worth the mess.

Drew worked with clay at school in art class last year and was enthralled. He has been asking since if we could buy clay to work with at home. I put it off for months because I HATE the mess of clay. 

Really, if you haven't mixed clay and kids, you have no idea. It's horrendous. The amount of clean up is more than the time spent with the clay. It stains their skin, their clothes, and any areas the mess lands. After I bathed them this evening, our bathtub was stained orange. Magic Eraser was needed. I vowed again that we would not be do clay again for a while.

It was a quiet Friday. Ben has been in Texas all week and Gracie is away at camp. After Wednesday's trip to the library, Luke has been permanently buried in his books, coming up for the occasional snack or game of Scrabble. I alternated between hanging with the kids and trying to catch up on my neglected shop. While I was painting, Kate and Drew were stuck with each other and not too happy about it. Those two. sigh. One of my biggest frustrations and sadnesses as a mother is that the two of them have such a hard time getting along. They are currently sharing a room because I was hoping it would help their relationship. It actually kind of has and they are having better days, but today was not one of them. 

Until I pulled out the dreaded clay. :)

It was like magic. Drew went into big brother role and showed Kate what to do since she'd never worked with clay before. He doesn't always like/appreciate being the teacher, so this was a wonderful surprise. The two of them worked harmoniously together for 45 minutes. I couldn't help myself and had to grab the camera and take about a thousand pictures. 

Watching them together was well worth the mess. 

(And we'll pretend they didn't get into a screaming match thirty minutes later over toothpaste.)