Celebrating the small wins

Parenting, peacekeeping and imperfection

The time that I have available to write and repair varies hugely from week to week. I don’t feel comfortable rushing my work, though it feels like that’s part of my ongoing journey of embracing being ‘good enough’. It doesn’t have to be perfect, yet I admit that I do sometimes end up comparing myself to others. I also compare myself with…well, myself. ‘Last week I featured a beautiful repair with a detailed story, and this week all I have to share is this basic repair and little time to write about it.’ This is not helpful, so I try to focus on finding the honest stories behind what I’m working on, even if they are short and sweet.

This self-comparison is very common for nearly every Mum I know. Before I had kids, I could achieve a million things in a day. Being a parent, sometimes getting to the end of the day with everyone fed, relatively clean and in one piece feels like a win. And in fairness, that day of parenting will have been made up of a million micro tasks that we just didn’t acknowledge as being achievements.

With building work going on here, the end of term fast approaching and the many commitments that come with it – school play rehearsals, dance shows, singing, theatre shows, buying gifts for teachers – I am at my limit, and so, this week this is a mini post. Despite a lack of time, I wanted to write here again before the Christmas break, so today I thought I would share a simple Sashiko repair that I wear regularly, sometimes thrice weekly! (Not sure I’ve ever written the word ‘thrice’ before, but inexplicably it feels seasonal, somehow festive). This one is a visible, practical mend that keeps one of my pairs of jeans in use.

Before, during (with chalk lines to guide my stitches) and after.

There aren’t many process shots for this one, only before and after. And I’m not including a ‘how I did this repair’ because I have a meeting now, then more work, before I go off once again to pick up my kids, volunteer at the play rehearsal, bring them home, make them food, do a load of laundry, a bit of peacekeeping to rival UN negotiations, run a bath, brush teeth etc. No complaints. Just the stuff of life.

I’ll be taking a break on here for the next few weeks and plan to be back in the middle of January. See you then!

What’s coming up this week:

My mending pile: there are so many things that I hope to mend over my break…we’ll see how that goes.

Next week on The Mending Kit: see you in 2026!

Want to read another sashiko repair post? You can find it here: Sashiko repairs from The Mending Kit.

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