The Rainbow Connection

You can thank me for making you walk around with Kermit the Frog's voice in your head singing "someday we'll find it...the rainbow connection...the lovers...the dreamers...and meeeeeee"...

I have lost my rainbow connection today...my Crayola rainbow connection that is.

I am one of those people that when given a box of crayons, markers, or chalk, will organize it in rainbow order...yup, that's right...all my crayons, markers, colored pencils, embroidery floss, yarn and the like have always been a good old celebration of ROY G BIV...with all it's variations carefully worked into their appropriate places...I would spend hours sorting and placing Violet Red, Red Violet, Purple, Indigo, Carnation Pink, Periwinkle, and the rest into carefully ordered rainbow lines...and woe to you who dared to use my crayons and didn't get them put back right where they went.

Well...today, Captain Chaos found a box of 64 that I'd had for quite some time...which were nicely ordered...and proceeded to happily draw and color for about 3 hours of time (not uninterrupted, but still!). At some point during the great coloring escapade, I heard a very distinct sound of crayons upon hardwood...and then came the little voice saying "Mooo-oom! Destructo-Girl dumped the crayons oooo-uuuttt!!!"

And you know what? In the split second between hearing the sound and realizing that I had to help pick up 64 crayons, I let it go...

I realize this sounds silly and trivial, but I'm so obsessive-compulsive about things being organized just so...that they are either superbly organized, or else in chaos...it is my nature.

I am slowly but surely finding my middle ground of things being put away...in the right location (pots and pans in their cabinet not willy-nilly, and the like), but not necessarily in a specific way or order.

It is funny, because my mother is much the same and it drives me batty to watch her be upset and bothered (not angry or annoyed, just sort of flustered and never able to just be) when she comes to our house and watches the kids "put away" their toys. Things get haphazardly piled into buckets or baskets. This gets them put away...they are not on my floor, creating safety hazards or obstacle courses...they are not on the tables and couches and chairs where you will be uncomfortably goosed with Matchbox cars, tea cups and saucers or baby doll hands. They are not organized into a car bucket, a tea set and a baby doll bucket.

They were once...before the kids really and truly played in the playroom without constant adult supervision. Oh, I still try to keep like with like, but does it really matter if you find a Little People chair in with the Matchbox cars? Is the universe likely to explode into chaos if a tea pot is on the train table?

And so, I am proud of myself that the crayons did not get used on walls, tables, floors, bodies, or wardrobes. None were broken. All were used, and all were on the floor at some point, but they were being enjoyed and some wonderful scribbly pages were filled up for me by the 2 cutest kids in the universe and presented with great pride and love...and you know what? If there's an orange crayon next to a metallic and in front of purple, so be it.

I'd much rather hear them giggle and hand crayons back and forth across the table as they create images from their minds for their Daddy and me.

And maybe that's my new rainbow connection.