Lost My Marbles

Our home is not what anyone would consider orderly, organized, well-maintained or peaceful.  It's just not! The reason for this lack of solitude? The children who live within it's walls. I must bare some responsibility for this madness and I blame my zodiac sign for this.  I am, after all a Sagittarius (spaz)!

Saturday evening I was sitting on my couch, a rare treat for me, and upon looking around my living room I just couldn't take the state of this house for one more second.  Actually, what set this downward spiral into motion for me was the fact that I had asked Emma to unload the dishwasher and put away her overnight bag at least 10 times and she had done neither.  I yelled upstairs for Emma to come down. As she appeared down the steps, I told her to get her sisters and for all of them to sit on the couch and wait for me. 

When I came back inside much to my surprise they were all sitting there quietly on the couch...waiting. I sat down and began my lecture.  Now it's important to know that I am a yeller.  I love to yell and really it's not that much of a stretch from my normal voice because I tend to talk loudly anyway (according to my husband). While outside I decided to take a different approach, speaking firmly without raising my voice.  As you can imagine this threw them all for a loop!  I began by asking them if when I spoke to them if they heard my words in another language; as this would explain why they never respond when I ask them to pick up their crap.  You will be happy to know that they all said they heard English spewing from my mouth.  I then went into this long speech about how disrespectful it is to be slobs.  That is was my responsibility to make sure they became responsible, productive adults.  For a minute I felt like my body had been invaded by one or both of my parents! I continued by telling them their Father works his tail off to provide for them and when they leave lights and the television on in a room where no one is, it's wasteful.  When they are too lazy to put away their clean clothes, leaving them sit around and then somehow they end up back in the dirty clothes hamper having never been work, after I have slaved over four hundred loads of laundry all ready - wasteful! Oh and disrespectful!!!!  I threatened to take away all electronics from the twins and all of the little ones' toys. Before it was all said and done, Emma and Abigail were both crying.  Olivia was doing her usual smile, batting her eyelashes and sweetly saying, "Okay Mommy" and Sarah well she didn't know what was going on so she just shook her head whichever way the others did. 

After I was done with them and they were all working diligently around the house to clean up their crap, I called Scott at work to tell him of my conversation. I began telling him everything I had said to them and then he made a fatal mistake.  He said, "One of my biggest stresses is coming home to a messy house!".  No he didn't!  I lost my marbles on him!  I immediately told him that he could help the situation by helping me keep the kids on task.  When he sees something that obviously belongs to one of the kids, instruct them to pick it up!  After all, these are YOUR kids too!  I think that many men who are lucky enough to have stay-at-home wives think that all we do is sit around on our tooshies all day doing nothing.  This is such a crock!  I rarely get to sit down and do anything for myself.  Watch television?  No way!  Who could hear it over the arguing children?  Talking on the telephone with friends?  Not really an option if you want to be able to hear the conversation you are having.  Let's face it, any Mother knows the telephone in your hand sends out a signal to any and all children that they need something RIGHT NOW!  Anyway, I am sure that Scott regrets answering his cellphone.

Sunday the kids were all gleefully picking up the entire house.  May be I just saw what I wanted to see! Regardless, every bedroom, bathroom, hallway and common areas of the house were clean!  The laundry was done and put away and everyone got to keep their threatened objects.

Monday I tackled the playroom.  I threw out three bags of trash, packed up an entire Rubbermaid tote full of toys to recycle and found several missing socks.  Actually, I found enough clothing in the playroom to do a load of laundry!  After all of that was finished I organized the toys and rearranged a little bit, vacuumed and cleaned. 

Tuesday, I began a new sewing project.  I am making a couple of dresses for Olivia and Sarah.  It's supposedly an "easy" pattern, so easy in fact there is no pattern, just written directions.  I am about halfway done with them.  Last week I made a camera bag for myself.  It took about a week to complete.  It turned out great!  I was very proud of myself because I have never been able to complete such a complex project following a pattern before.  It turned out great!  It was actually a diaper bag pattern that I tweaked by adding extra foam to for the desired result.  I haven't transferred my camera to it yet because I don't want to mess it up. Actually, I just need to get some fabric protector to spray on it and then I will be in business!

Oh and last but not least, the week before I made the camera bag, I made Sarah this tutu for Halloween and decorate a witch's hat for her.  A picture is below.  In my spare moments, I have also been trying to figure out my photo editing program.  Here is the result of some of my experimenting!

Sincerely,

The Queen of Insanity