Darkness Descends

Spooky title, eh?  But it's just referring to the fact that it is somehow, inexplicably, unexplainably winter all of a sudden.  And I'm so glad!  I love early winter nesting.  I rearranged things in the house again to make for some cozy nooks and open work spaces now that we're all indoors a lot more.  And the ladies around here have been wanting to do some crafting!

And yes, every time I use the word "crafting," I think of this hilarious Amy Sedaris book, which M&S bought me for my last birthday.  It is a good time.

We have a pretty nice collection of workbooks and other things to give us ideas.  Tonight, we worked from Fairy Things to Make and Do.  

It is also a good time.  Especially if you are five or seven.  When we first bought it a few years ago, though, we just ripped all the stickers out of it, stuck them all over our bodies, and ran around naked.  Then we never did anything with the book again, until tonight.

There is that terrible time between when we've finished dinner and when E. gets home and finishes his dinner.  It can become the tantrum hour if you let it.  The girls are prone to whininess and neediness in that half hour to hour, I'm antsy and distracted, and I don't want them to watch tv, it's too dark to play outside, and they're too grumpy to play nicely together.

So I typically try to make this weird hour "Family ________ Time."  The blank gets filled in with lots of things:  reading, knitting, art, writing, crafts.  Last week when I was trying to finish those damned Twilight books there were a couple of Family Reading Times.  It still amazes me that we can do this now that Nolie is reading chapter books.  Then there was Family Art Time, where I brought down the pastels Grambie gifted them a while back, the "special" markers (i.e., the ones that I don't want lost or chewed up), sequins, and glue.  And we went for it.  But other nights it's just white paper and markers, and that's fine, too.  And we're all knitting now, so that also works.

The key is to keep it short, maybe play some nice music in the background, have good, clear workspaces and defined boundaries, and offer lots of encouragement.  Oh, and be ready to ditch if people aren't into it.  Sometimes one feels like knitting and then one starts knitting and realizes one would rather be dancing instead.  In which case "Family Dance Party Time" should ensue.

Anyway, tonight's masterpieces were fairy castles.  Here's Addie's:

And Nolie's: