We like to make "days" at our house. Last Friday was "overall" day for the kids. (I would have joined in but I don't have any overalls). Saturday is a Pop Tart day. Today was a slipper day, meaning we never put real shoes on because we were staying inside all day. And since we didn't go anywhere I told the kids we all could wear some comfy slippers (I wore Mickey Mouse ones, Allen wore clown slipper socks, and Abby wore her Zoe) while we "clean, clean, clean!"
Note: Once a week I clean the house throughly, I do all the laundry, and I do some major cooking. I never have set days, I like to be more spontaneous than that, but it has to get done before the week ends. Well, today I decided to duke it out and do it all on the same day. Afterall, we weren't going anywhere.
So we started off cleaning the upper floor. The kids did well picking up their room and the guest room (where Allen has his quiet time). They helped me straighten my room. I cleaned the bathroom sinks and toilets. Then we pulled out the vacuum. Allen's job is to plug it in and he's really good at it. He'll unplug and then move the cord for me. Abby doesn't really like the vacuum. As long as she plays nicely while we're cleaning, I'm fine with that.
After the upstairs, we went down the stairs to work on the main level. At this point the kids needed a break and asked to watch Magic School Bus (a new favorite series we make sure to check out from the library). I picked up the main level, vacuumed and cleaned the bathroom. Then I went upstairs and mopped all that level and came down and mopped all that level. Then I vacuumed the family room and the basement. And in between some of that cleaning, I threw in loads of laundry. (Now, don't be fooled into thinking that I love to clean. Rather, I do it quickly so I can celebrate when it's over.)
Once the cleaning was finished, I got out our Valentine decorations which caused some BIG excitement, if you can imagine. And I had to take a few pictures because it usually ends up all over the house -- what can I say? The kids love to move my holiday decor all over and play with it.
We decorated our banister, around the fireplace and shelves, garland between the ceiling fans (do you see Abby in that photo?) and heart-attacked our family room window.
The next task was to make sugar cookies for the holiday. I tripled the batch and was happy that with the 10 cups of flour, as tricky as it was to mix, actually fit in the bowl with all that sugar, butter and eggs. I made giant ones and small ones; frosted a few and froze the rest.
So... house clean, laundry done, holiday stuff up, cookies made and in the freezer... SWEET! I'm way ahead and it's only Monday. I love when that happens. Of course, now I'm really sore, tired and I have major leg aches.
And what has Ross been up to lately? He went to a doctor about his 
knees and has been taking some medicine and doing some exercises to strengthen them. He gave a great FHE lesson and the kids were attentive. I told him that he should teach the lesson every week. He's been doing lots of document review, and on the side has been our Craigslist Coordinator. Tonight he went to go look at some furniture and he bought us a new kitchen table for Valentines. He put down a deposit and brought home one of the chairs to show me. I'm excited. We've used the same round table since we got married, and we just need something bigger.
