Where's the Play Do?

Last night I made two kinds of soup: vegetable stew and cream of broccoli. Roy bought bread bowls at Panera as the girls were home and he likes to make Friday night a bit special to celebrate their homecoming (and he loves bread bowls). As it turned out, Savana and Guer couldn't join us as they had music practice; they are playing and singing today at church.

Anyway, I made waaaayyyy too much soup. On top of that, my refrigerator is packed as we went to Sam's Club yesterday morning and stocked up. So as I'm looking at the stove with two big kettles brimming, I'm thinking What in the world am I going to do with all this soup?

Around 9:30, Savana and Guer got home; at the same time, Darian had some friends come over: DJ, Austin, Miranda and Sarah. So my dining room was bursting with laughter and kids as Savana and Guerin ate...and then DJ and Austin decided to join.

Before you know it, the broccoli cheese soup was demolished and a heavy dent placed in the vegetable stew. Austin and DJ passed what remained of any bread bowl they could find, regardless of how mutilated it looked, between the two of them until, at last nothing was left. So by the time the kitchen was cleaned and everybody was stuffed, only a medium-sized container of vegetable soup remained.

Perfection.

There is nothing better than a house filled with kids who are laughing and eating and just enjoying each other.

Then this morning when I came downstairs to start my day, there on the table lay a cookie sheet filled with creations out of clay. I want to learn to knit, so yesterday Roy, Jace, Darian and I went to a craft store so that I could get some yarn and such. As Darian browsed the aisles, she found some cheap modeling clay, and it reminded her of all the fun the girls used to have when they were young with that stuff. Dee bought them a book of how to make different figures out of clay and they would spend hours creating. So since she had spent the majority of her day studying, she decided on a whim that she wanted to spend her evening playing...with clay. And so last night these kids must have stayed up creating all kinds of creations that now rest on my dining room table, a tribute to imagination and time laughing with friends.

So really? These kids are just ten year olds in big bodies: Where's the play-do?

I suppose that's all of us in some fashion. I don't play with play-do so much these days; nor do I fashion creatures out of clay. My artistic creations tend to look more like mutilated globs that I have to explain. But I do love to create stories in my head and breathe life into them on paper. I love to settle down with a good book that brings me to another land, far away from my own reality. I love movies and miniature golf and a day at the beach.

So the truth is, we're all just ten year olds in big bodies. We do all of the things that life requires of us. In my case, I cook and clean and do laundry and work at the school and a host of other duties, I suppose. But the truth is, I am just fulfilling my responsibilities so that I can finally  spend time doing what I really love to do:

Where's the play-do?