Bookswapper

The other day, I sold some wallpaper samples from my flailing Etsy store. Because I didn't have an envelope for the samples, I folded the the samples into some wallpaper and made my own wallpaper envelope. All of which reminded me of Bookswapper.de.

Today there are digital books and Kindles and iPhones, but way back when (TEN years ago, that would be, when I lived in Germany), these options were a lot less common and finding English language books in Germany, especially recently published books, was challenging. However there was Bookswapper.de. You could list your English language books and then swap them for other English language books. The system worked such that each time you sent a book to someone via German Post, you got a point in the Bookswapper system which you could then use to request a book from someone else. The book's first owner paid the price of mailing the book to the second owner. It was a relatively small cost because you could send everything media mail. Also, the cost came back when you requested a book and someone else paid. The whole system worked really beautifully. (And it didn't hurt that we lived across the street from a post office.)

It was always such a cool thing to receive something free in the mail. It was cool to send a book away, as well. I never resented it. I always enjoyed wrapping the book in some old wallpaper, in the coolest package I could make, hoping that the recipient would enjoy both the book and the packaging. It was such a small thing, and yet it gave me such pleasure to be part of this tangible community. Sometimes, I still miss it, even though I now have access to all the English language books my heart could desire.

Lego Table

Remember two and a half years ago, when I decided to make a lego table? And then it took me another year to acquire a flat file for the project? Well, I finally decided that I'm finished with the lego table. It turned out to be a lot simpler than I imagined. But it works like I hoped!

So, I'm calling it good and done. It's basically lockable casters on the bottom of a flat file. (Wheels/casters here.) Flat files are large, shallow drawers that were traditionally used for sets of architecture and engineering drawings. These days, many drawings are being stored digitally. Firms have cut back on the number of flat files they have. You can frequently find flat files for sale on Craigslist. (Wood flat files are less common than metal flat files; which is why it took a while for me to find these.)

Flat file drawers are perfect for holding legos because of how shallow they are. None of the pieces get  buried like they would in deep drawers or bins. I had planned to make the top a rimmed table top. The rim was going to be on 3 sides of the table top. I thought the rim would "hold" the legos on the top, but still allow the kids to sweep the legos into the drawers when they were done playing.

After about a year and a half of playing on it without the rim, I finally admitted that maybe it wasn't really necessary.

I did have to make some reinforcements. Originally, there was some type of cheap masonite on the backside. The kids would slam the drawers closed. Eventually, they broke the drawers (you can see the missing corners on the drawers in the first image above) and pushed off the masonite board. Then it sort of looked like this from the backside:

I hastily added some boards on the back to be supports/drawers stops at the edge. You have to look carefully to notice them, but they look and work a lot better than the masonite board:

While our house was under construction last spring, we used the lego table as our coffee table. It doubled well.

(Uck! Feels so cluttered! I am so glad we are no longer under construction. Just digging out the above photo is giving me unpleasant flashbacks.)

These days the lego table is back in Mattias's bedroom, but still getting lots of use. In fact, it is in such constant disarray from use that I had to wait for the boys to be back in school in order to take photos with the drawers closed.

Oh! And! Fritz had an old bookshelf that fit CDs and old VHS tapes. But all of our CDs have been transferred to digital files; VHS we no longer watch. So I removed the back of the bookshelf and hung it on the wall to store lego creations in progress. It might look a little funny; an acceptable trade off for fast and free:

Pulling up the Weed Barrier

I can hear them outside through the open window upstairs. I specifically decide to ignore them, and they play for almost 2 hours. They sound happy. And I fear that if I look too closely, I'll want to end their play.

Sometimes, I think this is the most important lesson I'm learning in my years as a parent: if it's not broke, don't fix it. I love to fix things! I love to tinker and repair and improve! I love to think about doing it; and I love to be surrounded in a project, up to my elbows, involved, changing and fixing. Until the line between tinkering and tampering dissolves.

At least, it dissolves with children. This I am learning: stop fixing. Let them go, let them do their own thing. They'll be occupied for a long time without your interference.

It's hard. They've dug a hole in the mulch. They've pulled back the weed barrier beneath. They dug a hole in the dirt beneath the barrier. This is not the stuff of Pinterest.

It's destructive, I tell myself. I should stop them. 

No, it's repairable, I tell myself, I should let them play in the mud, like children should do in the summer. Stop being so sanitized. Let them be the ones who are involved.

The water table has once again become the mud table. It's hard to say where the water table ends and the raised planter begins.

The herbs and vegetables and planter are getting re-muddied, I suppose. Too bad there wasn't compost under the weed barrier.

What makes it easier than a few years ago is that I can give the hose to Noah and tell him to clean everything off. And he mostly will (including a few open windows and the glass sliding door). Meanwhile, I shower off the younger ones indoors. But it will still be challenging to clean everyone while keeping them from making a bigger mess. I wish I had somebody to help me. I wish that somebody could read a book with them so that I could REALLY clean up all the mess they made. Just 20 minutes. If someone could just help me for 20 minutes afterwards, it would be so much easier (physically and psychologically!) to let them go crazy in the mud.

I don't know. I waver. I waver between wanting to let them be creative, and just wanting things to be more orderly. Somedays, I wonder how much our environment, weed barrier and all, stifles us. Stifles me? Stifles the kids? 

And somedays, I wonder if what really stifles me is the lack of time and help – just 20 minutes! – so that I can adequately spray the dumb dirt clods off the side of the playhouse and scrub dirt from beneath their fingernails without a new round of mud play beginning while my attention is diverted.