Creative introverts have long known the secret expanse that is our own imagination. Mix in the flexible problem solving of a mindful artist, and voila – you have a well built homebound machine.

That power combo fuels something (approximate, perhaps, in memory) that I recall Louisa May Alcott teaching me in her Little Women – “destitution is the mother of invention…”

Join me, explore ordinary household items that could be transformed into an extraordinary universe for you and your little ones, while social distancing.

Please share your ideas in the comments so that my daughter and I, and many others -could explore, as well. Social distancing=Isolation? eh, nah – it’s the new Radical Interconnectedness.

Here is my recent adventure with my daughter:

1. Locate that household item you almost threw out, because it broke (ie, here – fridge drawer). Give it a new life. Watch Toy Story 4? All things have feelings, including inanimate objects. They await a fresh purpose …otherwise they should be passed along for someone else’s repurposing vision. 
2. Get your Dr. Seuss-honoring-Oobleck on…I’d like to thank Charlestown Playhouse Orange Room for traumatizing me and providing a lasting imprint on the fluid properties of Oobleck. As a parent volunteer, a few weeks ago, in truest parent-volunteer intentions, the experience made me a better parent. Because? Threshold for stress, foremost. When I was asked to CLEAN-OUT a three foot by two foot bin of WET oobleck, YES, I dang well lost my mind; but more so – when my husband said we had to preserve the FLOUR for our daughter’s upcoming birthday cake – I thought, CORNSTARCH AND WATER! Back-up plan for a morning of tactile delight with my toddler. So, I got my own Oobleck on…kinda. You can see…it turned out, SO SO…
3. OOBLECK is a 2:1 ratio, cornstarch to water, people. That’s it. And we had only so much cornstarch to work with.
4. NOW, given our OOBLECK awkardness, clumpy and goopy and some leftover very wet areas, this provided the greatest inspiration of all: LET’S CREATE AN ISLAND, WITH VOLCANIC LAVA, AND AN OCEAN. Thanks to a boost from food coloring, that is just what we created.
5. The rest of the adventure, endless…and history. Because, this time around, I knew how to clean it up. WAIT UNTIL IT ALL DRIES UP! SCRAPE, RINSE. DONE!