Mowing the lawn.

Sunday night...

No boys this weekend :-( As much as I hate not having them I still had an awesome weekend. Friday night I went to see fireworks, and Saturday I went to Countryfest with my friend! It was such a good time. All fun weekends must come to an end, and Sunday morning I had to mow the lawn... Mowing the lawn might not seem like such a big deal, but this is my lawn...

 

 

And this is my lawn mower...

It takes about 3 hours, 2 tanks of gas, 4 emptyings of the bag, 4 liters of water to stay hydrated and a quarter of a can of bug spray so you don't get eaten alive to do the whole thing. Then once it's done there is about a half hour of weed whacking to do too. Not the most fun thing to do, especially on a hangover Sunday after Countryfest. The icing on that cake is that once I was done I got to go pick up the boys and spend the rest of the day with them! And the yard looks pretty great to boot. The house on the other hand looks exactly the same way that it did on Thursday night. I haven't been home to clean it or mess it up, so I'm not going to show it to you. If you really need to see it, go back one post.

Political Mom's Redemption!

Thursday night, or as it's known in politics, Fundraiser night...

I realize that Political Mom has gotten a bit of a bad rep around here. Tonight she put in another appearance, will she live up to her reputation? 

Tonight political mom had a fundraiser that I had to at least show up at to drop off some prizes. I picked up the boys right after work and asked them if they wanted to go and eat there or if they wanted to have a pork roast at home after we went there. They picked pork at home, so home we ran to throw it in the oven while we would be gone. Off we ran to the Pig 'n Whistle which is beautiful, if you live around here you should go. The only downfall to our plan was that the boys were having so much fun there that they didn't want to leave. With dinner in the oven we had to go home, but not before a quick stop at the grocery store to get some mac and cheese. We got home just in time to get the roast out and throw the mac and cheese, which turned out to be cheesy Au gratin potatoes oops into the microwave and cook the zucchini. Knowing that the boys enjoyed their first fundraiser I may bring them to more in the future. Let's see what the house looks like though.

Living Room

Not too bad, just some stray shoes, sheets and water bottles around. So far so good!

Kitchen

OMG!!!!! Would you look at that its clean. I know right?! Who would have guess after what it looked like yesterday and with Political Mom on the scene. But I was able to start the dishes while cooking and I finished them while the boys were doing their little project.

Dining Room

The table is clean too?! Wasn't a meal eaten in here tonight? Yes, yes it was. The counter is almost all cleaned off too, at least the mail in in a neat pile.

Bathroom

No real surprise here, this room is always clean.

Back Room

Same old story in here too... I wonder what the boys project was?

Kids Room

Wow! Would you look at that mess! Actually it's not really a mess. The boys project was to empty the toy box and make a pile of toys that they don't want anymore. That is their pile which I will be getting rid of by the end of the weekend. I promise. I brought in the ladder and changed the light bulbs in here so it is actually bright. Go Me!!!

My Room

Okay, I'll admit it. I didn't sleep in my bed again last night. After all of those dishes I just didn't have it in me to clean off my bed too.

Looks like Political Mom went out of her way to clean up her rep tonight. Will the cleaning streak continue? Only time will tell.

If you throw a tantrum in the kitchen you might get burned.

Wednesday night in the burn unit...

Busy night tonight. Picked up the boys after work, and boy was I ever missing them. "The Cleaner" has a little stomach bug and just wanted to go home, so I planned to forgo our usual Wednesday night free concert in the park. "Bug Bites" was pretty upset about that so I planned to ask my friend if she would still bring him down. Unfortunately before we could go home we had to stop at the laundromat to wash my clothes. While the clothes were washing we ran to the store for some necessities and then it was off to home. The boys were watching a movie while I cooked dinner and that's when the little one started slapping his brother. After being asked to stop many times I told him he couldn't go to the concert. And that's when all hell broke lose. He comes running into the kitchen crying and I'm trying to drain pasta and not spill boiling water on him so I just keep saying "get out of the kitchen before you get burned". I pushed him away from my leg and he's standing next to the stove and screams "I'm not going to get burned!" and slaps his hand down on the hot burner. Turns out he was wrong... he did get burned. "Dr. Mom" jumps into action, hand straight under cold water. Then I put a sock on his hand to keep him from touching stuff (it's a clean sock, even though it doesn't look like it in this picture). Dinner followed by a trip to Walmart for supplies. 

With all of this excitement, you can imagine what the house still looks like. 

Living Room

A fresh batch of laundry baskets. I wonder how many days these will stick around for. Shoes and Walmart bags scattered in front of the door. And it would appear that I'm still sleeping on the couch, but the sheets are really still there for "The Cleaner" while he's sick.

Kitchen

The scene of the incident. It's hard to believe that a meal was actually prepared in here, but it was. I swear I had every intention to clean up while I was cooking and they were eating dinner. If you look closely on the counter next to the stove you'll see the cleaning supplies that I took out. Instead, we have this disaster. 

Dining Room

Since we did actually end up eating before rushing to Walmart we are left with this mess in here. 

Bathroom

At least one room is still clean.

Back Room

This one hasn't changed either.

Kids Room

If their beds were made it would look very clean in here too.

My Room

It's a pretty sad state of affairs when my room qualifies as one of the cleanest rooms in the house. 

After sharing this with you I have to say that I'm pretty embarrassed about it. Ugh, what a disaster. I swear that it will be noticeably cleaner by tomorrow.

Waiting for the rain.

Tuesday...

Petitioning season has finally come to an end! Tonight was my last night of petitioning hooray! I can't say that I'm going to miss it at all. I briefly stopped home tonight after work and I spent my time there doing to maintenance on the garden. It could still use a good solid day of rain or about four good half hour watering's in one day, but at least it's weed free now. I was going to go turn the compost, but political mom had duties to perform so off I went.

 

Living Room

Here is the evidence of my sleeping on the couch for so many days. You might notice that I changed the curtains in here too. Much brighter during the day, but as evidenced by the green turtle water it speeds up the growth of algae and adds to my chores.

 

Kitchen

As you can see the mess in here hasn't gotten any better. Eventually it has to get picked up. I did clean out the refrigerator, but you can't tell from the pic.

 

Dining Room

The mess on the table hasn't grown at least. But it hasn't gotten any better either.

Bathroom



It's actually not bad in here at all. The only real offender is my shirt on the floor (that's where I get undressed before I shower), and a washcloth on the counter.

 

Back Room

Clean as always. The boys spent about a half hour, a half a roll of paper towels, and a quarter of a bottle of Windex cleaning the marker off of the red part of the easel the other day. They would have finished, but we ran out of Windex.

 

Kids Room

They haven't been home and I haven't been messing it up, so it's still clean

 

My Room

I know it could be cleaner, but at least I've been able to sleep in my bed. Sometimes you've got to celebrate life's small victories.

 

In tomorrow's episode the boys will return home. Will they make the mess worse, or will they inspire "too busy to see the mess mom" to clean up? Stay tuned...

All good things must come to an end.

After the holiday weekend...

I hope that everyone had a nice Independence Day weekend. I know that I did. I took a nice impromptu trip to Brooklyn for the fourth. When I got back I took the boys camping at my aunt's house for the weekend. We ended it with a birthday party Sunday afternoon. I apologize for taking so long to update you on the house, but I haven't been home much. Let's face it, when I'm not home much the house only gets messier every day when I stop in. I'm a little embarrassed to be showing it to you like this, but here it is.

Living Room 

Typically the boys clothes are on the floor. The pillows and blankets from camping are on the couch and floor.

Kitchen

Well, well, well, what do we have here? Looks like a GIANT mess! Most of this mess also probably isn't getting cleaned until the humidity breaks. Can you imagine anything worse than doing dishes in 80% humidity?

Dining Room

Some more camping food on the table. I had to dig the antique box fan out of the attic.

Bathroom

We haven't been in here yet, so it's still clean.

Back Room

Believe it or not, the boys actually have played in here for about 2 hours and left very little evidence. They are so good about cleaning up their mess. 

Kids Room

If you look closely at the window you will see that I broke down and had to put an air conditioner in here for them. I like being hot, but I couldn't subject them to it all night too.

My Room

Ta-da! I know, I know, it's not clean yet, but a major improvement over how it was. Like my new curtain? It's so much nicer to have the sun still shine in with the curtain closed. 

Sorry about all the blurry pictures. I was in a bit of a hurry.

Adventures in flying cars.

Wednesday night...

I apologize for being a little late with this one. Wednesday night was CRAZY, hot and humid. We flew home to do some chores before the Wednesday night concert in the park. Then we flew up to "Her" house to check on the bees, then we flew down to the park and were actually on time for the concert! When I say flew I actually mean it, when we have to get somewhere quickly we all stick our arm out of the window and flap to help "fly" the car so it goes faster. I don't remember now which one started to do this, but it's pretty much our standard mode of transportation with "late for everything mom" behind the wheel.

Living Room

This is pretty much the standard. Boys come in the house, clothes come off in the living room.

Kitchen

The mail is multiplying! And due to our tight schedule the dinner dishes are in the sink.

Dining Room

Apparently my purses are multiplying too, and have taken up residency on the table.

Bathroom

Toilet seat up... Boys, some day they will learn.

Back Room

The door is open, and "Alzheimer's mom" learned her lesson and made sure she pulled the screen shut tight.

Boys Room

That would be the cleaner's camo snuggie on the floor. 

My Room

Yea, I know. Don't judge me. In my defense I have a pretty comfortable couch to sleep on.

Mosquitoes and Hornets and Spiders... Oh my!

Tuesday...

Political mom strikes again! Uh-oh! I know that after her last appearance you are probably expecting to see quite a mess. I wish that was all that she left in her wake this time was a mess.

This evening political mom had to go out and get some petitioning done. The boys are with daddy tonight so I stopped home quickly after work to grab a bite to eat. It has been so hot and humid out that the house is unbearably stuffy so I opened the back door and the door to nowhere in the back room to air the house out while I was out. No big deal right? WRONG! Alzheimer's mom forgot that for some reason hornets have been coming in through the crack at the top of the screen in the back door, and that door should NEVER be opened unless I'm sitting right next to it until I find out where they are coming from. In case that doesn't sound bad enough I also forgot that unless I pull the screen door in the back room shut super tight every time I open the door there is a huge gap at the bottom. After a quick snack political mom left to do the petitions... with the doors still open... When I returned I found 3 hornets in the dining room trying to get out. Oh crap! Exterminator mom wielding her trusty Birkenstock took care of them in no time. Better check the back room (or not)... Mosquitoes everywhere (OK, so maybe only like 20 but still), 4 spiders taking up residence on the ceiling and wall. Good thing "Bug Bites" wasn't home. I added a can of Cutter backwoods to my arsenal, shut the door and went to work. I'll have to clean some Birkenstock prints off the walls later. I think that this lesson will even pierce Alzheimer's mom's foggy memory next time. 

I took the pictures right when I got home from work. Sorry, you don't get to see any of the bugs. You're probably better off.

Living Room

You were expecting a mess right? Sorry to disappoint, but "The Cleaner" helped me out this morning. The carpet doesn't even look that dirty in this pic. Hmmm... maybe I don't need to shampoo it after all.

Kitchen

Always the ever present mail pile. Yes, there are dishes in the sink, you just can't see them.

Dining Room

I am aware that the same kids toys have been on the table for going on a week now, maybe I'll put them away soon.

Bathroom

After Political mom's last appearance I bet you were expecting a mess in here. Instead you can't even tell that anyone has been in here. 

Back Room

The scene of the massacre. From this angle you can see the game shelf. There is kind of a mess on the desk. I guess it doesn't look as clean from this angle in full daylight. I'll have to spend a little time in here.

Kids Room

Finally a bright picture. No, I didn't change the light bulbs yet. I did learn that my phone takes low light pictures.

My Room

Before you ask. No, I didn't sleep in my bed again. That would require taking the time to clean it off and "Ain't nobody got time for that!" There's always tomorrow. 

My Messy Office. part 1.

Special Edition.

I thought I would take this opportunity to show you a space I inhabit that actually dirty and genuinely a mess. Right now I consider this place to be uninhabitable.

Before I show it to you I would like to make this disclaimer: 

My office although generally genuinely messy in not usually this bad. We are moving things around in our space and I am going through and cleaning out everything at the moment. 

Lets begin...

 This is the half where other people actually have to go from time to time and where all of the production work gets done. If you look closely you will notice that there is a sink over there next to the garbage, and all of our dishes. Over on the left behind that shelf (which does not live there) are my heat presses. I just moved one of them and found this treasure trove.

Hahaha!! I forgot that I throw those back there when I'm busy.

Moving on...

This table is actually a work surface. I know right, I wouldn't believe it either looking at it in this pic. All the boxes and stuff in front of it aren't usually there. When we are busy the top is generally only mildly more orderly than that. All the boxes under and next to it do indeed live there. 

This is the area behind my desk. All of my paper lives on that shelf. Those huge sheets of cardboard are just waiting for me to cut them up. Those black spots that you can see on the floor are spilled ink. The bench is in over there because there was TONS of stuff on top of that shelf that I already took down. 

This is my desk. Don't be fooled by the disclaimer on this one, it usually looks something like this. Maybe not quite this bad. for one thing these printers are usually both on there.

And my scanner is cleaned off when its in use. But the general clutter around my computer is standard.

I hope you enjoyed this little detour into the rest of my messy life. I can't wait to show you what its going to look like when its clean.