Though my thoughts when I see this are almost always about my future research or my contributions to my field, and both psychology and education in general, I found myself driving "off the edge of the map" this weekend in my mommy world as well...and, it felt fantastic!
This past weekend, we had a very small, very quick baptism for the baby because we have just been unable to set it up and decided it was best to just get it done with--no need for a large crowd. Perhaps it was because of the limited amount of fuss, or perhaps because I am just NOT a preplanner, I didn't bother to take out the girls clothes for the following day. I mean, the baptism wasn't until the next afternoon and they all had dresses in the closet, including the hand me down baptismal gown both my sister and I and my two older daughters wore. Or, so I thought. It was about 3:30, I had a whole hour to dress myself and my three freshly napped girls--man, I was in the green! I got the two oldest dressed, even allowing them a choice between two dresses each to limit melt downs. It was going so well, until I went into baby's closet to grab the baptismal gown and...it wasn't there...or in the girls' closet....or in my closet...or my husbands....or the laundry room....or the entry way closet...believe me, I checked each four times, while managing to stay surprisingly calm, because if I said anything my husband and his parents would likely freak out--especially if I acted concerned. I quickly scanned baby's closet for any white dresses, grabbing one with a black top and white dress and a white sweater...if all else failed, that would work...but it wasn't very baptismal looking. I then scanned the older girls' closet looking for white and found only a white dress that had been stained many colors by a painting party.
Then....inspiration hit....much like described in the quote above. I grabbed one of my shirts, off white with flower cutouts and embroidery across the neckline and tied it using the hanger strings so it stayed on her shoulders and clipped the back tighter with two bobby pins in the fold (so you couldn't see them) and Oila! a traditional baptismal dress that looked as if it had been handed down for generations. In fact the priest even commented on it and his assumption it had been passed down. ( I will post a photo of this when I get my hands on one!)
God knows I needed that kind of boost for when the two older girls decided a couple days later to color on the grout between about half of our kitchen tiles with crayon immediately after coloring each others faces (at least this was with magic marker). This quote helps to take the anger out of those minutes when I remind myself they are "catching fire" and "becoming wolves"
...all of that is okay, as long as revolution isn't smoldering ;)
Forgot to pose my questions to each of you...What inspires you? Do you have a personal mantra? Do you tend to find yourself more inspired in one area of your life than others? Do you experience a bleeding over of inspiration, as I described above? What do you do with that inspiration--use it? Let it burn out?
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