Get Your Creative On

This morning I was feeling sorry for myself. After two weeks without a car, almost one week of somebody being sick, (which led to) one week of nose wiping two little boys and myself constantly, two weeks of being almost anti-social (except for my visiting teacher who stopped by last night and Stacy who has popped in occasionally during our two weeks of confinement and a number of friends who have contacted me to chat or by text), I felt entitled to . . . something. And I felt sorry for myself, especially when it started raining. I felt claustrophobic and cooped up, and I felt like whining to somebody and I wanted somebody to do something about it.

And then I had an inspiration, which went something like this, "Girl, get your creative on." Now that might sound a little ridiculous, and it may seem a little outrageous to believe God would speak to me that way, but it had the very useful effect of shaking me out of myself. And when me and myself were separated, I grabbed myself by my shirt front and shook myself a little and said, "Hey, you! You lucky woman! You get to stay home and get to know your two incredibly cute and wonderful little boys. You are blessed because you generally have excellent health and so does everybody else in your family. You are blessed that you ever have a car to use. You are blessed because you had an awesome date weekend with your husband [tennis on Friday night while some friends babysat and a movie at home on Saturday night]. You are blessed because you have friends to miss. You are blessed to live in such a beautiful place and because fall peeked out at you last week and made you happy. So, woman, get off your duff and decide to be happy."

So I turned to Caleb and said, "This is lame, huh? We are sick, so we can't go out. We don't have a car, so we can't go out. And it's raining so we can't go out. What should we do? I think we should use our imaginations."

And bless that little boy's heart. With glee and excitement equivalent to any person who ever won the lottery, he said, "Our i-mag-in-ations! Yay!"

So after this inner battle, I popped open our pop-up tent and made a "table fort" (where we cover the table with a blanket and throw pillows on the ground). Then we called these our houses and we loaded them up with toy phones and stuffed animals and other toy paraphernalia. Then we used our toy phones to "call" each other and meet up at the "library" (Caleb's bedroom bookshelf) and the "movies" (the couch with popcorn to watch songs from The King and I). And then Caleb called me and asked if he could come over, and we read together awhile. After this, we had lunch at a "restaurant" (a small black table with benches as the chairs, set up in the boys' bedroom). And this was followed by a "pretend adventure" (inspired by my dad) to "hike the Grand Canyon."

And the morning went beautifully with two mostly very happy boys enjoying the originality of chaos in our living room and cushions and books spread everywhere and Mom paying attention to them while promoting creative play, and I felt better about myself as a human being and as a mom. So, we will call Operation: Look on the Bright Side a complete success.