There is a reason that the Skeptic and I don’t sit down often in the middle of the day to have a conversation. At least we don’t sit down for more than five minutes. But after a long day at work we were a bit delusional and thought we could. Math Boy and Knittykid were playing in their new fort in the back yard. Spinner was toddling around the house minding his own business.
So we sat. And chatted. And had a very nice conversation, uninterrupted until the two boys came inside, Knittykid saying “happily, look what we painted!” While Math Boy hid his hands and tried to run upstairs. Their hands were purple. Their clothes were purple. And outside?
They wanted to paint their fort. (You’re looking at the logs from our poor maple tree, lost in the tornado last summer and waiting to be cut up for either firewood or backyard play materials.) It’s not much paint; I think they stopped before going too far, realizing that this was probably not as good an idea as it sounded. What blew me away was how they got the paint out of the cans. Got a guess? Go ahead, think of a good one. If you’ve been reading this blog long enough you should know by now it was not with a paint can opener.
Got one?
Ready? A pitchfork. Bet you didn’t guess that one, did you? Makes perfect sense, right? Because, “We couldn’t get the top off Mom, so we just used a pitchfork!” (To poke a hole in the top, of course.)
I am thankful for their creativity. I am grateful for their innovation. I am in love with their spirit. I am blessed with an “idea guy” as the ringleader for my rowdy little trio. And that is why I don’t sit down for more than five minutes, as least not until they are all asleep.
And tonight we will remember to take all the paint out of the garage.
Knittymama 
Well…where there’s a will, there’s most certainly a way, I guess! My kids, especially the littlest one, reaffirms this for me and hubby quite often.
Gee – can you lock it up in some cupboards?
My dad and brother are exactly the same way, even as grown ups. My brother is in Iraq right now. He needed to change the tire on one of the base trucks, but of course, there was no jack with which to lift the truck. So what did he and his buddy do? They went to get a Bobcat loader to lift it. Very effective. Unconventional, but effective.
Way to think outside the box, kids!
Very creative!
Yikes!! I’m glad there weren’t any injuries!
I was worried you were going to say a knitting needle was used as the opener.
Oh, my, kids and pitchforks, my neurotic nervous side (that I most definitely inhereited from my mother, and she inhereited from her mother…) just did a quick inhale (gasp), the learning to be laid back side (that I wish I had inherited from my dad, but have had to work very hard to cultivate) just grinned and chuckled, so it went something like this ‘sudden inhale/gasp! grin, chuckle’
And I agree with ikisti, I’m glad no knitting needles were harmed 🙂
And, please, hang up that pitchfork! Up, very high. No, wait, what were you doing with purple house paint?
We solve this problem by keeping our paint in our scary basement. No one goes there but the grownups.
holy crap… a pitchfork?
thankfully they didn’t stab each other with it.
Wow… that will be a story they laugh about later…