Thursday, January 17, 2013

Calendar Squares....

Calendar Squares.
(I.E. - The DUMBEST thing ever. )
What is a calendar square, you ask?

To me, it is a thing that creative women thought was a good idea to make non-crafters (like myself) stress out.  It is a thing women do for themselves...I don't know a single guy who gets all stoked about a calendar square.  Seriously.

Specifically, a calendar square is an Aviator thing (I've not heard of it for other communities...please correct me if I'm wrong!). Their general work space is the "Ready Room" - where they brief and de-brief and gather - a water cooler with flight suits, if you will.  On a wall in the Ready Room, the wives figure out a large something with 31 hooks/pockets on it. Ours is actually totally awesome. One of the wives has an extremely handy Dad....and he crafted a beautiful board with our squadron name on it and everything! (That part has been edited out for safety.)  :)


While the squadron is deployed, the board is loaded with special "squares" made by various families/friends of deployed personnel.  If you have a special day of a particular month, you can pick it and then craft your calendar square to suit the occasion. Otherwise, they just get put wherever in the month.

Are you tracking?

Sweet.

I am NOT crafty. I don't scrapbook. In fact the mess and clutter created by scrapbooking totally causes me to start twitching. The Beans all have baby books....but they are (most likely) the saddest looking things you've ever seen. Nothing special. Very Boring.

Sorry Beans, I have no idea when your teeth started falling out....I was too busy keeping you fed, clothed, and alive. Just trust they fell out. Oh, and about the Tooth Fairy? She is one seriously absent-minded chick....and she's always taking vacations! Maybe she will eventually snatch that tooth within a week of you losing it. But I wouldn't bank on it.

Back to the square. You are supposed to do one each month they are deployed.
I've never done one.


Not one.
The last time he was deployed was the first time I had even heard of calendar squares. We had a 5 year old, a 3 year old, a 15 month old, and I was in my third trimester with the Boy. My Love doesn't care about Calendar Square stuff, so I told him - they aren't happening. You will know I love you because I'm feeding and bathing the children every day. 
Thankfully, he was fine with that.


Fast forward to Tuesday night....after remembering about 10million wrong times to make my calendar square, I realized I had never actually DONE it. And My Love would be leaving in the morning.  Oops.  So Tuesday night found me doing the absolute bare minimum of the calendar square.

I didn't have any pretty paper - and we were out of plain paper - so I had to glue two chore sheets together and then cut them to the correct 5x7 size.
Redneck? A little.
I prefer to say "improvisation."

I had picked Valentine's day as our date....because it actually holds a lot of meaning for us.
It's the day we met.
10 years ago.

In honor of that, I glued a picture from our dating days on my square...sharpied a couple words....punched a hole for hanging it...and was done.

On the back, I hinted at the lack of creativity to come:



Creative success? Nope.
But, I view the calendar square (if you make one) as a glorious opportunity for embarrassment.

My Love, look out - 'cause I'm getting all daughter-of-Eve-crafty on you. :)

~Whitney
 Copyright 2013

8 comments:

  1. I'll take your crappy/dumb first calendar square and I'll raise you 15 equally dumb/uncreative/crappy calendar squares. I'm like you - at the last minute I rummage through things trying to find a picture of us, or the girls, or... something... a lot of times I have to print one off asap off the picture hard drive. Then I glue it on the paper, write some uncreative words like "Hey! Love you" or "Feelin' hot, hot hot!" (hahaha, I love the irony for where they are in the world for that one with pictures of us at the beach) and send it on it's way. I choose not to waste my time or energy on calendar squares. Thankfully Andrew doesn't care either and mostly he's just sorry I have to be troubled with them at his expense. He knows I love him - calendar square or not (which I totally veto'd making a calendar square for October last year for obvious reasons :) ). So sorry you have to make them. If you need creative ideas - don't look here!!!

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  2. <3 Well It looks okay to me!! I'm laughing at Kate's first sentence! You keep at those squares, because I'm waiting to see them!!! One thing for sure, they'll be funny!! Funny is good!!!! :)

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  3. Your square looked great. Gerry LOVED his. He said every month, he looked forward to them, because just to see mine and Morgan's handwriting was comforting. Kind of like when I get a package from him, I always love his writing on the label - it is just a HUMAN reminder that he is still in existence! So it doesn't have to be anything massively creative, but he will be comforted by seeing a new photo of the kids, keeping track of how they have grown; and seeing everyone's little handprints, fingerprints, writing, or whatever. I always got my things at Wal-Mart - little stickers, etc. And I let Morgan make them and she loved it - she really liked knowing her square would be hanging up there for everyone to see and to make Daddy smile. He brought all of his back and we have each one of them - they make great memories for Morgan to keep and have some day! And on that note, I will say I HATED MAKING THEM. ha ha ha ha But Gerry loved it so much, I did it for HIM. ha ha They really are a PAIN.

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  4. It is adorable! It is you (and him)... basic and full of love.
    Aunt Sara

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  5. Submarines have them as well!!! I did them on our first deployment but the hubby doesn't care one way or the other so I don't do it any more. I don't have enough creativity for it anyway! He prefers boxes full of junk!

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  6. Yep^^^Submarines do them too. We do them as an FRG fundraiser though. You pay $1 to get the day and if there's more than one person that wants that day, you bid for it. Yours is cute. Short, sweet, and to the point!

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  7. While the squadron is deployed, the board is loaded with special "squares" made by various families/friends of deployed personnel. If you have a special day of a particular month, you can pick it and then craft your calendar square to suit the occasion. Otherwise, they just get put wherever in the month.
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Thank you for your thoughts and encouragement!