Monday, September 23, 2013

If You Give a Mom a Mop, She Will Ask for A Broom, Dustpan, 3 Colors of Paint and A Wet Rag.....


My life often reminds me of the children's book, "If you give a mouse a cookie".  Today was a perfect example of what happens to me when I set out to complete one task.  I have a housework schedule, and each day I do something different.  Monday is mopping the floors.  Since I mop every week, and sweep almost daily, this isn't the huge job it could be.  It usually takes me 1.5 hours max to do the floors.  It probably took that long in total today as well, but I got side tracked along the way.  I see something that needs to be done, I have rag/whatever in hand or nearby and I think, "That will only take a minute to take care of, and I'm here anyway".  This happens to me ALL. THE. TIME.  And, know what?  I'm ok with that.  My OCD is out of control in crazy ways and I'm ok with that, too.  And whatever it is I find to do usually takes longer than a minute.....

Today.  Monday.  Floors.  Sweep and mop.  It's probably my favorite chore.  As I already mentioned, my OCD is on overdrive.  Each week I pull out the fridge and stove, washing the sides of the appliances and sweeping/mopping the floor and pushing them back in.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a weekly task or not, but I like knowing that there's not a lot of old food and dust bunnies under them to attract bugs.  I also move the table and the couch.  Pretty much everything I can move, I move, clean under and move back. I blame my mom.  She has OCD as well and passed it on.  I'm not complaining, it's not a bad thing, unless you're not supposed to do too much and your body is sick and your mind is bonkers.  Today started out like any other mopping Monday. I split the house in half(ish) and mop one side and then the other.  So I swept and mopped side one. Here's where it started.  I was moving the stand that the TV is on so I could mop under it.  Behind the TV are blinds.  Here's a picture:
While moving this, I noticed that the back of the TV was dusty.  Now, I dust frequently so I was kind of thinking I better get on that pronto.  I found a rag, cleaner, etc and cleaned the back of the TV and the stand it's on.  And then I figured since the TV was pulled out I may as well get the blinds.  And the Sills.  And the wall.  At that point some voice of reason told me to stop and go forward with the mopping. So I did. 
 Side one also includes under the couch.  While mopping the floor that is usually under the couch, I looked at the walls.  There was a repair spot waiting for touch up paint (Austin had fixed it weeks ago - I'm just a slacker and didn't get to painting it).  There were dings here and dings there.  So I decided I'd get the paint and touch it up.  After all, it will only take a minute.................................I found what I had hoped to be the right color.  While in the garage getting the paint, I also grabbed the two other colors in the kitchen.  Just in case there was anything else that needed fixing.  I started to paint the wall and was super worried that I had pulled out the wrong color paint.  But hey, I was painting so I went ahead and kept on painting.  After all, I didn't have all day and I needed to get the floors done.  But first!  I needed to get this wall and that wall, this ding and that ding, and wow the walls are either a different color or they're dirty.  My good friend, Mr. Clean and his stain eraser came by and I noticed that yes, my walls are very dirty.  (gross, I know).  I cleaned the big ickies with the stain eraser and then kept on painting.  The hall, the entry, the stair case, the front wall, the side wall, the back wall... I kept looking at the walls I had painted - hoping that my touch up streaks would somehow blend in.  Here's a little sample of what I HAD to fix today and the new paint over the old.
It's hard to see, but there are dings on the corner.  There were dings on all of the corners.  

And on the wall.  See the white spots?  Yah. Not supposed to be there...

And this one.  It's where the bar stool rubs against the wall.  You can see where Austin put some drywall mud over it.  There's more.  Lots more.  I just can't bear to show them to you.  This is embarrassing enough.  I can't believe you're making me tell you this stuff! 
And here's a wall with the new paint (the lighter color).  I was envisioning myself talking to Austin about re-painting the house, picking colors, and even the ladder to the vaulted cealings.  I was worried.  But not enough to stop painting 'cause I just kept on painting.  And then heaven and all of the angels shined down on me when I went back to see the first wall (the one that sits behind the couch).  The paint matched and looked like nothing ever happened.  YIPPEEEE!
See!  WHEW!  
Time to move the couch back to it's spot and clean side 2.  
Here's the couch and stuff all squished to one side of the room.  Don't judge my half finished couch either!  I'll blog about that project another day.  
Moving the couches back was great.  But it opened up a whole new area of dings and nicks.  More paint.  More paint.  Paint a little here, paint a little there, oops!  Dont' drip! While that coat was drying I swept and mopped side 2.  I'm just gonna say this... what is up with STICKERS and MARKERS???? Seriously?  We've had the "only on paper" talk way too many times...
I'm pretty sure Chuck E Cheese isn't my kitchen motif.  And neither is this bizarre stick man I found under the bar...
It looks like someone tried to clean it off.  It's creepy.  And really, walls aren't white boards kids.  I left him there.  To ward off intruders.  Anyone would run from that creepy thing!  

I was pretty exhausted, but since the paint was already out, I better get a second coat on some of these bad spots.  So I did.  And I was sweaty and tired, but  4 hours later, the walls and floors looked AWESOME! But I looked like this:
Nice, right?  Time for a shower.  No, there aren't any pictures of that part.  I was pretty much wiped out for the rest of the day.  

Now, my life isn't all cleaning and looking nasty.  In the past few weeks I found a praying mantis in our front yard.  I caught him, and after I showed the kids, let him go. 
I have never in my life seen a praying mantis in person.  We named him Frank.  I hope it's not a girl. 

I also made fashion shrinky dinks with Rachel!                                
Shrinky Dinks have come a looooong way since I was a kid!  Roo had a whole fashion studio going on!  

Wait - you think I only spend time cleaning, catching odd insects and playing with Rachel?  Well you're wrong.  Because even though it took us a week, the twins and I made this:
That's right!  Lord Vampire's Castle.  In Lego's.  Awesome, right?  Ha ha - we made it on the kitchen table.  Once it was done we had to get it upstairs to their room.  I had them hold a cookie sheet next to the table while I scooted the castle onto it.  It worked great!  But the cookie sheet is still under the castle.  In their bedroom.  It didn't hamper me from making cookies though!  Today I made peanut butter w/chocolate kisses cookies and chocolate cookies with peanut butter m&m's in them cookies.  Don't tell the kids, but I didn't have dinner.... I just ate cookies...... SSSSHHhhhhhhhhh!