Dream Lab 2012 is all about inviting play, rest, and kindness into our lives, things that are often overlooked in our nonstop action-packed lives.
This essay called "The Busy Trap" by Tim Kreider is well worth a read. I especially love this line:
More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary.I can't cram 2 weeks of self-care and self-awareness into one morning. So I'm giving myself permission to stay "behind" and be ok with that. Maybe I'll "catch up". Maybe I won't. But I promise to make time for myself, to savor the lessons and enjoy them as they are meant to be done.
Last night I started putting together my "play kit", which is a box of stuff that invites me to slow down and have fun. Not surprisingly, a lot of the items were pilfered from the extra stash of stuff I have to entertain T. Because nearly everything she owns is part of her "play kit"!
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| fun in a box |
What's in it?
- A jar of bubble solution
- Reese's mini PB cups
- Bubble gum (I remember how to blow a bubble!!!)
- A brand-new Hello Kitty coloring book
- Brand-new 24 pack of Crayola crayons (only 50 cents at Target, no joke!)
- A brand new kelly green notebook
- Markers
- Awesome Pilot G2 black pen
- 2 packs of Lego minifigures (don't know what you get until you open them!)
- Cool patterned tape by Todd Oldham's new line at Target (thanks Peck Life for the tip!)
- My fabulous birthday crown
- Colored Post-It Notes
- Cute envelopes
- Play-Doh
- Little slips of paper with different "rest" and "play" activity suggestions
This morning, one of the assignments I read was to pick out something from the box and have a little fun, letting go of my stresses and mental load. So I built this little guy:
I'm pretty stoked about this class, and have "rebooted" my brain from "OMG another obligation" to "hey, look, a chance to have fun". Because THAT is what life is all about.
And also, my life is going to get much harder come October so I am going to play NOW. If anyone has a good way to fast forward through say, the first 4-5 weeks of having a newborn, please let me know :)
I don't actually remember the first few weeks of having a newborn the last time around... so maybe they were being played on FF?
ReplyDeleteAh, interesting. Maybe it's the same hormones that make you forget the pain of childbirth ;)
DeleteI remember the first 5 weeks or so in painful detail, maybe because that's how long it took before breastfeeding stopped hurting. Ick.
I remember a few flashes (like: baby so tiny... soothies are awesome... demand-induced-supply for milk sucks...DH dos a lot of walking so I can sleep... in-laws will not give me baby back...my mom is awesome...), but it's mostly a misty haze.
DeleteYep, I also remember "will not give baby back" and "soothies are awesome". :)
DeleteIt's kind of a blur for me, too. Though I will say, while breast feeding was still uncomfortable at first with G, it was so much better a lot faster than with B. Not quite like riding a bike, but having prior experience with it helped a lot.
DeleteI may be more caught up with the Dream Lab activities, but I certainly haven't done all of them. I've been trying to remind myself that it's okay if I only do the things I really want to, since the idea is to enjoy it, not have it be a chore. =)
ReplyDeleteTHAT is a really good point, too :) Thanks!
DeleteYour play kit is so cool. Fantastic idea.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely makes me giggle like a little girl every time I see it :)
ReplyDelete