Motherhood is filled with lots of reason and very little possibility to keep your sanity tightly in hand. One way I manage the craziness and keep it at bay is through creative inspiration and outlet. The biggest problem with this picture isn't the inspiration or the ability... it's the time.
For every minute I spend soaking up great ideas, coming up with my own versions and breaking them out into reality... that's a minute I wasn't doing laundry, wasn't chasing the toddler around the yard in the sun, wasn't changing sheets or helping with homework. So a lot of the time those creative minutes just don't happen.
Because there are just not enough minutes for everything.
But lately I've been really feeling the need to do some basking in my creative zone.
I've been making myself take the time.
Been trying to organize all those other things a little better so there is a minute here and there if not to spare then to steal without too much damage.
At 2:45 each week day you will find me parked in my usual sunny spot in front of our elementary school. There is a stack of magazines on the passenger side floorboards of our suburban. I'm a magazine junkie and lately I just put them right in the suburban as I take them from the mail box.
So in my sunny spot I sit, flipping through my magazines. Tearing a page here and there because of something I want to remember or recreate. It's 30 minutes of blissful awareness that there is still a spark of creative joy in my soul that burns through the dust of diapers, dirty socks and dog duty.
I dream of gorgeous wedding photographs I may take someday...
I dream of dragging designer luggage down a gravel road...
My list of home projects and 'to-look-for' items grows into a many rooted tree, each branch displaying bits of my personal style...
Then the school doors open and the afternoon routine begins.
As I walk in my front door to the next part of my to-do list, I drop the finished magazines into the recycling bin and add the reaped pages and bits of articles to my stack of ideas to be pinned at a later moment to my Pinterest boards or added to my inspiration binder.
And if I'm lucky, just maybe I might even have a plan concerning supper.
Love,
Raimie Lu
Honey, scrap the magazines and join Pinterest!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm doing at 2:45pm as I wait for the throngs to rush out of the schoolhouse!
ps. It's free! :)
I also feel like attempting to create something gives me a little boost, a little clearing of the mind, and a little refreshment to keep plugging away at the never-ending to-do list of things that actually NEED to be done! There's frequently a magazine in my bag - just in case there's a dull moment. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, the joys of little kids. Just remember there will be time to create when the little kids aren't there. I have more time now, (although I don't have as much energy), and no little kids. And you do certainly need to be creative when you have little kids!
ReplyDeleteI spent several weeks doing that while I cleaned out my stash of scrapbooking mag's! Now I ditched all the magazines & get my "fix" on pintrest also!
ReplyDeleteBut I agree--You just have to keep those creative corners fed...guess that's the way we are!
I remember those drive up lines...waiting for my little ones(when they were little). :-) Trying to remember what I did...I think I read. I applaud you for using those minutes to charge your creative batteries.
ReplyDeletedear Creative Corner,
ReplyDeleteLovely way to get inspired....and it doesn't even take a battery, cord, charger....whatever. Besides actually not being a costly problem if someone were to accidently (gasp) STEP/drop/spill/etc on it in the process.
oh, I know some (ok,many) would consider me weird & qwirky... but I love being loyal to the likes of CountryLiving, BH&G, MarthaStewart, FleaMkt and a few others in their magazine form. It pleases my old-fashined soul.
Love, from my sunny spot....
down that Country road
in
NE
that pizza looks good! i love sweet potatoes..i wonder if i could sneak them past my kids in that? i'll be back to look closer at that recipe....did you pin it?
ReplyDeletepersonally..i still enjoy magazines ...flipping the pages. i haven't gotten addicted to pinterest yet for that reason...but, i get mine from the library so i can't tear them up. however, i just got a subscription to Real Simple for a fundraiser from a friend's little boy so....
you could collage all your clippings..and then there's actually a word for what you'd be doing. It's called "visioning"..look it up sometime. Lucia Cappacione..Visioning..
have fun!
I'm with the magazine lovers... I don't get many anymore but our library has a free table and I usually pick up a new stack to peruse when I stop in. So how did that pizza turn out? ;)
ReplyDelete