Ian's Mural

I had to laugh instead of cry at how my children often thwart my best cleaning efforts.

One day I felt super motivated to clean a section of carpet near Brooklyn's seat at the table. I used the spot cleaner to manually shampoo a square foot or more of carpet. I sprayed, waited, then scrubbed and blotted. The whole time I thought about what a great exercise my arms were getting as well as the excitement of a whole square of clean carpet. As I scrubbed, the children kept wanting to cross over this certain spot and it took no small amount of stern reminders to stay away.
Ian found a way to occupy himself however. He climbed onto the chair (probably the one that was removed for cleaning purposes) near a small table that held a lamp and a glass of potpourri. He pulled out some big "balls" to play with and taste, then decided to add his artistic touch, using a pencil, to the lampshade and wall. So, when my square of carpet was clean, I had this lovely artwork to attend to. At first, I only noticed the wall. As I pointed to the wall saying, "No, Ian. This is a no, no!" he then directed my attention to the lampshade, and added, "no, no!" Yes, at least he understood the point. Uugh! The frustration! I gave up.