I know I’m just about the last person in the world to get into the adult coloring crazy. It’s not that I have anything against coloring. It’s just that I have so many other ways that I want to spend my free time and other things that relax me (like wine). But when I saw today that Affiliate Summit was giving away a free affiliate coloring book, I thought it was time to give it a try.

Getting the coloring pages was the easy part. I just clicked through to the Affiliate Summit Coloring Book Slideshare and downloaded it. I paged through different things like “affiliate,” “commission,” and “disclosure.” (I bet you thought I would pick that one given how much I harp about FTC disclosures!)

I ended up with “Super Affiliate”–a term I have never once called myself because I’m not even sure what it means. But I thought it might be inspirational to me.

That’s where things got tricky. I had no idea what to color it with. We are remodeling our basement, so we threw out all of the kids’ old stuff. I texted my daughter in high school to see if she had any colored pencils at home and she replied they were in a Skittles box. Of course, because that’s totally normal.

I found the Skittles box and noticed that the pencils were all in pretty bad shape–none were sharpened. I figured I would try the other daughter’s desk. I didn’t find any pencils, but I did find a sharpener. Ironically, it was a “Philadelphia Love” sharpener that I picked up for her at Affiliate Summit East one year.

Armed with my coloring page, pencils, a sharpener, and some random markers, I headed to the kitchen table. Here are just a few of the things that went through my mind while I was sitting there:

• I need sharp pencils! Let’s get these things sharpened up. Why are they so hard to sharpen? These pencils are crap. But they are Crayola! Isn’t that supposed to be good? Maybe it is the sharpener. My kids deserve better pencils than this. How do they even use them??
• Is this supposed to be relaxing? What should I think about? Oh! I know…a blog post. I’ll think about writing a blog post about coloring.
• When did my kids stop coloring? They used to color a LOT. I think I kind of liked it.
• This isn’t so bad. I kind of like it. I can see how it would be relaxing. As long as it doesn’t take me too long. I don’t want this to take too long.
• These pencils are total crap. I’m only using like 5 colors because I don’t have time to figure out how to sharpen any more of them. And why is this one sharpened on both ends??
• I think my hand is cramping. 
• It’s a good thing this isn’t a coloring contest. I would totally lose. Well, I might not lose. But Jen Goode would win. Or Shannon Weidemann. They are both really good at coloring on Instagram.
• I’m making such a mess with these pencil shavings. I should have done it over the trashcan.
• I’m such a boring colorer. (is that a word?) Look at me just coloring in the lines. Dang it! I got outside the lines!! Well, I’m not starting over now.
• Look at me getting fancy! I pushed hard with the purple to make it dark and then did it really lightly to make lavender. I’m totally getting the hang of this coloring thing.
• What am I going to do with this when it is done? Hang it on the refrigerator? Maybe I’ll Instagram it….yeah. I’ll Instagram it. 
• Wow! Taking a break from my computer has been nice. But my hand is cramping again. Like “writing thank you cards” cramping. I need to use a pen more often.
• Whew! Done. That took longer than I thought it would. I wonder how many messages are in my Inbox now?

So as you can see, the coloring DID give me a little bit of time to think. And get away from the computer. And realize that my kids’ pencils are crappy. Will I color again? Not until I get them some better pencils. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely. A few minutes of stirring up creativity is necessary when you sit at a keyboard all day.

Thanks to Affiliate Summit for the pages and the excuse!!

Are you an adult who has rediscovered coloring?