Arghs and crafts

Once upon a time, I entertained the notion of taking up paper crafts. You know, making a birdhouse out of cardboard? A mobile out of cut-outs? That sort of thing. But one thing stopped me from doing it: My hand disability. (If I try to explain it here, you'll VERY LIKELY get the wrong visual. Let's just say my left hand isn't exactly...normal.)

Well, I was able to avoid this hobby just fine for a while. Until, that is, my child decided to take an interest in it.

Ugh.

When you have kids, there are just SOME things in life you'll have to face one way or another. (Like using good china for making mud pies.) With me, it's TRYING to do things that challenge my physical abilities.

Paper crafts definitely challenges that ability.

My first response to ANY challenge, though, is to find some way around that challenge. Approach it with any way that I can. Failing this, it's time to call in reinforcements. So we decided to try doing things together: I would hold something with my good hand and she'd finish it with hers. Sometimes she was able to do things herself but other times, she'd need my help to cut something a certain way or tape it together a certain way. Of course, there were times I had to use my bad hand for certain crafty jobs. Even though some parts of my hand hurt after a while, I did it, anyway.

The smile on my child's face after the job was done was worth the effort.