Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Sometimes half done is better than nothing...

The plague. That's what its felt like in our house for the last three weeks. I think we are finally seeing the light. I guess I should feel thankful that it's the first really nastiness in a very, very, long time, but right now I'm a bit too tired and burnt out to feel super thankful. :/ Everyone just kept taking turns! And right when I'd think it was petering out, someone would get sick, or get sick again. It was like the never ending morphing virus. I hung on for a good while, taking care of six different sick kiddos, but eventually my body gave out too. Anyways we've done a lot of half day school around here and the house was falling down around me as well. So this Sunday I decided like any sane person whose been battling some sort of nasty virus that I would do an overhaul on my laundry room, which was just packed with Christmas tubs that still needed to go out to the shed and all sorts of clutter. I mean it was so bad that I could hardly walk in there. I meant to get to it weeks ago, before the plague settled in.

So this is how my day went. And it happens all too often…

First of all my daughter had been invited to a birthday sleep over at a family friends house on Saturday and I invited their son over to our house. We were finally on the other end of things and there was no way my daughter wanted to miss her best friends birthday party and sleep over! :) Well the boys just wouldn't go to sleep, in part probably because their friend had come over at dinner time and they didn't have a lot of visit time before bed so they were having a hard time settling down. I can be understanding of that until about 11 pm… :/ Finally around 11:30 I let them know that if I heard another single sound there would be no more sleep overs for a long time! That worked. ;) The next day we bid farewell to their friend around 9:30 and welcomed home a broken daughter… I mean she was seriously broken. I say that with a laugh now but oh my goodness she was a monster for the rest of the day Sunday! I thought I was going to lose my mind! She spent more time in her room then out. I think we are going to take a very long break from sleep overs for a while now. We talked about her behavior at bedtime and it seems as if being on her best behavior while at her friends house was taxing, I asked her if she had just been holding in her grumpies until she got home and she shook her head yes, which made me laugh. But I sort of understand. It can be hard to put on your shiny best face for a long time, I tend to melt down when I get home as well. ;)

So on top of all this I was still determined to make Sunday productive. We usually go to Church but being as all my kids were really burnt out (and had a lingering cough ) and I had so much to do, we stayed home. I went into the laundry room to survey what to do first. I decided tubs must be removed so I headed out to the shed to make room. Well the shed is a disaster as well and needs a deep cleaning and I got a little distracted. On the way back into the laundry room I notice the chickens needed water and food. So I did that right away, then decided to clean out their pen a bit because it is an awful muddy stinky mess because of all the rain. I've been wanted to get a bunch of the sandy compose in the coop out and onto my garden for months now, as well as spread straw out first that has been sitting up front since September! So I took a wheelbarrow full of compost up front and then realized I had to spread the straw out first before I could put any of the compost down. It was a beautiful day and it gave me my first taste of gardening days ahead. :) Notice I am no where near the laundry room any more. I settled on spreading straw over the smaller garden bed, and then brought up four more barrows full. By now my back was feeling it. :/ I was going to call it quits but I went into the house part where they roost and it was in desperate need of some attention as well. So two more trips up front I went with compost, then I added wood shavings to their nesting boxes and spread the rest of the shavings over the floor. Done for now, not perfect but better by far. Still plenty more compost to bring up front but my back was protesting. I realized it was past lunch time at this point so in I went to make lunch. Still hadn't even started the laundry room. After lunch the boys told me they saw a flea on one of our dogs. This drives me crazy! I can't use the topical stuff because I bath them once a week (or aim too anyways) and it will just wash off. So I use the blue dawn dish soap, which kills fleas on contact. Weird I know. It works for the most part, but occasionally we will find a flea or two and when we do I bath them immediately, change all their bedding and use DE all over the place. I think the problem is with the cats who I do treat with topical meds (because I'm not about to bathe them, ha ha!) but it doesn't seem to work very well anymore even though it's from the vet. I've got to find a better solution, I've heard about something they can take orally and I might have to do that even though it's way more expensive. The vet said it's an awful year for fleas as it's been a fairly warm winter here. Anyways needless to say I didn't start on the laundry room after lunch, instead I was bathing poodles in the sink. Then I finished shaving Charlotte as she only got half way done last week. Don't judge, it's a tedious task and she does not sit still like her sister does! 
By this point most of the day has passed and I've yet to get done what I set out to do! On top of all I've mentioned there was the little distractions, disputes to help settle, assistance needed, a daughter that kept losing her noodle, phone calls, etc… to add to the chaos.
But I was determined! So I finally marched into the laundry room and went to work. I settled on getting tubs out, everything picked up and de-cluttered, vacuumed and slightly organized. It's not perfect, but it's way better. And that's how it all went. There was just too much that needed to be done, so I settled on everything being mostly done. The rest of the week and beyond will be spend finishing all the things I started. ;)
The whole day my kids had been asking to watch, "It's a Wonderful Life". Netflix sent it a wee bit late for Christmas, I didn't even remember that I'd added it to our list until in came, it hadn't been available when I wanted it. Anyways it's a favorite of mine and we usually always watch it at Christmas time. While I was in the middle of cleaning the laundry room they asked again. And now starts the battle of what I want to do and what I should do. (This goes either way sometimes the want to is spending more time with kids when I really should be doing house work, sometimes the want to is housework when I should be spending more time with kids. If that makes any sense at all, ha!) I know that spending time with my kids is more important, by far, than a clean house. But boy do I love a clean house. So I am always struggling to find a balance. I absolutely wanted to finish the laundry room and I knew that in the busyness of the day the rest of the house had been neglected. It's crazy how fast the floors get messed up and the dishes pile high. I knew these things had to be done as well before the mad rush of Monday rolled around. So I gave my kids a choice. I told them if they cleaned up the kitchen and the playroom while I finished the laundry room it would leave enough time to watch the movie together. And you know what, they totally did it! On their own, and they did a pretty good job as well. :) So I finished up as fast I could and we curled up on the couch and watched the movie together (for a bit, I did have to get up and slap a dinner together at one point) which was a nice way to end a scattered half done day. ;) By the time I tucked them into bed I ran a bath for my aching back and read a book while I soaked. My favorite way to end those hectic days that seem to be unending, and really it was such a long day! I ended up going to bed way too late just to find some me time...
I wish I could say that Monday was less hectic, but it started with me madly vacuuming a very messy house first thing in the morning and it didn't settle down from there.
Now back to my crazy busy Tuesday. There are no more excuses for half day school so I've got to get my head back into the game! :)


1 comment:

Kat said...

Oh my word! That is madness! Those kind of days are so exhausting. Especially when you are just over being sick. You are probably weak as it is. Although, from all that you did, it doesn't sound that way. WOW!!!!

As for fleas (blech, nasty little buggers) we always use Frontline. It is topical but it is once a month. You can still give them weekly baths. It just has to remain dry for 24 hours or something like that. It works magic around here. It is a bit more expensive, but SO WORTH IT.
I hope you don't have anymore trouble with nasty colds/viruses or fleas. You have enough on your plate as it is.