Can You Hear the Hallelulia Chorus??
No?? It’s very loud where I’m sitting and the glare from the host of angels singing is nearly blinding.
The kids went back to school today.
Taylor was up and finished in the shower before either Todd or I woke up. I went to wake Katie at 6:30 expecting much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but instead she rose and called me blessed. Well, she didn’t exactly call me blessed, but she didn’t call me anything bad and I figure that’s nearly the same thing.
If I hadn’t lost my chance at Mother of the Year the first week of January I’d have lost it for sure this morning. According to the kids there was nothing for breakfast. We had the wrong cereal, it’s not cold enough for instant oatmeal, nobody wants toast or frozen waffles. If I was a good mom I would have baked a chocolate cake last night so they’d have something decent to eat this morning.
I checked and double checked and triple checked the bus schedules yesterday. Taylor’s bus was listed as being here at 7:14. He was getting ready to leave, Todd asked if he had his house key, he didn’t have it, ran upstairs to get it and I saw the bus. It was 7:07. So Todd had to drive him to school.
Katie called her friend to see what time she was walking up to the bus stop – we learned from Taylor’s mistake in not asking his friends. A few minutes later Shelby and her mom showed up to walk with Katie to the corner. I was still in my jammies and waved to every single mom and half the fathers in the neighborhood as they walked their kids up to the bus stop for the very first day of school. With cameras.
***
I have to fess up. I’m not the best housekeeper in the world. Or in the country, state, city, neighborhood or even this particular house. I’m not horrendous and things are usually fairly clean, but I’m not so good about clutter. I maintain, however, it’s more a lack of appropriate storage apparatuses than an actual reflection of my laziness. Anyone want to argue with me?? Huh??
I avoid my daughter’s room as much as possible because, well, it’s a dangerous place and I’m a coward. I’m obviously going to have to “man-up”. Last night I told her to set out her outfit for today and when I went in to tell her goodnight she had a really cute shirt out with these horrible jeans that she cut off into Bermudas a while ago because of all the holes and stains. After informing her there was no way she was leaving this house in that atrocity she told me she didn’t have any clean clothes.
She just did a load of laundry on Saturday so that didn’t make a lot of sense. Turns out she only washed two outfits – one to go to the movie in Saturday evening and one for yesterday. Oh. And she had no socks. She thought she might have lost them at camp. So I washed an outfit for her last night along with some of my clothes and decided I’d be a nice mom and do her laundry for her today.
Oh. My. Gosh. I found duffel bags and grocery bags and beach bags with dirty clothes in them. I found a huge load of towels – beach towels, bath towels, freakin’ kitchen towels – tucked into a basket in her room. I found scads of socks, cute clothes we haven’t seen in ages, and underwear coming out the wazoo. It’s probably going to take me the entire day to wash all her clothes. Which means I’m going to have to wash Taylor’s clothes as well because I’m just fair that way.
So now you know how I will be spending my kids’ first day of school. But at least I get to do it ALONE!
Too funny! All of it! I just wrote about how I ruined my son’s day yesterday by cutting his jeans into shorts. My kids don’t do laundry yet, but I have been told that they should be able to soon. After reading this, I don’t know if I should be too excited about this.
I like that “lack of storage apparatuses”. I could say the same about me and the four boxes of “stuff” that is still sitting in front of my bedroom closet since I moved in three years ago. I’ve become so used to the boxes and the assorted clutter of stuff I’ve thrown on top of it. The hubby swears that I’ll be buried alive if any of the “stuff” should slip off those boxes.
Oh, does that sound familiar! My husband was complaining about not having any towels, and when I wentt o wash them found only four (out of about thirty in the household), and after an extensive search found them all close to mildewing under my eleven year old son’s bed! It’s the last place I would have ever thought to look. “Why?” I ask. “WHY???” The laundry room is next door to his bedroom, for pity’s sake…how hard is it to discard the towels in there?! Had to laugh at the kitchen towels being found in your daughter’s room. That’s the desperate last resort, isn’t it? Congrats on the start of your school year!
You are so funny!! All I do is laundry here and you would not believe where I find it. It just keeps coming and coming, piles and piles. I don’t get it.Enjoy your free time. Stop by my blog, I left you something.
You have a gift for expressiona that really resonates with me. Loved the explanation of how your daughter rose and called you blessed or not. Great blog.
First of all…Becky! Can you believe how small the world is? Becky’s husband and mine used to work together. Hi Becky!Okay I’m ashamed to admit this because I’ll be thrown out of the Moms union, but I’ve surrendered to my sons and I’m back to pretty much doing their laundry all the time. One son lets the laundry pile up in his room until he literally has nothing else to wear. The other one would wash a favorite outfit over and over again. Just one outfit. Drove us nuts.So I gave in. I bought tubs and marked them so they have to pre-sort and put their laundry in the tubs because I do make them clean their rooms…most of the time.
Listen up now … one day you will be, like me, having trouble finding enough of one color to make up a load of wash. THEN you’ll miss those kids, hidden dirty laundry and all!!!You crack me up!! 🙂
My sons had a perfect mom, that sorted – washed/dried – folded their clothes. Had lots of food and goodies around, cooked them breakfast in the morning….. Of course that wasn’t ME! It only happened when they staffed at summer camp, they would go to the home of a buddy for the weekends. :)So glad that school started back up for you. That was always a special day at my house too.
you crack me up… I’m the same way about cleaning.. they say clenliness is next to godliness… but if thats true.. i say god never had kids!
HA HA HA: “If I was a good mom I would have baked a chocolate cake last night so they’d have something decent to eat this morning.” This line cracked me up!
I’m jealous; I wish I was able to be home alone doing laundry & other domestic chores. No, really, I’m not being sarcastic. I do the laundry in my house.Anyway, my son starts high school this Thurs. And my daughter starts 2nd grade Tue.
We start on Wed. I cannot wait! Those kids have been driving each other and me crazy, and I don’t even stay home LOL! I work about 50 hours a week, and they still drive me crazy enough that I can’t wait for school to start.This is the year that Jeff starts doing his own laundry. So we tell ourselves.
School doesn’t start until Sept. 5 here. I’m sorry to say I’m counting the days, hours and minutes :)I can’t wait until my son is old enough to do his own laundry, at 6 the child is a terrible slob. I nag, I complain, I yell and nothin–his dirty clothing rarely makes it into his laundry basket or any other laundry basket in the house. I already find towels and underwear dropped where ever he finsihed with them. But I have to admit his BFF is even worse–frightening.
Tori – It’s usually a pretty good thing. You just need to keep on top of them a little better than I did. lolAim – isn’t a box a storage apparatus??Becky – I’m thinking of putting some underpinning around her bed – you know like a mobile home? That way things won’t get lost under there because it’s a scary place!Eileen – Laundry is the gift that keeps on giving. No matter how much I do there’s always more. :o(Thanks for the award! I’m truly honored!!Jenny from Chicago – Thanks so much for visiting my blog! I’ll be making my way over to yours later today.Rosie – No way on the Becky’s husband thing. That’s funny!As for you doing your kids’ laundry – whatever works best for you. My kids (along with my mom) started really doing their own laundry when I was going through chemo. I figured they may as well keep up with it.Lynilu – I’m very sure you’re right. :o)Terri – I knew you had to be talking about someone else because we’re too much alike!Pokey – LOL!Swishy – What? Cake is nutritious – especially if eaten with a glass of milk – or ice cream!Dan – It took me pretty much the whole day and that was the ONE thing I did. I mean, I did little stuff while the laundry was going, but no big chores – folding and hanging and putting away (sort of) was enough!Lori – It’s so much better for all of us when they have routine.Tara – Taylor’s not the most organized or neat kid, but he looks like Monk next to Katie. She has serious messiness issues!
Ahhh, love the post! Sorry to inform you though that you don’t meet the requirements for Mother Of The Year until one of your kids gets arrested!Now…how is it that our daughters are quite possibly twins seperated at birth? The piles of laundry in Daisy’s room (and bags of laundry) resemble Mount Rushmore and Pike’s Peak here!Enjoy your alone time!
First of all, is this ROADWAY Rosie? Rosie G?! Stop by http://Frumpmama.blogspot.com and give me the lowdown…Second, I choked on my ovaltine when I read the underpinning comment, Jenster! ROFL!
Had you walked them to the bus stop with your camera, you woudl have only embarrased them anyway and doing all their laundry is much nicer.You’re making a late run for that Mom of the year award. Bake that chocolate cake and you jsut might win.
Boobless – LOL!!!Becky – Sorry I made you choke. :o)Travis – I figured I missed my chance at Mother of the Year early in January.
Well we started school Monday. I have a class full of kids that drove their parents crazy all summer. None of the men in my family are allowed to do laundry. I would like for them not to even enter the laundry room.
Oh, Jenster…I know so how you feel when that Hallelujah chorus begins. How I loooong for it. I’ll be home schooling HB, but the saving grace of that is that he has classes nearly all day on Tue and some of the day on Thur…it’s like having a preschooler again in terms of driving and pick up. But…I still think it’ll be good for him. Alas, my house won’t be my own again for at least a year. My cluttered, hygienic, but homey, comfy, yet dog-haired home. My alone home. As far as the jammies are concerned, were they at least matching and sans stains? 🙂 We were separated at birth.
Tee hee I loved this.I have to admit that I can’t wait for school to start next Tuesday. And I hereby declare that I will NOT be doing laundry!
Jenn – You and all teachers deserve a special place in heaven.Gretchen – You’re such a good mama. And he may be home with you, but you’ll have to have some sort of routine so that will help some.My jammies were rather cute, I must say. Multicolored cambric-type striped knee-length bottoms, a lime green tank top (to match one of the stipes) and a light denim shirt over the tank (because it was a little chilly and it matched another stripe). And hot pink fuzzy thong slippers. SLIPPERS!!!! Not a hot pink fuzzy thong.Susan – Good for you!!! Declare a full moritorium on laundry!!
You crack me up! And I’m jealous that your kids are back in school. I still have another week. 🙁 I am so ready!
now see…..i was the kind of kid who would plan what i wore for the 1st of day school about a month in advance! i wouldn’t wear that outfit UNTIL the first day of school if it was new….i was dorky like that.
yay!!!! hope they have a good day!i have mediocre luck with house plants. i have done better keeping outdoor plants alive over all.
What a great post.”…and underwear coming out the wazoo” Isn’t that a wedgie? :)If I were to go into Brie’s room, I’d find the same thing. Which is why I stay far, far away from it….
Slackermommy – Make the most of this last week. And then enjoy the snot out of next week!!Lainey-Paney – Are you a neat freak? If so, I’m jealous.AWH – I do really good with weeds.Monnik – I think that would be a reverse wedgie.