Art Therapy

It started with a little act of kindness from my son.

It was one of those nights... when I ran out before bedtime. It was a night of "Sorry, kids, I know I said I'd read to you but I just... can't. I'll be in the bathtub."  And they didn't mind, especially since I let them watch an extra cartoon.

Then, right there in the bathtub, I got a special delivery:

"I hope you feal better soon." From PIGEON- one of my favorite characters EVER!

No, I did not correct his spelling.  

Instead I hung it up, and every time I see it, it makes me smile like crazy. 

We love all the books by Mo Willems, and I also love seeing the creativity in my budding artist.

A few days later, we were faced with another snow day. 

Another. Snow. Day.

Another opportunity for family bonding.

Another chance to exercise all of my stress-coping strategies in a single hour.

So, I decided to follow the example set by my son.

For the kids, it was craft time. For mama, it was art therapy.

And the kids' reaction, 

We gathered every one of our Mo Willems books for inspiration.  Some traced, some drew.  The crayon that was "pigeon color" was nearly used up.

It felt good to express my frustrations.

And make the kids roll their eyes: 

Lorraine reminded me that she's excited for her birthday sleepover.

Aggie drew a scene from her favorite book:

And Seth was irritated with the kids playing in the hot tub, so he drew this and hung it up in the window where they could see it.

We ended up with a shrine to Mo Willems! 

And it makes me smile :)

This was definitely one of our healthier coping mechanisms.

What are you doing to survive this never-ending winter?