An Annotated Mantle

Mother’s Day Poster, “My Mom Can Do Anything…”
Sepia-toned pictures of boys catching and selling frog food.
My mom’s blue apothecary jar.
A first grader’s discovery into the art of drawing shapes in 3-d on the back of an envelope.
A “rattle ball” made in the rec center clay class when my oldest boys were in preschool and I was pregnant with baby number 3. Small bits of clay inside make a rattling sound.
Family portrait taken the day after Mom and Dad returned from Europe.
Clay finger bowls made in clay class from number 5.
Photograph of the massive tree house my husband built at our last house. New owners tore it down. Pictures of the boys sitting in the tree house on the day we moved were exposed by eager toddler hands, just dying to open the film chamber of the camera.
A white flat-bone china plate that was given to my parents as a wedding present. I am “sharing” the 3-d drawing her grandchild made by placing the envelope on the plate.