days and days and days

So, it's been a while. I've missed you, dear blog. I've missed sitting quietly with my wacky thoughts and miniature laptop. I've missed the tap-tap-tap rhythm of my fingers on the keyboard. I've missed the moments when the just-right words reveal themselves, and my feelings are transformed into print on a blue screen. Yes, you've been missed.

What have I been doing, you ask, to neglect you so? Nothing but home project list items, of course. The 'deadline' is this Friday-- with my parents coming for a short visit to celebrate Red's birthday, I really wanted everything to be just so. It looks like we'll be pretty darn close to just so, but it sure has taken some work. Puttying, sanding, painting, spackling, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning- those are the -ings that have been keeping us busy this week. I even snuck out of the house last night with a friend to buy a few new accessories for the living space! (Thanks for your help, L!!) If it weren't for the two additional ceiling surprises (in the form of leaky pipes and protruding legs, respectively), we would be just about where we wanted to be by this point. No complaints here-- lovely hubby has worked like a dog, and to his credit, has kept his grumbling about my obsessive list making habits internally expressed.

The last three days just about killed me, though. With the final messy parts of the project going through the weekend, I didn't have the pleasure of doing the normal big clean as regularly scheduled. So, I've been trying to do every little bit of that regular clean, plus project clean up, plus approximately 72 loads of laundry (including the couch covers-- gotta love IKEA!), all while being the sole adult responsible for the littlest ones all day. Not an easy feat. Remember that game Perfection? It had a bunch of little plastic pieces in all different shapes, and you needed to put them each in the correct space on the board, but if you took too long, the board would pop and violently spit all your hard work back at you? No? Would it help if you had a visual?

Okay, so imagine you're balancing this board game on your lap, trying desperately to get the pieces fitted in their respective homes before everything blows up in your face. Now sketch out the background of that image a bit, and you'll see that you're playing this frustratingly challenging game while seated in a small rowboat. You're simultaneously toiling away at paddling your way toward the shore-- it's within sight!-- but you soon notice that you've got yourself a bit of a leak. Now, you must fit in those annoying plastic pieces, while also paddling, AND bailing out the rising water.

That, my bloggy friends, is what it has felt like to clean this house while Red and Pudge wreak havoc all around me. Finally got that bedroom all finished? Guess what, there are new toys scattered all about. Thought the sliding glass window was all shiny and clear? Nope, new fingerprints abound. Thought they were playing together nicely so you could scrub a toilet? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. That sound you hear is the unmistakable wail of a preschooler being wrestled to the ground by a toddler. Oh my.

Now that I've crossed off my last major cleaning list item and have come through to the other side, I can finally breathe again and shed my remnants of guilty-mom-syndrome. Yes, my kids watched a few more shows than I'd like this past week, and yes, we haven't read as many books as I like to regularly, but I think we've finally passed through this stage. The next two days should simply be calm, fun times. We have a craft to work on for the birthday cake (I'm only as crafty as far as one can be by following directions ripped out from Parents magazine pages... wish me luck!), and I need to just keep up with the little straightening up jobs around the house, but we should be all clear for a fantastic weekend with my parents and a birthday celebration that doesn't include any spackle, paint or putty. Yay for that!

Glad to be back,