Revelation

Every once in a while I think we are able to take an objective look at ourselves and certain things are revealed. This Halloween, I saw what Chuck had been trying to tell me for years. I like to take the most difficult way to a certain result. Halloween parties at the kid's school were on the Thursday before Halloween. Thursday morning I was feeling pretty good about not having to do anything with either party (I know, selfish, huh?). Then around 10:30 the phone rang. Yep. The Halloween Party Room Mother. It turns out I was on the list to help with the Halloween party in Caleb's class. Since I had been out of town the week before, they thought they would wait and not bother me (until now?). :) ??? Anyway... So the party started around 2:00 and they asked me to bring cups and napkins oh, and cookies. This is when I was hit with a quandary. I could run by the grocery store and grab a bag of cookies along with my cups and napkins...OR...I could see what kind of idea I could come up with real quick and throw together before the party. So which did I choose? The easy way. ;) Caleb's teacher has been reading Charlotte's Web, so right away I knew what had to be done. Spider cookies! Somewhere I had remembered seeing a spider made out of an oreo. So off we went to the stores to find the needed supplies (which can be a bit of a challenge with our two options for shopping). Less than an hour later we were on our way to twenty five little spiders. The only problem??? I was unable to locate black licorice ropes, so I had to opt for the twists. They worked just fine, but I had to cut each leg. 25 x 8 Remember my crunched time frame (with three kids and lunch thrown in there)? Well, 200 black licorice pieces and a scissor blister later, they were complete. I had them done just in time for my wonderful husband to help me draw the webs on white paper plates and off I went to deliver them. They ended up turning out pretty cute and I had a whole lot of fun completing the challenge. As I thought about my creation condition, I realized that yes, it is a weakness. We would be much calmer around here if I would just take the easy way and buy cookies from the store. But I keep coming back to the fact that it was fun! It was fun for me to get that last minute call and say sure, I can bring cookies. It was fun to come up with something interesting to create. It was fun to see the reaction when I brought the spiders and webs to the party. And I contribute it to being able to use some of what I used to have to use all the time when I was teaching. Some good, old-fashioned creativity. Weakness or not, I think I will always work that way. Thankfully Chuck's come to grips with it too AND he still loves me. :) I'm just glad I drew the line with the cookies and didn't try to make fried spider webs to sit the cookies on like I wanted to. Maybe I'm improving just a bit?
Anna and Jake had to try their hand at it too. YUM YUM!