Love notes

As you probably know, my smallish girls are required to visit their biological father every other weekend, every second Wednesday evening *formerly every Wednesday, though after moving in with his girlfriend in Edmonton, 5 years ago, he changed the schedule*  as well as for half of all holidays.  He lives two hours away, so as you can imagine, the girls get very tired of traveling, spending 4 hours on the road, every other weekend. 

The Wednesday evening visits are becoming more of an issue as they are in higher grades now, being given more homework and having higher expectations from teachers re:personal responsibility for meeting expectations regardless of other commitments.  It is a lot of work for the girls to remember to take their homework back and forth and to set aside time, of their own accord, to complete the homework.  Their dad doesn’t take parental responsibility to oversee or prompt the homework….he never has, I’ve been fighting this battle since the very beginning.  When I used to bring up the subject of  un-finished homework, his response was always some version of “I only have two days with them, that isn’t my job”.  So if something has to be done, the girls have consistently had to do it in the vehicle whilst driving.  It’s a sad result produced that way.

Blerrrgh, it makes me sad that they have to be so much more grown up than they ought.  Timing their own showers and without reminders, doing their own homework, without reminders or direction or assistance, keeping track of their own medications, babysitting themselves, hiking to the store to buy their milk,.  So much.  I think I might be more conceding to the less independent behaviours than I might be if they didn’t have such demands. 

         Early last year, I saw an idea for a pocket pillow.  I decided that was the perfect idea for me to make  for the girls, as a special object to take with them, back and forth between houses.  

 An anchor item. 

I called the project “Love Note Pillow” and made it much closer to the size of a travel pillow, than the original project’s size. 

I decided that the pocket on the pillow would be used to tuck a love note from Mama in, something for them to find as they lay their heads on their Love pillow and read right before they sleep.  A connection, an encouragement, a message of love and care and hope. 

These are made of fabric from my stash, Jaala’s is the leftovers of my favourite summer “Mumu” nightie and Leisha’s is actually two pillow cases I stashed waiting to be made into something else

Each pillow has a handle sewn in, for ease of transport.    Each also has a large patch style pocket on the front, I embellished them with simple decoration.

When I originally made the pillows, I had no idea how big of a deal they would become.  It has turned into a tradition, of the girls prompting.  Now, every time they prepare to go visit their father, they bring me their pillow to tuck their love note in.  They accepted the gift I made them and joyfully take the pillows back and forth, and look forward to the simple notes I put in.  Not only that, they each have a stash of old  notes they have kept.  Sometimes when they come home, they comment on a silly cartoon I drew on their note.  It has become delightful tradition and more than I ever imagined it would be. 

I have supplies for up to 4 pillows and I would really love to provide them to a family or families, who would benefit from them as the children travel between households or for kids struggling to adjust to new care situations.  If you guys know of people who could really use an anchor item.  Let me know, via email or in the comments and I will make these supplies into pillows for some of them.

Thanks for your help!