Nothing-to-Say Day

My new friend, Jabacue at Ocean Breezes has done me a great service and shown me just how to handle that "nothing to say" mood today. If you haven't checked out his relatively new blog, you should. It is warm and soothing and enjoyable. Say hi to Sophie if you do visit.

So, since I have nothing to say today, I'll just talk about my day as it happened. . .

It was a half-day for my kids. (One more half day left and then they're all mine.)

They bickered all the way home, but they bonded over the decision of what to have for lunch. I told them I would cook nothing until they came to a consensus on their choice. I hereby nominate Chef Boyardee for a peace prize. ;)

After lunch, we colored. I love to color and so does my daughter. My son? Not so much. And his handwriting shows it; his lack of artistic patience is evident. So I did what any understanding mother would do. I forced him.

My daughter colored a lovely picture of a giant yo-yo. She took many risks with her color palette and was rewarded with a bold image of neon pink and forest green with red highlights. It sorta strobes if you look at it too long. 

I colored a picture of a little bear painting the word, "NOEL", on the page . . . I got "stuck" with the Christmas coloring book. (Cry no tears. Secretly, that's the one I wanted and I played it just right. ;) I took great care in selecting predictable colors for the letters and surprising pastels for the bear's hat and scarf.  Quite daring.

My son, begrudgingly, took on a picture of two giraffes. He went with a very uninspired three-color palette and less than careful technique to preserve the contrast in the giraffes coats, I thought. In fact, the second giraffe was colored in all brown, except for the strawberry pink ears. He was finished -- and snacking -- in 5 minutes flat. You can bring art to the kid, but you cannot bring the kid to art. Oh well, I tried.

I am now the proud owner of the highly desirable plastic dog from my kids PlayMobil set. Ongoing bickering brings me lots of goodies. Said dog is now resting next to the giant rubber ball with a pig in the middle on my kitchen windowsill. Said ball was confiscated over a year ago. Unfortunately for its previous owner, I like it and it goes with my kitchen.

Not surprisingly, the confiscation of this prized possession brought on bonding between my two lovely children. I am the common enemy and the one thing they seem to share in common this afternoon. That's a deal I will take any day.

Now that they've played out every policeman/bad guy scenario, they have commandeered my television. Rather than the financial news show I usually have on at this time, it is now tuned to The Electric Company. If anything important happens, someone email me, because after The Electric Company comes Arthur.

And to think summer hasn't even begun yet.