Green Marker Happens

We spent a better part of the day with family yesterday at the funeral, cemetery and then dinner at the church. We had my mother in law watch the kids while we were gone. Someone mentioned to me that I needed to give her a tranquilizer before we left so that six out of the seven children (since Grace was with us) would not push her over the edge. I did not do this because she has six of her own children so I figured she had her own supply of happy pills.

We talked with her a couple times while we were gone and everything seemed to be going well much to my relief. I know what a handful they can be, especially our two new additions. Upon our arrival home, we were greeted with little people with green hands, faces and clothes. A certain green marker was what they had been entertaining themselves with apparently.

As I began to question what they were doing, the visual of colorful collages were dancing before my eyes as I entered Grace's pretty pink bedroom. There were beautiful circles of yellow, green and red on one wall. Then there was the artistic green drawings on the sheets of all three beds, on the toddler beds themselves, more on the other walls and let's not forget to mention the dresser and the blinds. They had done a very thorough job and were pleased as punch at what they had accomplished.

It was partly my fault. I failed to mention to my poor mother in law that they were not to be trusted. They are so quietly sneaky. My four youngest could set off the national alert system. Grace was really upset but she didn't scream and holler like I expected. She just went to work cleaning it up. Thank goodness it mostly came off and only left a faint mark. Needless to say, those four little artists were not on her good side for awhile.

After the yelling from the parents died down to a low rumble and my babysitter had left (hopefully we didn't scare her off), Sharlene came to me and asked if she could color. I thought, Oh, my land, young lady.....I think we've had enough coloring for today. You need to save some of that creative ability for tomorrow. Let's savor what was accomplished today and let mommy rest up for what's to come.