Long before I got pregnant, long before we even started thinking about it, actually, I discovered the blogger, SouleMama, through a link on another site.
It didn’t take long, even though I wasn’t yet a parent myself, to be inspired. Her photography, her positive take on life, her creativity by herself and with her children, it’s all good. When she first mentioned her book project, I was excited knowing that it was something I would want to get my hands on someday. Then, once the book finally was finished, I just couldn’t quite bring myself to buy it.
After all, it was summer of 2007 and Aaron and I had just moved to Japan. We were, it seemed, ages away from having our own creative family. And buying the book seemed, well, a little premature. So, I didn’t buy it, but it never left my mind.
Once our little guy got here I knew it was my chance. Finally, I had a reason, albeit a very small one, to buy the book. Sure, it will be a while before we can actually start doing many of the things in it, but just having it and reading it makes me feel ready, excited, and, most importantly, inspired.
Once my copy arrived, I set aside everything else that I was reading at the moment and read it cover-to-cover in a matter of days. It is chock full of great creative ideas, I especially love the idea of the Family Draw and Art Wire for making children’s, and adults for that matter, art an important part of family life and home.
While not everything in the book made my list of things that I LOVE, a lot of it did. While I won’t be able to implement many of these ideas for quite some time, I feel like I learned a lot from the book and, already, it is impacting the way I am thinking of myself and the way I think about what I want our family life to look like. (And it has heavily influenced a project that I am in the process of working out.) Certainly many of the ideas will influence the way we set up our new home in the States and the choices we make about what we choose to surround ourselves with.
Overally, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and can’t wait to read the next one, although I will be waiting until I get stateside to pick that one up. Already I’m not sure that we can fit everything that we have here in our limited suitcase space and another book certainly wouldn’t help.
