Creating

It's been several days since I last posted. Sometimes I think we forget to appreciate normal. We have had what closely approximates normalcy around here -- with the exception of DH's being home all the time.

Little One is thriving at school and at home. Her piano is going well. She is playing "Love Me Tender," "Rock Around the Clock," and my own favorite, "Beauty and the Beast." She enjoys playing and practices beyond the requisite thirty minutes.

She had a research project last week. Each of the kids was given the name of an inventor, and they had to write reports, prepare posters, and finally, dress as the inventor and give his biography in first person. LO was assigned Galileo. The required components of the poster were a timeline, pictures of the inventor, pictures of inventions, and a biopoem. The biopoem had to include his loves, his disappointments, and his general emotion. LO happily worked on this project and became acquainted with his legitimate and illegitimate children's names, his concurrence with Copernicus' theories, and his ultimate excommunication from the Church.

In the past two weeks I have finished refinishing a bookshelf for the kitchen, finished my first crocheting project, made an Indian dress, complete with leather fringe, for LO, and begun the floorcloth.

I began the crocheting on the Monday after DH's accident. Realizing I would be sitting at PT and Dr. offices quite a bit, I went to the library for a book on crochet. Fortunately the supplies were extremely inexpensive: $3 for a ball of cotton string and $1.67 for a crochet needle. The beginning project was a shopping bag resembling fishing net. Although it was a large project, and involved zillions of stitches, I believe they made it the first project because of its simplicity. Chain 5 and connect -- 4 zillion times. I made it in red and added a white horizontal stripe so I could figure out how to add a color. I worked really hard on it the past week or so as I was getting really sick of chain 5 and connect -- and needed to get it DONE. I finished it during Survivor this week and proudly tossed it across the room to DH. Now it's in the "bring your own" collection of grocery bags we have. A word to anyone reading this blog: Please accumulate your own cloth bags and use them instead of the markets cheesy plastic bags. Plastic bags are such a blight on this planet and we can all save a lot by each saving a little.

The floorcloth is 24" x 36". Last night, I completed drawing the design and painted the border. The design is six squares, two squares by three squares, and each square is a traditional American quilt block. I researched the quilt blocks on the Internet. I used all "nine-square" patterns, meaning each design is based on a tic-tac-toe type pattern. I have already thought about what colors to use, but today I will assign colors to areas for contrast and complementing.

DH is a guitar-playing maniac. It's so peaceful to be working on creative projects while he is playing his guitar or LO is playing the piano. This is what a home should be!

He has two weeks before returning to work. He is anxious to go, for a number of reasons. I really would have thought we would have gotten on each other's nerves by this time and I am pleased and surprised to report that the opposite has happened -- we are even closer through all this.

I am writing constantly now -- when I'm not in front of one of the computers, I am composing in my head so that I can put it down when I am. The process is quite consuming, and I find I am in a fog much of the time because I am so present in the imaginary world I am writing about. As I finish keying some in, I always email it to my yahoo account so that I can open a current copy of it regardless of my location. LO is very supportive of my writing and has a myriad of suggestions as to my stories: "You need to elaborate more, Nana," - "Be sure I understand the 'who,' 'what,' 'where,' 'when,' and 'why', Nana," and best of all, researches good illustrators to recommend to me. (smiling) Nice to have support!