Burnt popcorn, coffee filters, inspiration, and other ponderings..

I am DEFINITELY appreciating the weather where I am. NICE sunshiny day- a plethora of various bird species happily trilling their songs into the universe. Life is wonderful. I was kind of “stressed” at this time yesterday, though.

Sometimes, creativity and inspiration arises out of the MOST curious ponderings and musings that my particular “train of thought” travels. I was “thinking” so desperately because I needed to magically come up with an art activity for the kids that attend my program. At times it can be quite challenging to have a project that all age levels will find interesting.. and engaging- AND “not too complicated”. In this mix are boys and girls ranging in age from 5- 12.. and they are SO varied with particular interests, abilities.. and attention- span. While pondering what sort of project I could possibly magically create, I was also reminiscing about.. how I managed to burn popcorn in the microwave- yet another attempt at multi- tasking gone awry. DID you know that if.. you press the “pre- set programmed times” on the microwave, it.. umm.. doubles the cooking time?? Yeah, I knew that- but in my haste.. sorta forgot. Heh.

*cough! cough!* Do you, dear reader(s) KNOW how horrible burnt popcorn smells?? Yes, indeed. Quite nasty, noxious.. and pretty hard to remove from the air. WELL. Being the sort of person that I am, I was thinking of HOW I could possibly manage to at least get the smell out of the microwave.. and looked around my kitchen to “see” what I could do. Hmmm.. I wonder what would happen if I… took those wet coffee grounds, left over from this morning’s coffee- put them (filter and all) upon a plate.. and “nuked them” for 2 minutes?? It sure couldn’t be any worse of a smell than what’s already lurking in there- and I actually LIKE the scent of coffee. So?? Yep- I gave it a try. Guess what??? It WORKED!! It actually took the smell of burnt popcorn out of the microwave AND the air!! WooHoo! *LOL* Huh. I wonder if Martha Stewart is knowing of this handy little trick. Aaahh.. she probably never burns anything- so she’d never need to be using it.

This line of thinking caused me to ponder the qualities of.. the coffee filter. Hmm.. I wonder if it would be a great way to use those nice watercolours that were recently donated to my program?? Hmmm.. AND- what could I have the kids MAKE with.. painted coffee filters??? Aha!! Yes, since I JUST had them all do a “unit” about the life cycle of a butterfly- we can make BUTTERFLIES!! Sooo.. I scrambled around, trying to find as many clothespins as I could- to use as the “body” that would hold the scrunched coffee filter in place. NICE. I had exactly 15 clothespins. Funny how the seemingly random elements of this universe sometimes do work in one’s favour. Because?? Yep- I ended up having 14 kids attend yesterday! You might be wondering what, exactly, I did with that extra clothespin, perhaps? No worries. It was the sample butterfly!

So. Without further delay- I am proud to present you, dear reader(s), with the creative talents of “my kids”. Umm.. some of the butterflies were too anxious to “make their way into the universe”- so did not waste any time drying overnight in the classroom! *LOL* I took the picture this morning, because.. sometimes I have “random ponderings”, bursts of creativity- but don’t always manage to capture the moments on film. Heh. Thankfully, some of the kids wanted their creations to be thoroughly dry before “taking flight” to their homes.

Photo

I do truly hope that you are having a wonderfully creative day. Don’t be afraid of “letting your brain wander” a little!! You never know where your “train of thought” might end up! “Happy Sparkle Thoughts” to you, dear readers, mysterious and friends alike. Darling “Miss Miserable Yankee Saritah”?? I HOPE that you remembered your sunscreen!! Umm.. yeah- I just had to “be your mom” for a minute.
PS: Umm.. and “Thank you” for your reminder of.. “Hey, Mom?? You can ALWAYS look up “stuff” on the internet, you know!!”. *blushing* Sheesh.. how on EARTH did I manage to raise SUCH perfectly BRILLIANT children??? Heh. And here I thought I was having an original idea?? JUST goes to prove that.. there are “recycled” thoughts and ideas floating around in this universe as well.

by Sue

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