kandasadventures

The girls love play doh and any kind of art project, and the messier it is, the more they love it and the more I hate it. For fifteen minutes the girls will enjoy squishing the colorful dough, cutting it with dull knives, poking fingers and cookie cutters in it, and pushing it through extruders. Mixing the all the colors until they are a muddy brown, and then complaining about it not being a rainbow, is also a favorite part of craft time. Then, as quickly as they attacked the project, they are finished and wandering away, leaving a splattering of itty bits of dough broadcast all over the floor (and sometimes the walls, too). They get as much as they can back in the cans, but some always remains in their hair, under their fingernails, squashed into the soles of their slippers, and smeared on the seat of their pants.

Sometimes I try to avoid the housecleaning by taking the project outside, but the girls always outsmart me. When coloring with sidewalk chalk, they rub their dusty hands on their clothes, notice the neat imprint left behind, and soon they are chalking up their hands like gymnasts, and patting themselves down until they are giant dust balls begging to be hosed down. On Sundays the girls enjoy clipping coupons from the paper (after I've clipped the ones I need), and sweeping up the scraps of paper isn't so bad, but last week K decided that scissors on paper was boring, and scissors on hair would be more interesting. It wasn't until I was sweeping the floor that I noticed the huge chunks of blond hair in amongst the paper scraps, then took a close look at K's head and saw the scruffy tufts left behind.

I have a love-hate relationship with crafts. I love to watch the girls create and pretend and build and improvise, but I hate the inevitable mess left behind. I know how important art is for the developing mind, and it was certainly my favorite activity (other than being obnoxious) when I was young. So I indulge the girls on a daily basis, in one craft activity or another, and reconcile myself to being the perpetual cleaning lady, at least for now.