Friday, February 20, 2015

Wrestling My Muse: The Beauty in Procrastination

Wrestling My Muse: The Beauty in Procrastination: At this point, I have several things of importance hanging over my head.  I have a list of 20 or so churches that I am supposed to deliver f...

The Beauty in Procrastination


At this point, I have several things of importance hanging over my head.  I have a list of 20 or so churches that I am supposed to deliver flyers to.  I have my website to design and launch, the paperwork to incorporate my business needs to be filled out and filed, and a social media campaign to launch.  I have a half-dozen entries to finish for various writing and art competitions.  There's also the book(s) that are waiting patiently for publication, and I have to outline what I will be teaching in class next week.

Today, I thought that making up-cycled activity boards for my toddler and 1 year old far out weighed "that lot" by comparison.  The idea popped in my head from constantly looking (or trying not to look) at the disconfigured cardboard box in the corner of our livingroom that had, until last night, held every piece of mail that we had accumulated in the past year.  Hubby and I had had a mad, panic-driven dumpster dive of an evening trying to find the baby's social security card in order to file our taxes (I was SO SURE that I had filed it away).   Nope. It was in the box.

At any rate, there were two perfectly usable sides to that cardboard box that were serendipitously in the shape of tri-fold presentation boards.  Then I spied some colored popsicle sticks on the counter from a craft project last week.  And some feathers.  And aluminum foil...stickers...felt...and my trusty glue gun.  

For about 30 minutes, my toddler and I were a whirlwind of sticker backings and ribbon strips, feathers, foil, and string.  I dabbed glue here and there, smoothed out the foil, added a few spongy letters and numbers, and--Viola!--a learning and activity board for $0.

The kids explored them hapily, River pointing out to Torrin that there was an "O" in the name "Torrin" and that the Elmo stickers on Torrin's board were, in fact, River's.  All in all, I gained a happy 10 minutes of total free time upon completion of the boards, another 15 of partial free time (stating "take turns" to the boys with their boards), and then the shit hit the fan and I had to referee an all-out war over the scratch-board use on the baby's board. 

It was fun while it lasted.

Peace,
Sarah