Photo a Day: Kitchen Sink/Window

I tried to take an all-inclusive picture, of my sink and looking out the window, but I couldn't get it to look right (it was too bright outside). So you get two pictures, with a bonus key code thing so you know what you're looking at! YAHOO!!

These pictures are very typical. Sometimes there are more dishes waiting to the right to be rinsed. This pictures was taken on a good day.

A) I have a total of one live plant sitting by my sink. I do not have more plants in my house, because I know I would absolutely forget I have them and they would die from lack of water. Even with the plant sitting right there, I forget to water it most of the time. Thank goodness this plant is forgiving. It was a gift a year ago from the stake roadshow committee; it's called an angel something-or-other. It replaced the other plant I had in there that was shriveling up at the time.

B) The rinsed dishes go on the left, which is weird because my dishwasher is on the right. But when I have backed-up dishes that haven't been rinsed, the longer counter (on the right) holds those dishes; there's not enough room for my laziness on the left side.

C) The to-be-rinsed dishes, or, the soaking dishes. Pictured above is my crock pot, which I use at least once a week if not more. I love crock pot meals.

D) One of Brock's birthday gifts. (Which maybe I should blog about that someday, eh?) He asked for a Venus fly trap. We planted it in this cute pot. I had high hopes for it. But unlike me (the under-waterer), Brock basically drowned it to death. It shriveled up and died. Poor thing. I have not moved the pot, because one of these days I'm going to learn how to really take care of a Venus fly trap, and we will get a new one and hopefully not water it to literal death.

E) Our many, many medicines that we've had to take in the last month-and-a-half. The kids all got this weird fever sickness, that really didn't have any other symptoms except for the fever that always hovered around 102 for about four days. And then it went away. I had sinus infections (plural), and Pete this last week had a stomach bug or something that lasted for about 4 days (but no fever). It's been super fun.

My kitchen window looks out to my backyard. My huge, empty backyard.

A) You can't see it really well in this picture, but figure A is above our trampoline frame. During the winters I didn't take the cover down. So then last summer, the cover rotted through by the rings, and broke. We need to buy a new cover, although I would love to get a bigger trampoline instead-the one we have is smaller, and shorter, which was nice when the kids were smaller and shorter. But now, a bigger one would be fun. So, maybe this summer.

B) One of our spindly little trees. We actually have quite a few trees planted in our backyard. The thing is, we've only lived here about 6 1/2 years, and a lot of our trees are only a couple of years old at the most. I checked, and they all made it through the winter, so that's good.

C) Our ghetto swing set. The kids love it, but it is totally falling apart. The swing chains have plastic covers on them that have rotted off and are falling down. The rungs leading to the little slide have broken through the screws multiple times, and then I've duct taped them in place, and then they have slid down the outer rails. So they are all crooked and jacked up. My kids don't care. But still, I should do something about it, right?

D) Again, you can't see it very well, but we have a row of trees along our back fence. To give you an idea of how deep our backyard is, though, that pine tree back there (which is a good 10 or 15 feet from the back fence) is taller than I am. When I bought it, it maybe came to my waist. So it is growing. And not that being taller than me is a huge feat, but in the picture it looks like it's about 3 feet tall.

So there you go. Kitchen sink and kitchen window.

Made to be a Maid

When my sister went to China, she left me the successor of cleaning my Dad's office. I take out garbages every night, clean bathrooms, and vacuum. It's really not too bad of a gig.

Here are my cleaning supplies:

P.S. - You can learn a lot about a person by looking at the contents of their garbage.  And also by the state of cleanliness of their office.

I wear these handy dandy gloves, which helps my toilet psychosis.  I have a hard time with toilets normally, but with gloves on I manage a lot better.  I need to get some for my own toilets.

I think my hands might permanently smell like latex after a while, but I'm okay with that.  I also think that cleaning many bathrooms as often as I do has also helped me psychologically.  You know how people do exposure therapy, where they have to face their fears?  It's kind of like that for me.

Also, doing this job is like getting paid to exercise.  I clean, and end up a hot sweaty mess after I'm done.  I've noticed that I hold with my left hand and do with my right hand.  So my left arm gets the heavier loads that I sustain, so it's going to get buff from that.  But my right arm does the repetitious movements, and I vacuum right-handed, so it's going to get buff a different way.  I tried switching arms one day, and it really didn't work.

This is just a little doo-dad that my dad has had in his office since I can remember.  I actually think it's an incense burner he got on his mission in South Korea, but I could be totally making that up.  I've always loved it, though.

I've also been helping my mom clean at her house as well, about once a week.  Lately it's been more like once a month, because we've been out of town playing.  But once school resumes it will probably be more periodic.

The other job I took over was scanning at my dad's office.  I've done this job on and off for years. Back in the day when I was applying for jobs, I would call it "document imaging".  Sounds fancy, huh?  I just scan old tax documents into the computer.  Here is my little office:

And there's the computer and scanner.  That machine is crazy fast.  This job is also pretty nice.  I set my own hours, and can do as much or as little as I want.  I usually do it right after I do the cleaning.

Right now my cleaning and scanning money is going towards my laser eye fund. Well, right right now, it's going to replace what I used of my fund to get my new fridge. But you know what I mean.  I've noticed that I'm kind of a money hoarder, so part of me wants to scan and scan and scan, so I can get MORE MONEY! 

But then I realize I need to be reasonable in my money-getting endeavors.  There are only so many hours in the day.

Besides, somewhere along the way I need to clean my own house, you know?

The Short Version

I think I am the President of the Procrastinator's Club.  Of course, I wouldn't know, because procrastinators would just put off having their meetings, wouldn't they?

Anyway, I've been gone WWWWAAAAAYYYYYY too long from my blog.  And so much has happened!  But I'm afraid if I try to do super detailed posts of everything, then I won't get around to doing any posting at all, because I'll just fall further behind.  So, I'm going to do the highlights, and you can fill in the details in your mind.  I trust you to make up awesome things.

So, without further ado...

Pete had his birthday.  He got a computer mouse, and then some drawings done by the kiddos.  It was very chill.

I started a chore chart for my kids. Jakob had been doing bathrooms with me for forever, and the other kids didn't have any chores.  I revamped it, and now we have a rotation of several chores.  My kids have been really great about doing chores-eager, even.

I have to supervise them, but for the most part they do pretty well.  A couple of weeks ago Troy was on dusting, and I didn't know that he was trying to do it by himself.  Needless to say, I had to scrape off oodles of dust stuff off of my dresser.  But he tried, and I guess that's what counts.

I also got a laundry basket for each of my kids, and now they fold their own clothes.  I have to help Ivy a lot, but they do well folding their own clothes.  I'm not quite ready to have them try and run the washing machine by themselves, but it's helped me a lot to divvy out their clothes for them.

Brock lost his two top teeth in the last little bit.  I love the toothless smile.

We spent mother's day with my parents.  It was really fun.  My mom is a spaz.  She's so cute!

My cute friend Sara got some free tickets to a show called "Handsome Little Devils", so she invited me and our other friend Anna to go. The actors do a lot of juggling tricks-that kind of thing.  It was really impressive. And I got pulled up on the stage!  The actor next to me had me hold some roses out in front of me, and he whipped the tops of them off while balancing on a ladder!  It was really cool.

We had an Easter egg hunt at my parents' house, in the 400 mile-an-hour wind.  Idaho "spring" is very, very windy.

Ivy had her third birthday.  For some reason, I always space on the candles for cakes.  Also for some reason, I had a brand new "1" candle, but that's it-no others.  Awesome.  So that's how we ended up with two matches as the other candles.

She got some clothes, and some hair things, a Tinkerbell doll, and the movie Bambie.

I was outside on a Saturday, and Troy ran out to be with me.  His hands were in his jacket.  He tripped, and fell flat on his face on the driveway.  I saw the whole thing and couldn't do anything to stop it.  So very sad.

A few days later, Troy graduated from preschool.  He loved preschool, but he is so ready to go to kindergarten in the fall.

And speaking of graduations, Brock graduated from kindergarten.  Their program was really cute, and I thought I would cry a lot, but I didn't.

(Okay, so here is where I tried to insert a video of Jakob's piano songs, but it wouldn't load.  Good job, blogger!  So, maybe someday I'll get it to load, but until then, just pretend that you can watch that video here.)

I had my piano recital.  I've been teaching Jakob this year as well.  He did an awesome job!  He was all, "My legs were shaking a lot!"  And I don't know why he decided to stand while playing, but whatever.  He did great, as did my other students.  I played as well, and did pretty good, but botched the end of my last song.  Oh well, though.  It's not the first time I've messed up a performance, nor will it be the last, I'm sure.

Also, I look like Beaker when I play the piano: my eyes are really wide, and my mouth turns down at the corners.  It's neat.

Right after school got out, I got sick, for a week!  It was way super awesome.  I love being sick.

We took a quick jaunt to Utah for Pete's mission reunion.  I was a little bored but I think Pete enjoyed seeing some of the people from his mission.  We hung out with family, and went to Thanksgiving point, to the dinosaur museum there.  I had no idea why Ivy is crying in the above picture.

They have a digging spot at the museum, where you can uncover "bones".  All my kids enjoyed that part.

All of my boys have individually told me that they want to either study or dig up dinosaur bones.

We ate at Benihana on the way back home.  The kids' menus folded up into hats.  Troy zonked out with his hat still on.

And, this last Sunday, Ivy decided to take some scissors to her own hair.  The pile of hair she chopped off is in her hands in this pic.

She did a very thorough job on both sides of her head.  It was very mullet-esque.  It's kind of hard to see in the pictures of it.  Needless to say, we needed to get it fixed up.  I figured a cute little pixie hair cut would work.  And, of course, all this happened before I got her 3-year-old picture taken.  Because I've been really on top of things lately.  (Pres. of the Procrastinator's Club, remember?)

Here it is, all fixed up.  Pete thinks it's kind of boy-ish, but I think if I keep a barrette in it then it will be feminine enough.

Well, that pretty much catches us up to speed.  Sorry it's not heavy on the details, but I just wanted to get 'er done, you know?  So that maybe, someday, I can step down as the President of the Procrastinator's Club.  You know, when I get around to it.

Lazy, According to Jakob

Jakob has a really skewed sense of what lazy is.  Well, maybe it's a skewed sense of what we as adults-that is, his parents, do.

He told his gym teacher one day that he was being lazy at his class, "just like my dad".  Yeah, I think that getting up at 5 a.m. four days a week to go to work, and getting home at 6:30 at night is being TOTALLY lazy. 

Then last night Jake wanted more dinner, so he asked me for some.  I was like, "You can get some more by yourself."  And he gave me this look like, what?  I have to serve myself?  As he was dishing up, he muttered, "I wish I could stay home and do nothing like Mom does."

That made me laugh.  I replied, "Jake, do you want to hear what I did today?  It definitely wasn't "nothing"."

He looked at me with "impress me" in his eyes.  I began.

"First, I got up, so I could get you up, made you a lunch, and got some breakfast for you.  I got you out the door so you could catch the bus and get to school on time.

"Then I got breakfast for the other three kids, and got myself ready for the day.  I started some laundry, and folded three other loads from yesterday's laundry, and put it all away.  Later in the day, I folded two more loads and put that away as well.

"I cleaned out the fridge, and dumped the old food.  I rinsed dishes, loaded the dishwasher, and after it was done running I put all the dishes away.

"I took out the garbage, which includes getting garbage from 6 cans, and also changing out the cat litter box.  After the garbage man came, I brought the garbage can back in.

"I finished writing down the music for one of our roadshow songs. (Meaning, I had to come up with accompaniment for one of the songs, so it's like I was composing a bit.  I did about 2/3s of it yesterday.  And this was not an easy task for me.) 

"I swept the kitchen floor so my students wouldn't get grossed out looking at it.  I also cleaned some pee off the bathroom floor.  (Totally gross, I know, but that's how it is with three little boys who don't have the greatest aim.)

"I got lunch for myself and three kids, and listened to a tantrum from Ivy (for about 30 seconds, then I sent her to her room) because she didn't want what I got for her for lunch.  I got Brock ready and out the door for his school. 

"I taught four piano lessons today.

"I did have a slight break, because usually on Tuesdays I go and help in Brock's kindergarten class, but today they were doing something special so his teacher told me not to come.  Instead, I finished the craft pages you kids had started earlier in the week.  (It's mosaics with little sticky foam squares.  Like paint-by-number but with squares.  It was fun, and because it's for 6-year-olds, about at my crafting level.  This owl one is one that Jakob did on Saturday; it's one of the small ones.  I did three big ones.)

"During piano lessons, Troy, Brock, and Ivy came in from playing outside, COVERED in mud.  I had to strip Ivy down, and then sent her downstairs to wait to get cleaned up until after I was done teaching.  That means another load of laundry, with three coats in it that I had cleaned only a week before, bringing my washed loads total for the day to three, and my folded loads for the day to six.  (And then she fell asleep, with mud on her face and in her hair.  I'm the best mom ever!)

"I also checked your homework, listened to you read, made four beds, including yours, and made dinner.  I also answered your questions you had while practicing piano.

"In a half hour, I get to go over to the church, and play a musical number for a lady that's singing at New Beginnings.  (I don't know if I mentioned on here that I got released from Young Women's.  Being at New Beginnings last night made me really miss my calling and those girls.)  I also get to come home and get everyone ready for bed, and do more dishes from dinner.

"So, if you want to switch me for the day, my "nothing" for your day of schoolwork, I'd be happy to, any day of the week."

Silence, with eyes very wide, from Jakob's side of the table.  Maybe he'll rethink his definition of lazy.

Remember When? (Kind of like Memory Monday, but the TOTALLY CHEATING Version)

Hey!  Remember when I whined and complained about wanting to paint my downstairs family room?  Remember that I wanted to do it last spring, and that didn't happen, and then the summer flew by me, and then I was totally going to paint Labor Day weekend, but then that's when Pete got his 6th kidney stone?

Remember blah white walls with hundreds of dings in them?

Now there's a new memory to replace the old! 

Behold:

Okay, I don't know if it's showing up very well, but that would be a freshly painted beautiful blue wall!!!  My awesome sister Kar and I decided that we needed to help each other out in the painting-our-rooms-in-our-houses endeavors.  Because on our own, it seems to be an insurmountable task, but with two people doing it, it doesn't seem so bad, and then when you do it it gets done way faster.

I cleaned.  I fixed dings.  Lots and lots of dings.  I haven't put up my pictures again yet, but that shouldn't take long.  It looks so, so good!

Oh, and because I'm a nerd, I didn't get any action shots of us actually painting, but my sister did.  Also, Pete took the kids out to dinner and a movie to keep them out of the way, which was a HUGE help.

Okay, so also, remember when I was whining about having a messy kitchen all the time?  And how I need to change my habits and become better at what I do?  I've been working really hard at this, and though I haven't been perfect, I've been a lot better.  I've been trying to stay on top of laundry (this last week, not so much), and staying on top of dirty dishes.  So today...

Behold:

This is my kitchen with a freshly mopped floor.  The dishes are all done.  The laundry is running as I type.  I dusted and windexed.  I tried to snow blow, but I couldn't get the machine started, so I tried shoveling, and it kept blowing back on me, so I'm going to have to try again later today or tomorrow.  My chicken is cooked for tonight's dinner.  My floors are vacuumed.  I am the master of my fate!

YAY for new "memories"!

Unfinished Thoughts

I've been a little frustrated all week.  I think it's because I taught a lesson on self-mastery to my cute Young Women on Sunday.  And I'm probably the last person that should be teaching that.  Because I'm the ultimate non-master of myself. 

We were talking about bad habits, and I told the girls that sometimes I end up leaving my dishes unwashed, so that they're lining my counter, and have dried food on them and I hate that that's become one of my habits.  Now, it's not every day, but still, it happens way more often than I'd like.  I was explaining this, and one of the girls got this "how gross" look on her face.  And I was like, I know, right?  Totally gross. 

But really, it's not just dirty dishes.  It's laundry that piles up taller than Troy (I measured today).  It's unmopped floors and stinky bathrooms.  It's the unfinished projects sitting by my computer.  It's the oh-crap-we're-almost-out-of-milk-better-finally-make-a-list-and-run-to-the-store.

It's procrastination.

And I hate it about myself.  It's even hitting the snooze button-I'm procrastinating getting up out of bed.

I wish I could be one of those tackle everything immediately kinds of people.  And I can be like that about some things.  But I end up procrastinating a lot more often than I'd like.

Let's be honest.  Most of the things that I procrastinate are the things that I hate doing.  Chores, if you will.  And it boils down to being part of my "job" as a homemaker.  If I had a performance review right now of how I was doing, I'd probably get fired.  I'm surprised my kids haven't fired me yet.

So, what to do about it?

I only had a few minutes to prepare my lesson.  (Not because of procrastination, luckily, but just a miscommunication.)  So here are a few more thoughts that I wish I could have brought up.  I'm writing them here, just for myself.

In the lesson I brought up the ending of the poem Invictus.  The last two lines read "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."  I wish I had had a copy of the whole poem, and had given it as a handout.  We talked about it briefly.  Basically, we are in charge of our own destiny.  If we don't like the direction we are heading in, we need to change it. 

I wish I had known beforehand that the author of that poem, William Ernest Henley,  had to have his leg amputated at 25 (which is about when he wrote the poem), and he died at 53 after leading a very active life.

We also read a scripture: Mosiah 4:27-...it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.  And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize...  I wish I would have had a minute to think about that scripture.  Because right now, it's not realistic to expect my house to be spotless-I have four little kids running around making messes right and left!  But again, I can't blame them for it all.  I need to be diligent, that I "might win the prize". 

I was thinking about some of our girls that play sports, especially the track girls.  Every person has their different strengths; not everyone is made to sprint; not everyone is made for long distance, either.  But everyone has their own race to run, at their own pace.  What one person can accomplish in a day is not the same as another person.  And it can ebb and flow in our own lives-there are times when we can conquer a lot, get a lot done, and feel great.  There are other times when it's all we can do to get everyone fed for the day, never mind do the dishes on top of that.  But you can't win a race if you don't even get on the track to start the race to begin with.

The gist of the lesson was thoughts lead to actions, which lead to habits, which lead to your character, and finally to your destiny.  So to change a habit, we need to change our thoughts and our actions, which will lead to a different destiny.

So this is my step 1: I'm trying to change my thoughts.  I've realized that no one is going to do the laundry for me.  No one is going to push me out of bed.  Not that this is a new epiphany for me, but I'm the only one to blame for having a laundry pile the size of a small mountain.

My step 2: my actions.  Yesterday I "caught up" on dishes.  Today I "caught up" on laundry.  My goal to change my habit of procrastination is to do two loads of laundry every day, and to do my dishes every day, no matter how late. 

And, this should lead to my step 3: my habits getting changed.  There are so many other things that am tired of procrastinating on, like painting my downstairs living room, or making new bedspreads for my boys.  But if I can conquer the mundane everyday tasks, then I can move on to bigger and better, and conquer those things, too.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

I challenged my girls to pick just one bad habit, and work to change it.  And that is what I am going to do.  Because I AM the master of my fate.  I AM the captain of my soul!

Before and After

My kitchen before:

Monday morning. This is what happens when I neglect my dishes all weekend, because of painting, and attempting feebly to eek out a relaxing Mother's Day for myself. Needless to say, if I'm not the one doing it, it doesn't get done.


My kitchen after:

Monday afternoon. Ooooh, sparkly!

Curtains before:

I've loved having these curtains where they've been for the last 4 1/2 years. But, it was time for a change, and ever since I got blinds for my front bay window, um, windows, I had been wanting blinds on the back.

Curtains after:

And now, I moved the curtains against the sliding glass door. It opens up that area so much! Now I get to fix all the holes in the wall, but at least I have the stuff out because I'll have to fix holes in the walls downstairs when I go to paint there in the near future.

Little boys' hair before:

Brock's hair grows into a ducktail in the back-it kind of goes sideways towards his neck. And Troy's grows very flat. He looks like Julius Caesar.


Boys' hair after:

Nice and buzzed! What handsome little fake smilers.


Ivy's room before:

Winnie the Pooh themed. Which I loved having for my babies. I made a couple of cross stitches, I got some Winnie the Pooh gifts, and because we were super extra poor when we had Jakob and Brock, I got a coloring book, and colored some pictures and put them on paper. When we moved here (when Brock was still little), I painted two walls solid green, and two walls green, but spongy. And I loved it. But again, time for a change.


Ivy's room after:

VERY purple. Pete calls it lavender. It matches the purple on Ivy's princess bedspread. I don't have anything on the walls yet. I was going to do a stencil of pink butterflies and flowers, but the paint bled underneath the stencil, and it got all smeary. So I'm thinking I'll go vinyl or something. Or get some princess posters. We'll have to see.

"Gay" Aerobics and Other Random Life Events

Random 1:
Yesterday I:
-washed 6 loads of laundry and folded 9 loads
-unmade, then made 4 twin beds and a king bed
-patched a hole on my jacket, and darned some socks
-went to part of mutual
-vacuumed my whole house
-loaded and unloaded my dishwasher, twice
-did a little sudoku
-took out two huge bags of garbage
-cleaned up two dead mice in my garage
-along with the usual (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dirty diapers, fixing hair, fixing lunches, helping with homework, etc.)

I just wanted to document how I pretty much rocked yesterday, so I know that I actually can have the energy and time to get a whole lot done.

However, I did not exercise, because my back was killing me. I think from making the beds. Oh, and from P90X.

Random 2:
One day, Pete came home from work and said, "We should start doing some gay aerobics", and did a little disco-esque move. And I thought, Richard Simmons? But he meant just some sort of aerobic exercise. So we got a copy of P90X, and have been working out ever since. It's a lot of yoga, with some weights, and a whole lot of push ups. Each day of the week is a different workout, and it gets jumbled up after three weeks. I could barely do parts of the ab ripper one, we only did about half of the 90-minute yoga night, and my "weights" for the arm day were little tomato sauce cans. (Hey, when you haven't worked out in who knows how long, you gotta start out slow.) And even though my back was killing me last night, it's been good. It's only been a week, and I feel like I'm sleeping better, and I have a bit more energy, which is probably why I could do so much yesterday (though today, not so much).

Random 3:
The other day I decided that I need to take more pictures of my kids. The spur of the moment ones are the ones that seem to really capture my kids' personalities.

I love this picture of Brock and Jakob. My kids were all taking turns telling "secrets" (mostly just whispered nonsense words) at dinnertime, into each other's ears, and into mine.


I also love this picture of Ivy and Troy. Taken the same "secrets" night. Blue eye heaven.


Random 4:
I'm getting the urge to paint rooms again. I don't know why I get motivated to do inside improvements when I should be feeling the need to work on outside stuff. Though it's still been too nasty and cold and freaking windy to do anything outside, anyway, so maybe it's just fine that I want to do inside stuff.

Anyway, I'm hoping to paint Ivy's room, this weekend. Stay tuned for that! (And I promise I'll be faster at posting. I've been sucking it up lately.)

I also want to paint my downstairs family room, though that's going to be quite the undertaking. I'm hoping for maybe next weekend...ish. (Hey, if anyone out there reading this likes to paint, and you aren't a crazy stalker, feel free to come help me.) And other future projects: making new bedspreads for my three boys, and painting their rooms, too.

Random 5:
I checked out community classes for learning guitar. Turns out they don't teach beginner guitar in the summer. Grrr. So hopefully this fall...

Random 6:
Just spent oodles of money on our minivan on Monday. One of the break pads was totally worn away. And we needed new tires. I really hate spending money on things like that, even though it's inevitable.

Random 7:
I'm starting Brock and Troy on chores-cleaning up toys (which they already do) and helping me dust and windex. They were REALLY gung-ho about it. And Important Kid #2 (Ivy) had to help as well. She cried and cried until she got a rag, and absolutely fell apart when we were all done dusting. Yesterday she was pointing and kept saying "bill! bill!", and I thought she was looking at something outside. Finally she got down from the chair, pulled out a washcloth from the drawer, went back to the table, and starting wiping up the spill that was there that I hadn't seen. Such a little cleaner. Are all girls like that? Because my boys sure as heck wouldn't have cleaned up a spill-they would have spread it around and made the mess bigger.

Random 8:
Memo is getting declawed tomorrow morning. The stinking cat sunk her claws into our new couch. She'll probably hate us for a while, but I'd rather have that than clawed up furniture. (We've tried the claw stand thingies. She doesn't care about those a smidge.)

Well, I'm off to do some more "gay" aerobics with my hubby. I think it's legs and back tonight. Hoo, boy.

Epiphany

Last night I was doing the dishes.

I realized that a lot of what a mother does is very repetitive. Sometimes it seems that, as soon as we do it, and YAY! it's done!, we have to do it all over again. Dishes. Meals. Changing diapers. Grocery shopping. Laundry. More laundry. (Did I mention laundry?)

Even what I say to my kids is the same old thing. Day in, day out. ("Time to clean up", "brush your teeth", "sit down and eat please", etc.)

A hamster wheel. Around and around.

Groundhog Day.

Have you seen that movie? Basically, the main character, Phil, is stuck in the same day, repeating the same actions. Eventually he learns that he should take advantage of the time he is given: to help others, to improve their lives, and to improve and perfect his own life.

So, back to my dishes. I realized that, I can do the same dishes the same way, over and over, and have a crappy attitude about it, or I can see it as an opportunity to perfect myself. I can do my dishes (among other duties) and become a better person, a better mom, because I get to repeat my daily actions so much.

Another movie analogy: Karate Kid.

Mr. Miyagi has Daniel do chores, over and over, that don't seem to relate to karate at all. But one night Daniel realizes that, even though it seemed pointless, he was actually learning the right moves and building his muscles the right way so that he could be great at karate.

My "pointless" tasks of keeping house? It just means I'll be fit for the kingdom. When I'm doing dishes, I'm not just doing dishes, but I'm teaching my children that cleanliness is next to godliness, that we need to take care of what has been given to us, and that we're blessed with work, not cursed with it.

And here is a scripture I memorized not too long ago, that I think are the characteristics of a great mom. I hope I can polish them up in this life: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. -Galatians 5:22-23

The Norm

I ran my washer and dryer nonstop from 9:30 p.m. Sunday night until 3 a.m. Monday morning.
Then I had it going nonstop from 9:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. yesterday.
This morning, I still had two loads to run.
(I really, really wish I was exaggerating about the sheer amount of fabric running through my machines. I should have counted the loads, but that would have been depressing.)

And now, I only have 5 or 6 loads waiting for me to fold. Which is actually how much laundry I end up having when we aren't sick.

Yep. That looks about right.

1, 2, 3

1, 2, 3 kids down with the flu last night.

1, 2, 3 kids and a mom asleep on 1, 2 couches.

At 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the morning, finally.

After 1, 2, 300 barfing moments.

1 bathroom completely cleaned after getting throw-up all over it. It stayed clean for about 12 hours, until this morning.

1, 2 kids I attempted to move back to their beds at 1, 2 in the morning. Kids 1 and 2 both threw up again.

1, 2 schools being missed today.

1, 2, 3 kids, hopefully feeling better.

1 kid that missed the whole thing (but either had it last week when he threw up 1, 2 times at 1 in the morning, or his turn is next).

1, 2, 3 sets of sheets and bedding and clothing (and then some) to be cleaned. Still working on that one.

1 tired mom.

Winning Has Never Felt So Good. Really.

Friday I went to The Essence of You, and redeemed my massage package that I won! Yippee!

First I got my massage. (Oh, and the chocolate part? Yeah, it's just chocolate scented oils that they rub on you.) Then on to the facial, where I think I dozed off a few times because I felt my body jump. I enjoyed a brunch of a ton of yummy chocolatey treats. Then the manicure; I had the lady paint my nails a sparkly light pink. And then a lady that looked like Bryce Howard on the Spider-man 3 movie did my hair.

See? Don't I look all sorts of relaxed and buffed and primped?

And I even treated myself to a Quizno's sub afterwards.
And then I started feeling guilty.
Maybe it was because I never do that kind of thing for myself. Maybe it's because I was neglecting other things to take time out for me. I shouldn't have felt guilty. And hey, I won the dang thing, so I didn't even have to spend any money to do it! Maybe it's the mom in me-women tend to put everyone else and everything else before themselves.
But then again, the guilt feeling was probably a good thing, because I sorted through the toys and tossed the annoying or broken ones, then Saturday I swept out my garage, windexed and vacuumed out my cars, and cleaned up the yard a bit.
At any rate, it was a fun little spa day, and I'm glad it rejuvenated me. So, maybe I should do it a lot more often, so that I get a lot of little projects done afterwards. Hmm, the wheels are starting to turn...

Stick a Freaking Fork in Me...

...I'm DONE!!

I finished spring cleaning my entire house!

{ much applause and cheering }

About five days ago I didn't want to see my bucket of soapy water ever again. The whole process was like working out to the advanced Taebo tape: how you hate it a lot a lot in the middle of it, but after you're done, and you're sitting on the couch all out of breath and sweaty, you're glad you did it. And seriously, I'm sore today, because it was like I worked out every day for at least an hour for the last two weeks (yesterday was like 7 hours), getting up and down off of counters and stools and chairs, and pulling stuff out and putting it back.

I was surprised by how many cobwebs were in the corners that I couldn't see until I got up near the ceilings.

I was surprised by how much dirt I dumped out in the soapy water, just from wiping my walls.

I was surprised by how much stuff I found to D.I. or to dump, especially since I'm such a minimalist. But when things are all hidden away, you don't have to think about them or face the "do I use it?" questions.

I am not surprised by the calm I feel now, even though I have the hugest pile of laundry to fold since it's been ignored for the better part of a week. But that's kind of part of my routine anyway.

I'm also not surprised by the new list of things that I want to do: the projects (recaulking, repainting, etc.), the other cleaning (like the garage, the storage room, etc.), and the organizational stuff (scanning Pete's mission pics, updating my address book, etc.).

But anyway, here are a few more before and after shots. The difference in some of the areas may not be as obvious by looking at them, but the feeling is so different!

The pantry before (somewhat chaotic), then after (glass jars moved away from Ivy's grasping level, and stuff clumped together a little better):

The "office" before (so dusty and cluttery!):


The "office" after (I breathe better just looking at it!):


My medicine cabinet before (the whole half-used bottles thing):


Medicine cabinet after (so pretty!):


Under my bathroom sink before (not organized):


Under the sink after (so easy to find stuff!):


So if any of you have the desire to spring clean, I guarantee that even if you do just one room, you'll feel so good! Oh, and Mary has extended her deadline to two weeks from today, so if you still want to participate through her blog then join in! She's having giveaways and a girl's night out and all sorts of stuff. And hey, even if I don't win anything, I still have a clean house! YAY!

And now, when I go to do the normal cleaning in my house, it will be so easy peasy lemon squeezy compared to what I've just done.