Ordinary picnic turns magical

I can't stand to do things the same way every day. Each week, I try hard to find small, loving ways to incorporate fun and creativity into our days. I'm always coming up with something.

Today, we created a living room picnic that, as soon as we sat down, became a Poetry Picnic. This is one or two steps up from a regular picnic.

It all began at our church service, which featured poetry from many poets. And, since it was too hot to go outside and we forgot one important thing at home, we decided to go home and have a picnic rather than head to a local park (which was the original plan.)

For me, this was a magical experience -- and I love turning ordinary days into magic.

Here's what you need to do this at your house soon. And, I encourage you to do it very soon.

• Picnic fare. We always choose sandwiches because our girls like them and will eat them without fail -- important for a picnic. Always adding in fresh fruit like cherries, often yogurt and treats like potato chips and cookies that our regular meals rarely include.
• Soft blanket. It's important to sit on the ground and lay around like lazy people for a picnic. Tables just aren't the same.
• Fine drinks. A lovely strawberry lemonade would be great. But, in our world, juice boxes fit the crowd nicely.
• Stacks of poetry books. If you don't have these readily at hand you can easily go to the library and get a couple anthologies out. We have many volumes of poetry so I just grabbed them all and sat leafing through them, picking the ones we liked best and that fit the moment.
• Read aloud. Have everyone pick a favorite and read it. Then, if the spirit moves you as it does us, create your own poem. Songs are just poems to music, too, so if you have a living room picnic, you can put on a CD of your favorite songs and listen to that as well.

There you go. A poetry picnic. Nothing fancy but definitely jazzes up a Sunday lunch.