Messes be gone!

A few weeks ago I read a blog post where the writer talked about getting rid of 40 garbage bags full of stuff for Lent.  They would finish their goal on Good Friday.  I liked that idea and wanted to follow suit...

And then yesterday, we watched a part of the documentary The Queen of Versailles on Netflix. (I linked to the IMDb page to give you a synopsis.) Basically, it's a riches to rags story.  And it's crazy, b/c the couple starring in the film had so much money and STUFF that it was disgusting.  So many pets too, all over, pooping everywhere, eating food left on the coffee table, over the top parties... it was all SO gross to watch.  I only could stomach watching for about 25-30 minutes.  Aaron had been watching it a little longer than I had.  Anyway, after turning it off, we had that same feeling you have after watching Hoarders (or in my case, an episode preview for Hoarders, I can't bring myself to watching a real episode b/c my stomach is weak).  Aaron and I now have the hankering to go through the house and chuck everything!  In fact last night, we got started on all the random mail and paperwork sitting around the house, filed the important ones, and chucked the rest!  So cathartic.

I found this on pinterest tonight. So funny.

In light of these few experiences, you can see why I lost my patience this afternoon.  Our house has been a total disaster.  In our defense, Aaron was gone a few days last week for his grandma's funeral (more on that later) and ALL three kids have been sick.   Sometimes do you feel like you are living in survival mode?  Why? Cal had mycoplasma pneumonia and both Tillie and Benny caught some cold bug and have needed extra attention, so I've eased up on the whole "cleaning up messes promptly" concept. Also, Cal has a new fascination with cutting up paper into a million pieces, and Tillie likes to dump out ALL of the crayons/pencils/markers when she colors (and if there's not an open spot on the table, she just goes to the floor), we've gone through boxes of tissues, there have been pillows, blankets, and toys everywhere... you get the idea.

So today, I became a crazy mom.  I said, "That's it! I"m grabbing the vacuum.  Anything that is on this floor will be vacuumed.  If you don't want your stuff sucked up, you'd better grab it now!"  Of course they both started panicking and sobbing, but that didn't deter me.  I was over the messes.  Mom fail.

Who knew that such a threat would light such a fire under their rear-ends?!  They cleaned up in RECORD time!  And they did a great job!  

After our little crisis, we took a moment and I hugged and congratulated them on their fast efforts.  I then asked, "Do you like living in a pigsty?  Do you like tripping over your toys and crayons?  Do you like having stickers stick to your feet?  Do you like it when mom is a crazy mama?" 

They said no.  

Then Tillie said, "It's not fun when you are a bad mom."  

I quickly reminded her that actually I was being a GOOD mom by having us clean our house (but probably didn't need to flip out like I had), because if we didn't clean our house then rotten ants and bugs would come into our house, and even rats might come and it would be disgusting, and we'd all cry.

Tillie quickly responded, "But Cinderella has rats..."  

Perfect.

Thank you, Disney.

We were ready for a break and luckily, the weather was PERFECT. 75 degrees in our backyard.  We played in the backyard the rest of the afternoon.  Thank you, Texas Spring.  Here are some pics we took:

This 6 month little stinker is doing such a good job on his tummy these days (which he's previously hated!) and is even being able to lift his stomach off the ground and is able to roll and pivot most anywhere.  His favorite direction to travel these days is backwards.

 Tillie is ALWAYS ready for a photo-op!

 yes, even though she is 4.5 years older, he's catching up! Look at the size ratio!

 Cal couldn't be bothered with posing for me.  He was too busy painting the bricks and filling up his water bucket in his new soccer duds from Nana and Papa.  

Later tonight, Tillie came out of her room and said, "Mom I need to tell you something."

She then whispered in my ear, "Dad said he's going to take away everything that is good in my life."  

hA!!

I burst out laughing and said, "Uhhh, why don't you talk to your dad about that." 

Dad fail.

Aaron quickly explained that he had made a poor decision in his frustration with the messes today. HA! 

Ahhh, in the end, even though we fail quite often as parents, thankfully our kids see us as a happy family.  Maybe, sometimes, we do things right.