Tuesday, June 12, 2012

If You Give A Mom A Chore To Do...

It's Tuesday.  My cleaning day.  I whip around the house, dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, cleaning glass & windows, and if there is still time, mopping the floor.


Matt always teases me about how I never get anything done because I get bored and distracted.  But the truth of it is this.  Today I planned on starting with the glass and windows in the house.  My friend cleans houses and swore that the best way to clean glass was with an old flannel baby blanket.  So I had cut up an old baby blanket to try it and it works great - no fluff or streaks left behind and no paper towel waste.
But I couldn't find my flannel rag, which means I am a week behind in my laundry from last week when I used it.  Hoping it's at least been washed and in one of the 5 baskets of unfolded laundry, I start to look for it. 
I sort everyone's clothes into their own basket and fold all the towels, cloths and sheets.  I find my rag in the third basket but finish sorting the laundry any way.  I can't hang anything up in the closet because I left the ironing board out to finish a sewing project.  I could finish the 2 minutes of ironing I needed to complete that project, but decide to stay true to my laundry task and just dump the "to be hanged" and "to be ironed" stuff on the ironing board.


Since there are now empty laundry baskets, I might as well throw a load in the washer now that I can reach it.  I hate the giant Tide soap dispensers where you lay it on it's side and push the button and the soap comes out.  It gets the floor soapy, the cup soapy and my fingers soapy, so now I have to wash my hands.
While I'm washing my hands, I notice the boys left their toothbrushes out, so I put those away and wipe up the giant puddles on the counter that always occur from the simplest tasks of a 4 and 6 year old.  I notice the cupboards are sticky and make a mental note to wash all the cupboards in their bathroom.


The kids are busy watching tv downstairs, so I quickly put away the folded towels and sheets before Anea climbs on my bed and throws it everywhere.  While putting sheets away in the boys room, I see their "made" beds drooping on the floor, waiting to be caught in the vacuum (which, as it is Tuesday, I plan on doing today) and reminding me I hadn't straightened their beds yet.  They make their own beds, but when they aren't around to catch me, I remake their beds for them.  They have incontinence pads ("pee pads") on their bed that need strategic placement and I don't want to insult their bed making skills by making them feel incompetent, so I try to be sneaky about redoing their beds.  They never notice.


While leaving the boys room I find some garbage and toss it in the garbage bag.  Tomorrow is garbage day.  I might as empty the garbage out upstairs while I'm thinking of it.  However, there is so much junk in the garage right now that I won't be able to make it to the garbage can without tripping on crap.  So now I am at crossroads.  Leave the garbage until later, or go tidy up a path in the garage so I can take the garbage out.  By now it's been 40 minutes and I still haven't even cleaned a single window.  Feeling a little overwhelmed by the amount of tasks that are yet to be accomplished, I figure I need a break.  This blog is my break.  Now it is close to lunch time.  I will be feeding the kids and then it will be nap time.


And so I ask you, did I really do nothing all day today?  Because my house sure looks like it and nothing on my list got done!