Creative Writing Project 1

So a few weeks ago, I reviewed a book called "My Unedited Writing Year". It is a book filled with writing prompts, I think 366 of them or so and I am going through the book and following the prompts and seeing what happens. I have no grand visions of writing a book or becoming a blogger with thousands of followers. I am simply wanting to expand a hobby of mine. And don't worry, I won't post all of them here. For instance, the finishing of the story of the poodle wearing a scroll? That is classified information there. But think about it, what would you do if a poodle showed up with a sticky note on its forehead that said, "Read me" and had a scroll attached to its collar? This could happen to you, or not.

So today's project is not to post a gif on your blog, in case you're wondering. I don't really do gifs but I wanted some kind of picture to go along with this post so this is what I found. And let's face it, I liked it when I found it, but as I sit here typing, her smile and head bobbing is starting to get on my nerves, a lot.

So the reason for the gif is the project today is to write myself a permission slip. This permission slip is supposed to give me permission to do something I've been wanting to do but have held back from. I've been thinking about this off and on for a couple days since I read what the assignment was going to be. And I think I have a few permission slips I would like to write!!

But in all seriousness, I think something that has pervaded our culture is this feeling that we must always be doing something. What is the question you ask at the end of the day? "What did you do today?" I hate this question because some days I don't feel like I did anything besides keep my two children alive. I won't even say I kept them thriving, but I kept them from injuring each other permanently in their many arguments and fights. I might have done some laundry in there or maybe slopped some food on the table, but I feel very unprofitable at the end of the day. And I hate feeling unprofitable. I like to have a list that I can recite off that includes lofty things like cleaning the whole house, washing all the laundry, cooking a gourmet meal, and sewing a quilt top, along with providing sensory experiences for my children, calmly settling any petty disagreements if there happened to be any, and praising them for picking up that one toy they got out the whole day.

Are you all laughing now? Because yeah, I cleaned the house this morning and I'm a bit of a grinch when I clean. Now grinch means mean-spirited and unfriendly and I don't think I'm mean-spirited unless you put that toy in my way ONE.MORE.TIME, but I'm focused and not playful. And there is a relatively small amount of time in which their toys must all be picked up so I can sweep and vacuum. I am vacuuming and they are playing in Amber's room, running in and out of her closet and seemingly enjoying themselves. They came upstairs and were so sad that they couldn't get out toys yet and Amber exclaimed, "But mom you can't expect us to play without any toys" or some such comment. And I thought to myself, "But what exactly were you doing for the last 15 minutes but playing without any toys?" So yeah, but my house is cleaned and as I was bringing the mop back upstairs the boy-child pees on the floor. So, my question is, what is it even worth cleaning in the first place?  The good news is I could just take my mop and clean everything up as good as new.   And if I was truly a grinch I would have made them eat outside so my kitchen floor wouldn't look like lunch was served down there today.

So back to this permission slip I was supposed to write on assignment. I am giving myself permission to just be sometimes. I am giving myself permission this year to write on my blog or my notebook, to work on my handwriting or to color. I am giving myself permission to read for an hour a day. Because quite frankly, who even notices if I clean the house anyway? I hope the Man will because I told him I was cleaning and sometimes he sees this posted on Facebook and reads it and because I let the rug out by the garage door get really bad before I vacuum it so it's really obvious I cleaned. But otherwise? Nah, it's just not worth it. So this year I'm just gonna do stuff I want to do and just sit around reading and knitting in my rocking chair.

Okay, that's a bit exaggerated, but there are snippets of truth in there. I do want to take the time to write more, to practice hand-lettering, and to color. The reading is not really an issue because I get up early enough to read my hour most mornings before my day really gets started. I want to do some of this stuff with Amber during afternoon nap times--that is the part that is also easier said than done. But it would be a good thing to aim for, mother-daughter time is never wasted, right?

So this turned out to be a long post about a simple two-sentence assignment, but that's all part of it, right? 

What would you give yourself a permission slip for?