Organized...briefly

Since I’m not working now, and I have my mom and Sara around to help out, I figure I should take advantage of this extra help and try to get some organization to the mass chaos that has accumulated inside my cabinets, drawers, and other storage bins.

The other day I bought these really cute wicker crates at Target (on clearance..whoo hoo!). I took the dozens of books that were piled into a storage “cube” in our family room, basically “lost” to the eyes of my kids, and arranged them in these crates, one for each of my munchkins. This actually took quite a bit of time.

Later, when I was in an other room reading with Cameron, Ella and Max discovered their book crates. However, instead of using them as storage for their books, they decided to empty them, and store their own little behinds in the bottom of the crates while they read their books.


So much for my organization.
I guess I should at least be happy that they were reading.

Start to my days

Because cereal tastes sooo much better when smeared all over the table first.

Surprise...I'm coming home!

Tonight my husband was supposed to be moonlighting. That meant that he’d go straight from the office, to the hospital, and not be home until sometime tomorrow evening.

I was home all day with the kids today, and by 5:30, I HAD to get out of the house…no matter what shape the house was in. So we headed off to the mall to the food court, where they also have a play area for the kids.

On my way there, I called my husband to see if he wanted me to pick him up some dinner and drop it off at the hospital. But he informed me that he switched call with someone, and he’d be coming home. I guess my response was less than enthusiastic, because he asked me why I didn’t seem happy that he was coming home. But how could I when I knew that:

The kiddie pool was sitting on the front driveway filled with water and toys.
There were wet towels hanging over the rocks in our front yard.
The kitchen table was filled with scattered papers, markers, coloring books, tape, etc.
The movie room contained many of the kids toys, that are supposed to remain in the toy room….and I wasn’t even sure if I had turned off the projector.
The hallways all had loose articles of clothing, toys, books, etc.
The kitchen sink and counters were filled with dirty dishes.
The clean laundry was still piled in our bedroom, unfolded.
My “get a job” papers were scattered all over his office floor with my laptop hooked up to the cables that were supposed to be in his computer.

I couldn’t SOUND happy, because I knew that when he got home, he certainly wouldn’t BE happy.

Beauty Shop

Fed up with my attempt at styling her locks, Ella apparently decided to take matters into her own hands.

I think she overdid it a little, don't you?

Supernanny Commentary

My nanny is very kind and agreeable. Her responses to my constant stupidity usually include something like, “That’s okay.” Or a pleasant “Oh, I don’t care.” Or just a smile and an “Oh no!”

But this I’m sure this isn’t how she really feels. I’m sure that in actuality what she’s really thinking is:

“Ugh. I folded these clothes and put the laundry basket in her room a week ago, and yet still they sit there not put away. Does this woman do anything on her own?”

“She is going to the store again? How much money can one person spend at Target each week?”

“I don’t know why she always complains about having trouble putting him to bed. He lays there just fine for me.”

“Um. I’ve been out of town for 5 days. Do you think this woman could do a load of the kids’ laundry for once in her spoiled life?”

“Really now. Look at those kids. Holes in their pants, Ella’s hair not even touched, peanut butter stuck all over their face. They look like they live on the street!”

“Is she giving in to him again? Really, how does she expect him to listen to her if she can’t handle a few minutes of screaming and gives in to her child’s whining demands?”

“Is she serious? She actually wants me to sit in this van? Does she see this food that has been strewn all over the floor for weeks now? Does she even smell the odor eminating from the sippy cups of milk stuck under the seats? I’m embarrassed even to open the door of this vehicle.”

And then today, after she left my house to meet her friend at the gym, I’m sure this is what she had to say:

“Oh my goodness. Today, I was her chauffer and had to pick her up from the church where she has her Thursday morning Bible study because she had her car in the shop about 5 minutes away. We travel about 25 minutes all the way up to her driveway, and she suddenly realizes at that moment that she left her garage door opener in her car at the dealership. Since she loses everything and can’t find her house key, the only way for her to get in the house is with the garage door opener. So we had to go all the way back where we just came from so we could gain access to the house. And then when we finally made it to the house, oh my, you should have seen what it looked like. Breakfast dishes with spilled cereal still out on the table, dinner dishes and food from last night in the sink and on the counter, the trash overflowing, papers everywhere, kids clothes thrown all over their roomss, a complete and total mess. Ridiculous. Just ridiculous.”

And yet, she still comes back. Thank goodness!

Just like Dora

The other day, Ella was tossing all of the contents of her diaper bag around the laundry room. Cameron came into the kitchen and said, "Mom, Ella really likes exploring your backpack."

I guess that's one way of putting it.

Lately, she has also been found "exploring".....

an entire package of diaper wipes,

her brother's dinner plate,

the contents of the pantry,

a new box of tissues and her brothers' desk drawers,
and a new roll of toilet paper.

If she keeps this up, my little Ella may be exploring my room at the mental hospital in the near future.

Forget the light bulb....

The wet vac is one amazing invention.

So far in the past 2 days….

I’ve used my Hoover Agility Steam Vac to suck up Ella’s vomit that was spewed pretty heavily in one area of our family room carpet.

Then while I had it out I decided to utilize it on some spots I’ve been eyeing for quite some time...that I’m sure Max created since he sometimes thinks he’s a Catholic priest, “blessing” all of us with his sippy cup filled with grape kool-aid.

And my third use of the weekend….have you ever seen those commercials when someone drops a full glass of red wine on a white carpet and it splashes EVERYWHERE? Well, that’s exactly what one of my son’s friends did in Cameron’s bedroom…replacing the glass of red wine with a bottle of red Gatorade (that I didn’t know he had up there), which was dropped from the top bunk.

“Mom, Eddie says that kind of juice stains,” Cameron informed me.
“Yeah, it does!” Eddie chimed in a little too happily. “And it will last for a loooong time. But if you invite me over again, I’ll bring some stuff that can clean it up.”

I decided not to wait for his next visit and broke out the wet vac. In 15 minutes, the red was gone.

If you have kids…you MUST invest in one of these things.

No Atkins diet here.

What is it about my kids and bread? We're not even French!