I still need practice at letting go.

Santa brought Madeleine this paint-it-yourself flower vanity. It came with paints, beads, and string so you could even make contents for the drawer after you'd painted the thing. Cute arts-and-crafts project I thought we could do together.
But three weeks after Christmas, we still hadn't done it. It was itching her something fierce and each time she asked, I felt a little more guilty and was a little more short-tempered about refusing. With the baby, school had taken a back seat and "electives" like art really got short shrift.

Yesterday was the worst. I was in tears with Lou having evening fussies, squeezing in Rachel's bath, Dale wanting to play Risk, having dinner, all squeezed in to the two hours remaining between swim class and bedtime. Madeleine was in tears because I'd snapped at her about the vanity--again. Daddy offered to do it, but when he saw the disappointment in my eyes, suggested a few games of tic-tac-toe instead.
This morning, I chucked the chores. Lou was asleep in the papasan. I caught Madeleine and said, "If you do one page of math, we'll do your flower vanity after. As long as Louie stays asleep, that is."
"Deal!"
While she worked, I cut open the packaging, found some newspaper, and got a container of water. By then she was done with math and we got started. The other two kids materialized and I found paint brushes for them. By this time, Lou had roused himself and wanted to be held, so all I could do was supervise.
Turns out that's all I needed to do. They all worked together creating something more Jackson Pollocky than it would have been, but who cares? I think she enjoyed making it more that way that she would have with Mom demonstrating how to use the stencils and checking for careful brush-washing between colors. What's important is it's done to her satisfaction. And it took about twenty minutes.
What was I so worried about again?