Paper

Today I was able to help my son’s grade 3/4 class make paper. I have never made paper before. I have seen homemade paper and think it is cool. The kids did a great job. But I was tired when we were done. Nine-year olds definitely have more energy than I do.

For Valentine’s Day, I helped my kids make their Valentine’s Day cards. We have mounds of construction paper, piles of stickers and glitter glue to last forever. I knew my daughter would love to make the cards. Bruce knew our son would not. So I made quite a few of them, but both kids helped. The day before their Valentine’s Day parties at school, I kept my daughter up to finish her cards. As it was getting later I was becoming more insistent that she just get the names written on the cards and do the extra decorations in the morning if she had time. While we were working, my daughter scraped the back of her leg on something at the table. She was whining about it hurting, but it wasn’t bleeding so I told her to just keep writing. Afterward I told Bruce I felt like an athletic trainer. “Just keep going through the pain! The pain doesn’t matter!”

My son had opted to wait until morning to work on his cards. He is slow at the best of times. To get him to finish his Valentine’s cards was almost torturous. I was after him the same way as I was for his sister. Crack the whip! Get the work done! When I’m under pressure, I become very task oriented and not very relationship oriented. By the time we were done, he was quite upset with me. But he finished.

After today, I said wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t just make our own Valentine’s Day cards, we could make the paper, too. Bruce thinks I’m crazy. I think it’ll be fun.