My vacuum cleaner died a couple of weeks ago. Well, maybe it might actually be on life-support, since it sits in pieces in my bedroom, hoping to be restored to usefulness. Either way, I haven't been able to vacuum in a while, and the house was starting to look pretty sad. My usual method of vacuuming is to wait until a particular room is not in use, throw all the stuff that is on the floor up onto whatever furniture is in the room and then vacuum as fast as I can before someone returns and dumps additional material onto the floor. Then, I wait until another room is empty. In this way all the rooms get vacuumed eventually, but the entire house is rarely clean at the same time. Perhaps it is not up to the highest standards, but it works for me. However, this method would not work when I was forced to borrow a vacuum, because I had to return the vacuum in a reasonable time period. I had to think of some way to keep all the kids occupied long enough to vacuum all the carpeting (four rooms, 1 hallway, 1 closet). Then it came to me.....
PAINT!
I have been informed by reliable sources that letting my kids paint without total supervision is a mark of insanity, and I tend to agree, but these were desperate times and they did call for truly desperate measures. In addition, although my children seem unable to keep a cup of milk or water in anything approaching an upright position, they have never spilled a batch of paint. Splattered it? Yes. Smeared it? Yes. Gotten it on their clothes? Yes. But never a major, requiring the repainting of walls, spill. So, I took a calculated risk. Or maybe I'm just nuts. You can decide.
Anyway, one of the things the kids like to do in the summertime is paint the little wooden birdhouses (here is the last time they painted some) that you find in craft stores. They let me set them up in my garden, and they really hope a bird moves it. I do not have the heart to tell them that no self-respecting bird will ever go near their creations. They continue to paint and hope. Is there any chance that birds might be color blind?
They even do some interior decorating......
Today, after the thick coatings of paint FINALLY dried, I gave them a couple of coats of varnish,
attached them to some wooden garden stakes,
and set them up in my garden.
They may be a bit garish for the birds, but they do add a cute bit of color to the greener portions of my garden.
Oh, and the vacuuming? I got it ALL done without a single interruption. I guess I need to come up with something else to paint if I have to borrow a vacuum again.
Happy vacuuming, Everyone!
2 comments:
Seems to me your solution may have caused more cleaning problems than it solved. But at least your kids think you are an awesome mother.
I prefer to let my kids paint and cook alone. When I'm there I so jumpity about keeping everything clean. When I'm in the other room I can just come in at the end and help clean up.
The bird houses look great.
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