Home alone

by Susan Sienko Thomas

The change I was looking for this year was a remodel of some of the rooms in our house. Children, a dog and the previous owners taste left me wanting to avoid going in our family room. Hershey, especially has taken a toll on the carpets. However, although the room has begun its metamorphosis, a bigger change snuck up on me. Jim left town for a fellowship program, leaving me essentially a single mother.

What a stressful time. There was no break from taking care of the girls. I took on the responsibility of collecting mail from Jim’s old office, his new office and home. I then ran it over to his new billing service. I took over Jim’s chores of picking up and dropping the girls at school, garbage, recycling, lawn mowing, weeding and watering (he has way too many houseplants!). My sleep suffered a lot, both because of time and because there was no one to wind down with at the end of the day. The girls cried often, missing their daddy. Occasionally, they ended up in my bed: sleeping with two restless ants can border on the impossible.

Despite the negatives, much of the year was rewarding to me. I continue cross stitching, though it takes longer. My major project was a wedding gift for my sister, Stephanie and her new husband David. Their wedding was fabulous, though it took some effort to get Morgan and Sydney to walk up the church aisle with all those onlookers. The girls loved the wedding party and were still dancing at eleven pm. They looked so beautiful in their blue velvet dresses.

On the family room, I stripped the old striped vinyl, 1980’s wallpaper and with some help, painted it with a ragged technique. I made the curtains out of a leaf print fabric with matching background colors. I then had the furniture recovered to match. The room has a golden glow, like a summer sunset, making time spent there relaxing and mellow.

There were other projects made possible by my new sewing machine - blinds for the bedroom, a duvet cover, a quilt and pillows. The quilt was a fund raising project for the girls Montessori school that the entire class participated in. Each family made a square another mother, Kim, and I joined them together creating a classroom quilt. It was sold at auction and raised over $600 for the class. This year I am joining again with the other mothers and we are making a teepee.

I managed quite a few trips with the girls without Jim. We went camping several times, huckleberry picking and one of the girls favorites was the Newport aquarium to say good-bye to Keiko before her trip to Iceland.

In September and October, Jim’s mom, Lillian came out and I set off on a 7 week travel whirlwind that took me to Chicago, San Antonio, Toronto and Europe. I joined Jim for our 11th anniversary in Paris, France and we travel south to Lyon, France and then Switzerland. Cafes, wine cellars, art, mountain hiking and shopping were some of the adventures awaiting us. While Jim was studying in Lyon, I ran into an American quilting group at the Musee de tissues. They invited me along on their behind the scenes tour so that I learned about the hand production process of fabrics. Franc’s prix fixe meals were special treats, lasting all evening. One night we joined the Dijon postal workers in a tiny restaurant, which led to Burgundian singing and an exchange that butchered both the English and French languages, but it was international relations at their best.

As the end of the year nears, the girls and I are excitedly looking for Jim’s permanent return. We are counting the days.