Setting The Bar

I'm not Super-Mom.

I'm not even Above-Average-Mom.

I'm a pretty much just Mom.

You could look at as though I'm "keeping it real" for my kids. They need to know that having a family, a home, and a job also means that they have to forgo home-cooked, four-course meals and a spot-free household existence.

It became abundantly clear how far from "spot-free" my home had become based on Stinkle's reaction to cleaning her room yesterday.

Her room was a disaster area. Stuffed animals, barrettes, Barbies, Barbie accessories, baby dolls, McDonald's toys, scraps of at least five sheets of green construction paper, magnets, Littlest Pet Shop stuff, and much more littered her bedroom floor.

It's not a big room - only 11X10 and that might be generous. So it doesn't take much of a mess to make it look much, much smaller.

This poor child also has a massive case of second child syndrome:

• She has the smallest of the bedrooms with the smallest closet.
• Her bed is the actually the trundle from under Cupie's Captains bed.
• The floor lamp used to be Cupie's but it didn't fit the new decor when we moved into our current house so Stinkles inherited it.
• The dresser was originally Cupie's too, but Cupie got a new one when Stinkles was born so it's technically a hand-me-down too.

Cupie has a walk-in closet that we were able to add storage shelves to. She has 25 feet of space to store games, those doll make-up heads, Pixos, books, Barbie stuff, etc. Stinkles has none.

That's one reason her room is a mess. We'd provided her no means of organizing it nor had we shown her how.

So we were at Home Depot this weekend. And you know as soon as we walked in, the kids had to go to the bathroom.

What's with kids and needing to go to the bathroom at every store we visit?

We were there to get a couple of things that sold at the front of the store. Now, I had to traipse all the way to the back of the store to find the bathrooms. Said Traipsing took me through the Closetmaid storage stuff isle.

Whaaaaaaaaaaah. A magical glow floated over the racks of brackets & wire shelving.

I started guesstimating the size of Stinkles closet.

Holy crap!

It was going to cost us at least $250 to do her closet. The angel choir ceased abruptly.

Now, I know you can do a 34"X47" (we measured when we got home) for less than $250, but I wanted the "track" system so we could screw this stuff into the wall once and still have flexibility to change the height of the shelves later. Trying to cover up the bullet sized holes from wall anchors is a pain in the rump.

We ultimately decided to buy the materials for part of her closet. At least she would get some storage.

Stinkles was pretty excited about getting some shelves in her closet and cleaning up her room. Don't you just love this age? She was excited about cleaning!

So I started moving stuff around in her closet. Like, I stacked the tubs of hand-me-down clothes on one side. I moved the boxes of hand-me-down shoes off the shelf already in the closet to the top of the tubs. Thankfully, the wall was there to prevent the fall of the leaning tower of hand-me-downs.

In the process, I found evidence of good intentions. There were three collapsible canvas cubes to match the colors of her room. Stinkles helped decide what went into each one.

I think I saw that on Oprah or read it in one of those perfect parent type of magazines - let the kids help make the decision and maybe they'll stick with it. I thought if she helped decide what went in the cubes, the likelihood of those items making it back into the cubes would increase.

Stay tuned, we'll see if that worked.

Believe it or not, the shelving went up uneventfully.

How does that happen to me?

I suppose I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. I'll just shut-up and put a check in the success column.

Anywho, Hubby took the kids to Wally-world for a new camera (stay tuned for that saga) and I finished up Stinkle's closet & room cleaning.

When she got home, Stinkles ran to her room. By the time I made my way up, she was at the top of the stairs, jumping up and down with her arms up in the air. She looked like she had just won the lottery.

I got a huge hug and kiss.

I asked her, "Do you like what Mommy did in your room?"

She let go, stepped back, and vigorously nodded her head. Then she said, "Now let's go look at the closet!"

She was that excited about her room being clean - she hadn't even looked at the closet yet!

You know you're doing something wrong when your child thinks that a clean room is cause for celebration.

Or maybe I've done it right by setting the bar pretty darn low.

Silver Lining:

1. There was no stepping on Barbie boots or any other foot puncturing item when sneaking in for one last kiss before I went to be last night.
2. The tables have been turned on Cupie. Stinkles informed her that her room is a "daster". And it spurred a mini cleaning spree by Cupie. Mini as in, she made her bed - woo, who!
3. Stinkles got a small taste of victory. We did something just for her - she was the sole focus of this project and she didn't have to share it with her sister. I'm sure she put an imaginary check in the success column too.

Magic Machines

Water.

Very important for life.

Very important for cleaning too.

There are these nifty things in my house that use water for cleaning. Machines you may call them.

There is one that magically cleans clothes. You put the clothes in. You add some soap to the dispenser (the area that says "soap"). Press a button.

Less than an hour later, it's magic. The clothes are clean and ready for the dryer.

There is another machine that magically cleans dishes. You put the dishes in. You add some soap to the dispenser (where it says "soap"). Press a button.

More magic happens in this machine. When it stops the dishes are clean.

It's amazing.

Why is it that I'm the only person in my house seems to be capable of using these machines? There are only three steps to operate either one of them.

I'm going out of town - God help the fam.

Silver Lining:

1. I'm only leaving for six days.


2. I'll make sure they have a week's worth of socks, underwear, pants & shirts. Although they may not get out of the PJ's on Sunday, which for them, means changing underwear is optional.


3. They could be in trouble on the dish front though. There are only ten melamine kid plates and we have two kids and I'll be gone for more than five meals. Good news is we have Corelle for the grown ups - it's is really just the grown up version of melamine. In a pinch, the kids could use the grown up plates. As a back-up, there are paper plates in the cabinet - about three shelves above the Margaritaville Machine (One that uses water of the frozen variety. Of course, Hubby knows how to operate this one. And I'm sure it will get used while I'm gone.)

PS - Hubby, this does not excuse you from attempting to use said machines while I'm away - I just gave you the basic instructions. I'm positive you'll try to keep the house in some kind of orderly fashion while I'm gone (or at least you and the girls will make a mad dash to make it look that way on Friday night before I get home).

Really, Truly Random

No theme today, just truly random thoughts.

My front bottom teeth form a ridge in the center so they are slightly higher than the rest of my bottom teeth. It’s not a reverse buck tooth thing. It’s just right in the middle. The other end of the front two teeth are at the same level as the others. I know this because I was just running my finger over the top of them. Why was I doing this? Beats me, but now I can’t stop doing it.

I wore sandals today, but because it’s so chilly outside, I turned the heat on in the car and had it blasted on my feet. Why didn’t I wear regular shoes? I just can’t bring myself to put on socks or stockings yet. And because I don’t have any that go with these pants. I don’t know what I wore with them last year, but I don’t have anything now. Guess I’ll have to go shopping.

Speaking of the weather getting colder, it’s happening a lot sooner than usual here. I got to thinking about my kids’ Halloween costumes and how I’m going to have to plan for them to be large enough to fit over the winter parka. Usually, Halloween is cool, but a long sleeve shirt or a sweatshirt did the trick. I’m not so sure about this year. We never thought about it when I was growing up. When you live in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin, it was a given that it was going to be cold. And rainy. You were definitely buying a costume three sizes larger than your clothing size in order to accommodate the layers of tights, long underwear, jeans, turtleneck, sweater, snow pants & parka.

Last night, I figured out, by accident, how to select a specific piece of an image and was able to cut, layer a nifty graphic, & replace it as a new image in PrintShop. I made a kick@ss logo for my father-in-law’s website. Did a fist pump and everything. Don’t you love it when that happens?

Dang light fixtures and shelves got dusted after last week’s random thoughts, but now the laundry is after me. We have two and a half piles (unfolded) of clean laundry, two piles of dirty laundry and an empty laundry hamper thingy. Guess, I should stop making stuff in PrintShop long enough to get that remedied. That’s poop. I’d rather play.

Cupie can read! She started reading short word books (like three words on a page type) at the end of pre-school and we were really proud of her. However, now she is starting to really sound out words with two letters making one sound (sh, th, oo, etc)! Only two and a half weeks into Kindergarten, three naughty notes home & a trip to the principal’s office (not proud of that) and she can really read!!

Now head over to Keely's to see more randomness (is that a word?)

Silver lining:

1. One of the things on my daughter’s kindergarten homework calendar is some kind of sorting activity. Guess who’s helping with the laundry? Two birds with one stone – that rocks!


2. I have a pair of pants with no cold weather appropriate footwear. [singing] I’m going to have to go shopping! [stop singing] I wonder if I can work that into one of Cupie’s homework assignments for September.

Random Tuesday Thoughts - Housecleaning Edition

I've never been known as an awesome housekeeper.

As such, for this Random Tuesday Thoughts, I'm sharing some of my housekeeping deficiencies. Hopefully, you see a little bit of yourself. If not, at least you know you aren't the worst housekeeper out there. I am.

Onward!

I think I've sunk to a new low. It's bad enough I use an electric sweeper to get the big stuff because it would be waaaaaay too much work to use a broom and then have to bend down to fill the dust pan. But just today there was a piece of popcorn that just wouldn't sweep up so I stepped on it to make it flatter. Sucked it right up! I think my Bad Housekeeping rating for "Biggest Slacker" went up a tick.

I hate it when you refill a plastic soda bottle with water at the refrigerator. I know it's icy cold and all that jazz, but inevitably the bottle moves and a spray of water goes everywhere. I'm usually the one who has to clean it up. And dang it, if there isn't some bending down to get the entire front and the puddle on the floor.

Changing light bulbs bites. Every time I get up there to change one, I'm reminded that I haven't dusted the fixtures in awhile. They mock me. They say, "You're already up here. Come on, just a quick flick of a dust rag?" Don't they know I didn't plan ahead and bring a dust rag with me? I'll be darned if I'm going to climb allllll the way down the three foot step stool, go get a dust rag and then climb allllll the way back up only to have dust filter down into my hair, my eyes, my nose, etc.

Speaking of dusting and mocking, the shelves in the stair way do that to me too. Most shelves I can't really see the tops of, but the ones in the stair way you can't help to see. Occasionally, I'll run my hand along the edges, as I'm going down but inevitably the end of the shelves get too high and I can't reach anymore. At some point, I'm sure the end with the most dust will carry enough weight to tip the shelf and the dust will all slide off. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I'm beating myself up over this.

Seems no one understands that stuff on the stairs means you're supposed to pick it up when you go up. I guess I'm guilty of this too. I can't tell you how often I snag the shoes I want to wear off the stairs. I'll get off my high horse on this one.

Well that's all for now. There's lots of other junk rolling around in my brain, but I'll save it for another time. Now head over to Keely's to see who else has those random, free-wheeling thoughts just pouring out of their heads.

Silver lining:

1. I was totally guilted into dusting the light fixtures & those shelves after writing this.


2. After dusting, I was on a cleaning bender. I went ahead and cleaned out the fridge by finishing off the bottle of wine that was sitting there. Impressive cleaning skills, I know.