This was supposed to be a catch up of our week in art. However, this week has been a lot of work, and filing, and getting the office ready for my husband’s busy season.
Earlier this week, I came home to find Bean playing Office at the kitchen table. Other than the file box for a computer monitor, everything else is real, and is some sort of hand-me-down.
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| Bean’s office – with phone, keyboard & “monitor,” keys, cell phone, newspaper, & coffee mug |
Bean told us this evening that he wants to have 41 kids when he grows up. We asked him what kind of job he will have where he will be able to support all those kids. He thought for a minute and then said he’s going to be a builder of things. He’ll build cars, motorcycles, hot rods, motor homes, mini-bikes, also homes and trees and hotdogs.
To be in the mind of a four-year old, honestly, what a trip that would be. Anything and everything is possible to his little cheerful heart. He sees his dad build or repair things all over the property: fences, animal pens, machinery, trucks and chippers. Daddy does the shopping and makes lists. Bean makes lists in tiny notebooks he carries around with him everywhere. Also Daddy makes dinner and homemade bread, including hot dog buns.
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| There is simply nothing like the smell of homemade bread wafting through the house! My husband Rocks! |
Children mimic. If they are bouncing off the walls, I have to wonder, am I displaying a whole lot of out of balance for them? Is that why they are spinning in circles? If they freak out over every little thing, ditto, somewhere along the line, I am taking myself too seriously and falling apart over minutia. When we have order and rhythm to our lives, Bean is surprisingly cool under any number of circumstances.
I remember my dad and mom telling me that my little sister Kirsten was our family’s barometer. If anyone in our family of four girls was out of whack, out of balance or bearing a burden of any kind, Kirsten was the first to start acting out. When her little stack would blow, Dad and Mom knew that they needed to take stock and figure out who was in need. Every family has one – and it’s not a weakest link deal, it’s the person in the family who is a tender-heart and feels the sensitivities in others, senses when they are about to fall apart, and erupts in some way as an early-warning system to get everyone else back on track.
What are your early warning signs? Do bedtimes start becoming unglued, do dinners become arguing matches between siblings? What are the things that happen that show you it’s time to slow down and take stock, take some deep breaths and redirect?
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Hmmm, you really have me thinking about who our family barometer was. I think perhaps it was me! We are empty nesters now, but my hubby and children are all so calm that it just had to be me. Your 4 year old has such a great imagination! And your hubby does rock, as mine does. Mine does all the laundry, all the dishes, helps me clean house, sometimes cooks, president of the Homeowners Association, bowls on Thursday nights, and runs a million dollar office. I call him Super Hubby!
I always know I need to slow down when my son starts getting crazy. As he ramps up, I know I need to schedule some down time. Good luck!