painting fun

Thirty minutes after the professional painter left our home today, Zack decided he wanted to start a career in painting himself. Ben, Luke and I were playing a game while Mr. Mischievous was just 10 steps away from us, doing this:

I know you can see green paint on the carpet, but you have no idea HOW MUCH it was. The normal me would have screamed, spanked the naked child, and ran around the house like a chicken with my head cut off.. but for some reason I didn't. I stayed calm, put Zack in the tub and asked Ben and Luke to help me. Instead of smearing the paint into the carpet while trying to scrub it out, I grabbed the shop vac in the garage. Something told me that if I emptied the dirt inside the vacuum, it would suction up water... where this thought came from, I am not sure. Probably the brilliant person inside my head that I never knew was there because I am always such a nut case. I asked the older boys to bring me buckets of water... I mixed it with vinegar (a trick I learned from a cleaning class in RS, inspiration that would not have come had I freaked out.) I poured the hot water and vinegar mixture over the paint and then I quickly sucked the green water up in the vacuum. When the vacuum was full, I emptied it in the tub (not the one Zack was in :) and repeated the process...  Ben and Luke were happy to help me because I was encouraging, upbeat and got excited about needing them. It was all actually quite a fun experience, from beginning to end.

We filled up the bathtub twice with dark green water... The first time was much darker, this was just the last flush.  I was so glad to see it go down the drain, knowing it wasn't in my carpet anymore.


About twenty minutes after the incident, Zack was bathed, the new paint was drying, and I started making pancakes for dinner. An hour after my husband came home from work and he had NO IDEA we had a mini-disaster.  Everyone was happy to be together and the house was cleaner than before. There might be a little trace of green in the carpet, but we can always replace that later.. There is no such replacement for my kids.

Now, the reason why this post doesn't have a million exclamation points is because I am a calmer me. I honestly am not stressing about the small stuff. Yesterday I read a post from a grieving mommy blogger, Molly Jackson. I have never met her, but have recently been following her blog. Molly's 2 year old daughter, Lucy passed away four months ago. Their family was on their way home from church when Lucy choked on an apple while sitting in her car seat. It's the most tragic, heartbreaking story... and I continue to read it because the entries are so real... so unbelievably eloquent and so inspiring. I cry every time I read it and can't help but feel grateful for all that I have. When I saw the green paint on the new walls and carpet, I instantly thought of Molly and how much she misses her two year old. I knew right away that carpet is replaceable and walls can be repainted.. This little guy means so much to me and I do NOT know how I could go on living without him, no matter how much chaos he brings to my life. Thank you, Lucy, for reminding me of what is important. Thank you for keeping me from freaking out when I know that things are so temporary. Thank you for helping me love my DISASTER CHILD like I should.