Creative Genius

We have gotten back into our normal routine of school, chores, meals, kids activities, sleep, repeat.  While it was a blessing to have my sister-in-law and two nephews stay with us for three weeks, it's also nice to get back to it just being the eight of us.  Funny, isn't it.  I used to think our house was crowded with eight!!!  All I needed was a little perspective.

Today, the girls were making a craft that called for using some tape on the back to hold a piece in place.  I don't know about your house, but around here, tape is a hot commodity.  I buy the mega pack....like 6 rolls at a time.  I have no idea what they use it for, but it's always gone within weeks.  Anyway, today I was looking all over for the tape.  I just had four new rolls last week.  The boys kept telling me, "It's all gone.  We used it all."  But I just couldn't believe them.  Sure enough, not a roll to be found.  Now, what to do about that craft that needed a piece of tape to hold it in place.  That's when I walked past the box of bandaids that had been left out on the counter.  Perfect!!  So we have two little pictures of Ruth (from the Bible) gathering wheat - and 2 real wheat stalks tucked into her basket on her back held in place with bandaids.

Later this afternoon I was outside with the kids cleaning up our pumpkin display.  We had at least 12 pumpkins carved and/or painted for Halloween.  We had set up a little table in the front yard to display them properly on Monday night.  But now that it's Wednesday....and November 2nd, it was time to clean it up.  When I came back out from running something into the house, the boys had a hammer and were taking turns whacking a pumpkin that had never been carved.  Fairly harmless fun, I thought to myself.  But then the 4 year old stepped up and wanted a turn.  She started using the "pull the nail out" side of the hammer.....hmmm.....maybe not so harmless after all.  With that, my husband came around the corner and asked very calmly, "Would you like me to call the ER now to make an appointment for the kid who hacks into their leg?"  OK.  I got the picture.  I then suggested that they work on it with their baseball bats in the middle of the yard.  One at a time.  One hit per turn.  Everyone else standing in the driveway. The two boys had their metal bats, the 2 year old had the orange toddler wiffle-ball bat, and the 4 year old had a hockey stick.  It was a good challenge.  Of course, they completely obliterated the thing.  Shredded it into hundreds of pieces.  Good clean (or dirty) fun.  And no one got hurt.