Bright Ideas

Roughly three or four weeks ago, in the middle of steamy-sweat-bath of a run, feeling airy, light, elated, excited, unburdened, and all those feelings I live to run for, I came up with a plan. I was going to make the kids little drawstring school bags. Something big enough for a lunch box, extra clothes, take-home art work for the refrigerator. I mentally concocted a simple pattern, that even someone like me couldn't louse up. I imagined what type of material each kiddie would enjoy. Transportation (more specifically construction) for Heath, and something with trains, or possibly animal-related for Stella.

In a post-run high, I dizzily wandered around Hancock, our local fabric store, in sweat-chilled running garb, searching for the perfect school bag fabric. I found blue construction zone cloth, loaded with dump trucks and diggers and school buses and taxis. I came up empty-handed with my train idea, but settled on a lovely brown and pink and green butterfly Hug a Tree number for Stella.

How are the bags going? Oh, swell, I tell you. The fabric is sitting in the Hancock bag, folded in their neat little untouched squares. My easy pattern? A heat exhaustion-induced hallucination. I have no idea where to begin.

How many weeks until preschool begins? Two? I think I can get them made. If not, the kids can carry their loot in the same Harris Teeter bags Heath used last year.