Exceptionally, selectively distracted

Ever have moments when you are working on one thing and then move to the other and can't remember what you were doing just minutes before that?  Well, I kinda have that, except it only seems to happen when I am cleaning.  I hate cleaning and that is not a secret.  I like to call my house "lived in" "loved" "child friendly" and Reed's ultimate favorite "toddler cleaned"  ( a term I use when the house is clean from about 4 feet up and 4 feet below is an ultimate disaster).


 I like to tell people if you are coming to see me and the kids to come by anytime, but if you are coming by to see the house please give me an advanced notice of 2 weeks and make sure I have a babysitter on duty at another location at least an hour before the visit it about to occur.  My house is very open, which means there is absolutely no where to hide a mess.  Max and I once had to resort to a very drastic measure of shoving clothes and toys into the oven, dishwasher, washer and dryer (all turned off of course) when our social worker gave us little than an hour notice that she was stopping by to do our placement report.  Now I know that she would not call me an unfit mother because I have laundry on the couch and toys all over the floor, but I don't want that forever cemented into all our adoption paperwork and reports.  This is the only time I ever felt self conscious about my house keeping.

Normally, I am very relaxed with the way my house is kept.  We live here and we have a lot of fun.  I am not the type to stop the fun to sweep up a play doh mess before we move on to building a dinosaur safari...hey maybe the dog will even eat it before I get around to sweeping :)  However, I come from a family who only feels comfortable living in museum worthy conditions.  My mom and dad are possibly the most clean, organized, and best house keepers on the planet.  No idea where they have all this super cleaning energy and powers, but they always have had it.  I know they love me unconditionally and will support everything I do, but I can just see the cringe on their face when my 2 biggest mess makers enter the room.  Its like their internal voice is screaming "HIDE THE VALUABLES!!"  And I can't blame them in the slightest, I hide everything that is dear to me too :)

Reed tends to work pretty late so luckily he doesn't get to see a lot of the mess.  The boys and I pick up toys before supper and we sweep the floor only twice a day.  Once before Reed comes home and then after I put them to bed I sweep up the supper mess.  Reed working late is actually good because he likes a house to be kept like my parents like a house to be kept and that is where the dilemma occurs.

When I try to clean ALL DAY LONG I get so distracted.  Its not all my fault.  Max and Jerry always come running into the laundry room with the best updates on whatever game they are playing, such as, Max would run in saying "The pirates crashed the boat." and then Jerry would run in minutes later screaming "treasure!!" So I start thinking pirates and treasure!!  Wow I wonder what they are using for treasure and who is the good and bad pirate...wonder if I can pretend to be a mermaid in this game...hey boys wait for me!!  And laundry is completely forgotten.  Maybe I will remember the laundry 2 games later when we are making a cave out of sheets and I will think...where are all our sheets?!!  Oh yeah laundry...crap.  I never get distracted unless it is cleaning.  I just don't like it.  You would think I would just get it over with because if I don't I am punished in 2 ways:
1.) I have to stay up until 11-12 at night cleaning up everything I should have done earlier.
2.) I have to hear Reed say the 2 most dreaded words in my personal dictionary "messy" and "organized"  Such as, "Maybe the house wouldn't appear to be so MESSY if you just had a more ORGANIZED system of cleaning"

The marker on his face and hands will soon be all over the house...curse of the washable marker... it comes off everything but also rubs onto everything else in the process. 

Looks like someone(Jerry) got out of control with his coloring

Yes, that is a child climbing through freshly laundered and folded blankets...such a waste of time!  I should have just piled it all in the crib where nobody could reach it!

    I will give him credit for saying appears to be messy instead of just straight out saying it is messy, which it is not, but I really hate those words!!  My house is very sanitary.  You will not find dirt, bugs, or anything disgusting lying around, however, you will find, toys, slightly sticky toys, random play doh sculptures, dogs, tents/forts, laundry piles, and sometimes unmade beds.

I am trying my best to keep the house more up to Reed's standards.  I have started setting a timer and it says I have to clean the house for 10 solid minutes randomly throughout the day.  Max refers to these minutes as "Mama's timeout"  and I dread them as much as Max and Jerry dread timeout.  So far I have been able to focus for 10 minutes and it is getting better, but 10 minutes is by far my limit.

So remember if you ever stop by remember my house is very lived in and if that offends you, well, I guess you can wait outside.  That is the best I can offer.  I will keep a super museum worthy clean house when my kids are grown up...maybe :)