Crayons and coloring

I have found, over many years of  being a mom, there is nothing quite like crayons.  Actually, there is nothing quite like a new box of crayons.  The points are perfect, they smell kind of neat, all the colors have cool names like, "cornflower blue" and "dandelion".  It just seems like crayons are the perfect unifier of life.  Any rainy day can be fixed with a new box of crayons and a new coloring book.  If you have not colored in a while, I highly suggest laying on your tummy on your living room carpet, cracking open a coloring book, finding a page you want to color and going for it.  It is a calming, relaxing thing to do.  Even kids calm down when they are coloring, it's like there is magic in the crayons.

I have to admit, as a child, I was forever lusting after the "64" box.  I don't think we could ever afford the "64" box, but they had one at school.  It had gold and silver crayons.  These are not your run of the mill crayons, they are gold and silver.  They were shiny and wonderful.  The "64" box had a built in sharpener and everything.  How can the "24" box even compete with the "64" box?  Seriously, you get 40 more crayons, that is major.  I loved the "64" box and even, briefly, thought of stealing Krissy Gill's "64" box.  Shame on me, but I did not steal her crayons, I just went over to her house to color.  

Crayons are even non-toxic, should your child eat one.  I once left crayons on our back patio in the summer in Arizona, that was one large collage of melted nastiness of crayons.  I actually cried, all my crayons lost.  My parents used this as a lesson to take care of my stuff.  Unfortunately, that did not solve my "no crayon" dilemma and I turned to a life of crime.  Just kidding, but melted crayons are tragic.  Broken crayons are broken dreams and all that.

I would love to name crayons.  Green yellow is very different from yellow green.  I had never seen a cornflower, so had not idea that it was blue.  It's kind of cool.  They have changed certain colors that were around when I was a child, they were not politically correct.  Flesh was a peachy color, thus leaving out 2/3 of the worlds population.  There was an Indian Red, not very kosher, but at the same time, my child's school mascot in 2009 is a Chieftan, so go figure.  I do love violet and blue violet and all the subtle changes in colors.  It's all about shadowing and shaping and such.

So if you are feeling down today, go to your local big box store and get some crayons (I would get the "64" box) and a new coloring book and sit down and color.  It will calm the savage beast within you.  Try it.  It also makes a great gift for a child with the chicken-pox or any kind of sickness who is stuck in bed.  Long before television, there were crayons and coloring books.

God bless you and yours.