Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Blanket Bandit

Kids make you live life. Like break-out-the-china (and then break it) and throw-the-decorative-throw-pillows LIVE life.  They are the inspiration for living in a home that doesn’t look like the pages of a magazine (even though that does look lovely).  They make life messy, fun and real.

Something happened the other day with Judah and a quilt that made me realize magazine page homes and throw pillows actually staying where they belong is not what leaves lasting memories in life. Here’s the story.



My wonderful grandma just passed away at the age of ninety two a few months ago.  One of the precious keepsakes my mom brought home for us after sorting through her belongings was a hand sewn quilt.  I was excited to get something so beautiful to cherish Grandma Radel (Gigi) by and after fluffing it with some fabric softener, I carefully folded it and set it up just so on the back of our couch. “There,” I thought, “it should be displayed like that forever.”



That’s what I thought.  Judah had a different idea which I discovered when I went to tuck him in that night and he was just a set of dancing brown eyes with a tuft of hair poking out of a quilt burrito like a blanket bandit.

My first reaction was to get after him for using the sacred blanket.  I was just about to open my mouth and scold my 3 year old blanket thief when I broke into a grin instead.

“Well, what the heck!”, I thought to myself.  I think their “Gigi” would be smiling in Heaven if she knew her quilt was being used to keep her two little great grandsons warm at night.  In fact, I am quite sure she would prefer it be used to cover tiny toes than to adorn an empty couch.

I think it is just a little more fun when we get messy and use all the “good china” and items we are waiting (for what, exactly?) for some perfect day to use.  Let’s drink hot chocolate with our kids in those fancy mugs (with extra marshmallows, of course), have a pillow fight with those froufrou (yes, that is a word!) pillows and track snow onto the freshly cleaned floors if it means we just had a blast building a snowman outside.

Kids just seem to know this truth: life is meant to be LIVED.

"Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life" 


2 comments:

Zazzy Episodes said...

When my grandpa pasted away a few years ago at the church the funeral was being held they had handmade quilts for sale on racks right outside the kitchen door. My sisters and I asked the church staff working the kitchen if we could purchase a few quilts, so we did. Each of us girls picked out a unique handmade quilt and our mom picked on out for herself as well and we brought them home and originally wanted to use them sparingly for a memento. Then as time passed the blanket was used so much that it became worn out and now I should repair it, but it has a style and homey feel all its own. Thanks for helping me remember my own quilt story.

Tara Cole said...

That is a lovely quilt story! Thanks for sharing a bit of your heart, inspiring!