Some people who don't know better think stay-at-home-moms have it easy. We supposedly sit around and eat bonbons and watch soaps and do who knows what else. We're not really doing it for our kids, we're doing it because we're lazy. We're just relaxing all the time.
Nope. Sorry. There is no relaxing when there are sick kids in the house.There is no relaxing when the house is a disaster and you have company coming. There is no relaxing when sometimes Mom just can't handle the mess the house has become and even though no one else cares or will see it she cares and it must be cleaned right now.
But yea, there is a bit of relaxing. At least in my house.
We all know I'm lazy. Or maybe the word is unmotivated? I don't keep the house spotless because I can sweep the kitchen floor and before the broom is put away a child wanders through, crushing crackers into powder with his bare feet. I can do laundry and fold and hang and put it away and the next morning there's underwear all over the floor, last night's clothing in a pile in FRONT of the closet door, and last night's pull up on the floor BESIDE the trash can. I can put all the toys away in their designated spots and all the books on their shelves and five minutes later the floor is so covered in books and toys you can't tell it's a hardwood floor.
So a lot of the time I don't.
I don't let the house get just horrible, but I don't stress about it. I do try to sweep up when company is coming, and I try to keep the kitchen sink relatively cleared of dishes (so nothing sits more than 24 hours) but I have other things I'd rather do than wash dishes or sweep floors or pick up toys.
I like to sit and read while the boys are playing, stopping to play with them when they require my assistance. Usually I'm just their jungle gym and I can read through that. I like to do miscellaneous crap online (games, reading, organizing, recipe hunting, etc) while watching Hulu. The boys will frequently bring toys into the room I'm in and keep me company.
There's no bonbons in my house, but there is reading, tv watching, playing, and general goofing off.
Today, though, was different.
I woke up determined to finish up with the fresh produce that was mine to deal with from our Bountiful Basket on Friday. I had 4 rainbow carrots and 7 artichokes. Not sure what to do with either, I shredded the carrots and looked up recipes online to make marinated artichokes. I found one that called for ingredients I had on hand and set to work. It's a lot of work and I may have done it wrong, but we'll see. A couple hours later, I had four 4-6 oz containers of artichokes in brine and olive oil ready to go into the freezer and a sink full of artichoke trimmings for the garbage disposal. I put the containers away and turned to the disposal. After a couple handfuls of trimmings, the garbage disposal shook the sink so hard I thought it was going to come out of the counter and then it stopped. No sounds. And the sink was quickly filling with water. I turned it on and off a few times, then reached in and started pulling out handfuls of chopped artichokes. Still the water stood. I got down and unscrewed pipes, nothing. I unscrewed a line at the top and that did something. Now there was water all over the cabinet, the kitchen floor, and halfway down the hall to the laundry room.
I sopped all that up and then started trying to find the clog. I figured the garbage disposal was broken and we'd have to get a new one but wasn't terribly worried or upset. We got some money back from taxes so it's mostly an inconvenience. I try a few things, get more water all over myself, then finally give up and plug everything back together because it's time to leave for my ophthalmologist appointment.
While the sink fiasco has been going on, I've been doing laundry. I found in the washer a pile of "clean" blankets from Elijah's finger painting episode a couple weeks ago. So that got washed again. Then in went the boys clothes, minus 2 pull-ups Asher had obediently deposited in his laundry basket. He confuses night time underwear (pull ups) and day time underwear (cotton briefs) for some reason. So briefs can be found in the trash and pull ups in the laundry. After the clothes were done, I found a pull up I hadn't noticed before. OF COURSE it exploded all those little gel thingies that absorb liquid. I scooped up what I could, then set the machine to do a rinse and crossed my fingers. This coincided with the giving up on the sink.
I dressed quickly, yelled at Asher to come use the potty before Oma got here to watch him while I was out, changed Elijah's diaper, yelled at Asher a few more times, then headed out when Mom and Bob showed up. I was on time, but the doctor was behind schedule so my appointment for 3pm lasted until 5.15 and I got home nearly 3 hours after I left, with the report that my headaches are most likely actually migraines and my vision has decreased from -7.5 to -9.0, but my eyes are healthy!
Mom and Bob offer to bring us a small snake to try to fix the clog. I'm convinced I can do the disposal replacement myself. Austin gets in on things and we work to unscrew the garbage disposal. After about 20 minutes, we get everything unhooked and unscrewed but we can't get the stupid disposal off. Then I see a label that says "reset button."
are. you. kidding. me.
We get it all hooked back up, stand back, and press the reset button and then turn it on. And. it. works.
So I'm all excited we fixed it ourselves with no added expense of a plumber, but...I feel dumb for not realizing there's a freakin' reset button.
The boys have been fascinated by this whole process. Elijah sat on my chest at one point while I was working under the sink and on my lap at another point. Asher just wanted fruit snacks and peanut butter crackers and his red cup.
Today was an anomaly. Usually it's get up, get the boys up and changed/into clean underwear, eat breakfast, veg most of the day, get dinner started, clean a couple areas of the house for a couple hours, veg some more. Those are my kinda days. Hopefully, next week will be a whole bunch of those days. I can't wait.
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