The Promise of Product

I am a product person. I have known this for quite some time. Exhaustively democratic meetings where people do not come to conclusions or develop action plans at the end make my skin crawl. I sometimes struggled with teaching what's called "the writing process" to middle schoolers not because I disagreed with the steps needed to develop good writing skills but because if the goal, in the end, is for students to learn to be good writers, I believe at some point they need to actually turn in polished pieces and stop working on them. Writing texts intended for publication, which I did at the Choices Program, was quite satisfying. Every few weeks there was a shiny new book in my hand that I had participated in creating. And I love lists! There is nothing better than a whole list of things crossed off! These days I even write down "take a shower" just so that I can cross it off later and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. I know we're all supposed to live by the Life's a Journey, Not a Destination mantra, but truthfully that approach just doesn't work for me. Think about it, ruminate, consider, ask advice, do more research, but hey, at some point, whatever it is needs to get done. That's where I'm at.

Raising children is most definitely a process thing. If there are any grandparents out there who would like to chime in on when they thought, if ever, they were "done" with their parenting job, I'd be interested to hear it. My husband Martin and I have just embarked on a new discipline strategy with HG that will probably be a forever kind of thing, given the way it works (check out the books on the left column over there if you're interested in what we're doing). It's daunting and will likely be frustrating for me at times, but I'm most definitely willing to suffer some discomfort in order to give HG what she needs to grow into a confident, kind, inquisitive, and independent adult.

I'm now coming to the realization that sewing is a way for me to complete something regularly, and this is probably why I am so addicted. I can conceive of a new idea, turn it around in my head for a while, draft it out, choose fabrics, and then sew it up, and ta da! it's done! I even get to take a picture of it for all to see! Here are some pictures right now, in fact! First up is the bag I made for Christmas for HG's older sister, AM, which I thought would work for her knitting projects.

And here's the small comforter cover that was the first project I made with my new serger a month or so ago. This was a wonderful project to complete as it had been in the works for years. It took me forever to find the blue/green geometric fabric on the back to coordinate with the Sister Parish floral on the front. Now I sit under it most evenings on the couch after HG goes to bed and eat bon bons. Well, sometimes.

During periods of time when I can't sew much, such as school vacation (that's right now!) I really miss the satisfaction of being finished with something. I try to find peace in accomplishing those showers.

What about you? Process or Product?