Rainy Day Pseudo-Crafting

This week has been strange for a number of reasons - the weather, my usual schedule is all thrown off by several different things, and then on Monday night, My Old Man and I were interviewed again about Little Buddha's accident, this time by the local Fox News affiliate. It felt strange and surreal to tell the story again, but I was pleasantly surprised at the job they did (and also surprised that Little Buddha actually spoke on camera - briefly - about it). If you're interested, you can see it here. Notice that I'm wearing a made-by-me top!

The big reason my week is weird is that our babysitter is on vacation this week, which means My Old Man and I are juggling the boys even more than usual. I am home with the boys more (I'm usually just home in the afternoons, and then all day Friday), and you can imagine what that is like with the weather we've been having (rain, more rain, and some really frightening thunderstorms). Cooped up in the house with two three year-old boys, trying to do some work from home AND knit an occasional round ANd keep them occupied AND keep my sanity - well, it's been a bit of a challenge.

For the last year-and-a-half I've had this project in mind. Starting when the boys were about 20 months old, they developed this terrible habit of tearing up some of their best books. We got vigilant about storing books out of their reach, but still for about a year, they took turns shredding the ones they could get ahold of (including some board books we thought were virtually indestructible), which caused a lot of tears on my part. I couldn't bear to throw the books away, even the ones I couldn't put back together. So I began to collect the pieces, with the idea that I would some day glue them to construction paper and assemble them in a looseleaf notebook. A book made up of all their old books. Then I started adding greeting cards to the collection, because the boys treat the cards they receive like little books. Then I started looking at anything - the pictures I accidentally printed on regular paper, a certificate received for being in the children's choir at church, a cracker box front that had Woody and Buzz Lightyear on it. Anything became fair game. Now I have a huge bin full of this stuff, with things spilling out the top and stacked next to it, taking up space in our bedroom.

So yesterday, I finally got going on it. I only got a few pages in each book made, because, well, the boys were getting into trouble while I worked. Still, I was pleased with the results, and so were they.

(yes, Little Buddha wears his binoculars around the house)
(he also sometimes will wear his raincoat - hood up - all day,
including for his nap)

These books kept them occupied for minutes! Yes, minutes. They each looked at their own, and then happily traded and looked at each other's, and then 10 minutes later they were done. This project I've dreamed of for a year-and-a-half had a 10 minute pay off. Well, that's how it goes, I guess. [I still have many more pages to make, so maybe I can count on another 10 or 15 minutes of their being occupied sometime in the future.]

Another way we keep busy when we're stuck inside is to take goofy pictures of each other. I'm grateful I didn't have to pose with Woody (from Toy Story) this time, as I have done in the past (you won't be seeing those pics). But the boys have a lot of fun making goofy faces for the camera - I don't know what the deal is with their hands. Are they throwing gang signs? I don't know....

Happy Wednesday, y'all.