Musings… The Creative Family

As a little Christmas gift to myself, I bought Amanda Soule’s book, The Creative Family. It’s really a great investment, if you’re into crafts and ‘quality’ time… into unplugging, I suppose you could say. If it’s not your bag, then, that’s okay! It takes alllll kinds in this wide world of ours, right?

I guess I should clarify. There is no anti-technology dictum to enjoying the Soule Mama way of ‘being’. It’s just not a buy-the-newest-gaming system way. My kids have their Leapsters, and I can feel my resistance to the Wii wearing down (the WiiFit really looks pretty damn cool).

But see, I grew up with hand crafts. DOING them. I could spend hours just sorting my threads for cross stitch and embroidery. I still can find time flying by as I look at and finger yarns. (The kids, sadly can not – and I do recall that boredom as my sister and I passed time at the local notions store while we had to suffer through what felt like seventeen whole eternities while our mother chose whatever it was in there she was choosing that particular trip, so I try to spare them that torture—when I can help it!).

With Littles around, it’s been, shall we say… challenging for me to set up and maintain any order for my own yarns, etc. I can, however recall a time, before Carter was born, in that wonderful time when Bunny was three (and able to keep herself more or less out of MAMA’S stuff), when I had projects going. So, I know it looms for me. Parenthood is nothing if not a wonderful exercise in patience, and putting one’s own needs and wants aside—for a while, and not always gracefully. If only I were consistent and always understanding, like, say, Little Bear’s mother. But too bad for the kids… I’m just not, haha.

Anyway, that does not prevent me from doing some things to help foster that love of creating in the kids. It’s a win-win… I get to use my creative leanings, and also know that someday they’ll be busy with their crafts while I do my thing at their side. I believe the development experts would call it parallel play… or in this case, parallel crafting.

Gathering and collecting good supplies means I have to find places to put all this STUFF. While someday I want a large armoire with oodles of shelves, putting off until someday makes for a lot of mess today. So, I decided to think outside the box and repurpose things around the house.

I have a hutch that I picked up along the way, which was really a holding place for serving bowls and dishes, as well as linens. It’s nice to have that place for them, but in reality, they mostly collected dust, and I’m not good at remembering to dust. So I began collecting $1 containers of various types to contain categories of craft supplies and other kid stuff.

I’m not expecting House and Garden to request a photo shoot anytime soon, but I very much like that I can pull out all the painting supplies, or the Play Doh quickly. It lends to their frequent use, I am finding.