Okay friends, Romans, Statler Brothers...I cracked a little this morning. My children have many wonderful attributes, countless. Room cleaning is not one of those. I feel that this a failure on my part. My mother and aunt keep houses that could double as operating theatres, where gall bladders and tonsils are extracted with little or no sanitizing. I understand that my skills fall short...I'm not a slob, but following in the exact footsteps of my relatives seems unreachable. With the impending doom of school's start snapping at our heels, the weight of the oppressively messy room has become more than a mom can take. So I called in the big guns...my mother. Situations like these are her mini Super Bowls. She thrives on cleaning up the chaos and getting it back to kid feng shui. She did have some requirements, which needed to be taken care of before her arrival. They were as follows: (1)get as much out for consignment as I can (2)have the girls put items in a box they cannot part with (5)Do as much tossing as you can (4)she works better alone...extras slow her down, my words not hers. Today I was able to get some obviously outgrown cold weather clothes down to the rack where they will be readied for Mrs. Picky Chick and her sale. I gave the girls their orders and went to check on the boys and their outside project. The boy stepped on a nail, so we had to deal with that drama and I lost a few minutes of supervising the cleaners. G came down with a half filled kitchen garbage bag and said they were done. My mouth fell open with shock as she delivered the bag and walked away to watch her sister get her energy out with the Kinect. I walked upstairs to find the room virtually unchanged and went a little crazy...but the scary kind of silent crazy. Ignorance is bliss children and by the time one of them came up to find me, I had already filled up one and a half garbage bags full of crap. Broken barrettes and cut up paper and broken crayons...oh the crayons. Two pieces of furniture emptied, at least two more to go. They made the mistake of checking on me, so I put them to work. Curiosity killed the cats in this situation, so to speak. So sad for them. We did make quite a dent, but not without great whining and gnashing of teeth.
In the midst of the crap, I did find three jewels I must share. First was a year and a half old drawing from my now eight year old. I thought she did a great job:
Hulk smash! Hulk keep bedroom clean!
The next was from my oldest who was dared(strange dare)by her little sister to draw "the most random thing ever." This is what came to mind:
I don't really know how old this is or what to think of it. Just drink it in, friends.
The last was a set of bedroom rules that rocked me to my very core. Be warned. If you come to visit, they mean business:
Better pick some Beano before dropping by their pad. Food for thought.
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My Dad would receive a lifetime ban!
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