When I have a spare moment to noodle on our current life stage and all of life’s busyness, it’s sometimes laughable to remember that we once had gobs of time to fill with amazing and educational extras.
Nowadays, those nuggets of time are definitely the exception, not the rule.
In fact, I often long for the “good, old days” when we tackled crafts and doodles and science projects and allllll sorts of extras on the regular.
Knowing those things were a choice and carried the side benefit of togetherness time that didn’t feel like a chore..deep sigh.
Those were the days.
Alas…extras are just not part of our everyday journey, right now.
Especially on school nights, our schedules are filled with homework (and more homework), instrumental practice, reading logs, extracurriculars (galore!), social commitments, meal times, shower times, puppy walks…oye.
If we ever do have a spare moment, all of us are often in need of something mindless (enter: TV or iPads).
All this to say that…project and doodle time is precious these days, and as magical as unicorns and fairy dust, and I was oh-so-grateful that we sprinkled some in, over holiday break. :)
Our first round of doodling happened one Sunday, mid-break, when one (or two?) of us in the household had a fever. We streamed the church service, and I pulled up one of our beloved online tutorials (on silent) as we listened to the sermon, and it was glorious.
It was especially glorious, since it was my Chicklet and I tackling this particular doodle, and she’s not usually the first one to join in. But she was so happy doing this (creative!) Snow Man Dragon:
And while she and I were busy doodling, Little Man was creating a step-by-step drawing guide for Sonic! How adorable. He spent so much time getting it just right.
A few days later, as we were watching a family movie (God Bless holiday break!), Little Man wandered over to the table, where I was tackling a craft project I’ll post another day. All on his own, he started hand drawing some of the characters from his book, by looking at the cover.
He spent two hours diligently drawing away, and then coloring it all in so beautifully!
Fast forward to a few days later, when he tackled another hand drawing of some of his other favorite characters.
The drawing went in the drawer when school launched again, but two nights ago, I pulled it out and asked him to color it in while I was gone with Chicklet at swim, and what a joy it was to come home to the finished product!
We laminated both drawings and they’re hanging up in a place of honor, on his white board in his room. :)
We laminated both drawings and they’re hanging up in a place of honor, on his white board in his room. :)
There was one other time during holiday break when we alllllll gathered for a doodle and it nearly made me cry to sit there in the living room, where our doodles first commenced, years ago, during Covid lockdown.
I can’t tell you what it means to me when we find these snippets of time to do something other than all of our to-do’s.
I can’t tell you what it means to me when we find these snippets of time to do something other than all of our to-do’s.
It’s precious, and I definitely don’t take it for granted, these days.
More and more, I’m recognizing the cyclical nature to our household in this current life stage. We barely have time to breathe from October to December, but then have a slight—and desperately needed!—reset after Christmas. This year, it definitely felt like the time to evaluate things we could do to optimize, well…everything.
While I understand that an abundance of time for “extras” like the days of yore might never be in the cards for us, I’m determined to find ways to keep these moments for creativity and time together, even if it’s just on breaks and over the summer.
Life passes by so quickly. The small, happy things are definitely worth the effort!
Okay, more soon, peeps!
Over and out.
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