Please....ahem......excuse me.......Just a moment while I pick myself up.....humph....off the floor and dust myself off, which could take a while since the floors are so horribly....well, lets not mention the floors. However, I was down there laughing mirthlessly at seeing the words "my" and "space" in the same sentence. And as for the word "creative"? Well!! The only creative things going on around here lately have been finding 'creative' ways to ignore the gathering debris under the kitchen table and 'interesting and delightful' new ways to step over the mess everywhere else in the house because if I bent over to pick anything up I was rewarded with a massive pain ripping through my skull.
You see, a rascally flu virus took up residence in our house two weeks ago and settled in. I could tell it was planning to stay for a while because it unpacked all its' bags, put everything neatly into the drawers and carefully placed a photo of its' family next to the bed. So I have had to spend the better part of each day and night looking after the dratted thing, bringing it cups of chamomile tea / hot soup / cooling water / fresh juicy fruit, filling up the hot water bottle, soothing its'distressing cries when the nightmare inducing fevers hit, keeping a supply of clean hankies on hand. It really has been the most ridiculously over-demanding house guest one could imagine and one we will not be sorry to say goodbye to.
Some flues, in comparison, seem relatively meek and well behaved. They settle gently over the household, lay you low for a day or two and then they are on their way. If it were possible to choose ones flu virus, I would certainly be selecting one of these little numbers, perhaps in a nice shade of turquoise. But our visitor has been nothing but greedy, violent and completely lacking in manners. It landed suddenly (obviously uninvited), smacked us all about the head and neck, tied our shoe-laces together and roughly knocked us over, stuffed our heads with cotton wool and our noses with glue then applied tight torniques around our brains, lit bonfires in our throats and then sat back in our best chair, put its feet up on the table and demanded service.
You will understand then, why the idea of having had any "my space" in the last two weeks seems not only laughable but cryable (is there such a word?). Throw the concept of creativity into the mix and I will be throwing myself on the floor once more, in a fit of sobbing this time for all of that lost opportunity. Actually, I just had a quick look around me and there isn't really enough uncluttered floor space to throw myself on. I could do myself an injury. It would have to be a very well calculated throw, taking into account bits of furniture, baskets of wool, piles of paper, childrens toys that have snuck into what really is supposed to be "my space", and a metal filing tray that doesn't know where it belongs.
Although it has been a tough two weeks, it hasn't been all bad. I did make a sufficient recovery after one week to mow the disastrously overgrown back lawn and tidy up the yard which had become so bad I didn't like going out there anymore. I'm pretty sure it set back a full recovery by a few days but I think it may have been worth it. So nice to be able to walk outside and not feel like crying. It has also given us time to watch...are you ready for it?......a Little House on the Prairie DVD set I bought months ago but haven't been able to sit long enough to watch. The children are loving it, just as I did thirty odd years ago and join me in exclaiming at how nasty and horrible Nellie Olson is, not to mention her mother Harriet. Oooohhhhh, just the thought of them...!! I'm quietly hoping that some of Laura Ingles' work ethic will rub off on the children, along with some of Charles and Caroline's wholesome-ness.
Another positive to come out of it is that our visitor has shown the children that they can find within themselves the strength to fight. Some took to the challenge more readily and with more strength than others. Jovanka has amazed me with her resilience and quiet determination. She didn't want medicine (which I keep on hand as a last resort) even when she was in the grip of fever and could barely walk. She lay silently on the couch with her pillow, her blanket and her favourite soft toy and stared off into space while her body did what it needed to do. The following day she was up and about, still tired, but ready to get on with things. The boys were, well....let's just say, they needed rather more help but they have both found their way through and we have had a biology lesson along the way on viruses, antibodies, blood circulation etc, etc.
At this point in my (aiming for) regular "Creative Space" posts I usually zip off and link into the Our Creative Spaces site to share what I've done with other crafters there. I think I'll spare them this one but it's always worth a visit there anyway to see what everyone else has been up to. And now that we're on the mend, I'm feeling open to a little inspiration. Care to join me? Just click here and we'll be on our way.
Hope your house-guests are of the welcome variety.
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