Creating Tiny Bits of Order Amidst Chaos 2
Hello. I have uploaded 10 photos that represent ways I have exercised my creativity during the pandemic. The pandemic started when my son was 6 months old. He is now 2 years old. He has never even been to a grocery store. During the pandemic, I have felt very isolated as a new mother, especially because I am not working. So one way I have tried to deal with this isolation is to find creative ways to show people I care about them. One way is to make bento box style lunches and dinners for my son. Even though he is too young to remember these, and half or 3/4 of it ends up on the floor, it gives me pleasure to make his meal look colorful and inviting. I like showing him that I care about him by giving him meals like this. I don't have time to do this every day, and they certainly don't look like some of the pictures I see on instagram. But it's just my little way of both using my creativity, which really has no other outlet since I'm not working, and showing my son I care about what he eats. It has also helped me focus on designing balanced nutritional meals for him since I have different compartments to fill.
Next, there is a picture of a salad and snack lunch I prepared for my husband who is a teacher. Lunch at school is a scary thing these days because you have to take your mask off. It's also very stressful to be a teacher right now. So I wanted to show my husband I cared about him by giving him a colorful, healthy salad and some nice snacks to eat. There are two pictures in this group - the salad itself, and the snacks that fit on top of the Bentgo salad container. The cup in the middle has lime juice which he uses as a dressing.
Next there is a picture of the chocolate two-layer cake I made for my son's 2-year-old birthday. I have never made a cake before. I think I put too much icing in the middle so the top layer slid off. Even though the cake is a mess, it shows one creative way I was determined to help my toddler celebrate his birthday. We couldn't have a party or have any friends over, but I still felt it was a special day because of the cake. It tasted good, even if it looked like a mess. And I had fun making it.
The next two pictures are my son's sock drawer and his bookshelf. Sometimes I feel like the world is falling apart, and I can never catch up on everything I want to do. So I try to find ways to create order in my life in small ways while also helping others. I am very proud of the sock drawer. Baby socks are tiny! I figured out that I can use plastic trays to organize the socks. It gives me pleasure when I open the drawer in the morning and I see everything lined up, and I don't have to hunt for the matching socks. Likewise, the bookshelf has books organized in height order, with books grouped together if they go together. There's no guarantee with a toddler that the bookshelf will stay like this for long. But when I look over at the bookshelf and see everything neatly organized, it helps calm me down a little - like I have control over something. I created some order out of chaos. And I like all the colorful books neatly organized. So these two things help me maintain a sense of order and calm amidst all the chaos.
The last picture is a picture of two baby sweaters I crocheted. Crocheting is my main hobby, but I don't have much time to do it with a toddler running around. It helps me focus on something other than the zillion thoughts running around my head. The reason there are two sweaters is that I made the first one an inch too short by accident. So I was determined to get it right. I am still going to gift the first sweater to someone who just had a baby, but now I have a second sweater to gift, too. I enjoying making crocheted gifts to show people I care about them. This picture was taken right after I had finished sewing on the buttons.
I created these works to find an outlet for my creativity, to deal with isolation, to show family and friends I care about them, and to create some order and beauty amidst all the chaos the world is going through right now.
