Windex On, Windex Off

      It's Spring Break time for the kids.  I have planned a couple of fun activities for the kids: 2 days at camp, a play date for the boy, and maybe a trip to SeaWorld before we're all back in school.  We will have fun.  

     I, however, am most looking forward to some serious spring cleaning.  My kids are getting enlisted because it's time they learn some basic survival skills.

1) Mirror and Window cleaning -  each will experience the miracle that is Windex and paper towels while removing their sloppy wet mouth and hand prints from glass surfaces in our house.

2) Washing walls - a bucket of soapy water and a small rag will become their new best friend as they remove grimy hand prints from assorted vertical locations.

3) Organization - shared areas like the art cabinet, kids' closets, and toy boxes will be restored to their former glory where a tool or toy could be found easily in minutes.

4) Dusting - I "Pledge" they will dust every horizontal surface in their bedroom; seriously dusted, as in pulling books off shelves and dusting behind them dusted.

5) Floors - At minimum, they will vacuum their own bedroom.  If a toy or two get sucked up, it's a valuable lesson and a removal of unnecessary crap from the house.  Win win!  If they're extra lucky, they get to clean some floors "Cinderella style" (down on their hands and knees with a rag).

     If all goes well this whole process should take less than three hours.  But I know my children, which is why I have allotted two whole days.  Now I'm wondering if I can build this up as a form of martial arts camp ala Mr. Miyagi - "Windex on, Windex off".  Just call me the Ninja Master.

locked and loaded

The Carpet is Visable

     Saturday on Facebook my status read: "Marian is not coming out of the office until a respectable amount of the carpet is visible."  This may have seemed like hyperbole, but our office was a complete disaster.  (A tornado coming through probably would have helped matters.)  And as much as I would love to blame someone else, it was all my fault.

     I know in a lot of houses mail might get left on a counter for a few days, or the dining room table might get piled up with stuff that needs to be taken care of soon, but in my house there was an entire room devoted to "I'll get to it later".  The most unfortunate part was; that entire room is Hub's home office where he actually tries to work sometimes.  That wonderful man kept his complaining to a minimum (he deserves a medal).

     Now I have some great mom friends.  We swap stories about the fun and not so fun aspects of raising our kids.  We complain about getting the kids to school, preparing dinner, and housework.  We curse housework.  If not for housework, our lives would be almost perfect. 

     Usually when conversing with my friends at some point I will confess that my house is messier than most.  Being the understanding and gracious friends that they are, this confession is usually met with statments along the lines of:

"I'm sure it can't be that bad."  (I have photographic evidence to the contrary.)

"I can't even imagine how busy you are with 3 kids!"  (My kids are only signed up for 2 activities and I am terrible at showing up to those on a regular basis.)

"I can barely keep my house clean with my kids, I can't even imagine having to deal with all 3 kids." (most of my friends stopped at 2)

When these lines are said to me I smile and nod and happily move onto the next topic of conversation. 

     My friend's comments leave me wishing that any of those was the real reason that an entire room in my house turned into my dumping ground.  Instead the real culprits are laziness, procrastination, and an amazing ability to turn a blind eye.  Whenever stuff comes into my house it sits on my kitchen counter (lazy).  When it is time to clean my kitchen counter everything gets dumped in a pile on the office floor to be dealt with later (procrastination).  These piles grow, spilling out of baskets onto the floor making it difficult to even walk in the room.  The next time my kitchen counter needs cleaning I open the office door, brace myself, dump the new pile on top of the old, and run away (turning a blind eye).  And so it goes until:

(I am lucky my husband still lives with me after I did this to his office.)

         

     Suddenly, I realized that when I go back to school I am going to need this office too.  Uh oh!  The office has been in this state for so long that I am fairly certain I could have waited until June to remedy the problem.  I could have procrastinated - I'm really good at that.  But instead I decided to not be totally selfish and give my sweet, tolerant husband some time to himself in a nice, relaxing office - at least until I come in and take over with all my school books and homework.

           

Thanks for living with me Michael!