"Artwork"

A couple of weekends ago, my husband went out of town for another “man-cation” and some much needed
quiet time away from the kids. Usually, when he leaves, my nesting instinct kicks in and I scour the
house from top to bottom. That weekend was no different.

I chose to start in Ava and Victoria’s room, as I’d need to be done by mid-morning so Victoria could
go down for a nap. I walked in and immediately focused in on a piece of “artwork” that Ava had scribbled the
previous day. You know that 4 yr old artwork – markers of every color, lines in every direction…. MAYBE
a couple of curly q’s. In my mind, this immediately would go in the junk pile because it looks like every
other piece of artwork on my refrigerator. I decided to fold the paper and sneak it into the trashcan to
avoid any tantrums.

Initial wake-up phase was over for children #2 and #3. Ava and Victoria were finishing breakfast when
I sat down for a quick muffin and a glass of milk. Ava jumped out of her seat and ran to her room
exclaiming something about showing me her sun and slides. I did the typical mommy nod and half
ignored her until…. “aww man – I can’t find my picture! I had it here…. And it’s not here… and now
where is it?”

Ooouf! I quickly ran to the trashcan and fished it out and unfolded it and yelled to Ava “Hey babe! Is it
this picture?? I put it up so that Victoria wouldn’t destroy it!” Aaahhh… Mommy saved the day. Look at
that AWESOME sun! And the slides…. The purple one is my favorite!

More scribbles… thumb tacked to the bulletin board by the back door. What was I thinking?! How could I have overlooked this masterpiece - deeming it nothing more than "garbage..." SHAME ON ME!