Saturday, January 5, 2008

Flexibility

I've always thought that I was a pretty flexible person......misson trips, substitute teaching, etc, I could usually go with the flow. But parenting really shows you the areas that need work:) Show you what you're really like....like it or not :)

I have a really sweet, sweet, encouraging friend that once wisely told me ," Marriage teaches you how selfish you can be. But parenting shows you how selfish you really are and that you need to work on it." (Or at least that's what stuck with me.)

With one, things in the house would get a little out-of-order and I was usually ok. With two, phew....the messes and changes in schedules became more frequent and I really needed to let the litle things go...basically preparing me for three!! Three has been wild!!! The house isn't always quite as tidy as I'd like it (oh, it's pretty clean...little ones eat off the floors here...so it's got to be at least clean). The "quiet" evenings aren't always relaxing. Meals are not usually hot when we get to eat them, but we all get good food :)

But life is soo sweet here when I'm willing to be flexible and enjoy it!!!! Here is the best example I can give and it's totally accurate and recent (Ha ha haa...happened last night during a "quiet" evening):





I wanted the kids to help me make some Thank You notes for Christmas gifts. So I do all the preparation with the stamps and I needed the kids to use paints and Q-tips to put colorful dots all over the Christmas tree...like this!!










But the kids got a little carried away and I looked down on the table to find these that they had decorated!!







So, making Christmas Thank You notes turned into Q-tip painting....and boy did they have a good time resulting in a ton of beautiful artwork!!! I think Christopher is my abstract artist as he covered the Q-tip in paint and then left it to dry on the paper!!




4 comments:

Drea said...

hehe the one w/ the tree on fire (red paint) is my fav. you can send me that thank you card. we have a gift here for you.. its um been here for a while but due to all the bugs we've yet to get it to you!

Mark and Rachel said...

Can I just say that you are such a cool mommy? I am always impressed that you even attempt these projects! The gingerbread houses were amazing and honestly, people will love the thank you's because you let the kids help and they can tell that for sure! I'll have to remember Q-tip painting...if we ever get to needing it! :)

In Everything said...

The paints were actually fingerpaints (a Christmas present) but we were usng Q-tips to get the dots on the trees. I LOVE fingerpaints outside in the summer....just hose them off :) But Q-tip painting is great for a quiet night when we weren't planning to bathe them before bed:)

Anonymous said...

Wow ...no smocks, you are brave!! They look like they really enjoyed doing the project and thats what counts:)