A few months ago Doodah requested we tape a box to his wall in which he would put his books. In a flash of mom goodness I told him we would use a shelf I had and was currently not using. Unfortunately the shelf I had was not the amazing solution I had in mind. A month or so later, it fell off the wall. Shucks.
I promised him a new solution would be forthcoming. After a few more weeks of him asking when he was getting the new shelf I promised I finally made it to the hardware store and procured some wood to MAKE him a new shelf. A better shelf. I even had the magnanimous idea to make one for his sister as well and let them paint their shelves themselves. I mean real mother-of-the-year material here.
They are a simple yet effective design for their needs. Chewkie painted hers the same light lilac she had me paint her new bed. Doodah picked one of the only other paint colors I had on hand, black.
Halfway through painting, Doodah asked if he could paint a design onto his shelf. The perfectionist part of me cringed a little at marring the perfect black coat, but the fun mom side of me, that emerges from time to time, shoved the OCD side of me down and said, "yes!" He got some paint and a new bruch and went to town. When he was almost done he admitted that it wasn't turning out the way he had hoped and was despondent with his ruined shelf to always serve as a reminder of his failure.
Good thing he has a mother who was on top of her mother-of-the-year game that day. I told him we would wipe it off, sand it down and paint over it. I'm pretty sure he saw me as nothing short of a magician as we fixed his mistake and I let him try again, this time with paint markers.
Later that day once they had dried completely I installed them in their rooms right by their beds for easy book reading access. With so much of this summer making me feel like a failure as a mom, I'm grateful my children have books as an escape and I'm thankful they now have this memory of the day they got to make a really cool craft for their rooms.
