Garden Harvest Soup, by Piper

Today Piper made us Garden Harvest Soup. Totally her own initiative. Set the table for us with a wet (for some reason) nappy, bowls, spoons, and serviettes. Had to be matching everything, even the spoons. She was very pleased with herself, very smiley, but had worked with great intent and obviously had a vision for how she wanted to present her soup, and how she wanted us to participate in her culinary act. It was bemusing but beautiful.

Piper took these shots, and I wish there was one of the soup. It consisted of: beans, beetroot leaves, dandelion flowers, spring onion tops and other odds and ends. No doubt very healthy! And we did eat some!

Gord and I have been reading a bit of The Art of the Commonplace: the agrarian essays of Wendell Berry, and this experience with Piper correlates directly with something he writes:

I do not believe that "employment outside the home" is as valuable or as important or as satisfying as employment at home, for either men or women. It is clear to me from my experience as a teacher, for example, that children need an ordinary daily association with both parents. They need to see their parents at work; they need, at first, to play at the work they see their parents doing, and then they need to work with their parents. It does not matter so much that this working together should be what is called "quality time," but it matters a great deal that the work done should have the dignity of economic value. (p. 68)

Piper is always playing and imagining, but I've never seen her so clearly emulate, on her own, the everyday work of cooking that Gord and I engage in almost every day. Especially settling the table like that.

Impromptu dolphin

More and more, Piper pulls out the craft stuff by herself to create whatever she's imagining in her head. Sometimes it's bemusing not to be needed, now that she knows where the scissors are and is so adept at cutting the bits of sticky tape she needs. Yes, a lot of sticky tape gets consumed around here these days! But that's all good. I've been keeping many bits and pieces that would have ended up in the recycling bin, cos invariably they get used in the next creation, as a turtle shell, or a dolphin pool, or an aquarium.

But the other morning, Piper decided she wanted to make a dolphin out of felt, which required a bit of parental presence. I probably took over the project, like did the sewing round the edge really need to be blanket stitch, or could I have just let her at it and see what happened? It's hard for the perfectionist in me to let go...

Found a picture online and printed it off as a pattern/outline.

Me sewing the blanket stitch, cos Piper didn't want to.

Taking time to snap a shot of her brother...

Stuffing the dolphin.

A new creature in a new home. A satisfyingly felty finished product. What a pity I was grumpy by the end, and what a blessing that the doorbell rang just then, announcing a friend, and an instant change of mood!

Dressing up

A pirate costume for a movie night with friends, coming together just from what we had. I love that.

Being creative in small ways

I signed up for this last night - very exciting! I figure it's just the thing to get me producing small creative stuff, and thinking creatively, rather than feeling like I have to take on a huge project and then feeling so daunted I don't do anything about it. Creativity IS the small stuff which is part of everyday life. Creativity is one's perspective. So yeah, here's to changing my perspective and undertaking some smaller, funner projects.


I guess this is an example where the creative process was fun - a cardboard castle for my daughter, complete with drawbridge (Piper's inscription: Keep Out, Bad Ones!) and horse, and probably other characters to come. I didn't feel like this needed to be perfect - that always makes it more enjoyable. I was pretty set on painting it grey, cos, you know, that's what colour castles are. But Piper was determined that it should be pink, so pink it is. Just let go, Bec, let go, and see what cool stuff happens! I love the end result - a pink princessy castle. What a joy painting is - I had forgotten. I also love how the horse turned out, kind of wobbly looking, and with a patchy painting job (courtesy of Piper), both of which mean it is totally unique. I so often follow patterns these days, that it was a lovely reminder of what I/we can create just out of a single thought.