Creativity.

I am an artist through and through. From the time I was born, countless hours spend painting with big chubby hands as a child, qualifying for state and national competitions and classes through high school and then in my five years of earning my studio art degree in college. I went back for teaching so I could teach art for six years before kids came along. I make part of my living with freelance artwork. And if I could do anything with my free hours, I would spend them painting. I love it. And admitting all that still feels so revealing and raw. It's a love I like to keep to myself. An expression I'm confident of while I'm alone, but it has always felt like I'm telling a secret when I talk about it. How much I love it. That I have a talent in that area. But I figured I could always live vicariously through my kids and their artistic endeavors...

I love creative expression of all kinds, but especially anything I can do with my hands. And since that is such an outlet for me, I assumed my kids would love it too. And while Everly loves some crafty things for a few minutes at a time, Parker won't touch it with a ten foot pole. Sometimes I bribe them to paint with me and eventually I end up at the kitchen table by myself while they run around and I'm creating a masterpiece with watered down tempera paint, alone.

But lately, they've been getting a little more interested. It's the visual accomplishment afterwards that inspires the beginning for them. We've been doing a drawing each night for their journals, but lately their drawings have gotten...inspired, big, and detailed. They are truly trying to tell a story with their pictures. And then today, Parker wanted to sew his beanbags for his party and then he painted a robot for a special t-shirt I'm making him. The creativity is beginning to grow and I could not be happier. :)