There are little things in the world of parenting that make you crazy and melt your heart all at the same time.   For me, it’s watching my boys back up, get a running start, and jump as hard as they can into a mud puddle just before we load up into the car.  It’s seeing them tromp through my garden picking my favorite flowers just to give me a bouquet.

And it’s watching them express themselves creatively on our house.  Doug and I are artists and we highly encourage acts of creativity around here but seriously, the front door?  I asked Atti to show me what he had done and he did, but he needed his blankie for support.  Clearly he’s not very remorseful.

The truth is, in the moment when this happened, I was frustrated.  I was trying to cook dinner, chaos was all around, it felt like this was one more thing that I had to clean up.  Yes, it can be cleaned up.  There is a very special place in heaven for the inventor of washable markers.  (We work really hard to keep Sharpies out of reach around here).

But, it’s been awhile now and I can’t seem to bring myself to wash it off.  It’s grown on me and now I kind of like it.  It’s like a scarlet letter on our house that says “it’s a mess in here but we’re happy and creative”.