The Balancing Act

You may have noticed that I have been rather absent around here lately. Last spring I was offered a small contract job working for my "before kids" employer and any free time I had to write was immediately swallowed up by the 6-8 hours of squeezing in phone calls and emails between diapers and school pick up. When summer came the prospect of trying to squeeze those things in with all three kids at home seemed impossible so I gave my notice and prepared for the whirlwind of summer.

Summer. It's hard to believe that next week I will return to the hustle and bustle of getting out the door with everyone dressed and fed by 7:45 am. Everyone around me seems more than ready to embrace the "freedom" of children in school and quiet mornings when they can hear their own thoughts. With Buttercup at home full time that won't be my reality and perhaps that is part of the hesitation I feel about the start of school. I'm not looking forward to rushing around town in time for two different drop offs and pick ups, packing lunches, homework, sports, PTA meetings, parties and strict schedules. I have enjoyed the relatively unscheduled chaos that happens on summer days in our household. My boys, at four and almost six are excellent big brothers; I feel like the eyes in the back of my head have gotten a break as Buttercup has been under the watchful eye of her brothers. They make sure she doesn't get into the choking-hazard Legos or go up the stairs of the bunk beds. They help her wash her hands and face after breakfast and clear her place. They provide endless entertainment with all their shenanigans and I think we will both miss them next week. This been my BEST summer yet, filled with a perfect blend of museums, adventures, parks and biking balanced with staying in our jammies all morning, reading books and entertaining ourselves.

After such a fun filled summer with all the kids, I've found myself wondering what I'm going to do with one kid for the next 10 months. Hopefully a deep cleaning on my house. Maybe a new exercise routine to shed all the summer beer and ice cream pounds I've put on. Perhaps some more gainful employment? I've been thinking about going back to work a lot lately and I have mixed feelings about it. Doing all the cooking, cleaning and child rearing I do now AND working seems like it might be too much and yet the financial freedom of additional income is so appealing. Using my brain for something other than mentally doubling my pancake recipe seems dreamy. But I'm not ready to give up my summers. I really enjoyed the contract job I did last year but I also remember struggling with the juggling. I've mastered the art of summer but I've yet to find the perfect balance of work and family. I suppose that's a balancing act that's going to take a lot more practice.

Cleaning Confessions from a Mom of Three

Buttercup is turning one next week and we are having a little party for her this weekend. We only invited people we pretty much consider family so there's not a whole lot of pressure on me to throw the most Pinterest perfect party. However after the great sickness of November through January I've gotten pretty behind on my housekeeping. And considering I have three kids, my standards are pretty low to begin with. How low, you ask? Let me explain...

I vacuum the couch. We have a dog so with the whole shedding thing the couch has to vacuumed pretty regularly. I know you're thinking, Everyone vacuums the couch. What's so special about that? I don't have time to use that tiny two inch hose attachment to vacuum my whole couch. No no. When I say I vacuum my couch, I mean I lift that whole vacuum on to the cushions and GO. TO. TOWN. Voila! The whole couch is vacuumed in under three minutes.

I vacuum everything. Since I have the mini Dyson ball, it lifts up to the couch easily, but it won't suck up whole Cheerios. Before I acquired the best vacuum ever (the dog) I crushed the cheerios with my toes so I could vacuum them up.

I make the kids help. They don't do a fantastic job, but they make most of this mess and one person cannot clean up after five people efficiently. This week they used baby wipes to wipe down all the kitchen cabinets. They can also unload the dishwasher, clean mirrors and windows, put away their clean laundry, dust with a swiffer, wipe tables, vacuum and  mop. Not bad for 3 and 5, right? But don't come in my house with your white glove. It's not perfect.

I let the dog help too. There's rarely anything but crumbs under my kitchen table because the whole point of having a dog is so someone else can climb under there and clean up. Seriously, we all have to pull our own weight around here.

I vacuum around my kid's crap. Often, there's only enough time to pick up their crap OR vacuum before they make such a big mess wherever they are occupying themselves that my efforts are futile. So I do a cursory pick up but I vacuum around the tubs of legos and the easel or even better I push them out of the way with the vacuum.

I don't mop. Like ever. By the time I vacuum, I'm out of time to mop. Plus, it is one of the most futile jobs ever. I mopped the living room and dining room yesterday and by last night I could see little paw prints everywhere. This morning, the three year old crushed a piece of chalk all over the already not so freshly mopped floor. In addition to that, we still haven't gotten around to refinishing our hardwood floors so even when I do mop, you literally cannot tell the difference.

Super Scrubber 5000

I have special tools. My husband built me this Super Scrubber 5000 out of a drill and a scrub brush. It works wonders on sinks and tubs. Miracles, actually.

It's not that I don't want a clean house. I do. Desperately. But my house is not a museum. Frankly, my kids and I are just too busy living here to keep it immaculate. And my sanity is far more important than a spotless home. I try, but I've got to be realistic, right?

What's your cleaning confession? Do you have a secret to getting the house guest ready?

10 Things I Learned From Air-Drying My Undies

To make a long story short, my dryer is broken. It's a simple fix and my husband ordered the part from a local appliance store almost two weeks ago; they said it would come in Friday, but Friday came and went and then they swore it would be in the following Friday. On Thursday, the day before the part was supposed to arrive we ran out of underwear. I swear every single one of us was wearing the last pair and there was not another clean pair to be found anywhere.

At first, I thought I'd go to the laundromat and do ALL the wash in one fell swoop, but I realized the three hours I had available while the boys were in school would not be enough time to get it all done, plus it would be right in the middle of the baby's nap. So I decided to wash a load at home and attempt to hang dry it and if I wasn't successful I'd just take the load to the laundromat and dry it after the hubby got home.

10 Things I learned from Air-Drying My Undies

1. People are hilarious when you send them pictures of your undies hanging up on the line.
Me: Say a little prayer that my undies don't come flying off my makeshift clothesline and into my neighbor's yard.
Husband: Ha! I hope you're wearing your bonnet as you string those up.
Sister -in-law: And viola, now your family has clean underwear. And they call the husband "The Provider."
2. Hanging your wash is a great way to stay in shape! Hahahahaha. When bad things happen around here, this is one of our favorite jokes. You had to to walk the baby all night long because she wouldn't sleep if you put her down? On the bright side, it's a great way to stay in shape! But seriously folks, this is the first time in a while I've hit my 10,000 steps.
3. My washer is huge. When I attempted to line dry everything in the load it amazed me how much fits it my washer. No wonder it takes me a week to fold two loads of laundry.

My sweet in-a-pinch clothesline. I used the ladder to help
with the sag and for extra hanging space. This was ONE load of laundry!

4. Pajamas can be worn twice. Pants can be worn even more times. I've applied the smell test to determine if my jeans are clean since I started doing my own laundry at the tender age of 14, but I've been a little more generous with my kids. Not anymore. You will wear your pants until they look or smell dirty. There is no need for me to do so much unnecessary laundry.
5. We have waaaaaaay more clothing than we actually need. I might have to go all KonMari on everyone's wardrobes this summer.
6. I should really pay more attention to my husband when he tries to teach me one of those fancy boy scout knots. Technically, it's not that I don't pay attention. I just don't retain information anymore unless I use it frequently. And sometimes I still forget things even when it's important, like my kids's names. (I have on more than one occasion called the baby by the dog's name.) The bottom line is, those knots would have been really useful for putting up my clothesline.
7. It didn't take nearly as long as I expected for everything to dry and it didn't feel as stiff.... except for the towels. They took forever and they turned out stiff and scratchy. But most of it was fabulous enough that I plan on putting up a clothesline for summer use. My house gets ridiculously hot in the summer when I use the dryer so it's totally worth it to spend a little extra time harnessing the sun's power.
8. By hanging shirts on the line using hangers I could kill two birds with one stone. Those items could go straight from the line to the closet which made putting stuff away much easier.
9. It smells amazing. Clothes hung on the line really do smell fantastic!
10. My husband was right. He has been trying to get me to iron our sheets for years because they get all wrinkled and folded at the top edge. Clearly he's stark raving mad. I don't even iron his work clothes and hell will freeze over before I have time to iron the sheets. BUT, he did mention recently that the wrinkle problem might improve if we line dried them and HE WAS RIGHT. (Did you hear that honey?) The sheets came out way better on the line and when possible, I will air-dry them from now on.

And now, I'm off to put the fresh sheets on my bed. Happy Monday!