Christmas, crafting, and mama-creativity

We are so busy here these days. Christmas is right around the corner, and we have decided this year to reeeeaaally simplify things. We were inspired by two very different people: Dave Ramsey, the Christian financial guru and capitalist extraordinaire (much to my quasi-Distributist chagrin) and Catherine Doherty, the holy poverella of Combermere.

So we're giving only homemade, handmade, re-gifted or second-hand gifts. (We've also already told our family that we want to get gifts like this as well.)

That makes for a busier pre-Christmas season (a season, of course, which is different from Advent, because we're already in the THICK of pre-Christmas now, and Advent doesn't begin until the 29th) than, say, if we were just going to our local Wal-mart and picking up bath salts and gift cards for our loved ones.

In fact, almost all of the gifts on our list are going to be home-made, that is, sewn..., that is, Mama-is-in-charge-of-the-gifts-this-year.

I am not begrudging this responsibility. In fact, I spent a joyful afternoon this week creating a little something for my favourite niece. The only problem is...

MY SEWING MACHINE ISN'T WORKING ANYMORE!

Thus, post-baby-bedtime sewing fests are a thing of the past. Now I can only sew when I'm with my mom at her house. Sure, this has the added benefit of having her entertain Noah while I work. But I can't do it every day (there are, after all, dishes to be done). I'm wondering how we'll pull it all off on time (and if you DARE suggest I hand-sew, I'll faint.).

But creating things is such a pleasure to me. I have been following three blogs since Noah was born that often inspire me, but occasionally make me feel a little useles. These women have children, (one has four, one has three, one has a baby just about Noah's age) and yet manage to make... um... everything, from household decorations, to food, to their kids' clothing, to every gift for every baby shower they ever get invited to. And they seem to have such happy, family togetherness. It amazes me, really.

I would think as I read these blogs, when will I ever get the time to do anything creative (unless you include making soup in that category?) with a baby? Let alone... gulp... MORE babies?! (which, of course, we want).

But I have realized as I've been working away at these gifts that having time to create something, albeit small, actually gives me MORE energy for the things I need to do. I used to feel envious of the mothers around me who seem to 'have so much free time to be creative'. Now I'm realizing that even busy (or at least time-management-challenged) mothers like myself can still be creative not because we have the time, but because we make it. It may mean making the dear husband look after the kiddies while crafting; it may mean simply doing crafts with the kiddies.

(Noah likes to play with my fabric scrap pile.
Hence, he's a part of our Christmas "shopping" this year.)

It's worth it, though, to make something with my own hands and feel the satisfaction of entering into a new world of domestic arts!

I am really energized! I can't wait til my next chance to go make something beautiful! (Now if only I could get that sewing machine fixed; I might actually do some sewing right now!)