Strength
You know those rubber bracelets that Lance Armstrong made popular? Well the children got some for St. Nicholas Day at CCD, but they aren’t really into them, so they gave them to me. One says strength, one says courage, another says faith, plus I have a blue one that says "I love My Baby." Today I am wearing strength.
Last night, the chores took forever. I think it was because we’ve gone too long with just saying, "go clean up" without following up and giving them the proper training. At 6:00 I had to stop them so we could have dinner. Phil called and we all chatted with him, then we went back to cleaning up. Boo stayed with Bip while I helped Pumpkin Girl. That girl is a packrat! She’s squirrelled away all sorts of stuff, some of which I’ve been looking for! I’m not sure what to do about that. She gets it from me. I was, and still am, a collector of just about everything. This morning she was admiring my collection of buttons. And just this afternoon I unpacked my childhood shadow box. I haven’t even seen it in years, it’s always been packed up. The box was labeled "games" so I opened it. It was filled with all my little treasures. I remember almost all of them and why they were special to me. But I think I’m ready to pack up all the little things into a good strong storage box. Maybe I’ll take a picture of it all filled up and of each little peice and do a scrapbook page about it. Or maybe a whole brag book size album. Hmmm. Anyway, back to Pumpkin. It’s not that she’s hoarding stuff, it’s that some of it’s not hers to take. She made off with Philip’s slippers last fall. He vaguely knew they were missing. I found them wedged between her bed and the wall. I said, "Pumpkin! Did you take Daddy’s slippers?" She answered, "Yes," so I asked her why. And she said so sweetly, with those big giant eyes looking at me so innocently, "I like them because they are soft and squooshy." I laughed so hard I almost cried. She got him new slippers for Christmas. I have also found my calculator, Bip’s toys and even school books tucked away in her secret spot. I don’t think there is any thought of stealing these items, it’s just something that attracts her attention. Like I said, I don’t know what to do about this. On one hand, it’s kind of cute, finding the things that she’s made off with. Such an eclectic collection. On the other hand, I don’t want her taking things that aren’t hers. Wouldn’t call it stealing quite yet. I’ll have to give this more thought.
But back to the chores. It took so long to get all of Pumpkin Girl’s room cleaned up. I’m hoping that with proper daily maintenance, it won’t take this long again. Same with the playroom. Boo’s definition of cleaned up is very different from mine. (Yuk it up, Mom, I know you’re thinking that it’s payback for years of my sty of a room!) After I helped Pumpkin, we worked on the playroom. It was 7:30 by the time it was all done. They have way, way too many toys and a microscopic room to play in. I’d love to go in there and just get rid of more than half of it.
Finally all chores were done and ChorePacks turned in. Into jammies and there was just enough time to watch an hour long video. I got Bip ready for bed, then got the others a snack, cleaned the kitchen up and then it was off to bed with them. I was frustrated and tired and still needed to take a shower.
So today’s bracelet is strength.
Morning chores went so much better. I had to retrain Pumpkin on not spraying the whole bottle of soapy water on to the school table. Boo needed to work on his sink shining, but all went well.
For me, the Flylady zone this week is bedroom. Bip is usually asleep during my chore time, so I worked for 15 minutes on the children’s bedroom instead. I unpacked a box and used it for a give-away box. Then after lunch, I had Boo hang out with Bip while I worked on my bedroom for 15 minutes. That’s when I found my shadow box. I also tried a new recipe for dessert called brown sugar pudding. We’ll see how it turns out. Right now it looks like a cake floating on top of about an inch of syrup. Maybe the syrup gets absorbed by the cake as it cools.
It’s only 2 o’clock and I’m just hoping that tomorrow’s bracelet won’t need to be courage.
