The Curious Housewife

Puzzled 2016-Painted paper collage on board I love mulling over ideas! Lately, I have been thinking a lot about creativity: how is it defined, what does it look like, and what are the ways in which we use it? In the past, I believed that only artists were creative. If you weren't making something such as a painting or a piece of pottery then you weren't creative. It's only recently that I have come to view the word "creative" differently. Being creative can mean more than making something with your hands. It can also refer to the ways in which we think. That statement may seem obvious but I think that we often overlook just how creative we can get when we put our minds to it, literally! Creativity, flexing your creative muscles, can happen in a number of different ways and in many contexts.  Just as there are endless varieties of people and activities, there are also many different ways to be creative. Creativity shows up in our everyday lives more often th...

Well, I made it. Two weeks without visiting the grocery store. It's some kind of shopping miracle!  Let me backup a bit to explain the challenge that I gave myself (and my friends on FB) two weeks ago.  I had been watching a press conference with the President and his medical advisors, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx. The doctors specifically said that the upcoming two weeks (the ones that just passed) would be critical in flattening the curve. It was strongly suggested to not go out, limiting time away from home for essential business only. They specifically said that now was not the time to go to the grocery store. I took that as a real mandate and frankly, it made me a little fearful. I am a compliant person (mostly) and so I decided to follow this advice. It's hard to know how to contribute during this crisis and this seemed a very concrete way of doing just that. I want to share what happened, what I found out and whether or not I would do this again. I came up with this ...

Joshua Tree National Park-Cholla cactus  During the first part of March, I took a solo road trip down to Southern California. I had never driven anywhere that far by myself before. My goal was to see if I could really do it, drive myself 8+ hours somewhere and arrive safely at my destination without too much pain and heartache, i.e. getting lost! Spoiler alert: I made it! And I didn't get lost. Well, that is a small fib actually. I took one wrong turn but quickly corrected myself once I saw that I was headed in the wrong direction (my car has a navigation readout on the dashboard).  During the next several days there were actually a few moments like the above; moments where I sensed I was going in the wrong direction and had to stop. I would check my notes, the map, and my phone, and then reset my course. After awhile, I became aware that I was actually navigating on my own, getting a good feel intuitively for which direction I was headed in. (I am very directionall...