small break

I cleaned Charlotte Claire's room today, again. Last time I cleaned out the closet and this time I cleaned out the shelves and drawers and sorted clothes...so now her room is all shiny and clean and vacuumed.

Sounds easy, but....oh my goodness. Jonathan is NOT sick. au contraire, or however it is spelled. He has the energy of ten of me. He turned a quiet ordinary day with the little girls into a party. They spent some time in my nicely cleaned room playing FIGHT. They raced around chasing each other, they rode ride-ons around the kitchen/living room circle. They locked Rosie in the bathroom and knocked repeatedly on the door, shouting, "She is not answering!" They had ice cream bars while watching "Sesame Street", and walked around eating dry cereal out of cups. By the way, Suzanne is not sick, either.

And now I am tired, but life goes on. I have to leave here in an hour to bring Mirielle for a glasses exam, and fill Aaron's and Mali's contact lense prescriptions. I have to go because I have THE MAGIC CARD.

It would be easier to leave the little kids home with Joseph and just go, but that will probably not happen. There will be a chorus of PLEASE, and I NEVER GET TO GO ANYWHERE, so I will probably just bring everyone who wants to go.

As is usual when I spend the better part of a day cleaning a room, the rest of the house goes downhill fast. Mirielle did the dishwasher and Joseph swept the floor and took out the garbage. But the living room was really played in today, and it shows. Oh well, dollhouses and baby dolls , a cash register or two, and a ride-on motorcycle and trike and a toy pram, a shopping cart, and a sit n-spin. Plus some trucks, Jon was home today.

It does feel nice to get things accomplished, but I am living proof that one will not die if one does not get the things done that one feels compelled to do. I also remember very clearly feeling strongly that I WOULD die if I didn't manage to do some things around here, being so busy with babies and small children, in the mess......but it isn't true. That feeling is a good thing, in that it gets us to do things, but it can be dangerous, too. Because it can cause so much frustration.

So I am in the cleaning mood, and I can actually clean, because I have help here with the little ones. My back is crying though.....

Oh well, time to get started getting ready to go to the suburbs to the mall.....