Grand Memories | Emily of Keepers of the Orb

I think I first met Emily through swing dancing. She's also a girl Boy Scout (so much more so than me!) and she's married to my best friend's (Note: I miss you Anne Marie!) younger brother. As for Emily's blog, Keepers of the Orb? It is fantastic. Like, really fantastic. She started drawing comics to chronicle her first pregnancy. It is hilarious and cute and filled with very accurate, non-glamorous glimpses into life as a mother. I am excited to an embarrassing degree to have one of her comics on my blog. If you're a mom, or a mom-to-be, her blog is a must read! This comic is currently resonating with me right now!

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Hi everyone! I’m Emily from Keepers of the Orb, an illustrated blog about my adventures in parenting. I’m a mom of two girls, Lucy and Amelia, who provide me with no end of comic material. I’m so excited to be doing a guest post for Tiffany, whose blog is so full of sweet and stylish morsels (like Joseph!).

When I was a kid, my Nanna and Poppop’s house was like Disney World and the Amazon rainforest rolled into one. I imagine this was true for many of us: a magical land of exploration and adventure, where surprises hid under every leaf and no one ever said “no” when the ice cream truck swaggered down the road. Going back as an adult, first with my husband and then with my own kids, I was amazed to see the differences in this childhood Candyland. Distances that once seemed like intrepid half-day adventures turned out to be simple five-minute walks, and beloved landmarks (like Rocky) that once felt so remote actually afforded views of the neighbor’s garage, if you cared to look. But as a kid, everything felt bigger and wilder.

Rather than be disappointed in this, though, it makes me excited for the experiences my girls are going to have. It makes me want to see the world through their eyes. I wonder if the playground I take them to on a weekly basis seems, like it might have to me, to be endless, stretching on forever and ever. I wonder if my own parents’ backyard, which is big enough but not THAT big, seems like a whole subcontinent to them. I’m so glad I had those gallant childhood adventures at my Nanna and Poppop’s house, because it’s helped fuel my love for adventure and storytelling, and it’s helped me always look for those little surprises tucked away in the corners. Tinkerbell’s fairy house. A toy sailboat in a pond. Moss so deep and thick you can run across it in bare feet like a shag carpet. Tiny little chapters in a storybook to pass down to my own kids. Thanks, Nanna and Poppop!