I Mean Well...

My sweet, sixth, last little baby, known here by his middle name of Walter, turns one at the end of this month.  His birth was so amazing.  Pete, the midwives, my step-mother and I were all laughing while the baby was being born.  And then he was out and the mood went from joy to terror... he wasn't breathing.  He wasn't moving.  He was gray and floppy.  And the midwife couldn't fix him.

A call was made and a team of doctors came running in.  Thank you, Jesus, they were able to resuscitate him, although we took no chances and baptized him right there on my bed.  He recuperated beautifully and two days later we went home.  Three days after that he spiked a fever and we raced back to the hospital.  This time we stayed for three weeks.  Turns out our little pup has some serious kidney issues (completely unrelated to his near death/birth experience).

All of this is to say... We're throwing one heck of a first birthday party.  I know that Baby won't remember any of it.  He won't even be aware of most of it while it's happening.  But every detail that I'm putting together is a labor of love.  Sometimes I think actual labor would be easier.

Argh!  I'm so bad at this stuff!  I have no creativity or skills.  So I cheat by copying other people's ideas.  One blog that I stumbled upon was this one:  http://jackandizzy.blogspot.com/2010/05/jacks-party-in-park-part-1-dessert.html  This photo blew me away:

Everything matches!  She did all that by hand and it all matches!  The lunches are in individual boxes.  The water bottles have personalized labels.  Apparently that's a thing people are doing.  I'm totally "encorporating" that idea.  (Sounds nicer than stealing, doesn't it?)

I got another idea for decorating from Martha Stewart's blog which led me to this blog:  http://wethreepilgrims.blogspot.com/2010/06/trevor-and-i-were-so-thrilled-to-have.html  Just look at these dreamy paper pom-poms (another idea I am encorporating!):

I have to be honest, my initial reaction was to hate these women.  Here are these beautiful women with their one or two beautiful children and their beautiful homes with their beautiful party decorations crafted by hand.  I even said outloud, "Wow, their friends must hate them.".  Perfection like that makes me feel so inadequate.

I'm trying to put together a carnival for baby's birthday.  It's only 12 families but they're all Catholic, so it's 100 people.  I've been working on it for nearly a month but I feel like Sisyphus rolling that rock up the hill over and over.  No matter how much I do, I'm not getting anywhere.  Looking around at my parlor (and my bedroom and my kitchen) I see carnival supplies everywhere.  Why won't it all come together like it does for these perfect women??

Then I read more of their blogs.  Oh drats, I couldn't hate them.  They're not trying to present themselves as Practically Perfect in Every Way.  They actually sound quite nice and... normal.  In fact, as I struggle with my invitations not being centered perfectly and my pom-poms not having the ends cut perfectly and the gift tags not being hand written perfectly I want to thank Paige, the second blogger I mentioned.  She wrote the following and it has helped me immensely... I can't even tell you how much.  I hope she doesn't mind me quoting her here.  I'll go ask her.

I think that as fallen people, our creativity has several functions. It points others to behold the One who is the author of beauty. My hope is that when people take in art, they are pointed to the One who created human beings with the capacity to create like he does. I love that I can be like my Creator when I am creating. Yet this creating is done out of weakness. Everything I make bears markers that reflect my finiteness, my brokenness. Out of my weakness, I create imperfect things that are feeble attempts to talk about Beauty with another language. Even in this weakness, Christ is magnified. These things that I create are not in themselves eternal. They do not last. They can only capture tiny reflections of the Light. Christ himself is the only one who can satisfy our longing for beauty.

Wow.  I never thought of it like that.  How true and how beautiful.