Dust-Free

 In church, I get to sit facing the Primary children when I'm not doing my music time with them.  I was watching Ptolemy when one of the teachers were talking to the children about parents and how much they love their little ones.  She said, "Does your mom take care of you?"  Ptolemy's face got this quizzical expression.  "Does you mom comfort you when you're sick?" Ptolemy looked at his friend like "Huh?"  "Does your mom feed you and fix you good food?"

Ptolemy shrugged, bounced off his chair and said loudly, "NUFFIN!"  Yes, I give him nuffin to eat and I don't comfort him when he's sick.

Apparently Freestone feels the same way.  Today, he said, "Mom, I have a big appetite.  Why don't you feed me more?"  I don't know what he's talking about.  We had TWO kinds of pizza for dinner, and we had it early!  Mostly because I never fed them lunch and they were starving, but that's not the point.

The point is, I do have some good qualities.  As malnourished as my kids are physically and emotionally, at least they get to do art projects.  And as Picasso or somebody said, "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."  So at least their hungry little souls aren't dusty.

This week, we had a GREAT group of kids for Art Camp.  We had fun.  Here are some of the things we did:

 Glued shells and sand on card stock.

 Prepared bottles of water, colored it, added mineral oil and seashells to make "waves" inside, glued the lids on and made nametags.

 Oh, and I painted my front door "slightly sapphire" to surprise Scott.  He likes it, and I absolutely love it!

 Here's another thing I absolutely love.  Ptolemy took this picture with my phone and edited it like this on Instagram.  He loves to make the pictures green.  He hadn't published it when I got ahold of my phone, so I did the honors.  I think it's wonderful.  I love the NY mug, the perspective, the color, Tizzy on the computer screen, the fact that Ptolemy did it all himself, the whole thing.  It makes me happy.

 Back to Art Camp...we chose shells, found sticks and glued them on with very few hot glue gun accidents.  Then we cut out sails from music and glued those on.  Later, some of the kids made miniature boats with small shells and shishkabob sticks.

 In lieu of coming up with a really great project, I stole a grocery bag full of sand from a local park and had the kids shovel it into tupperwares.  Then they got to choose all the shells they wanted from our extensive collection, to put in their "Beach in a Box."  They decorated and glued labels for it, then I drilled a hole in the Tupperware for the little umbrellas.  Drilling the hole was Freestone's idea, and it was brilliant.  The whole thing would have turned out much better if I hadn't turned the kids loose with several different types of glue, some of it very hot.  But that's not really the point, right?  Kids and glue blobs belong together.

 Failed attempt at a group shot.  We had about 25 kids.

Oh, and these are the handprints we did, which we cut out and glued onto the beach background.  Then the kids decorated the handprints like fish.  Or tried.  The thing I love about kids and art is that nothing has to be any certain way.  If you let them create, once in awhile you get something that is stunning, special, genius, or just hits you in the heart.  And a lot of times, you get glue blobs and weird handprint fish.

Even if your art project turns out soggier than you planned, most of the kids got to go home to a nice lunch.  Except mine.  They got to clean up Art Camp, then practice, then go to Cherry Hill with a mom who forgot to feed them, but who found a bag of grapes from yesterday in the car.  Oh well.  Dust-free souls.