I’m already well behind the goal that I had made for this year, in that I haven’t posted to my site once a week. We’ll just chalk that up to ridiculously busy with my day job, and not a lot of time/energy to spend with crafts or recipes. I’ll see what I can do about changing that soon, okay?

In the meantime, to take my mind off of my stressors, I’ve been going back to things that I enjoyed as a kid, supported by my lovely husband. Movies, video games, and LEGOs!

Months ago, MM started my obsession up again by purchasing a set for the Statue of Liberty:

It had been the first time I put together a set in quite a while. I thought it was going to take me a long time to get it done, especially since it has just under 1700 pieces. I ended up finishing in about 6 hours, over two days, and realized that trying to put it together on my coffee table was not going to do my posture any good…

Right about that time, I started playing Minecraft in creative mode, and found a couple YouTube contributors who created tutorials for large builds – A1MOSTADDICTED – and ended up building his Survival Starter House, Modern Suburban Boathouse, Wooden Mansion, Castle, Italian Vila, and Large Suburban House. The similarity of building these thing to building LEGO structures is uncanny.

During all that Minecraft-ing, I happened upon a LEGO kit for the Friends Apartments, and had to have it.

I upped the amount of time needed for this one, because it was over 2000 pieces, and had lots of intricate pieces. But I loved going back in time to when I was obsessed by that show, remembering the episodes the LEGO characters were set for, and marveling over the fact that the porcelain dog and Gladys both made an appearance. Not to mention Janice!

Most recently, I was given the Home Alone set. My brother, D1, mentioned getting the same one recently, and how much fun he’d had putting it together, so I was thrilled to receive it also!

This one is just under 4000, and has so many little tricks and call backs to both of the films – though MM isn’t a fan of Lost in New York. I decided to go all in on reverting back to a child-like state, and set myself up with the Harry Potter Series, listening to it in the background as I worked through this beast of a set.

By this point, I switched from the coffee table to a card table, which greatly improved my posture and my ability to sit for a longer period of time without a break. That meant I was able to get the whole thing done, including all the little nooks and crannies, the tricks and surprises by the time I was halfway through Order of the Phoenix.

With all these sets, and all this time, I’ve learned a few things.

One – if you’re going to be serious about building LEGO sets, or Minecraft buildings, make sure you set yourself up to be comfortable, whether it’s a nice, comfy chair, a table that doesn’t require you to slouch, a warm beverage to sip while you work and look at falling snow, or a well-loved movie or binge-worthy series to keep you going.

Two – take regular breaks. Your body, mind and eyes will thank you in the long run.

And Three – Sometimes it’s necessary to put everything away, put away your worries, and remember what it was like to just be a kid. All you had to worry about was putting the pieces of a toy together in the right order, or filling in a drawing with whatever color makes you feel best. When joy could be found by taking a walk in a new place, or seeing the fish and animals at an aquarium.

Perhaps if we could all take some time and pretend to be kids, we’d all be able to get through the craziness of this world.

I’m curious – what’s something that you did as a kid that you’d love to do again, right now, in this instant?