I’m finally sitting down at my computer for the first time today, and am loving the fact that it took this long! We did a lot of errands today (my sister is in town, making the process infinitely easier!) and got rid of some things that have been cluttering up the entry way … and boy do I love getting rid of stuff! It’s the best kind of therapy, next to cleaning I think. Having my sister around is good therapy too :).
We watched the Who Does She Think She Is movie last night, and while it was my 2nd time through I found it just as fascinating and thought-provoking as the first time. It reminded me how much I need to be creating things here and there, or I get pent up in strange ways. I’m not a fine artist, but do have a need to make things that’s pretty strong. Tangible, tactile things, not just websites. I love that I can rearrange and change my sites for the fun of it, with a few clicks, but making things out of paper and fabric and wood and such feeds a very different part of me. I’m not known for sticking to any one medium for very long, so wander from one to the next without getting very invested in it. I was into bookmaking for awhile, and intend to pick it up again, but it’s not calling loudly to me at the moment. I’m finally ok with the fact that I jump around, and have stopped feeling guilty about my short attention span.
I have my first knitting lesson next week, which I hope will broaden my repertoire of tools I can pick up and make things with. A friend is coming over to teach Douglas and I (it’s right up his alley) and while my grandmother taught me the basics of knit/purl about 30 years ago, the casting-on thing never caught on :) making it rather pointless. Doing it with D will be good, and that is something that the movie impressed on me. Several of the moms in the film involved their kids in their art, either directly or indirectly, and it seemed that they both really benefitted from it. Most of my creative stuff I feel like I have to do alone, and not be bothered, but I’m starting to see ways we can do it side-by-side at least, and it feels good.
That rather begs the question … what stuff do you do with your kids that you both really enjoy? I’m not talking enjoying playing with your kids at the park, but things that you enjoy for their own sake, and your kids do also. Shared passion for soccer? Collecting feathers? Running? Playing Scrabble? Speaking of games, Catherine Newman had a great pair of board-game-roundups a few weeks ago, and the older kids one is here, and the younger set’s here. Both are great if you’re looking for some family-time inspiration. It helped remind me that I really need to find someone to play Risk and such with my son, as I really can’t stand those long and involved strategy games and have trouble summoning up the desire to spend 3-4 hours playing them no matter how much I love him. Game night plans are in the works :).
There was more to the movie, but I can’t articulate it very well at the moment. Please just go see it if you can, and know that it speaks to the very thing that SaneMoms was founded on … who am I, who was I before motherhood, and how do those things live together in relative harmony?