'s swing and C. is content to nurse while I sit at the computer, I check in on some of my favorite blogs by creative mommas. I also have incorporated visiting these delightful sites into my pumping ritual at work. In both cases, I find needed grounding and connections to others striving to think and create and be in their lives as mothers.

One blog I've been enjoying lately is apples for poppy anne. Although so many aspects of her blog have caught my attention and inspired me, I've been particularly drawn to Erin Ellenberger's weekly color exercise, "it begins with a colour". I very much like the idea of looking for and capturing a color each week.

So, I decided to take up her challenge. However, I've added my own little twist. In keeping with my efforts to weave my home and work lives together in new and interesting ways, I've decided to try to find the week's color both in my domestic and professional spaces.

This past week's assignment was white and green, and here are my first offerings:

A few discoveries I found along the way:

As I looked for these colors at work, I found myself feeling more grounded and more connected to my creative, more domestically-oriented self. I also started seeing the office I've been occupying for several years with new interest. Together, these experiences helped my therapy a bit this week. My mind had a new resting place, one that wasn't distracting from the issues at hand, but a calm, cool place to take a break during my hours of witnessing others' pain and hearing their experiences of trauma. I observed the white and green around me for a moment here and there and then was able to return to the presence I need to honor my clients' work.

I also found that looking for a common theme in the images that I captured was an interesting part of the process. I realized that diapers and pumped breastmilk together represent a sort of backbone of my days and the underlying obligations that support major decisions I've made in my mothering. Cloth diapering and nursing my girls exclusively matter to me tremendously, but time and discipline are needed to keep the system working.

I really liked that this color exercise gave me a way to honor and enhance my daily routines, and I'm looking forward to what this coming week's color(s?) will bring.