Painting with kids

One of my neighbors asked me the other day how on Earth I ever get anything artistic done with two little kids at home. She said she would love to do something like that, but there's always something else to be done. And isn't that the truth? There is always, always, always something else I could be doing other than paint (or draw). 

I've just had to figure out where my priorities lie (which quite honestly, has not been an easy process) and let the other things go. The floors don't get washed or vacuumed more than once a week (if that), there are toys everywhere all the time, and we don't have a very elaborate or consistent bedtime bath routine (one of my friends the other day was saying how they only wash their kids' hair every other day, and I was thinking, Do I even remember the last time I washed the kids hair? ha). I do what I can to simplify, and I still only have a few minutes here and there to do what I want to do. My husband has this little saying he often repeats: "Spend 90% of your time doing things you don't want to do so you can spend 10% of your time doing things you want to do." I think it's true for most of us. How many people actually get to spend a majority of their time doing things they want to do (those lucky ducks!)? Life's not really like that for most of us (unless you happen to be 16), and it's just one the hard things to learn about growing up.

I have a literal fence around the area where I paint. That helps (I've seen some other mama artists who let their kids run free in their studios while they paint--that would drive me bonkers). My husband will usually take over for a while in the evenings if I want to paint, and that's when I get a lot of my more serious painting done. And occasionally, I get out all the watercolors (like we did this morning), and we all paint together sitting around the table (we do the same thing with drawing and coloring, too). It's a fun little activity, and I'm usually able to get a couple quick sketches done at the same time. I'm of the opinion (especially at this point in my life) that every second counts, and even a few minutes of practice is 100% better than nothing at all.

So that's it. That's how I do it. My house isn't very clean, I block the kids from entering my art space, my husband is the greatest, and I try to get a little art practice done at the same time as my kids' creative time :) It's not much, but again, so much more than nothing at all. It's doable if your expectations aren't too high (which is something I'm always battling, personally).

Which reminds me of this poem I stumbled across yesterday while flipping through Good Poems, compiled by Garrison Keillor.