But because this morning, a full nine months pregnant, she came to my house bearing coffee and an arts and crafts project to entertain the kids. Hallelujah!
See, it was her son's birthday party we missed on Saturday. She hosted this great arts and crafts party because Goose is such a little artist. 18 kids (well, 16, minus my two) converged on her house to paint pillowcases!! What fun they must have had! And so, this morning, she brought by the pillowcases intended for Bud and Sis, complete with their names already painted on, plus 4 bottles of gender-appropriate glitter paint (Sis appreciated the pink/red; Bud the blue/green. And then they switched!).
And so we've just spent the morning on the floor of my kitchen making a gigantic painting mess. I can only imagine what her house looked liked after 16 kids painted--my two managed quite the chaos by themselves! And were so happy doing it. Which hopefully makes up for the fit I had when I discovered them tie-dying paper towels with watercolor water, getting it all over their two new art books (which Bud had told me he had moved, when it was just painting on construction paper), and then hanging the towels up to dry all over the basement while I was cooking lunch (no more cooking lunch--it's sandwiches from now on!). Anyway, I can only imagine how happy all the kids at the party were. So, thanks Mommy Goose, for sharing it with Sis and Bud.
Also, I realized as I crawled around on my floor scraping dried glitter paint off the linoleum after the pillowcases were done that I'm so glad that my house is old and we didn't bother fixing it up too much. Before kids, we had every intention of redoing the kitchen, also eventually removing the carpet on the first floor and redoing the wood floors underneath, replacing most of the downstairs living room and dining room furniture, all manner of things. But then we had kids and money went elsewhere and those projects are now on hold indefinitely. Which is good because we're totally trashing the old stuff we do have, making it all perfect candidates for replacement once they've passed the major destructive and messy phase (when is that, exactly?). And I don't have to fret about keeping it pristine, as I do in the basement with the new walls and floor (part of the reason I freaked yesterday: a ton of splattered paint all over my cream-colored walls. And it's not really coming off. It's a basement, though, right? And our art space to boot. So it doesn't really matter . . . but . . . it's like the first spill or ding on a new car). Which takes all of the stress out of glittering painting pillowcases in the middle of the kitchen.
Because I really needed that craft project today, and the coffee, and no stress to go along with it. Thank you, Mommy Goose!
Some years ago a man in Winchester took over a shop with basement (we usually call it a cellar). He planned to sell paint and decorating stuff and his first job was to clean off the old paint in the basement so that he could use the walls as a demonstration area. Weeks later he had cleared the old stuff and the room was half a meter wider (18 inch in Imperial units), so be careful how much splatter you accept. The boy will gradually become civilised about 15-18 when he gets a girl friend.
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