Hello there! I’ve been toying with the idea of giving myself a regular feature that’s easy as a way to get me back into a regular routine of writing. The name Friday Five is what came to me and stuck. It’s not unique or particularly clever, but I like alliteration and lists and I’m always up for sharing random things that I’m into.
For a few weeks, I’ve had “write my Friday Five” on my to-do list. I told myself to just write something quick and get it up there. What are five things that have really shined for me in the past week? I even graduated the task to a few lists in my notes app – yet those lists have yet to make it to a published blog page.
Then, this morning, I was going through my Timehop memories from past years and – there it was – 6 years ago today we lost my mom. I knew the day was coming. I knew it was early(ish) April. I don’t remember it being April 11th, but I also prefer to remember birthdays over death dates, so maybe that’s why it’s fuzzy. Still, regardless of what the official day is that we lost her, I’m thinking of her today. This time of year will always be a reminder of those tough hospice months before we finally lost her. Which is why it then occurred to me that I still needed to create and PUBLISH an actual Friday Five so why not do it for her? If there was anything about my mom, she loved to proselytize her current obsession de jour so why not use her for inspiration today.
A Friday Five inspired by my mother – five things she was really crazy about:
(1) The Artists Way
I’ve written about my experience with this book and process before – and if you’ve talked to me in person, I’ve most definitely have mentioned it. This book was a favorite of my mom’s since it initially came out in the early 90s. It was always lying around, on her desk or the bookshelf in the living room. My mother flirted with writing but never had the confidence and/or time to put her work out into the world. It makes me sad for her. We came across so many writings and poems after she passed away and breaks my heart that none of it was ever shared, just mounds of yellow legal pad pages kept private in a desk drawer with her distinctive handwriting that I could recognize anywhere.
During Covid, I finally purchased the book for myself and started the process. I wish she’d still been alive so I could share my experience and let her know that I was doing it because of her. And while I’ve never fully committed to the 12 week process (yet!), the morning pages habit stuck and they are a critical part of my mental self care since that first morning in July when I began. I write for 30 minutes, pen to paper, first thing after waking up to purge my brain. Then I meditate and start the day.
When I finish up my current job and start my own personal/professional work in July, I want to commit to the full program again and do the whole thing when I can bring it my full attention. But with my experience so far, I can fully say my mom was right. This book is an invaluable resource if you are looking for tools and structure to unlock the creativity inside of you.
(2) Cambridge Wood-Fired Pottery
Mark Skudlarek is a master potter based out of Cambridge, Wisconsin. My mother was an avid collector of his work. Practically every trip home included a visit to his showroom which sits next to the enormous wood-fire kiln on the property. Skudlarek’s work is beautiful and functional. We have plates and bowls of his in our kitchen that we use every day as well as some decorative pieces throughout our house and in our yard.
I highly recommend visiting his showroom if you are visiting southern Wisconsin (he’s about 20 minutes from Madison) but you can also be added to his mailing list or look at his work online.
(3) Le Creuset
My mother was always a foodie and gourmand. She loved to cook and loved good cookware. We were pretty poor when I was younger. But around the time that I graduated high school, my mom had achieved a place professionally and financially where she could finally afford some of the high-end cookware that she’d envied for decades. She purchased her first set of Le Creuset, in very 90s appropriate hunter green, which she used religiously until upgrading to a burnt red set after building her dream house decades later. I was the lucky beneficiary of the old hunter green set and I’m happy to report that we are still using that full set of cookware to this day.
It’s expensive, but it is functional. And there is nothing sweeter than honoring her memory than by pulling out those pots and pans.
I felt like I should include a couple of nods to the media that my mother consumed. She loved film and television and theatre. Her bachelors degree was in theatre arts. She was voracious in our consumption of the arts. But the one show that I feel like she talked about THE MOST was Northern Exposure. She loved the quirky characters that reminded her of her own small town. She loved the quick-wittedness of the writing. She honestly talked about the characters like they were personal friends giving me updates on Fleischman and Maggie when I’d call her to catch up while at college.
About 6 months ago, I started watching the show again for the first time since it originally aired in the 1990s and, even now, I find it sweet and funny. It also makes me miss my mom. So if you are looking for something innocent and quirky that is a little of what-walked-before-Schitt’s-Creek could run, I recommend streaming it.
Finally, a movie suggestion: Postcards from the Edge. Meryl Streep was my mother’s favorite actor of all time – bar none. Kramer vs. Kramer, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Sophie’s Choice – all required watches during my formative years. But if I had to pick one movie of the Streep classics to feature on behalf of my mother, it would be Postcards from the Edge. I chose this one because my mom was also fascinated by Carrie Fisher and her sometimes-estranged relationship with her own mother Debbie Reynolds (which the book was about). So when Mike Nichols directed the adaptation of Fisher’s novel into a movie starting Streep with Shirley MacLaine (also a favorite actor of my mom), it was a no brainer first-see when it was released in the theaters and then very frequent video rental after that.
I recently rewatched the movie and it is good. It holds up. It’s funny. Streep is GORGEOUS, something I didn’t really pick up on at 18. And the toxic dynamic between mom and daughter resonated so much more as an adult than it ever did when I was younger. As a side note, I’d also recommend the book. Fisher is funny is hell and I almost miss her almost as much as I miss my mom.
So there it is folks. My first Friday Five in honor of my mom. We lost her 6 years ago today. But her presence does grow ever stronger in my heart. XO
hlockwoo 
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