Making Use of What We Have

Ah, Mondays.

They have their own way of yanking us back to the real world, sometimes with trumpets, at other times with what feels like a slap. 

Today is the first Monday of really starting the New Year.  The holidays are over.  The tree is down.  Aaron started back to school today, beginning one of many 13 to 15 hour days with him working full time and grad school part time.  And me home with the boys all. day. long.  A blessing, but still work.  Especially on cold, dank days like this with all three of us inside at close quarters, we get under each others' skin easily and often. 

So with Cranky R put down for his nap, AJ wanted to craft.  I've been battling a migraine all morning and just wanted to collapse, but I know that I have only nine months left of these afternoon crafts with him before he sets off for Kindergarten in September.

I loped into my office and shuffled through my art supplies, finding a roll of linoleum paper, markers, and left over coffee filters from our snowflakes at Christmas.  Bringing it all down to the kitchen, it dawned on me that I had a stash of wine corks I had been saving for another craft that we could dip into.  And toothpicks!  Why not?

Random stuff that in a collection made AJ twitch with wild excitement for what we could create.  Funny how he sees things like me:  the possibilities are endless, and today will be unique because of the choice I make with these things.  I know he's wild about maps, so I thought it might be fun to mimic one of my favorite artists and create an imaginative land of wonders, with pirate ships and deserted islands inhabited with hungry dinosaurs. 

So we did.  Let me just say that if you haven't already done so, melt up those old broken pieces of crayons in mini muffin tins for what around these parts we call "Color Cookies."  They make coloring a 2' x 3' sheet of paper a whole lot easier.

AJ designed his own sailboat.

AJ had great vision, and new exactly where he wanted the islands.

We're busy coloring the map with our Color Cookies as dinos wait patiently.

He added the Megaladon in the water with teeth, gills, and both dorsal and pectoral fins. 
I added the mermaid singing on a rock.

Look at that face....words can't express the fun he had.

It was sweet being able to play with him, and in our little imagination world, I realized how similar we are in our thinking, as well as our imaginations. 

I have to add here that I confess subscribing to about 35 blogs. 

Yes.  True.  They each have their niche, their focus.  The "crafting with kids" blogs, the "home school your child" encouragement blogs, the "Christian mothering" blogs, the "best wife you can be" blogs, design and DIY blogs, food blogs, entertaining blogs, and my friends' blogs.  They each fill a interest of mine personally, and I unsubscribe when their posts become predictable.  "Here's another light box sensory game," or "Here comes one more post about why Christian moms shouldn't spank," or "why Christian moms should spank," but then as soon as I cut off one blog, I find three more to take its place, a real blog Hydra.  My poor dear husband, fearful of being consumed in 30 blog posts by people he mostly has never heard of, doesn't dare open our email anymore. 

But what I loved about this day was that we didn't need to go out and follow the prescribed shopping list (how much are those bleeping light boxes any way?) we just created with what we had.
 
There are so many challenges to having a gifted child in AJ.  He's sassy, argumentative, acutely creative, overtly energetic, micro-managing, and blunt.  However, the blessings are bountiful.  He's resourceful, thoughtful, contemplative, eager to learn, willing to experiment, analytical, fiercely loyal to those he loves, a protective and tender big brother, and a son who's so sweet he melts my heart.  Many people don't get him.  In fact, most people don't.  Even our closest friends and family are baffled by him, turning away with a shrug because he's unusual.  But to me, as difficult as it is sometimes, as lonely as it is parenting a boy who is so wonderfully rare and poses challenges to which 99% of those wonderfully-scribed blogs can not even relate, I'm blessed beyond measure to be his mom.  He is a gem among stones.