Productive Days....

After having several non-productive days (well... non-productive as far as keeping up with the house... sick kids, migraines, getting ready and then having an Enrichment meeting and a million other things), it's only obvious that at our house it becomes necessary to have a productive day or two. That is a nice way to say that after running all week last week, and actually believing that the kids had cleaned the laundry room instead of actually going down myself and looking that I was so furious at the mess that I either had to clean, or leave!!! Leaving doesn't ever seem to be a good option since I really love my husband and kids! :) The other option was sitting down in the middle of the mess and bawling my eyes out. But that only gives me a headache and since I had finally gotten rid of the migraine I had for several days last week, I really didn't want to go there again!

Friday afternoon I finally went down to the laundry room (again... the very room I had been assured was being cleaned) and what I found made me want to... well... it made me so mad I stomped back upstairs and told Thayne, "I AM REALLY MAD!!! YOU SHOULD SEE THE LAUNDRY ROOM!" To which he responded, "I did see the laundry room!" I then felt the need to say, "You do realize we spent over $120 at the laundromat this past week RIGHT?" His answer??? "Yeah, I know!" Okay, gee thanks for the support!!! We were leaving for the temple early Saturday morning. So I told Kinzee it was her only job to do the laundry. I told her she didn't even have to fold it, just wash it and put it on the couch and I would fold it. Great plan right? Well, except that some child who shall remain nameless ((cough, cough, JACE!!!)) decided that HE was going to do laundry that day! For some reason he thought his desire to do his own laundry somehow superseded my explicit instructions to do NOTHING except laundry that day! I know, stupid me, I AM just the mother and he had a day off and wanted to do his laundry!!! (Let's just say he heard explicit instructions on how HE can haul his stuff to the laundromat next time HE wants it done when there is a mountain of laundry in MY house!!!) :) (And hey, he did bring home a jug of laundry soap after my rant!!! As if....) We got home and NOTHING had been done. Now... there are moments I think that my kids are not normal, that they are far and above the norm... they usually are so ultra responsible that I worry I have ruined them... and then there are days like Saturday that prove me wrong!!!! ;) lol I was so mad Sunday that Thayne was going to make them do the laundry even though we don't usually do that on Sunday. Only I couldn't... because there was no laundry soap!

So Monday comes... and I decide that it's time to take back the house! Or somebody will pay dearly!!! I should have known the only person that would pay was ME! I have done nothing for 2 days except laundry, cleaning, laundry, cleaning! I ran and got the video store stuff going and took kids to school, ran to the store to get groceries for what I hope will cover dinner for the week and home by 9am and down to the laundry room. I did not leave the laundry room until 3:30pm... not even to use the bathroom! This is what I saw when I walked into the room... in case the picture isn't clear enough... my darling children did not put the clothes hampers back together when we brought the mountain of laundry home from the laundromat (like at least one of them said was done!) and so, because there were no baskets, it only seems reasonable for a child to think that it would be good to just chuck the laundry from the door into the laundry room. Makes sense to me, makes sense to you, right??? Oh, and notice all of the soap bottles on top of the dryer? Yeah... THEY WERE ALL EMPTY!!!

I washed, I folded, I cleaned, I washed more, the washer and dryer didn't even have a chance to beep to tell me they were done before I had changed them out and started a new load. I matched hundreds of pairs of socks... though, could somebody please explain to me why there is a can of tuna in my laundry room??? Please?!

I got drawers organized and cleaned in the bedrooms and now I just need to wait for Thayne to get down and finish my laundry room... he's going to paint the floor with cement paint or something... I don't know what it is, but now that I can see the floor it disgusted me and I will be pushing him to finish it finally!!! And for all of the trouble I went to... I am popping Motrin today to ease the ache in my hips and back!!! But today, for just a few moments... every piece of dirty clothing in my house was clean!!! And the kids now have their mesh bags to put their socks in (I bought them several weeks ago but didn't have all of the socks matched so we didn't start using them then... and then a friend shared that it has worked for them so I am hoping we get the same results because in one of my rantings I made an oath to my children that I will NEVER again match socks for them!!! I am such a liar... but I really hope the mesh bags work!) and a schedule (again) of when they will be able to have their clothes washed! And I am going to sleep tonight knowing that the monster in the basement is gone!!!! I should have done a 'before' of the 4 baskets of unmatched socks... these are just some of the matched socks... all 3 drawers and those baskets plus 2 full drawers full upstairs and some of Nate's socks! I am down to one basket full and as soon as the last load is dried and I get the rest of the socks, they will be matched and the rest will be thrown away! Thus ending my madness with socks!!!