a post of small things and how to make crayon shaving window transparencies

Oh, poor mama, she says, her little striped hat head peering over the sink, you have so many dishes to do! You just work and work all the time! Poor mama!

(Finally, I think, someone notices!)

I know, she says, her face brightening into a smile, I will help you!

She pushes over a stool and climbs up, steady little five year old self, confidently perched, dishcloth in hand. I squirt a dollop of soap on to her rag and together we wash and rinse the dishes as the quiet snow drifts lazily out of the grey sky. Boy child on the couch, reading, I think to myself, we haven't done math today. So I quiz him as I wash and rinse and wipe the stack of dishes.

Remember the nines, I say, the pattern? One side goes up, the other goes down. Oh yes! That's right! And we go through the answers, No no! he says! Don't tell me!

And little Baby Green declares her nickname to be Helper Green Girl, instead of just Green Girl, wreaker of havoc, destroyer of towers, thrower of pillows. She wets a cloth and starts randomly wiping surfaces, leaving smudges of dripping water running down the front window, as the snow swirls against the backdrop of the pines in the yard.

And I think about the post I was going to write. WAH WAH February, winter, slug-like mornings WAH WAH, bad sleep, WAH WAH, stress, money, blah blah blah.

But, this just happened. "I know Mama I can help!" And the snow continues to swirl and blow and boy comes over "But MAMA I LOVE YOU," and he rubs my shoulders as I type (He is actually getting quite good. What is that verse, "train them up in the way they should go, so when they are old, they shall not depart from these ways!" HA. You are welcome, future daughter in law.)

And so. Instead of WAH WAH BLAH BLAH, a post I have done here a thousand times, I give you this post, a post of small things, small things that are large when we have eyes to see their large-ness, small things that together swirl and whirl and tumble and together paint a world of beauty.



Also. Here is how to make wax paper crayon shaving window transparencies, which is what we did last week to bring a little color to the windows.

 It was pretty simple really. The kids drew a design on a piece of black paper. Little man cut his out and little miss had me do the cutting. There are several ways to do the colored part.

I used crayon shavings, as did little man for his shooting star. We found it easier to place the shaved bits in our hands and then put them on the waxed paper with the black piece there as a guide, so the colors are in the right spot. Then lift up your black piece and put down another sheet of waxed paper, laying it carefully so as to not move the shavings too much. This is easiest if you have already laid out an old towel on the counter and then have your hot iron ready. I would caution against doing this on your proper ironing table (one little stray shaving bit would ruin a nice shirt!) and be careful to wipe any wax bits off your iron when you are done! (Fairly simple to do when your iron is still hot)

For a more simple project little miss just colored in her areas with oil pastel crayons. We then used the iron too and the colors spread a bit giving it a more stained glass look.

 I do really like the crayon shavings look though, so fun to watch the colors melt and bleed together as you iron it!

Baby green colored hers with marker. I drew the picture in sharpie on waxed paper. This is another way you can do the project, if you carefully color in small bits and then cut it out it really does look like stained glass. She wanted a picture of her holding her favorite doll. :) I was proud of myself for not being control freaky and making her color it all the way. HA.

So, go forth and color your grey world! I think we need to do more for our windows.