Well, I would be if I lived in the ocean, but instead "I'm the messiest person that lives in this house!" If you don't know Kevin Sherry's books about the giant squid yet, you may not hear these comparison's in the giant squids low booming voice (read perfectly by Miss Sarah of the Issaquah and Sammamish libarary storytime fame). But at our house these days, I like to bellow my challenges to the little ones in my deepest echo-y voice- "I'm the fastest toy picker-upper", "I have the cleanest teeth in the ocean", "I give the tightest hugs in the ocean". These are met with the comeback that tops all comebacks,"No, I am the . . . ." And works everytime, well, until next week when we'll be on to the next strategy for getting them to do what we want. 
Anyhow, we just discovered the second book about the giant squid, I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean, in which the shark wants the squid to stop painting because he is making such a HUGE MESS. And the giant squid, continuing to bask in his own brilliance and talent, hears him say that his work of art (done on the side of the blue whale and strangely similar to Picasso's Guernica) is a "MESSTERPIECE".
I love it! A new word which perfectly describes the state of my house at the moment. My messterpiece is the result of cleaning the garage by moving things into the house, then cleaning the closet by moving things out into the hall. However, the mess paid off yesterday in a whirl of creative activity which was only possible because I have saved all sorts of stuff most sane people would recycle.
Let me set the stage. Hot, hot, day. Looking for something to do in the shade since the usual activity of riding bikes and pushing tricycles in circles on the hot pavement seemed unthinkable. Wading pool. Neighboor kid and friend went inside to build a pirate ship out of cardboard. Hmmm. Gears in my brain turn. Craft foam, popsicle sticks, duct tape, bubble wrap, miscellaneous lids and plastic containers, scissors, pipe cleaners, yarn, toothpicks, straws are all easily accessible right in the middle of my hallway. Some of those things float. DING-DONG. Want to come outside and build boats with us?
So here are some messterpieces of the floating variety. Aren't they cool?
I can hear the giant squid now, "I built the coolest, most-floatyest, least-sinkyest boat in the ocean, err ahem, in this wading pool."
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