1 Mother 2 Another

Yesterday was dominated by a bad weather
threat all over north Texas; after the events in Oklahoma on Monday
I spent the entire morning working on turning my fear over to God
and leaving Him in control of my girls. Not an easy task when
you’re a mama, but I tried. As I saw the weather forecast
predicting that the bad storm would hit right around school pick-up
time, I decided to play it safe and had the girls come home from
school after lunch.


In other words, Early Release Day.


In other words, Extra Play Day.

Within minutes of coming home, Maddie had
run to the garage and gotten out our Invention Box. The Invention
Box is where we put all the things that are broken and unable to be
Freecycled but we simply can’t bear to throw away. Examples
of such items would include a stray silver marble; plastic netting
from a bag of oranges; a rusted spark plug found in the alley; the
spring from an empty ball-point pen; and many, many toilet paper
tubes and paper towel tubes.


The Invention Box is our own little junk shop through which the
girls can rummage when they come up with an idea and want to build
it. Yes, we really geek out this way.


So Maddie got busy making a working model of a water park. A model
that’s roughly to scale, because Maddie plans on testing it
out as a model, then building it full-size for people. This summer.
And of course, every good Invention starts with a test model. Which
means Maddie roughed the idea out on paper, scavenged the Box, and
set to work. Not wanting a large tub of water and sand in our
house, I sent her outside to work until the rain started. At some
point she decided she needed art clay to finish it off, and so
happily sat on our side porch, surrounded by clay and stray
objects, puttering and muttering to herself.


Cora, not surprisingly, went straight for art projects, wanting to
do a paint-your-own-kite kit she’d just gotten for her
birthday. Unfortunately, Cora had homework to do first, and my
gentle reminder on that subject won me stares and sighs and
exhausted eye rolls. And tears. And some time to Think Things Over.


By the time Cora had Thought Things Over the storm had started, and
she decided she’d rather play a fun game – in,
coincidentally, our storm closet. She helped me get our closet all
set with flashlights and pillows and stuffed animals, then crawled
in to have some fun.


And that’s how our afternoon was spent: the girls went back
and forth working on inventions, playing with clay off and on, and
concocting elaborate games in the storm closet. We hung out in the
closet for a while putting on shadow puppet shows and telling each
other stories; the girls played board games; and we managed to have
a good time in spite of the harsh storm raging outside.


Hmmm – here’s hoping I didn’t make it TOO fun and
we have trouble going back to school tomorrow.