pattern – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

June 2, 2019

A Family Journal

I’ve been working on two projects for each of my children. One was a crocheted blanket for each – king size, crafted from their favorites in a pattern they chose. I’ve only completed one. The second is about 15 rows from completion, but I haven’t worked on it since Thea was born. It took me 17 months for the first half of Christina’s, but during one superbowl at Louis’ dad’s house, I completed the other half! So I’m fast, but it will likely be the next week I have off – and then I’ll start on the third of seven.

The second was started in December 2016. It looks like a simple book, right?

Actually, I started a journal for Christina.

It tells family stories, I write my Bible study notes, discuss issues, and write my prayers. I tell “her story” from my perspective starting from the last page moving forward. I saved the fourteen pages in between this story and my “journal” for family. I am going to ask women in our family to write encouragement and blessing to her in their own hand in the journal before I pass it on to her.

I’ve got a central core of stories I will have in each journal – all will be slightly different because I never write the same exact words each time.

I want to write all the wisdom I’ve heard in stories from my grandmothers, mothers, fathers, and mentors in a way my children can read them when they choose. Maybe they will be encouraged, challenged, or just smile realizing that they are not alone in a struggle they feel slightly too proud or too embarrassed to ask for help about. I try to relay life and our journey in these bits. I manage to write at least once a week and direct most of my writing as if I’m talking to her. This also helps me to process my thoughts. I also have a required study day if I forget. (Which, yes, sometimes I read without studying, but at least once a week I remember to write my study!)

Such a simple little book. It holds our family memories, stories, and encouragement for a young woman. (I need to get busy on Becky’s as they are growing up too quickly for me!)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

April 2, 2019

Word Origins: Diaper

The girls and I read the “Princess Diaries” series (a series of children’s books written in diary-form about real life events as known in the lives of historical princesses and female leaders). In there, they discovered the English word for the bits of cloth covering a baby’s bottom is “nappy” or “napkin.”

This made perfect sense as the girls are quite familiar with cloth diapering and the cloth parts of a folded diaper is actually the size and shape of a dinner napkin.

This started some conversation which lead to (always, in my house!) some research. Why do Americans call baby napkins “diapers?”

Well, here’s what we found:

It seems that in the early 1800s people were beginning to commercialize the production of clothing. “Ready-made” as it was called. Cloth was already mass produced. One of the most popular patterns in cheap cotton cloth was a white color with a blocky pattern on it. When cloth napkins were first commercially (by a woman with one sewing machine!) produced, they were made with this pattern of cotton cloth because it was absorbent yet cheap. The pattern’s name? Ready? Diaper.

This was first used to describe a cloth pattern in a Shakespeare play ages before the 1800s.

So using these napkins became known as “diapering” your baby. Early advertisements between rival napkin producers used that term. Hence, within only a few years, the term “diaper” was used as the name of the article covering a baby’s bottom.

By now, over 150 years later, we still refer to napkins as “diapers,” but my children being the way they are, Thea will learn it’s called a “diaper,” “nappy,” “panal,” or whatever word they choose from our myriad of language courses they’re doing. (NO, they didn’t all choose just one!)

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

Tag: pattern

A Family Journal

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Word Origins : Diaper

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