The Apron

I started wearing an apron about seven years ago. I think my husband gifted it to me for Mother’s Day one year. It was bright yellow and patterned with bees all over it. I had always associated an apron with people who were good in the kitchen. And I definitely didn’t fit into that category. I didn’t do a whole lot of cooking or baking for our small family back in those days.

I can’t say why I started wearing that apron in the first place. But I remember when I did, something very strange would happen. Almost always, I would be more productive in the work that I was doing that day. Not only that, but the work itself would have more thought put into it. It seemed the very act of putting the apron on and tying those long ribbons around the back shifted my entire perspective, and I was mentally prepared to take on the day with a more positive outlook on whatever may come my way.

Years went by, more aprons came, more babies came, (and we kept adding more live animals to our brood too!) and wearing an apron actually became a more functional part of my wardrobe. I was constantly needing a pocket to hold little things that needed carried around. Whether it was for holding treasures that the boys had found, or a place to keep my little pocket knife, or acting as an extra hand when I forgot the egg-collecting basket but had already gone out to check the coop, my apron pockets became something I just could not live without. And I can’t count the times I have had to use it as a rag for drying my hands when all of the towels somehow seem to have disappeared...or the times it has been used as a tissue to wipe away a child’s tears, or my own.

The original bee apron doesn’t get much wear very often anymore. As time has passed, I’ve leaned toward new favorites, but she will always be the one apron that started it all for me. You can still find her hanging up proudly on a hook by the pantry, ready to help me when I call her to the job.