The Abandoned Button Jar

The abandoned button jar. 
Hah, 137 days. 137 buttons in one jar ready to be chosen day by day. Natalie Bird, the diamond in my gramma bevy crown and Lauren Evangeline the princess in my queens crown have surely treasured the choosing. But, life happens. Three weddings and two funerals in three weeks, fall - falling with a yard overrun from a summer of neglect and snow in the forecast. A house that has to go on the market so repair lists being made if not started yet and so the buttons fell tooo, to the bottom of the to do list.
But, alas, they call each day and are carried if not storied.
An ivory button on one wedding day and a bright green one on the other. A gray drab button on a burial day and a bright pink one on another. Two matching buttons chosen randomly by the girls on a day I had forgotten the day before - to many hoorays.
My favorite button days are always the greenhouse days when I settle into a rhythm in sync with the natural world not the rat race that can sweep me up sometimes. Those buttons get fingered and hold my attention.
Oddly on my ministry days I am so busy ministering I have not time to ponder buttons with my hands flying and my mouth cueing volunteers to shop, chop, peel, pare and prepare soup and bread and corn muffins and simple suppers. Those buttons get pulled out of pants pockets in front of the washing machine and carried to a jar with a count that is always off by one or two or.......
But I miss the button stories. I miss summing up, giving thanks, sharing joys and insights and treasures of the day. So, tonight I counted out the buttons and moved the jar from the bedroom to the office next to this computer where I start my day and end my day checking on pics of the kids making their way home after three plus years in Italy, the biggest grand darling who will be 18 soon and his doings the missives that tell me if I have forgotten something or must tend to it in a timely fashion and the endless emails from the people who are trying to help me get a job that will mean more changes. There is no making time or finding time there is only spending time and so I will spend time each day again writing button stories. It is a nice feeling to come back to it. See you tomorrow night.