Big Ideas

Nora Lee has Big Ideas.  These Big Ideas involve many things, most of which are not possible or desirable to actually do for many reasons.  These ideas often originate as something we will turn our house into - an art gallery, a live theater, a place for her band, a clubhouse, and most recently, the location of a festival we will put on to make lots of money to give to the people who cut down trees so that they wont have to cut down trees anymore.

I must pause now to exhale.

Let me start by saying that I absolutely LOVE that Nora Lee is a big thinker and in general each concept  relates to a way to make the world a better place - WHICH IS TOTALLY AWESOME.

That all being said, it can be totally exhausting because her mind and mouth can go a million miles an hour for long periods of time.  In an effort to support her creativity I decided to make no promises about what we could actually do, but to continually say, "Let's just focus on the planning stage right now.  Dream it all up and then we'll talk about it down the road.  I'm not sure what we are actually going to be able to make happen but keep creating!"

Some of the ideas have passed without ever needing to come to fruition, but this most recent idea has been going strong for several weeks now.  She wants to talk about it A LOT.  And Now she wants to go beyond the dreaming phase and into the notifying other people phase.  Now, we have conversations that go something like this:

NL:  So, I was thinking that Toby would be the security guard at the festival, which he is really excited about.  Mom, you will be selling the tickets.  We need to talk more about costumes.

Me:  (Silence)

NL:  Mom, why are you just quiet when I talk with you about this festival?  Aren't you so excited?

Me:  No, I'm not excited.  This is your thing and I'm so glad you're enjoying planning this but it's not my thing and I'm not sure how much I can talk about this anymore.  I'm starting to get worried that we wont be able to make happen what you're hoping will happen.

NL:  Mom, I know you don't like having strangers in our house but we'll keep them in the back yard.

Me:  (Loud Sigh)

Today Matt helped me out with some ideas about ways to address Nora Lee's desires.  He suggested that we get a group together and volunteer at a tree planting day here in Los Angeles.  Perhaps she could sell baked goods there or could sell baked goods at homeschool parkday or someplace else and donate the money to helping the trees.  Perhaps even Matt and our friends could play music.

She was very satisfied with these ideas and so was I.

Peace is now restored.