Do you get stir crazy in winter?  We do.  But thankfully we have these super spiral stairs that double as a jungle gym.  My kids find alternate uses for just about any apparatus* around, including the walls, couches, mattresses, even the dog.  They stave off the winter blues by finding creative ways to enjoy/destroy whatever is at hand.  Likewise, when my son clambered up the outside of the playground tube slide, my brother (an elementary school principal/authority on child behavior) commented, “There’s more than one way to enjoy that slide.”  I liked that attitude.   Obviously, it’s crept into my parenting too.  But this kind of creativity is, I confess, born of necessity.  You see, we don’t have cable TV.  So next time you see a couch cusion or a pot lid, think battle gear, think obstacle courses, think of the messes you can spend all winter cleaning up.   I thank God for these stairs that avail much.

*”apparatus” was a spelling word we had last month.  I could not, for the life of me, think of a way to use it in a sentence… until now!