PPC day twenty two: learning from mistakes

Most people would say what you learn from this:


(circa early 2009)

is to never, ever, ever leave a giant box of paints under your child's craft table where they can easily repeat the paint-tastrophe.

Well, that is one way of doing things. And probably the way people with clean houses do things.

For a time the paints did migrate away from the table, but eventually they made it back and nearly a year, if not more, passed before today: paint-tastrophe 2.

But you know what? By the time I realized what was going on, my son was already coming over to ask for help.

What had I learned from past mistakes? How to clean up the paint mess, of course!

I grabbed an already dirty towel waiting to go down to the washer and a bowl, and scooped the pain into the bowl. A few more towels later it was pretty much clean and Truman was in the bathroom washing the bowl.

Last time I explained to Truman that he couldn't dump out his paints. And I can't say that I like that he dumps them out on occasion, but ultimately I am just excited that he wanted to paint.

His art table has gone unused for a while, so I welcome the renaissance and its messes.

And what I learned from past mistakes is that I am willing to deal with mess for the benefit of my child and that when that giant mess arrives, I am not even angry.

This project is helping free me from anger over tiny things and enabling me to see the joy in the process of spilling paint and focus on simply the calm process of cleaning it.

Now to use that same calm to clean up the stack of raisins on my floor.

As part the process to become more organized, we are keeping our upstairs clean. This is where the majority of living spaces are (bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dinning room). And after a whole week, we are still doing it! I spent time last night wiping down all the counters and making sure toys were away. Not my favorite way to end a weekend, but the clean living room was my ideal way to start the week.

I think having part of the house clean also makes small messes, like paint, easier to deal with. It's not another mess on top of pile of hopeless messes. It's just one mess in a sea of clean.