Sundays Dubbed Family 'Creation Day'

It is winter. We hibernate. I love the adventures and outside interactions of spring and summer, but winter is where I draw in and dive deep.

This winter we have been especially house-bond with one vehicle and a newborn, so my son has been regularly watching an hour or two of videos a day. It concerns me, but he also is stuck to my leg every other minute of the day, so I have let it go on. I feel like a bad mother.

Inspired by Momnicent's blog post about taking a Sunday as a family to unplug and reconnect to each other, I decided to make Sunday's "Creation Day" for my family.

Sundays have always been a family day for us, usually starting with a big special breakfast, like homemade waffles with whip cream and strawberries. We usually tend stick around the house, doing things to reconnect to ourselves, and things to clean up the house. So, what a perfect day to add in a creative element.

The Rules:

Everyone must create something individually on Sunday; 

Everyone must create something with another family member.

As mentioned in my post about The Essence of Creativity, being creative helps to inspire and reconnect with your unique spirit. I thought it would be a great way to make sure my family was flourishing and growing together. (Not to mention my secret agenda of getting my son away from the TV for at least one day a week).

The added bonus - by focusing on creative outlets, it overshadows more potentially spirit-robbing practices such as unhealthy/mindless eating, thinking about what to buy, shopping, watching TV, playing video games, compulsively checking emails/texts, ect. 

The Results:

First, I pumped up my family with how awesome Creation Day was for us. I told my son that he and I were going to create a "show", playing out a story for daddy. I dropped in the word superhero and he could barely contain himself for the rest of the morning. He was definitely jazzed.

After lunch, while my husband worked on a new song, my son and I got to work brainstorming our "show". First we picked characters. He chose to be Batman, and then told me to be the bad guy, named Esa. We further defined our characters on paper, so I could keep referring him back to the plan in case my son got off task. Then we outfitted ourselves in our costumes, and together created and rehearsed our "show." 

I was impressed that my son, only just three, went along well with rehearsing the same story line. We both totally got into it:

Evil Chef Esa out to poison the customers

 "Ah, I am Esa, the evil chef, mixing up dinner for the customers in my restaurant. Ha ha ha! Little do they know I am going to poison them all!!!!" 

Just then Batman comes in to save the day! "Stop that at once," says Batman. And off we go with a whole charade of fighting, including me dumping the poisonous dinner on Batman, getting lasso'ed by Batman, lots of running in scripted directions, escapes, and eventually *gasp* Esa gets clobbered by Batman, bringing the evil chef to the floor meeting her demise. The show ends with Batman putting one foot on me, thrusting his hand into the air, and screaming, BATMAN! 

Then the applause. The bowing. The hugging. The smiling. The rapid breath. The pleas to do it again. The husband scurrying out of the room as fast as he can escape.

We did it a few more times, then created two more scenarios, but less scripted, and not presented to dad. All in all, it was a deeply focused hour-and-a-half of play.

Batman

Later on, my husband and son played creatively together while I ran some errands. For my individual project, I am to hem the curtains. Okay, not so creative, but it has to get done. I figure I would do it now, and then get into some bigger fun stuff like making a rag rug for the kids room, or painting a big beautiful tree to hang in our front room.

Dedicating one day a week to harness our creativity has helped me to relax and clear my head a little. This winter has me twirling in circles of creativity and renewed focuses. So much so that my head has spinning. Now with Sundays to focus on my creative things, it frees up my energy the rest of the week for my other projects. 

My son asked to watch videos, and was a bit off quilter from our usual routine, but I just said it was Creation Day, and that its a day to play and create, not a day for TV. He was okay with it. He actually played well on his own today too. And curled up on the couch and took a nap! Shocking.

In fact, we all went to bed buzzing with life. It was a happy, fun day. Sure, there were moments of grumpiness, and scolding, and I am a bit spent, but overall it was a wonderful inspiring day. We just started out small with the creative elements, given all the extra stuff I had to get done today, but I can see Creation Sundays growing into some beautiful moments and memory making to come.

It feels so good to let the creative juices out. It really feels good to create with someone. Now, if I can just think of a way to get my husband to create something with us!