Pulling at Strings

I always wonder how God chooses parents for kids… I love my kids with every ounce of my being but they are so unlike me I wonder what lessson they were sent to teach me… I am one of those people who loves people, I can be with people all day every day and my cup will still be full, my mind is constantly thinking of twenty things at once, hence I leave jobs or chores half finished.. I try my hardest to be this structured individual who makes lists and has schedules but end up never completing what I wrote and changing the structure constantly and inevitably giving up and then starting again the following week with a new list ???..I love hugs, kisses, dancing in the rain, wait this is sounding like a lonely hearts advert let me get back to the case in point Ha Ha ha ha ha .. My first born,however, she can do people but not for long, needs personal space, dislikes lots of physical contact and she thrives on routine and predictability, she is our sensitive soul, take for instance if she falls just know there will be tears and it will be a good 15 minute session of talking the pain away and using every remedy in the house… my second born on the other hand loves adventure, fearless is the word that comes to mind when we describe her, strong willed but she too works with routine, doesn’t like too much physical contact, independent and strong willed did I already mention that, that’s because she is STRONG WILLED ? our last born is hard to say as we still learning her personality as she is four months old but what I can tell you so far is she is bossy.. when she is unhappy about something she cries and everyone hears it.. am waiting for a Neighbour to tell social services to come visit us as they hear a baby crying so much Ha ha ha ha…

So normally we manage to get by I half try be routine as I can and they bend a little to their erratic mother.. it helps that my husband is very routine so they have a constant form of stability in the house even if he is on site he calls in to say good night or morning faithfully and we know then it’s time to set the wheels in motion and get with the daily routine.. kind of like big brother watching from Musina Ha ha ha ha… This balance however falls apart when visitors come to stay..then I feel like am pulling at strings trying to find that balance of me wanting time of catching up for lost time time with my relatives and doing a million things as they live so far away and trying not to push the girls past their sensory limits…

I really struggle with this cause if am honest I usually pack so many activities in one day that by the end of it we have a melt down and there is tears before bed, the other night it took 35 min of Maya crying before she fell asleep..it’s times like those I really think why do I have such sensitive kids why can’t they just be less sensitive, did I do something to make them this sensitive, can I change it..? You see it’s not every day we have family over so I try to get as much family in as we can in the short amount of time they visit…and I did mention am a people’s person so my gauge at judging when they are reaching sensory overload is sometimes faulty??here is some family time moments, just so you can see our memories and for the girls to look back and remeber them too.. So now the week of visitors was over and we where at a point where the girls where still over emotional from all the stimulation and I was suffering from late nights with hanging out with cousins when I should be sleeping cause I have kids that wake up at 5am hangover… we plodded alone for two days trying to get back to basics… by the third day Maya asked at 5:30pm please mom can we paint for your blog and being the unstructured individual that I am I thought why the hell not so we put paint to strings and we pulled..!!

It turned out way better than i thought it would… this is what you need to string paint:

Things needed: •Wool or thin string

• Paint ( we used our favourite Dala liquid tempera)

•Plain paper (2 pieces per painting)

• A weight to put ontop of paper while pulling (we put a tray and applied the pressure by hand)

How to do it: 1. Cut a piece of string, make it fairly long..

2. Squeeze paint into a bowl and coat the string with paint..

3. Untangle string then place on paper in any pattern you like… leave a small piece over hanging at the end of paper to pull.. 4. Place another piece of paper on top.. then place a weight on top of that.. we put a tray and then placed pressure with our hands, it would work if you used a heavy book too.

5. Then pull the string..

6. Remove the tray and peel back the paper the results are really perfectly, imperfect works of art..

We layered different colours when the base colour had dried and that also gave a beautiful contrast…

Look the thing is I still don’t know how to handle my kids sometimes and it really does feel like am clutching at strings for the most part… but this activity gives me hope cause under that tray you can’t see what’s happening, same like life I don’t know what my chaotic self is doing to my girls but what gives me hope is the beautiful picture that was revealed underneath.. so I hope and pray that when they older and look back they see I was creating beautiful memories they will treasure dearly… either that or I should start saving for therapy.. but I’ll take my perfectly imperfect chances that it will be ok… what I do need to save for though is facials after cousin weekends I have bags under my eyes for days, now that I can’t live with hee hee hee

Love