Skip to main content

Clean Slate

 I decided today was the day I was taking back my house!  Hold your applause.  

I'll tell you right now what that was: a pipe dream.  Show me the woman who got her house cleaned while her children were in it, and I'll show you a liar.  Unless she first duct taped them to their chairs.  Then maybe.  

Our girls have been on a bit of a tear.  They dumped every toy receptacle and half the game closet in their room over the course of this weekend.  I'm not sure why.  I'm not sure there was a "why."  They accomplished half of their mayhem during bedtime and the other half while I ignored them and took a minute outside, so that's on me.  

The game and craft closet has been spilling into the hall for close to a week now anyway.  It needed some attention.  The trail from the closet to the girl's room made it unavoidable.  The darlings also managed to spill craft supplies from the closet to the garage door.  They are on opposite sides of the house, so that was quite a feat.  They may have their mama's competitive spirit after all.  

It was another rainy afternoon, so I had no excuse and began my cleaning with an overhaul of the games.  This would have been much easier to accomplish if I hadn't had one twin standing on my calves and climbing up my back while I knelt on the floor.  She even brought a stool over in order to make the climb easier.  Meanwhile, her sister called me into the kitchen every ninety seconds to "look at this!"  

Eventually, the closet mess was cleaned to my low standards.  Things were more or less put back into their appropriate boxes, and the dirty socks were removed.  I then concentrated my effort on the craft cleanup.  I threw as much away as I could without being noticed and boxed up the rest.  Several items found their way out of the garbage, and I managed to find a spot for those too (in another less obvious trash can).  

The price I payed for cleaning?  Our dining room was destroyed by kinetic sand, and the living room was covered in rubber bands and rubber band gun targets.  

Meanwhile, I needed to make dinner.  Before I set the table, Ross and I did a teamwork clean-up on the sand situation, and that's when I noticed the crafts were back to decorating the floor...

This house is not my own.


  

**Note to add: Yes, the kids are capable of doing their own clean-up and usually do.  Sometimes, I just need things done my way.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advanced Placement

 Not to brag or anything, but I think we are raising some very advanced children.  At two-years-of-age, our girls have already worked out the art of manipulation and deflection.  It's the antithesis of endearing.   They went missing the other day - the girls did.  That's never a good situation.  They were in the house, and I knew they were in the house, but I couldn't see or hear them.  Silence is the loudest alarm system.  Fischer took action and found them both in my bathroom.   "MOM!" I met them in the hall.  Carter was covered in clumps and blobs of hand cream. "Emi did it," was her unsolicited response.   "No," I told her.  "I think you  did it." That night I got ready for bed and pulled out my one "self-care" splurge - my face cream .  It was in my drawer where I always keep it.  The lid was screwed on.  And it was empty, wiped clean.  "EmmmeerrrrrSON!" Guilty.  They were both ...
2 comments
Read more

Little Bit Dicey

 This might be a little controversial.  I try to steer clear of such topics in this space, but it needs to be said.  Take it as you will, but know that it comes from a place of love, concern, and respect.  Here it is: there is a right  way to cut an onion. Now, I'm not saying this to try and get anyone's dander up.  I'm just saying it's a subject that needs to be addressed in kitchens across America.  There may be more than one right way to skin a cat (I can't say I've tested that), but the same does not hold true for onions.  Please, you can teach an old dog new tricks - learn how to properly cut an onion.  It will save you time, frustration, onion tears, and possibly a finger.     Now, since I'm still sitting here on blogspot like it's 2003, I'm not going to post any how-to videos, but I'll do the next best thing.  I'll paste a link right here .    Check it out.  Practice it.  Make it a habit.  T...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Need A Cinderella

 I like to describe our house as very "lived in."  It sounds better than "dirty."  It is dirty.  And messy.  I clean all day long, but you'd never know.  My friend recently told me she hires a house cleaner.  It sounds dreamy, but it wouldn't work for us.  The cleaner would never be able to leave.  She'd never be done.  It's fine.  It's a phase.  Probably.   We were supposed to have guests for dinner the other week.  I know - it's a bold move inviting people over while we are in this stage of life.  Nonetheless, we did.  I was trying to get ahead of the mess while the kids were in bed and cleaned my floors the night before the dinner party.  The day of the dinner, everybody was sick so we had to postpone.   I decided I wasn't going to let a clean floor go to waste.  I was going to enjoy it for at least a weekend.  The challenge, I told myself, was simply to sweep things up after...
1 comment
Read more