Making Time

I purposed this weekend to spend a more time doing intentional things with the girls. Illness, company and general duties of housekeeping distract me and sometimes I forget to be purposeful in my most important job. So Saturday I had one on one time with H. We went to the Marshall Frederick Sculpture museum. It's free and impressive, though small. The main exhibit hall is massive with many sculptures easily rising above me by more than 20 feet. I had never heard of Frederick before moving here, but he made a good living as a sculptor and many of the pieces on display are kid friendly, meaning they depict things of interest: friendly animals, images from tales H is familiar with. I wouldn't take a rambunctious toddler to the museum as it is a "No touch" place but it was fun standing in a room of giant art and asking H what she thought certain images conveyed and which sculptures appealed to her most. The museum visit only took us thirty minutes so we followed it up with a trip to Starbucks (the nearest coffee shop) where H relished her vanilla milk steamer. I think just being in the coffee shop makes her feel older.

I love one on one time with the girls and repeatedly pledge to do it regularly. I've yet to stick to my goal. I've read about mothers of old, like Susanna Wesley who spent an hour a week with each of her many kids (I think it was Ms. Wesley but I can't be sure). I love the idea. Do any of you regularly spend one on one time with your kids?


Then today we went to the Grand Opening of the new Michaels store. It's nice to have a new, bigger store opening in one of the many empty spots in the strip malls. The lines in there looked like the day after Thanksgiving. We didn't buy anything, didn't intend to. We went for the free crafts (a little lame) and stumbled on what must be the area's best face painter. She was an artist, not just a teenager volunteering to paint a rainbow. She understood that for little girls, it's all about fancy and applied generous amounts of glitter to faces when she was done. Both girls wanted..what else? Kitty faces. The hour wait was worth the results, and it was fun watching her create. We also won flowers, paintable plaster figurines, and a wood frame from the prize wheel. Definitely the best Grand Opening I've ever been to.

Meow!