False Starts

I love watching races, when the runners are all set in their blocks in that zen state of focus and anticipation, and because of all that adrenalin and excitement, one of the runners starts before the gun.  Everyone has to start again.  Despite a few false starts this week, I'm not going to focus on the negative, like the fact that I accidentally posted only half a blog entry on Wednesday, I'm going to chalk it up to that enthusiasm and fervor we all have starting the new year.  
There were some other false starts, like the fact that I wanted to post more about the boys room.  My son was so sick that he wanted to stay home even when I threatened him with taking a nap, and when he did take that nap, and did take it in his own bed, he didn't even wake up when his new iPod alarm went off, so there was no way I could boot him out of there to take pictures. 
So I'm starting again.  First, back to Gather.  I love the idea of a word of the year.  It does the job of a resolution without being so intimidating.  So after you choose a word, you try to find an image that supports the word, and I thought I would find some cool field of dreams or something.  Not quite.  I did see those thing, but this was the image that most spoke to me:

Now, please allow me to be old-fashioned, and conservative, and pre-modern here for a moment.  Gathering is women's work.  And, despite the fact that I like to think of myself as something of a feminist, I'm liking that idea right now.  This year, besides gathering ideas for blogs and home design and writing, I'm also gathering in the sense of a traditional woman.  Gathering food, gathering from my garden, (hopefully, see here for muddy work), and gathering things that need to be sewn back together are all things that I enjoy doing.  At least for this year. 

Gathering also implies those wonderful times when we gather around a table with friends or family.  I hope to do more of it this year - have some families over for Friday night pizza, as soon as hockey season ends!

Here's what the gathering looked like last night in our house.  Charlie took out Monopoly because I told him, "No, we can't go to family game night at school... It started an hour ago, and it might snow, and mommy already has on jammie pants."  You know, a list that means absolutely nothing to your child but that you think might get you off the hook.  Not good mothering, right?  So then we hear him, playing Monopoly by himself, rolling the die, moving his guy, reading every property value and talking through whether he should buy or not.  Well, I think it tugged on everyone's heartstrings.  So about 8 minutes later, after I guilted all the older siblings into please play, just for 20 minutes, I won't even ask you to do your chores tomorrow, we all gathered around the coffee table, chose our tokens, and got busy.  An hour later we counted up our mortgages and money and the only one who beat Charlie was Daddy, by about 8 dollars.  I think he felt really bad, Daddy that is.   In the meantime, we had lots of laughs, lots of "Will you stop whistling?!" and "Whose turn is it?" and "I have to go to the bathroom..."  It was not what we had planned for the evening, but it was gathering.