Frantic Thursday Moments

Oh Dylan! What am I going to do with you? We are definitely going to have a good talk about this tomorrow! It's been kind of a week...or two. Nothing big, just constant running and doing. I feel like I have been on the go a lot and like my to do list just keeps growing. And I watched Anthony today so I had added chaos. I had great intentions of getting tons of projects done, but I seemed to go from one room to another and never really accomplished much. So I did nothing. Okay, nothing is a relative term. I started out doing the kids' laundry so that's not nothing, but still. The list I had planned to do and what actually took place were completely different.

My intent had been to do the kids' laundry AND all the sheets, but by the time I got finished with their big load I was dead. I hadn't even made the beds because well, I was going to wash the sheets. I finished putting away the laundry to find Preston at the top of the stairs tossing all the bouncy balls in the basket down one by one and yelling "bombs away." Nice! He thought it was so much fun that he continued to toss a box of small board books down too. Trying to make the day fun, I had set up the train track in the family room for Anthony and Preston. They played with it for quite some time, but before long, it was just pieces of track and tons of little trains all over the place. And Preston has an obsession with dragging out ALL of the blankets and trying to walk with them over his head or whatever other extremely dangerous game he thinks he should try. So there were blankets, toys, balls, books, jackets, and shoes everywhere. I hadn't unloaded and reloaded the dishes so the sink was pretty much full and the beds weren't made. Oh, and I haven't cleaned the bathrooms yet this week. Yep, I'm a big slob!

When Dylan got home from Kindergarten and the kids wanted to play outside, I decided it was a great plan. They dug for fossils in the sandbox and pulled the toys out of the shed. Oh, and smashed a bunch of the old tomatoes in the lawn, which I made them clean up and toss back into the compost/garden area. GRRRR!! But because they were playing well together, it was such a good day outside and I was feeling tired and lazy, I decided to do nothing. So I sat...and watched a couple episodes of Glee I hadn't seen yet. I NEVER watch TV during the day so it felt practically criminal sitting there on the couch while my kids played outside, but still I couldn't muster up the courage to face my task list again. So I didn't.

Anthony's dad was supposedly coming late today so I figured I had extra time to clean up the mess. Plus, Marcos had a work thing tonight so I knew he would be late too. Just no incentive to do anything. So when Anthony's dad called and said he would actually be there at 5, I got Anthony's stuff ready and we went out front to play for a few minutes. No sense bringing him in to my disaster. This is what my world looked like when I heard a sweet little voice talking to David (Anthony's dad). "David, would you like to stay and eat dinner with us tonight?" Gulp. I smiled and he looked at me questioning. "Well, sure. Of course you can stay. What should we have? Should we go get a pizza?" Hello, I hadn't even fixed dinner. I hadn't even thought about dinner yet. I told him I could call Marcos to pick up a pizza on the way home from work, but he offered to go pick one up instead. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I tried not to look to frazzled as I told the kids they could go play baseball in the backyard so they would be safe while I went to turn the oven on. What I meant was, while I preheat the oven and attempt to make some sense of this mess I had decided to ignore all day. I had maybe 20 minutes...maybe. I took all the toys up and tossed them in the toy room. They weren't put away, but at least they looked a bit contained. I didn't even attempt to make beds. I shut the door to my bedroom and tossed the kids' comforters back towards their beds. I folded blankets, unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded, swept the floor...and in walked Marcos. He was vacuuming the family room when David got back. Holy crap! At least it looked presentable, but it was still so embarrassing. Seriously, I am nowhere near as clean as many of my friends, but I keep a fairly tidy house. But I also don't consider cleaning the most important part of my "job." I have kids to raise and I like to live my life. So cleaning has to fit into my life somehow. I clean up the kid mess (with their help when possible) once or twice a day, do the dishes and straightening up every day and try to do most household chores once a week. If you catch me any time between those clean up moments though, there's no telling how it will look.

I have to say, I'm glad I just went with the moment though. Anthony loves our house and David and Anthony have dinner alone most of the time. I should really invite them to stay for dinner more often. I just have to inform Dylan that he has to ask permission before he so cordially invites friends over on his own. Just because he's polite and sounds very grown up when he talks, does not mean I had any part in the formulation of the plan. So if you get an invite from Dylan that sounds very official, give me a call first just in case ;)