Crafty Pants

I may not be the craftiest girl out there, but I do like crafts and color and fun projects.

Yet, I *rarely* do craft activities with my kids.  Why?

Because there are few things more annoying than spending 15 minutes setting everything up, and 20 minutes to clean everything up, when a certain someone loses his craft attention span after approximately 4 minutes.

Henry just does NOT care for artsy crafty stuffs.  AT ALL.

And it just takes way too much energy to bother to pull everything out and clean when he is literally done faster than it takes to microwave a styrofoam cup of Top Ramen.  (Which reminds me…I haven’t had Ramen in years…probably since college…and that was 10 years ago…although I suppose that’s a good thing!)

Anyway, back to my post…

Everytime I go to Joann’s, my kids beg for those little wooden $1 birdhouses.  Everytime I tell them no.  And really, the only reason I’m saying no is because I just kinda don’t like birdhouses.  They remind me of old ladies who have lots of cats or something.  And you know that if my kids paint birdhouses the next requirement will be for me to display them somehow.  And I really didn’t want to be stuck displaying birdhouses.

I’m shallow like that.

And then I saw this pin, and thought, “Okay…I don’t love it, but it’s fun and happy.  I could live with that and brighten up the boring old wood fence in the backyard.”

So for $3 I surprised my kids with those goofy little birdhouses they’d been begging for.

Since I do have a few pairs of Crafty Pants in my drawers, I already had tons of paints and brushes, so this whole project cost me less than a five spot.

The kids were thrilled.

THRILLED you guys.

And were off to the races as soon as I could lay down the oil cloth down and get everything set up.

I seriously expected spillage of the nasty brush cleaning water cup…but was pleasantly surprised that it never happened.

Small mommy mercies.

I set Jilly up with some crayons because I wasn’t quite mentally prepared to deal with her and paint.

Much like her brother, Jill doesn’t seem to love crafty stuffs either.

So she just sat there and gnawed on crayons for most of the time.

These two, on the other hand, painted away happily.

See the tongue?

That’s serious concentration.

That their mama totally does too.  It’s not very becoming, but it happens.

Oh look…Lucy does the tongue thing too.

Glad I could empart that on you, kids.  You’re welcome.

Ohmyword.

The chubby fingers.  Dead.  I’m just dead.

We’ve been adjusting Jill’s meds and she was sleeping waaaaay too much.  And even though she had just waken up from a nap, she was STILL tired.

I finally called her doctor and said “I miss her!  She’s sleeping SO much I feel like I hardly see her!”

I think we’ve finally got the right dosage now.  Yay!

I figured I’d do a little painting myself since everyone was so happy and quiet.

Inspired by this pin, I painted a little canvas I had in my craft cupboard.

“See my cute painting, Andy?  It’s our family!  The red hearts are me and you, and then there’s our four kids!”

“What are the blue hearts?”

“Aqua.”

“That’s it?”

“NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO HAVE MEANING ANDY!  I’M NOT A POET!”

I think I’m gonna re-do it and actually draw a little grid in pencil to get the hearts all lined up straight.  And maybe do it on a big canvas…which I have no wall space to hang on.

Details.

As expected, Henry’s craft time lasted approximately 7 minutes and he moved on to hunting flies.

At first, he tried to kill them by flinging rubber bands at them.

Mr. Miagi may have been able to catch flies with chopsticks, but Henry eventually went the tried and true method with a fly swatter.

I really don’t know why we buy toys.

And this girl.

She just kept painting, and painting, and painting.

This child who has more energy than a tornado.  This child who doesn’t sit still for more than 12 seconds.

Painted for over an HOUR.

Well after everyone else (including me) had moved on to other things, she sat quietly and mixed colors and ended up painting not only her birdhouse, but did Jilly’s too.  She only stopped because it was dinner and I needed to set the table.

I have to remind myself that while Henry and Jill may not be like artsy stuffs, my LuLu does.  And I have to accomodate that too.

Besides, I’ll need a crafting partner someday.

So, the moral of the story?

Step outside your comfort zone and your routine and try a silly and simple craft with your kids.

You might just get an hour of peace out of the deal.  ;)

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jeannett

I'm a mom to four. A wife to one. I believe in story. I love telling you about mine and would love to hear yours. There's really no sense in wasting our suffering and not sharing in each other's joy. We're all in this together...even if it doesn't always feel like it.

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