Art journals and entertaining toddlers

So I was going for the daily constitutional walk with Amélie. She is mastering the tricycle and is super exasperated by our self-isolation. She pedals, I walk. We feel lucky to have a place to walk as so many in this world are truly stuck inside. Saw another parent on his yard with his two yard apes. He was working on a garden box. I asked how it was going."Can't get ANYTHING done with these two around!"And so, that's how it's going. Sometimes, as I watch Frozen II again, I wonder how much I would have been able to accomplish during this time indoors in my life before a toddler. Or maybe I would have squandered it away looking at exponential graphs online.My friend Terry shared this online. I don't know who made it, but it's the most accurate chart I've seen lately.Luckily (luckily?) Christophe's work is closed for so we can quarantine together in a toy-filled, TV-noise bubble of crumbs.These days are strange.I keep feeling out of breath, but only when I look at the charts, so I've simmered down on the chart gazing and started... scrapbooking.I know.... I know.Look. You've got to use what you've got. And what I've got is a toddler, art supplies, and nowhere to go.Oh how hopeful we all were when we bought our little day books back in January. Oh how we would fill them with quotes and lists and all kinds of Things... To... Do. So, now what?There's a lot of heartbreak out there these days. Making art is one way to keep the mind occupied. I find that I'm somewhat in union with something when making my scrapbook pages. Ideas on what should go where reveal themselves as sparks of AHHAHAHHAHA YES. A sticker pops out, or a sketch, or an old paper from a book. And then, after some time of glueing and arranging, that thing vanishes and I can't make anything nice.It's hard to explain the whoosh in, then the whoosh out. Even those on in spiritual realm can only take so much scrapbooking.For so many of us in the world, getting the mail becomes the highlight in the day. Look at this gorgeous letter someone wrote with Paris Letters stationery...Letter written by https://www.instagram.com/cjhammon/ The art is by me, obvs. The swooshy capitals have me swooning. It's a prettier letter than I can write. Especially in between picking Cheerios off the floor.