D.E.A.P. (Drop Everything and Play)

"You see that cardboard box over there?", I said to my husband. "You're gonna turn it into a puppet theater."

"I am?", he replied.

"You are. Here...I printed several sets of building instructions. It has to be finished before Joy gets here Friday."

So with the "honey-do" project assigned, the wheels in my husband's engineering-mind start turning. Dale came up with his own plan using a dish barrel box (18" x 18" x 28"), utility knife, hot glue gun, and/ or packaging tape, 2 cans blue spray paint, and one dish towel.


Instructions:

1. For window, draw rectangle for opening approximately 14 inches wide and 10 inches high and 2 inches from top of box. 

2. Using utility knife, cut only along top, right, and left sides of rectangle.

3. To make shelf, lightly score along bottom edge of rectangle, and fold flap out.

4. Draw line across the outside of flap 3 inches from fold.

5. Draw another line across the inside of flap 6 inches from fold.

6. Lightly score both lines.

7. Fold along lines. Glue flap to box, making sure shelf is level.

8. On opposite side of window, cut door.

9. Spray paint box and allow to dry.

10. Cut dish towel in half. Hot glue each half inside window to make curtain.

11. Seal flaps on top of box with hot glue.


Joy loved playing in the puppet theater. She still does, and so do her siblings. It's also served as a restaurant, a store, and a reading nook. A cardboard box and imagination goes a long way.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "It is a happy talent to know how to play."

Sometimes you have to set life's serious things aside and step away from the pressures, anxiety, and distractions. Sometimes you have to leave the dishes in the sink and take a play break. Sometimes you have to drop everything...and build a puppet theater.

Make time to play. It will refresh your spirit.

What would you and your kids do with a cardboard box?