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Help! I’m A Control Freak

Help! I’m A Control Freak

I know I’m a control freak, but nothing proves that more than when we do arts and crafts around my house, especially crafts that involve paint. Ok, sopainting3 today I decided it would be a great idea to do a painting project that I heard about. I’m enough of a control freak, that when I heard about this craft I was thinking that it would be the perfect craft to do because it didn’t sound very messy at all, and it was something that all three of my kids would enjoy doing. Boy was I wrong! Let me start at the beginning…

It’s late November, it’s cold outside today, super cold and snowy. We are on Thanksgiving break from school so all three kids are home and it’s not vacation time yet for my hubby, so I’m entertaining the kids this week until Thanksgiving day by myself. We don’t have any family visiting this year, so there are no cousins to play with and most of our friends are busy traveling that we don’t have a lot of playtime with our friends. We are basically stuck inside for 3 days and if I don’t plan things to do for the kids, I (yes, me) go crazy with them asking to play computer or watch movies all day (I think technology has a way of sucking their brains cells and turning them into little devils so I don’t like to let them play too much). My usual go-to when it’s cold out is to painting4craft something. My older kids LOVE to do crafts, my youngest, not so much.

Let me pause for a quick background on me to help you understand my craziness even more: I’m an artist. Yep. I am.  I’m a huge crafter, I love to scrapbook, draw with chalk, was an art major in college and have a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design. So I’m used to be wild, fun, “out-there” and getting messy.  But as I’ve already mentioned, I’m also a huge control freak who likes to be clean and I tend to clean up as I go when I’m being creative.  I’m much more creative with organized chaos

You would think that getting messy and having fun is what my house is like every day right? So 100% WRONG! I’m such a crazy control freak that I hate when things are messy. Hate it. Imagine trying to raise kids and be such a crazy control freak that you go nuts when they get messy? Do you know any moms that have a huge stash of Wet Wipes in their giant purse they can grab at a moment’s notice when their kids spill Ranch on their shirts, or literally waste an entire package of wipes when you are painting something because they are constantly making their kids wipe their hands every time they get a drop of paint on them? That’s me! I am that mom! UGGGGGH!!!! I must have the best kids in the world because they put up with my crazy neat-freakinesspainting7 and still want to keep doing crafts with me.

So back to our craft from today, it was a painting craft. You get a giant oatmeal container and roll a piece of paper and drop it in the container, and then you coat a few marbles with paint and shake them up inside the container. The paint stays in the container for the most part and it makes a really cool design on the paper. Sounds innocent enough right? I thought so too…but gosh, this was super messy. First off getting paint on the marbles is super complicated – it gets all over your fingers and I had wet wipes flying in the air trying to keep up with the kids and the paint drips. Don’t get my started on trying to get the marbles out of the containers…I had marbles flying all over the kitchen and because they are covered with paint they are super slippery and were rolling all over the table and floor and one even went flying across the room and covered my blinds with a nice line of red paint (because someone forgot to put their lid on their oatmeal container – he shall remain nameless). At first, I felt like a fireman flying around the kitchen trying to keep up with the fires that each one of my kids was setting, but after I yelled for the fifth time and was diving across the floor trying to save the runaway marble that was leaving a line of purple paint all the way to the laundry room, I seriously burst out laughing! The kids laughed, we all did, and the tension in the room that I had created with trying to stay “clean” dissipated! Yeah, we made a total mess, but it was so much fun! I was covered in paint from head to toe (seriously…head to toe), but it was washable paint, and the giggles that escaped my kid’s lips will be a sound I won’t easily forget. The fun was well worth every painting1spot of paint I had to clean up later.

So my point in all of this (and my point to myself) – relax and allow yourself to get messy (Katrina). Enjoy your kids and don’t yell at them when they are making a mess – after all, they are just kids (Katrina, are you listening?). Let them be creative and get dirty. My oldest tends to be pretty messy with just about everything – he always has stains on his clothes either from food or markers, but he’s very creative and he needs the freedom to get messy in order to be creative. I need to chill out – BIG TIME, with him and just let him be himself.

I said to myself, “Relax and rest. God has showered you with blessings.” –Psalm 116:11 The Message 

Such a powerful verse and such a good reminder.  As moms, God calls us to nurture our kids and love them as they are – just like He loves us as we are. So, if you are a control freak like me, chill out and focus on the blessings God has given you. Go get really messy and do it with your kids, and choose to laugh the whole time. After you are done, you will be thankful you allowed yourself the fun time with your kids and you will feel incredibly blessed. Promise. I sure did, and I mean that. After I chastised myself out loud, then told myself to chill out and have fun, finally, we all had a great time! We made some really pretty art too!

If you are a control freak like me then chill out, relax, and get messy! Hugs!

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November 25, 20140 commentsRead More